The message picked up from a BBC broadcast to the French underground was the second line of the Verlaine poem: "Blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone [Wound my heart with a monotonous languor]."
Meyer burst into the dining room where General Hans Von Salmuth, the Fifteenth Army's commanding officer, was playing bridge with his chief of staff and two others. "General!" Meyer said breathlessly. "The message, the second part -- it's here!"
On this Monday evening, the eve of D Day, the first message was broadcast by the BBC at 6:30 P.M. "It is hot in Suez....It is hot in Suez," said the voice of the announcer solemnly.
There was a pause. Then came the second message that Mercader had been waiting for. "The dice are on the table," said the announcer. "The dice are on the table." This was immediately followed by a long string of messages, each one repeated' "Napoleon's hat is in the ring....John loves Mary....The Arrow will not pass...." Mercader switched off the radio. He had heard the only two messages that concerned him. The others were specific alerts for groups elsewhere in France.