in fact , four women such as they were -- four women devoted to one another , from their purses to their lives ; four women always supporting one another , never yielding , executing singly or together the resolutions formed in common ; four arms threatening the four cardinal points , or turning toward a single point -- must inevitably , either subterraneously , in open day , by mining , in the trench , by cunning , or by force , open themselves a way toward the object they wished to attain , however well it might be defended , or however distant it may seem .