CHAPTER VIII

BRITISH SECRET SERVICE 123

Little or no Espionage in Britain—Beginnings of Secret Service—Henry VII. and the Monastic Estates—The Intelligencer in Elizabeth's Time—Statesmen employ his Services—Some Expensive Intelligencers—Cromwell well served by Spies—Charles II. and Duchess of Portsmouth—Many German Spies in Georgian Times—Pitt organises Foreign Spy System—Fox and the First Consul—Canning's famous Tilsit Coup—Pre-Union Espionage in Ireland—Le Caron's Indictment of British Paymasters—The Trench-Brandon Trial at Leipsic—Germany's Fear of Foreign Spies—Her Traitors seek English Gold—The Cost of Espionage to England, France, Germany and Russia—Home Office Alertness in August 1914—Measures of Counter-Espionage