The staff of the Military Intelligence Service (SR) worked around the clock
[23] to spy on the German Embassy in Paris. They had managed to get a French housekeeper named "Madame Bastian" hired to work in the building and spy on the Germans. In September 1894, she found a torn-up note
[24] which she handed over to her employers at the Military Intelligence Service. This note later became known as "
[...] ".