WITH ZOLA IN ENGLAND A STORY OF EXILE TOLD BY ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY TO VIOLETTE AND TO VICTOR TO DORA AND TO BOTH MARIES DEAR WIFE AND ROMPING DAUGHTER I LOVINGLY INSCRIBE THIS LITTLE BOOK He begged for Light! . . Lo, Darkness fell, And round him cast its stifling pall! In vain he clamoured! Ev'ry Hell Poured forth its fumes to drown his call. He cried for Truth! . . Lo, Falsehood came, In robes of Impudence array'd, Polluting Patriotism's name, Degrading Honour to a trade. He asked for Justice! . . Lo, between Him and the judgment-seat there rose The Sword of Menace, ever keen To smite the braggart War-Wolf's foes! Light, Truth, and Justice all denied, He struggled on 'mid threat and blow-- A brave Voice battling by his side-- Till Error's minions struck him low. Yet is his faith not dead, nor mine: O'er deepest gloom, o'er worst distress, Ever the mighty Sun doth shine Aglow with Truth and Righteousness. The blackest clouds are rent at last; And the divine resistless flame Through all, some morn, its blaze shall cast, The Wrong disclose, the Right proclaim! E. A. V. February 23, 1898. [Printed in 'The Star' on the morrow of M. Zola's condemnation in Paris] PREFACE All that I claim for this little book, reprinted from the columns of 'The Evening News,' is the quality of frankness. I do not desire to check or disarm criticism, but I have a right to point out that I have performed my work rapidly and have largely subordinated certain literary considerations to a desire to write my story naturally and simply, in much the same way as I should have told it in conversation with a friend. Very rarely, I think, have I departed from this rule. The book supplies an accurate account of Emile Zola's exile in this country; but some matters I have treated briefly because he himself proposes to give the world--probably in diary form--some impressions of his sojourn in England with a record of his feelings day by day whilst the great campaign in favour of the unfortunate Alfred Dreyfus was in progress.