Misset broke into the room with a face as discomposed as Gaydon's had been.
"Here's another who has heard the same rumour," said Wogan.
"It is more than a rumour," said Misset.

"It is an order, and most peremptory, from the Court of France, forbidding any officer of Dillon's regiment to be absent for more than twenty-four hours from his duties on pain of being broke.

Our secret's out.

That's the plain truth of the matter." He stood by the table drumming with his fingers in a great agitation.
Then his fingers stopped.

He had been drumming upon Wogan's sheet of paper, and the writing on the sheet had suddenly attracted his notice.
It was writing in unusually regular lines.