"Yes. One came through in cipher a couple of hours ago. But it tells us nothing. Farncombe is apparently without information."

The younger man breathed more freely. He had feared that the truth was already known. Up to the present, then, he was safe; but the tension was terrible. He did not know from one moment to another by what avenue his exposure, which would mean his inevitable degradation and ruin, would come. A despatch from Lord Farncombe, the British Amba.s.sador at Vienna, revealing the truth, would be his death-warrant, for he had determined to commit suicide rather than face the terrible exposure that would necessarily ensue were his secret to become known.

By making a supreme effort he had succeeded in carrying on this private consultation with his chief without betraying undue apprehension. He had shown some alarm, it is true, but the marquess put this down to his natural anxiety in regard to the serious complications in Europe which, as it seemed, had been created by what had so mysteriously leaked out from Vienna and Constantinople.

"I can't understand why Farncombe has not some information on the matter," his lordship went on deliberately, almost as though he were speaking to himself. "It's scandalous that we should be working entirely in the dark. But for the present we must wait. Our only chance of success is to keep our own counsel and not show our hand. We are weak in this affair, Chisholm, horribly weak. If the Opposition got wind of it we should have a poor chance, I'm afraid. It's just what they've been longing for these three years."

"But they must know nothing!" exclaimed. Chisholm quickly. "If the secret of our weakness comes out, all Europe will be ablaze."

"Exactly, that's just what I fear!" the Minister answered. "It must be kept from them at all hazards. You are the only man in London besides myself who has the slightest inkling of the situation. You will, of course, regard it as strictly confidential."

"Absolutely."

"And you destroyed the despatch I sent you to Wroxeter?"

"I burnt it."

"Good!" exclaimed the marquess, leaning both elbows upon the table and looking across again at the man sitting there in the falling darkness.

"And now we must form some plan of action. We must save the situation.

Have you anything to suggest?"

"I really don't know what to suggest," Dudley faltered. "The whole affair is so mysterious, and we seem to have nothing to go upon. To me, it doesn't seem possible that our friends in Constantinople have suddenly turned antagonistic."

"Certainly not. Our relations with the Porte are excellent--and you can tell the House so. It is that very fact which puzzles me. The only solution of the enigma, as far as I can see, is that it is the outcome of that dastardly betrayal to Russia of our policy towards the Porte a year or two ago. You will recollect it, and how nearly it resulted in war?"

"Yes," answered Dudley in a faltering voice, "I remember it." Then he added quickly, as though to change the subject: "As far as I can see, the conspiracy is being worked from one of the other capitals."

Her Majesty's Under-Secretary knew the truth, but made a clever pretence of being no less mystified than his chief.

"Perhaps so, perhaps so," the great statesman remarked. "But this affair shows that there is once again a desperate attempt being made against us--from what quarter we are unable at present to detect."

"Rome is not the centre of activity, I feel sure," Chisholm observed.

"We only see its effect there."

"An effect which may alienate us from Italy at any moment. With the Saracco Government in power there, matters are by no means upon a firm basis."

"But Rathmore is one of our best men. He'll surely see that such a _contretemps_ does not occur."

"Difficult--my dear Chisholm," replied the grey-haired Minister.

"Diplomacy is often as difficult in Rome as it is in Petersburg. The undercurrents against us are quite as many. The Powers are jealous of Italy's friendship towards us and of her resolve to a.s.sist us in the Mediterranean if necessary. That is the whole _crux_ of the matter.

Happily, they are not aware of the terms I made with Rudini two years ago, or the war-cloud would probably have burst some time back. We can't afford to risk hostilities while Italy is so weak. In two years her new armaments will be complete, and then--"

"And then we shall be able to defy them," added the Under-Secretary with a smile.

The great Minister rubbed his gold-framed gla.s.ses and nodded in the affirmative.

"But the most curious aspect of this sudden development--if the information is correct, as we suppose it to be--is the apparent boldness of the diplomatic move on the part of the Porte," the elder man went on.

"It is an absolute enigma how they dare to attempt such a _coup_ without being absolutely certain of success."

"But how could they be?" queried the Under-secretary in a strained voice.

"Only by the possession of secret information," the other replied. "It is the outcome of our base betrayal five years ago."

"Surely nothing further has leaked out!" exclaimed the man seated upon the leather-covered lounge.

"No. There are spies in London--a crowd of them. Melville from Scotland Yard handed me a list of twenty or so of the interesting gentlemen last week. But we have nothing to fear from them--absolutely nothing. What I dread is that there is a traitor here, in my own Department."

"Then what is your private opinion?"

"Well," said the great man, still slowly twisting his quill between his fingers, "it seems to me, Chisholm, very much as though the person who is responsible for this clever move to checkmate our influence in the Mediterranean, like the man who betrayed us before, knows our secret, and is possessed of absolute self-confidence. He evidently knows of the agreement made five years ago, or else he possesses influence in some quarter or other which may prove detrimental to us."

Dudley Chisholm held his breath. Truth lived in the last words that had fallen from the lips of his chief. The man responsible for the remarkable _coup_ that had been forecasted from Vienna did indeed possess influence--over himself--an influence for life or death. After a great effort he contrived to remain calm, and, in a voice which to him sounded cavernous in that great room, he merely said:

"Yes. I thoroughly agree with your theory--thoroughly."

"Then in that case, Chisholm, you must make a distinct statement in the House to-morrow regarding our policy abroad and the defence of the Empire. If the _coup_ is really attempted, we must have public opinion entirely with us. This is not a party matter. You follow me?"

"Entirely. I will have a supplementary question put to-morrow, and reply to it."

