uaintance at Coblentz--Lieutenant Philip de
Franck, an officer in the Prussian service, of partly English
parentage: the good-fellowship which he kept up with this amiable
gentleman, both in personal intercourse and by letter, was (as we have
seen) even boyishly vivacious and exuberant. In the first instance Hood
lived at No. 372 Castor Hof, where his family joined him in the Spring
of 1835: about a year later, they removed to No. 752 Alten Graben.

Spasms in the chest now began to be a trying and alarming symptom of
his ill-health, which, towards the end of 1836, took a turn for the
worse; he never afterwards rallied very effectually, though the
fluctuations were numerous--(in November, 1838, for instance, he
fancied that a radical improvement had suddenly taken place)--and at
times the danger was imminent. The unfavorable change in question was
nearly simultaneous with a visit which he made to Berlin, accompanying
Lieutenant de Franck and his regiment, on their transfer to Bromberg:
the rate of travelling was from fifteen to twenty English miles per
diem, for three days consecutively, and then one day of rest. Hood
liked the simple unextortionate Saxon folk whom he encountered on the
route, and contrasted them with the Coblentzers, much to the
disadvantage of the latter. By the beginning of December he was back in
his Rhineland home; but finally quitted it towards May, 1837. Several
attacks of blood-spitting occurred in the interval; at one time Hood
proposed for himself the deadly-lively epitaph, "Here lies one who spat
more blood and made more puns than any other man."

About this time he was engaged in writing _Up the Rhine_; performing,
as was his wont, the greater part of the work during the night-hours.
The sojourn at Coblentz was succeeded by a sojourn at Ostend; in which
city--besides the sea, which Hood always supremely delighted in--he
found at first more comfort in the ordinary mode of living, including
the general readiness at speaking or understanding English. Gradually,
however, the climate, extremely damp and often cold, proved highly
unsuitable to him; and, when he quitted Ostend in the Spring of 1840,
at the close of nearly three years' residence there, it was apparent
that his stay had already lasted too long. Within this period the
publication of _Hood's Own_ had occurred, and put to a severe trial
even _his_ unrivalled fertility in jest: one of his letters speaks of
the difficulty of being perfect