Enthusiastic jockeys in this steeplechase, this hunt after information, they leaped hedges, crossed rivers, sprang over fences, with the ardor of pure-blooded racers, who will run "a good first" or die! Their journals did not restrict them with regard to money--the surest, the most rapid, the most perfect element of information known to this day.

It must also be added, to their honor, that neither the one nor the other ever looked over or listened at the walls of private life, and that they only exercised their vocation when political or social interests were at stake.

In a word, they made what has been for some years called "the great political and military reports." It will be seen, in following them, that they had generally an independent mode of viewing events, and, above all, their consequences, each having his own way of observing and appreciating.
The French correspondent was named Alcide Jolivet.

Harry Blount was the name of the Englishman.

They had just met for the first time at this fete in the New Palace, of which they had been ordered to give an account in their papers.