The conclusion, when it arrived, mirrored the tumultuous journey. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was whisked away from Royal Lodge, barely midway through his packing, spirited off to Norfolk under the cloak of night on Monday.

Sources close to the royal family suggest that what finally prompted this move was the sight of the defiant ex-prince parading around the Windsor estate, quite literally atop a horse, greeting onlookers with a regal wave as though he remained the esteemed Duke of York.

However, the decisive choice to relocate him was reportedly made on Sunday evening after a critical meeting between the King and the Prince of Wales, both present at Sandringham over the weekend.

Given the fresh wave of disturbing revelations regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, it’s unsurprising that Andrew’s continued haughtiness became intolerable for the royal family.

“His public waving was reminiscent of his days basking in public admiration and honor,” a source confided to the Daily Mail.

“Andrew is struggling to face reality, which was increasingly worrying for the Palace—not only due to concerns about his mental state but also because it sent the wrong message to the public, seeing him still basking in royal privileges.”

The final straw, according to royal sources, was the sight of the incalcitrant former prince trotting around the Windsor estate, literally on his high horse

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor hadn’t even finished packing when he was plucked from Royal Lodge and dispatched by car to the depths of Norfolk

‘It was hastily arranged and done under the radar, leaving Royal Lodge staff to pack up what remains of Andrew’s belongings.’

The 30-room mansion, once home to the Queen Mother, is said to have been left strewn with packing cases and furniture draped in dust sheets.

Empty walls are covered in patches of light where, until recently, glorious items of art from the Royal Collection were hung.

More, in a moment, of how Sarah Ferguson has been creeping back and forth from Royal Lodge in recent weeks, smuggled in and out by car while lying prone on the back seat, and why she will not be joining her erstwhile ex-husband when he finally moves to Marsh Farm on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

More, too, of how the latest round of vile revelations about her own dealings with Epstein have bruised Fergie’s relationship with her long-suffering daughters and how, despite everything, she is said to be in talks with a ghostwriter to pen a memoir about her devastating fall from grace.

For, above all, the enforced manner of their rushed departure speaks volumes about the pair’s arrogant refusal to admit any wrongdoing – even now when the latest revelations from the Epstein Files show just how deeply mired they both were in the late paedophile financier’s despicable world, even after Andrew insisted he had stopped all contact.

Among the latest revelations are a disturbing photograph of Andrew on all fours, crouched over an unidentified blonde woman lying on the floor, as well as legal documents which refer to an alleged threesome involving Andrew, Epstein and a stripper during a 2006 party at Epstein’s West Palm Beach home in Florida.

But the most devastating, for Andrew at least, is a damning statement written by Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in which she apparently confirms the veracity of the infamous 2001 photograph of Andrew with a 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre in London – an image he previously insisted was fake.

Sarah Ferguson will not be joining her erstwhile ex-husband when he finally moves to Marsh Farm on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk

Thames Valley Police also announced this week that it was assessing new allegations that a second woman was trafficked to the UK in 2010 by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor at Royal Lodge. She alleges she was taken to Buckingham Palace for a tour and tea after the incident.

Depending on what they find, Andrew may ultimately be forced to reveal what he knew about Epstein and his own role in this ghastly affair.

One might think, given this deplorable avalanche of revelations – not to mention growing pressure on both sides of the Atlantic for Andrew to testify before the US Congress – that some kind of ‘mea culpa’ might finally be forthcoming from the disgraced former royal.

Alas, far from it. According to sources who spoke to the Daily Mail this week, Andrew has firmly buried his head in the sand, is avoiding news reports and sticking to his guns by toughing it out in silence.

‘He firmly believes he’s done nothing wrong and definitely feels hard done by and too harshly treated,’ says the source.

‘Unlike others who have expressed regret for associating with Epstein, he still refuses to do so. Apologising to Epstein’s victims would imply guilt.’

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie, whose unauthorised biography of the former prince – ‘Entitled’ – was published last August, agrees.

