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'But, René,' Mary interposed. 'Was Lord Macaulay, for instance, in possession of these criminal secrets?'

'Of course he was,' her brother told her, smiling. 'But he wanted to be a . . .'

'A LORD!' Percy almost roared delightedly.

'Exactly!' René smiled.

'I think you are a pair of dreadful cynics!' Mary laughed, all the jolliness of the dinner having returned.

'Well, I do not propose to reveal any of the dark secrets I have myself come across. Let me take an incident which is described in every history of the United States. I refer to the sinking in Havana Harbour of the battleship Maine. At the time the Americans were accused of doing this. The motive would be obvious: namely, so to inflame American opinion that war with Spain would be inevitable. Well now, when it was said that the Americans were responsible for the sinking of this ship, with enormous loss of life, the American Government was clearly visé. But the President was determined to have no war if he could possibly help it. So would it be the War-party of which Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent member? Would they murder hundreds of their countrymen, gallant seamen, in order to precipitate a war? The answer is, to my mind, that they would. Indeed, they would blow up half the world to have their way. And this goes for all politicians in all places. Guests are no longer poisoned by their hosts, as was the case in the Italy of the Borgias. That is too crude. Hypocrisy has, in our society, put a thick patina over everything: there are a number of forms of violence which must not be indulged in. But whereas in the Italy of the Borgias massacre was confined to quite modest numbers, today a man (a politician) may destroy ten million people without it ever being remarked that he has behaved rather badly.'