Clearing out the stable

For a young scullery maid, the job of cleaning out a goat’s stable, untended for many months, must have seemed a thousand times more onerous than dealing with the pots and pans of a large Chateau.

Manure and straw, piled up in thick layers, would be heavy lifting, and the stench from under the top crust could be suffocating. With a heavy wheelbarrow to shift the load from stable to manure pile behind the barn, the work would be back-breaking, even with just a small stable.

All this effort, on a stomach empty for days, and a desperate escape with a frightened young soldier, sleeping during the daylight hours and persevering through the night, and it’s a recipe for exhaustion.