CHAPTER XXVI

THE AVALANCHE MOVES The placard, seen by the Colonel, announced the opening of a new scene in the Irish tragedy. The King had summoned a Conference at Buckingham Palace in order if possible to find a solution of the difficulty. When the Conference met the King opened it in person and, speaking as a man weighed down by anxiety, told the members that for weeks he had watched with deep misgivings the trend of events in Ireland. "To-day the cry of Civil War is on the lips of the most responsible of my people," he sai…