Perrenx

Perrenx is the manager of L’Aurore and a co-defendant with Émile Zola in the libel trial. The account places him among the Dreyfusards gathered in court as a hostile crowd waits outside, then records his conviction by majority vote and a prison sentence suspended pending appeal.

Identity and Role

Perrenx is identified by his position as manager of L’Aurore, the newspaper whose role in the affair brings him into the same prosecution as Zola. The account supplies no further personal background; his significance here rests on his place in the case and on the consequences he shares with the newspaper’s public association with it.

At the Trial

As the jury retires, Perrenx stands with Zola, Georges Clemenceau, Albert Clemenceau, Louis, Fernand Labori, Madame Zola, and Labori’s wife and children. The group stays together in the centre of the courtroom partly for mutual protection: roughs carrying heavy sticks crowd the streets outside, and the noise of the mob reaches them through the high windows. Perrenx is thus situated not only as a defendant but among those exposed to the physical threat surrounding the proceedings. After forty minutes, the jury foreman announces that Perrenx is guilty by a majority vote. The verdict is delivered alongside Zola’s, also guilty by majority, joining the newspaper manager and the writer in the trial’s central outcome without making their roles identical.

Sentence and Consequences

The judge sentences Perrenx to four months in prison and a fine of three thousand francs. Both penalties are suspended pending appeal, so the sentence is imposed but not immediately carried out. The account gives no later outcome for Perrenx; his recorded arc ends with the verdict and the threat of punishment held in suspension.