With Zola in England | Page 4

June 1899.

WITH ZOLA IN ENGLAND

I
ZOLA LEAVES FRANCE
From the latter part of the month of July 1898, down to the end of the
ensuing August, a frequent heading to newspaper telegrams and
paragraphs was the query, 'Where is Zola?' The wildest suppositions
concerning the eminent novelist's whereabouts were indulged in and
the most contradictory reports were circulated. It was on July 18 that M.
Zola was tried by default at Versailles and sentenced to twelve months'
imprisonment on the charge of having libelled, in his letter 'J'accuse,'
the military tribunal which had acquitted Commandant Esterhazy. On
the evening of the 19th his disappearance was signalled by various
telegrams from Paris. Most of these asserted that he had gone on a tour
to Norway, a course which the 'Daily News' correspondent declared to
be very sensible on M. Zola's part, given the tropical heat which then
prevailed in the French metropolis.
On the 20th, however, the telegrams gave out that Zola had left Paris
on the previous evening by the 8.35 express for Lucerne, being
accompanied by his wife and her maid. Later, the same day, appeared a
graphic account of how he had dined at a Paris restaurant and thence
despatched a waiter to the Eastern Railway Station to procure tickets
for himself and a friend. The very numbers of these tickets were given!
Yet a further telegram asserted that he had been recognised by a
fellow-passenger, had left the train before reaching the Swiss frontier,

and had gaily continued his journey on a bicycle. But another
newspaper correspondent treated this account as pure invention, and
pledged his word that M. Zola had gone to Holland by way of Brussels.
On July 21 his destination was again alleged to be Norway; but--so
desperate were the efforts made to reconcile all the conflicting
rumours--his route was said to lie through Switzerland, Luxemburg,
and the Netherlands. His wife (so the papers reported) was with him,
and they were bicycling up hill and down dale through the aforenamed
countries. Two days later it was declared that he had actually been
recognised at a cafe in Brussels whence he had fled in consequence of
the threats of the customers, who were enraged 'by the presence of such
a traitor.' Then he repaired to Antwerp, where he was also recognised,
and where he promptly embarked on board a steamer bound for
Christiania.
However, on July 25, the 'Petit Journal' authoritatively asserted that all
the reports hitherto published were erroneous. M. Zola, said the Paris
print, was simply hiding in the suburbs of Paris, hoping to reach Le
Havre by night and thence sail for Southampton. But fortunately the
Prefecture of Police was acquainted with his plans, and at the first
movement he might make he would be arrested.
That same morning our own 'Daily Chronicle' announced M. Zola's
presence at a London hotel, and on the following day the 'Morning
Leader' was in a position to state that the hotel in question was the
Grosvenor. Both 'Chronicle' and 'Leader' were right; but as I had
received pressing instructions to contradict all rumours of M. Zola's
arrival in London, I did so in this instance through the medium of the
Press Association. I here frankly acknowledge that I thus deceived both
the Press and the public. I acted in this way, however, for weighty
reasons, which will hereafter appear.
At this point I would simply say that M. Zola's interests were, in my
estimation, of far more consequence than the claims of public curiosity,
however well meant and even flattering its nature.
One effect of the Press Association's contradiction was to revive the
Norway and Switzerland stories. Several papers, while adhering to the
statement that M. Zola had been in London, added that he had since left
England with his wife, and that Hamburg was their immediate
destination. And thus the game went merrily on. M. Zola's arrival at

Hamburg was duly reported. Then he sailed on the 'Capella' for Bergen,
where his advent was chronicled by Reuter. Next he was setting out for
Trondhiem, whence in a few days he would join his friend Bjornstjerne
Bjornson, the novelist, at the latter's estate of Aulestad in the
Gudbrandsdalen. Bjornson, as it happened, was then at Munich, in
Germany, but this circumstance did not weigh for a moment with the
newspapers. The Norway story was so generally accepted that a report
was spread to the effect that M. Zola had solicited an audience of the
Emperor William, who was in Norway about that time, and that the
Kaiser had peremptorily refused to see him, so great was the Imperial
desire to do nothing of a nature to give umbrage to France.
As I have already mentioned, the only true reports (so far as London