The necessities of war had made themselves felt from the very first moment, absorbing all means of communication.

The train would remain immovable for hours together in order to give the right of way to other trains loaded with men and military materials....

In all the stations were soldiers in campaign uniform, banners and cheering crowds.
When Ferragut arrived at Naples, fatigued by a journey of forty-eight hours, it seemed to him that the coachman was going too slowly toward the old palace of Chiaja.
Upon crossing the vestibule with his little suit-case, the portress,--a fat old crone with dusty, frizzled hair whom he had sometimes caught a glimpse of in the depths of her hall cavern,--stopped his passage.
"The ladies are no longer living in the house....

The ladies have suddenly left with Karl, their employee." And she explained the rest of their flight with a hostile and malignant smile.
Ferragut saw that he must not insist.

The slovenly old wife was furious over the flight of the German ladies, and was examining the sailor as a probable spy fit for patriotic denunciation.