Some losing heart before battle in France, telling no-one (7)

I believe the answer is:

secrecy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'france telling no-one' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'some losing heart before battle' is the wordplay.
'losing heart' means to remove the middle letters.
'before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'battle' becomes 'crecy' (Crecy is an example).
'some' with its centre removed is 'se'.
'se'+'crecy'='SECRECY'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for secrecy that I've seen before include "openly, without protection of this" , "Concealment" , "Suppression of information" , "Confidentiality" , "Stealth; covertness" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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