will have a trust reposed in you such as few men have ever borne before.  This prying into your life is from no motives of private curiosity.  Wait until you hear the importance of the things which I am going to say to you.”  I was impressed into silence.  The Duke continued—­“You have heard, my young friend,” he said, “of the Committee of National Defence?” “I have read of it,” I answered.

“Good!  This committee has been formed and sanctioned by the War Office in consequence of the shocking revelations of inefficiency which came to light during the recent war.  It occurred to the Prime Minister, as I dare say it did to most of the thinking men in the country, that if our unreadiness to take the offensive was so obvious, it was possible that our defensive precautions had also been neglected.  A. board was therefore formed to act independently of all existing institutions, and composed chiefly of military and naval men.  The Commander-in-Chief, Lord Cheisford, Colonel Ray, and myself are amongst the members.  Our mandate is to keep our attention solely fixed upon the defences of the country, to elaborate different schemes for repelling different methods of attack, and in short to make ourselves responsible to the country for the safety of the Empire.  Every harbour on the south and east coast is supposed to be known to us, every yard of railway feeding the seaports from London, all the secret fortifications and places, south of London, capable of being held by inferior forces.  The mobilization of troops to any one point has been gone thoroughly into, and every possible movement and combination of the fleet.  These are only a few of the things which have become our care, but they are sufficient for the purpose of illustration.  The importance of this Board must be apparent to you; also the importance of absolute secrecy as regards its doings and movements.”

I was fascinated by the greatness of time subject.  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.  His voice, which had been growing lower and lower, had sunk almost to a whisper.  It seemed to me that he made a sign to Lord Chelsford to continue.  Almost for the first time the man who had done little since his entrance save watch me, spoke.