"The most serious that has happened during the whole of my administration," he said in a voice that plainly betrayed his agitation. "The clauses of the secret defensive alliance which Hammerton brought from Berlin yesterday are known in St Petersburg." "What!" I cried in alarm, remembering the Earl's words, and his elaborate precautions to preserve its secrecy. "Surely they cannot be already known?" "We have been tricked by spies, Deedes," he answered sternly. "Read this," and he handed me a telegram in the private cipher known only to the Minister himself. Its transcript was written beneath, and at a glance I saw it was from a Russian official in the Foreign Office at St Petersburg, who acted as our secret agent there and received a large sum yearly for his services. The dispatch, which showed that it had been handed in at Hamburg at six o'clock on the previous evening--all secret messages being sent in the first instance to that city--and re-transmitted--read as follows:-- "_Greatest excitement caused here by receipt by telegraph an hour ago of verbatim copy of secret defensive alliance between England and Germany. Have seen telegram, which was handed in at 369, Strand, London, at 3:30. Just called at Embassy and informed Lord Strathavon. Council of Ministers has been summoned_." "It is amazing," I gasped, when I had read the dispatch. "How could our enemies have learned the truth?" Without replying he took from his writing-table another message, which read:-- "_From Strathavon, St Petersburg. To the Earl of Warnham, London.-- Defensive alliance known here. Hostilities feared. French ambassador has had audience at Winter Palace, and telegraphed to Paris for instruction. Shall wire hourly_." One by one he took up the telegraphic dispatches which, during the night, had been re-transmitted from the Foreign Office over the private wire to the instrument that stood upon a small table opposite us. As I read each of them eagerly, I saw plainly that Russia and France were in complete accord, and that we were on the verge of a national disaster, sudden and terrible. With such secrecy and rapidity were negotiations being carried on between Paris and St Petersburg, that in Berlin, a city always well-informed in all matters of diplomacy, nothing unusual was suspected. A further telegram from our secret agent in the Russian Foreign Office, received an hour before my arrival at Warnham, read:-- "_The secret is gradually leaking out. The_ Novosti _has just issued a special edition hinting at the possibility of war with England, and this has caused the most intense excitement everywhere. The journal, evidently inspired, gives no authority for its statement, nor does it give any reason for the startling rumour_." I laid down the dispatch in silence, and as I raised my head the Minister's keen, penetrating eyes met mine. "Well," he exclaimed, in a dry, harsh tone. "What is is your explanation, sir?"