25 AUGUST 1923, Page 3

The village of Harpenden in Hertfordshire has made the remarkable

discovery that a certain M. Jean de Voilement who died and was buried at Harpenden three months ago was really Major Esterhazy. Ester- hazy may or may not have been a German spy in the French army, but it is certain that he secured the con- viction of Dreyfus, the victim of one of the most famous intrigues and trials in history. It is odd to think that the last echoes of that affaire which shook France to her foundations and made the whole world rumble should have been heard in an English village. As we learn from the Daily Express, the Morning Post, and other papers, Esterhazy settled in Harpenden about seventeen years ago. He lived as a recluse and kept more and more to his own house and garden in the last few years of his life. It may seem impossible to those who were pro- foundly interested in and moved by the Dreyfus trial that anyone should have forgotten it, but as it may be so let us recall the trial.