LETTERS FROM 1866 TO 1872. 79 



poor she could not call on her old companion ; 

 indeed, her pride would not permit. These 

 were the men, she said, from whom the Prus- 

 sians obtained intelligence ; and certainly they 

 did act the part of spies. Other Frenchmen 

 resident here met them at an inn, and they 

 there detailed to them what they had learnt at 

 the Marine Hotel. I persuaded her (she was 

 in a terrible way, indignant and angry) to 

 write to my friend, the aide-de-camp, and see 

 him. She did so, and the consequence is that 

 a number of these fellows have been discharged. 

 The Empress and the Prince are still here, 

 despite all paragraphs in the papers. They drove 

 out yesterday afternoon. I saw them. . . ." 



After this adventure Jefferies took the boat 

 from Dover to Ostend. He had more adven- 

 tures on the journey : 



". . . It was a beautiful night, scarcely a breath 

 of air, moonlight and starlit, and a calm sea. 

 Every little wave that broke against the side 

 flashed like lightning with the phosphoric light 

 of the zoophytes, and when at eleven the pad- 

 dles began to move, great circles of phosphoric 



