The moment the carriages had quitted the customs office and moved out of the secured area of the Bureau, the two carriages were besieged with would-be valets and maid-servants, all eager to secure employment in such an obviously prosperous family. Darcy, who disliked being at the centre of any public spectacle, was visibly put out of countenance by the riotous clamour of the crowds, thrusting their reference papers through the windows, with some even climbing onto the carriage in order to promote their services.

“These carriage horses are worth twice their cost, for their only response to this madness is forbearance—any others of our stable must have surely have bolted by now, and we would have the blood of trampled Frenchmen on our hands!” He rose to close both windows of the coach, even in the warmth of the afternoon, “for they continue to obtrude upon our notice with an uncommon perseverance. As if this were the path to successful employment in the house of a gentleman!” Rapping his cane under the box, he declared, “We must drive on, and pray the servants are not similarly importuned.”

If Mr. Darcy could have looked behind at this point, he would have seen the second carriage looking and sounding more like a rolling Tower of Babel than an English road coach carrying stolid, respectable English servants. All of the passengers in the servants’ coach were leaning precariously out of the carriage in a state of high alarm, attempting to deter their French counter-parts with an astonishing admixture of English and unintelligible epithets in what they imagined to be the French language. The carriage was in some danger of being tumbled over in the mêlée as several aspirants attempted to board, and it was a considerable relief to the passengers when the area of the customs-house was behind them, the servants having escaped unharmed, but in a dreadful flutter of spirits. Mr. Darcy’s valet was heard to exclaim that, for first time in his life, he wished for the company of Monsieur Jacques-Frédéric, the Darcy’s cook, to deal with the “Frenchies!”