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dreading. Spirits had been flagging and now here was proof that the novelty of travel had finally worn off. From this moment on it was likely to be difficult to keep the women’s spirits up.
    Soon it was just as she had feared with the start of longer periods of boredom with quarrels breaking out with little cause. Violette, whom Marguerite had expected to be of help at such a time, was ill-tempered and depressed, her liveliness having deserted her through a falling-out with the armed guard.
    Surprisingly it was Isabelle who found a way to cheer them all. She had become totally content as the journey had proceeded, never complaining about anything, and she began to sing for the first time one morning, never having joined in with the others when they had sung together sometimes. Her voice was very clear and sweet. When she came to the end of her song the others applauded spontaneously and urged her to continue. She blushed crimson at their praise, but obliged them. As the days passed she seemed to have an unending repertoire of songs, some comic that made them laugh delightedly, others of love lost or found as well as hymns and ditties from childhood that all the women remembered and sang with her.
    â€˜How did you learn all these songs?’ she was asked.
    â€˜I just seem to hear a song and remember it. Not all the words, of course, but if I don’t get the chance to hear the song again I make up my own words to the tune.’
    From then on, whenever gloom set in, Isabelle would begin to sing softly as if to herself, but even if it did not always dispel the general depression it soothed pangs of homesickness, anxiety and even regrets over earlier happenings in the women’s lives that were in their minds. It also banished for a little while an awareness of the physical weariness that coach travel induced.
    As the journey advanced through Prussia it was no longer possible for overnight halts always to be made in towns, which were few and far between. Often accommodation was only to be found in farmhouses and cottages where conditions were frequently cramped and dirty.
    It was in poverty-stricken areas that the changing of horses presented a serious problem. With never less than four and mostly six horses to a vehicle it meant that eighty were needed each time to relieve those that had covered the previous stage of the journey. There was always fierce competition among the coachmen and postilions as to which of them would get the best, and fisticuffs became commonplace. It was often a case of searching stables far and wide for replacements, which meant long delays. At these times Jeanne gained her wish to stay more than one night in a place, but inevitably these lengthier sojourns were in uncomfortable and sometimes rat-infested accommodation, any obtainable food being of poor quality too.
    Until now, apart from the occasional shower, the weather had been good for travelling, although it had been getting colder all the time. Now it had begun to deteriorate seriously, the wind turning rougher with heavy rain that never ceased. Frequently coach wheels became stuck in deep muddy ruts and in the pelting rain men would push and shove until the vehicle was mobile again. By now the promised fur rugs had been handed in to the Frenchwomen, which with the foot-warmers, gave welcome warmth to feet and legs, although it was not everywhere that they could be refilled.
    It was late afternoon along a rough road through a particularly dense forest when a band of brigands came bursting out of hiding, some on foot and the rest on horseback, waving swords and firing weapons. Immediately there was uproar, shouting and swearing, and responding gunfire. The door of the seamstresses’ coach was wrenched open and two villainous-looking ruffians gave a shout of triumph at seeing the women within. Reaching forward like a flash they seized Jeanne by the ankles to send her crashing on her buttocks to the floor, one hauling her out like