Lazare devoted his time exclusively to the case. He published his first paper, "The Dreyfus Affair – A Miscarriage of Justice" in Belgium in November 1896; it was in effect a complete rewrite of an earlier text which he had written at Mathieu's request in the summer of 1895. Basing it on an article in "L'Eclair" from the 15 September 1896 edition which revealed the illegality of the trial of 1894, Lazare refuted the accusation point by point and demanded the sentence be overturned. This tactic conformed more to the wishes of the Dreyfus family, as the first version of the text was a savage attack on the accusers, ending with the phrase "J'accuse", later made famous by Émile Zola.