The road along this area was become very shaded and pleasant through the planting of mulberry trees along both sides of the road, and, Mr. Darcy noticed with pleasure, groves of great chestnut trees. Many of the peasant women were seated within their door-ways, employed in spinning silks or working flax for sale to the manufactories in Lyon. There were no men to be seen, either within the doors, in the forests, or out amongst the fields, leading Elizabeth to comment that the men must have staid abed, so as not to disturb the work of their women.

That very afternoon, the Darcys were to experience a small example of the terrors attending upon travellers through those great mountains, as, of a sudden, the postillion riding at the front of the Darcy’s chaise disappeared! Mr. Harmon had not fully apprehended what had happened, and had not yet brought the team to an halt, when the postillion’s face, sans chapeau et sans coleur, suddenly appeared in the window of the chaise! By the time Mr. Harmon had stopt the horses and recovered the postillion from the ladder of the chaise, Georgiana and Elizabeth had regained their breath, and Mr. Darcy was become fully awake and was out of the chaise in an effort to ascertain what had occasioned such an unexpected event. The postillion had apparently fallen asleep—having been constantly employed for the last several days, with only a few hours’ rest—and tumbled off, leading Mr. Darcy to remark that the man’s method was likely the only way to fall, what with the quiet and steady nature of the draught horses; in the common case, it would have been the horse looking inside the carriage. Mr. Harmon assured Mr. Darcy that he would inspect the voiturins more carefully in future, and question the inn-keepers more carefully as to the histories of the men before engaging any of them. Unfortunately, as Mr. Harmon spoke no French, it was impossible for him to interrogate anyone, and so Mr. Darcy assumed the blame himself for the present near-catastrophe, and the burthen for avoiding any such contretemps in future.

Along their road, they chanced upon a team of very disagreeable mules, urged on to the heights of the fury and violent actions possible within and without the traces, rearing and kicking out in all directions, at the command of their driver, who was alternately shouting and abusing the animals at every step with his whip. After getting safely past the team and the careening waggon, Elizabeth remarked, “I declare myself unable to assign the greater portion of blame amongst that last equipage: the mules who seem to be busy with little else than being awkward, or the driver who seemed as misdirected as his animals.”