have put these notes together.

The real circumstances, then, of M. Zola's departure from France are
these: On July 18, the day fixed for his second trial at Versailles, he
left Paris in a livery-stable brougham hired for the occasion at a cost
of fifty francs. His companion was his _fidus Achates_, M. Fernand
Desmoulin, the painter, who had already acted as his bodyguard at the
time of the great trial in Paris. Versailles was reached in due course,
and the judicial proceedings began under circumstances which have been
chronicled too often to need mention here. When M. Zola had retired from
the court, allowing judgment to go against him by default, he was joined
by Maitre Labori, his counsel, and the pair of them returned to Paris in
the vehicle which had brought M. Zola from the city in the morning. M.
Desmoulin found a seat in another carriage.

The brougham conveying Messrs. Zola and Labori was driven to the
residence of M. Georges Charpentier, the eminent publisher, in the Avenue
du Bois de Boulogne, and there they were presently joined by M. Georges
Clemenceau, Mme. Zola, and a few others. It was then that the necessity
of leaving France was pressed upon M. Zola, who, though he found the
proposal little to his liking, eventually signified his acquiescence.

The points urged in favour of his departure abroad were as follows: He
must do his utmost to avoid personal service of the judgment given
against him by default, as the Government was anxious to cast him into
prison and thus stifle his voice. If such service were effected the law
would only allow him a few days in which to apply for a new trial, and as
he could not make default a second time, and could not hope at that stage
for fresh and decisive evidence in his favour, or for a change of tactics
on the part of the judges, this would mean the absolute and irrevocable