Do not the souls of a million dead upon the battlefields of France and Belgium rise against the plotters to-day? Does not the onus of the frightful loss of the flower of our dear lads lie, not upon our four-hundred-a-year legislators, but upon some of the golfing, dividend-seeking, pushful men who have ruled our country through the past ten years? Without politics, as I am, I here wish to pay a tribute--the tribute which the whole nation should pay--to Mr. Lloyd George and his advisers, who came in for so much adverse criticism before the war. I declare as my opinion--an opinion which millions share--that the manner in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer faced and grappled with the financial situation at the outbreak of war, was an illustration of British pluck, of coolness and of readiness that is unequalled in our history. The poor suffered nothing, and to-day--even though we are struggling for our very existence--we hear not a word of that winter-cry "The Unemployed." I trust, therefore, that the reader will find my outspoken criticisms just, and perfectly without prejudice, for, as I have already stated, my only feeling is one of pure patriotism towards my King and the country that gave me birth. Though I am beyond the age-limit to serve in the Army, it is in defence of my King and country, and in order to reveal the naked truth to a public which has so long been pitiably bamboozled and reassured, that I have ventured to pen this plain, serious, and straightforward indictment, which no amount of official juggling can ever disprove. CHAPTER VI SOME METHODS OF SECRET AGENTS Some of the cases of espionage within my own knowledge--and into many of them I have myself made discreet inquiry--may not prove uninteresting. Foreign governesses, usually a hard-worked and poorly-paid class, are often in a position to furnish important information, and very serious cases have recently been proved against them. These young women have lived in the intimacy of the homes of men of every grade, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, financiers, officers of both Services, and officials of every class. By the very nature of their duties, and their extreme intimacy with their employers, they are, naturally, in a position to gather much valuable information, and often even to get sight of their employers' correspondence, which can easily be noted and handed over to the proper quarter for transmission to Berlin. Here is a case already reported by me. Not very long ago, in the service of a very well-known Member of Parliament living in Essex, lived a clever, good-looking, and intensely musical young German governess, who was regarded by the Member's wife as "a perfect treasure," and who took the greatest interest in her two little charges. For over two years Fräulein had been in the service of this pleasant household, being, of course, regarded as "one of the family."