We can infer from the author's statement that .............

Mata Hari was the stage name of a Dutch dancer, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, who was accused of spying for the Germans in France during World War I. As an erotic dancer she performed in Paris, Berlin, London, and Rome before the war and, as a neutral, continued to move about freely and perform during the war. Among her many lovers were high-ranking Allied military officers, from whom she is alleged to have gleaned valuable information that she passed on to the Germans. Arrested in Paris in 1917, she was tried by court martial and sentenced to death. Opinion is divided as to whether she was really a spy or not.