However, I answered him as quickly as possible, and emphatically.
"The Board," the Duke continued, "has been meeting in London.

For the last few months we have had business of the utmost importance on hand.
But on January 10, that is just six weeks ago, we came to a full stop.
The Commander-in-Chief had no alternative but temporarily to dissolve the assembly.

We found ourselves in a terrible and disastrous position.
Lord Ronald Matheson had been acting as secretary for us.

We met always with locked doors, and the names of the twelve members of the Board are the most honoured in England.

Yet twenty-four hours after our meetings a verbatim report of them, with full particulars of all our schemes, was in the hands of the French Secret Service." "Good God!" I exclaimed, startled for the moment out of my respectful silence.
The Duke himself seemed affected by the revelation which he had made.
He sat forward in his chair with puckered brows and bent head.