As yet, there had been no noticeable signs of pursuit. The scouts who had reported in had noted some enemy activity to the south, but Johnson’s men far outnumbered any mustered force that was likely to be sent after them. For the moment, therefore, the column was safe, but that didn’t mean there was room for complacency. Until they boarded the Marine vessels, they would remain at risk.

It was curious, he noted as he made his way down the line, how, after four days on the road, convention within the civilian ranks was being stripped away. With everyone united in flight from a common enemy, the gap between the privileged and the not-so-privileged, that had been so marked before the evacuation had become less defined. The sobering realization that each and every one of them, irrespective of status, was now subject to the same privations – fatigue, hunger, the risk of injury and lack of privacy – had begun to peel back the layers like skin from an onion.

Adversity, the colonel mused, always was the great leveller.

That said, it was clear from the way they were carrying themselves that some civilians were feeling the strain of the trek more than others, which was only to be expected. The colonel knew he’d been pressing them all hard, without fear or favour, and had no qualms about doing so. He’d warned them that was how it was going to be; how it had to be if they were to survive.

The hardier souls were those whose forefathers had cleared the land, built their farms and cultivated the soil. They had found little difficulty in coping with the hazards of the march, secure in the knowledge that every mile traversed brought them ever closer to the rendezvous point and the boats that were waiting to transport them to freedom.

The ones showing less fortitude were those from the more prosperous families; estate owners who’d never needed to swing an axe or push a plough along a muddy furrow. They had workers and slaves to perform those tasks for them. A handful had been heard grumbling at the pace at which they were being shepherded, or, as some put it, herded along.

Not that comfort had ever been a consideration. The day was taken up with marching. With the exception of intermittent rest stops, only at dusk would a complete halt be called, at which point lean-to shelters would be constructed for the women and children and boughs cut for bedding. After snatching a meal and a few hours’ sleep the fugitives would rise an hour before first light to dismantle the camp and pick up where they had left off.