Then came the day of our planned – and final – departure. We didn’t have a precise plan, yet our ploy was very simple: trading places with strangers. We initially went by carriage, but for the first part of our escape we would ride horses: ours were fast and docile and would carry us over great distances; furthermore, being valuable animals and a prerogative of royalty, their loss could be easily excused by our impersonators. Then, we would go toward the unknown, taking whatever occurred in our stride.
At the meeting point we changed our clothes and worked on the man’s and the woman’s facial features with make-up, so as to be the closest to us in appearance. The result was satisfactory, but they still had to be very careful among their people. We taught them many personal traits, from dem
