{"product_id":"2940016205595","title":"Of Royal Blood (A Story Of The Secret Service)","description":"UNDER ORDERS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You understand?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Perfectly,\" I answered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And you entirely follow my argument?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Entirely.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is imperative that active steps must be taken to preserve England's\u003cbr\u003esupremacy, and at the same time frustrate this aggressive policy towards\u003cbr\u003eus which is undoubtedly growing. I need not tell you that the outlook is\u003cbr\u003efar from reassuring. As a diplomatist you know that as well as I do. The\u003cbr\u003ewar-cloud which rose over Europe at the end of the last Administration\u003cbr\u003eis still darkening. It therefore behoves us to avoid a repetition of the\u003cbr\u003erecent fiasco at St. Petersburg with regard to Port Arthur, and strive\u003cbr\u003eto prevent foreign diplomacy from again getting the better of us. You\u003cbr\u003equite follow me?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I have always striven to do my utmost towards that end,\" I answered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I know, Crawford. I'm perfectly conscious of that, otherwise I should\u003cbr\u003enot have spoken so plainly as I have now done. Recollect that I've taken\u003cbr\u003eyou into my confidence in this matter. You did well--exceedingly\u003cbr\u003ewell--in Vienna, and showed most creditable tact and forethought.\u003cbr\u003eBecause of that I have recalled you and selected you for this particular\u003cbr\u003eduty.\" And the speaker, the Most Honourable the Marquess of\u003cbr\u003eMacclesfield, K.G., her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for\u003cbr\u003eForeign Affairs, paused with his dark expressive eyes fixed upon me.\u003cbr\u003eUnder those eyes many a foreign diplomatist had quivered, for so keen\u003cbr\u003ewas he of perception that he could divine one's inmost thoughts. This\u003cbr\u003ecalm, thin, gray-faced, rather shabbily attired man, the great statesman\u003cbr\u003eupon whose actions and decisions the prosperity and integrity of the\u003cbr\u003eBritish Empire depended, had, from the earliest moment when I had\u003cbr\u003eentered the Foreign Office, treated me with friendly consideration and\u003cbr\u003ekindly regard, and now as, late on that dull afternoon in February, I\u003cbr\u003esat in his private room in Downing street, whither I had been summoned\u003cbr\u003efrom the Embassy at Constantinople, he spoke to me not as my master, but\u003cbr\u003eas my friend and counsellor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs an attache at Vienna, at Rome, and at the Porte I had worked under\u003cbr\u003eAmbassadors of various moods, but by this feeling of friendliness which\u003cbr\u003ethe Marquess had extended towards me, I had, in my duties, always felt\u003cbr\u003ethat I was serving the great statesman personally, and not merely the\u003cbr\u003eparticular chief which for the time I chanced to be under. Undoubtedly\u003cbr\u003ethe secret of the success of the Macclesfield Ministry in the management\u003cbr\u003eof foreign affairs was in great measure due to the amicability of his\u003cbr\u003elordship towards the staff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I cannot disguise from myself that this duty is extremely difficult,\"\u003cbr\u003ehe went on, leaning back in his chair after a pause, and glancing around\u003cbr\u003ethe fine room, with its life-sized portrait of her Majesty upon the\u003cbr\u003egreen painted wall. \"Nevertheless, secret services must sometimes be\u003cbr\u003eperformed, and I have sufficient confidence in your diplomatic instinct\u003cbr\u003eto know that you will never act rashly, nor display any ill-advised\u003cbr\u003ezeal. The secret of England's greatness is her smart diplomacy, and in\u003cbr\u003ethis affair you have, Crawford, every chance of distinction.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146569728240,"sku":"2940016205595","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016205595_p0.jpg?v=1763631004","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016205595","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}