"Speak fearlessly and straight to the point. a.s.sure the House that at this moment we are in a stronger position than we ever were, and that our allies are eager to a.s.sist us whenever war may break out. Hint at certain secret understandings with regard to the Mediterranean, and also at an Anglo-American alliance. I detest to play this game, but it is necessary--highly necessary, having regard to the extreme gravity of the outlook."

"Very well," replied Chisholm, rising, anxious to escape from that astute man's presence before his pallid face should confess a part of the truth. "I will carry out your instructions. I quite understand the line to be adopted--one of nonchalance and self-satisfaction."

And then, after a brief conversation upon other topics, the Under-Secretary, when he had switched on the light for his chief, walked out, and went down the great staircase into Downing Street.

CHAPTER NINE.

DEFINES THE DAZZLING DEGRADATION.

At "question-time" on the following afternoon Dudley Chisholm, as mouthpiece of the Foreign Office, rose to reply to a very pointed and seemingly awkward supplementary question put to him by an obscure Member. There was a big House, and owing to the continual allegations of England's unpreparedness made by the alarmist section of the Press, the answer was listened to with almost breathless interest.

The man who stood there addressing the House affected a calmness which he certainly did not feel. He knew not but that at any moment some Member of the Opposition might rise and there publicly show him up as a political impostor, a man who was sailing under false colours, and who knew of England's danger yet dare not speak because to do so would be to expose his own crime. Nevertheless, even though the terrible tension had worked havoc with him throughout the long night, preventing him from sleeping and causing him to tramp for hours the deserted streets of London, he stood there speaking in his well-known deliberate manner, from time to time making home-thrusts at his political opponents, and eloquently a.s.suring the House and the public that the Empire was safe from attack.

In the course of his brilliant reply he deprecated the popular a.s.sumption that in diplomacy we were always left behind, and hinted, as Lord Stockbridge had instructed him to do, at certain secret agreements which, having been of late effected, placed England in an almost invulnerable position. Never during the century, he declared, had Great Britain been on more amicable terms with her neighbours, and never had her position as the first among nations been more secure. Then he went on to speak of the two great tasks Her Majesty's Ministers had themselves undertaken--the task of drawing all members of this vast Empire, all the dependencies of the crown in every quarter of the world, into a close and more organic unity, and the task of providing adequate defences for this great Empire. He admitted that it was sometimes held abroad that this awakening on our part to the obligations of Empire denoted a new spirit of antagonism in this country towards the legitimate aims and aspirations of European Powers. That was not so.

The spirit in which we took up our portion of the task was not one of antagonism, but of generous emulation, with a view to seeing which of the favoured nations of the world could do most in the shortest time to perform the duty owed by them to the countries still oppressed by savagery, barbarism, or imperfect civilisation. That spirit was embodied in a certain secret agreement which he could not, of course, mention. The tasks he had spoken of could not be undertaken by their opponents, who in essential questions were distracted and apathetic.

While the Government would foster true Imperialism, they would not neglect social and domestic legislation. The Opposition were living on the ghosts of the past and amid the tombs of dead policies.

As he resumed his seat there was an outburst of applause. The country had long been waiting for some rea.s.suring declaration from the Government, and this, flashed by the wires from the Press Gallery above, would in a few hours have the effect of allaying any public misgivings.

But Chisholm, having performed his duty, gathered up his papers and at once left the House. In the Lobby one or two men congratulated him, but he only smiled that rather melancholy smile they knew so well.

The House of Commons nowadays is not such an austere a.s.sembly as it was even a decade ago. True, Members are sometimes called to St. Stephen's in October and November, and thus have their vacation plans for Cairo or the Riviera considerably disarranged; yet the patriotic M.P. now finds the House the best and cheapest club in London, where he can, if he chooses, live upon ninepenny steaks and drink gin at twopence a gla.s.sful! Indeed, nowadays there seems more dining than politics, and more brilliant entertaining than brilliant oratory. There are many distinct coteries in the House, as there must always be among men divided in political opinion, but the coterie of entertainers is quite definite and distinct. Its members are those who have entered upon a Parliamentary career as a gentleman's due. They are the political drones. They rarely, if ever, speak, but with their many smart lady-guests support the social side of Parliament right royally. Harry Benthall was one of these b.u.t.terflies among legislators. When he spoke, the subject was usually connected with the personal comfort of Members.

Among the boiled-shirt brigade was a man who had sat in the House for thirty years, and had only spoken once--a speech that lasted one minute; while Mr. Kinnear, the Parliamentary diarist, has placed it on record that a certain gentleman representing a county division sat in three successive Governments without finding his way to the vote office! The whole life of such men is taken up in hunting for a "pair." It is one of the first duties he feels he owes to himself and to his friends of the dining-room, or of that latter-day annexe to Mayfair, the Terrace.

Indeed, so popular became the Terrace a couple of seasons ago that each afternoon it was crowded by _grandes dames_ and young legislators, and flirting, tea-drinking, and strawberry-eating went on to such an extent that the merrymaking seriously threatened to stop legislation altogether. So that awe-inspiring functionary, the Serjeant-at-Arms, acting quietly but firmly, issued such orders that "at homes" in Parliament were suddenly discontinued, and the daily crush at Westminster became less of a public scandal.

To put it plainly, a new House has grown up. The old austerity of legislation in the days of Palmerston and Beaconsfield has nearly disappeared, and to-day the gentlemen upon whom the right to add M.P. to their name is bestowed, find to their delight that legislation is really very largely an arrangement come to between the two front Benches.

As Chisholm pa.s.sed through the Lobby, pausing at Mr. Pike's office to obtain some letters, some one cried "Saunderson's up," and all the idlers knew that the debate upon another matter had commenced, and that "fun" might be expected.