‘He’s such a narcissist that he still doesn’t feel the need to apologise,’ he says. ‘I don’t think he’s ever going to accept he’s wrong because he suffers from an absolute lack of self-awareness. I think he still feels he’s invincible. He sees himself as an innocent man, traduced.’

The latest revelations from the Epstein Files show just how deeply mired the Yorks both were in the late paedophile financier’s despicable world

Despite this misplaced indignation, Andrew was ultimately unable to halt his removal to Sandringham. It is understood the offer of Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate as a temporary ‘half-way’ home before his final move to more humble Marsh Farm, softened the blow and helped coax him out of Royal Lodge.

Wood Farm, a secluded property, was beloved by both his late parents. It was home to his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, after he retired from public life in 2017 and frequently visited by the Queen, who was said to cook and wash up there.

It is unlikely such chores lie in store for Andrew, however. While staying in the five-bedroom farmhouse, it is understood he will enjoy the services of Sandringham staff. The source said that the comforts of Wood Farm would ‘insulate him further from the real world – and make it difficult to move him on to an unstaffed Marsh Farm’.

One who is unlikely to be seen in the area, however, is Sarah Ferguson. While she has been secretly slipping in and out of Royal Lodge in recent weeks – Andrew meanwhile has been driving himself in full view of the public – speculation is rife that she may have fled abroad.

‘When there’s a scandal, she runs away,’ says Lownie. ‘She’s done it repeatedly.’

Mystery surrounds her latest whereabouts, with suggestions that she may be on the Caribbean island of Mustique, in Switzerland or even at a favourite spa retreat in Thailand.

Amid speculation that she might have taken refuge on Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private retreat in the British Virgin Islands, his company Virgin released a statement denying that she was there.

Despite being homeless, and said by friends to be in a state of shock and grief about her predicament, she has no intention of following her ex-husband into exile in Norfolk.

Damning emails about Ferguson’s hideous relationship with Epstein emerged this week, pictured with the financier’s associate Ghislane Maxwell in 2003

‘He’s not longer useful to her. He’s too toxic,’ says Lownie. ‘It was fine when she could live at Royal Lodge and co-parent their daughters – all of that was lucrative for her but now that’s all over, she’s cut loose.

‘Their relationship was never a romantic thing. They were more like partners in crime.

‘I think she still believes that without him weighing her down she can make some kind of comeback.’

Indeed, at the time the latest damning emails about her own hideous relationship with Epstein emerged this week, shameless Fergie was said to be in talks with a well-known author with a view to a new ghost-written memoir.

‘She clings to straws, even broken ones,’ says the source, ‘rather than facing reality.’

Ferguson, 66, is said to have been protesting that she really hardly knew Epstein even as each batch of new files were released in the US.

Those issued last week swiftly exposed her lies, both to her friends and associates but also, more damagingly, delivered a ‘body blow’ to her own daughters who now see just how far she was prepared to stoop in her lust for money.

‘That she blatantly lied to them – unlike their father, who made no secret of his past friendship with Epstein – has really cause family ructions and helps explain why Sarah has gone to ground,’ says the source.

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie said the relationship between Andrew and Sarah Ferguson was ‘never a romantic thing,’ adding: ‘They were more like partners in crime.’

‘There are a lot of questions she has to answer about her own behaviour and what exactly she knew about Andrew’s past with Epstein and Maxwell.’

Thanks to the latest batch of released Epstein documents, it is clear that Ferguson knew something of Epstein’s depravity. And yet she took Beatrice and Eugenie to visit him at his Palm Beach mansion just five days after he had been released from jail in July 2009 after serving 13 months for trafficking a minor for sex.

Also among the released files are a toe-curling email in which she tells Epstein that she is ‘just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sha**ing weekend!!’.

A year later, after messaging to say that a friend will be in London, Epstein asks her: ‘Any chance of your daughters saying hello?’. Another exchange sees her joke with Epstein about a woman who, she says, is ‘single and [has] a great body’.

In others, she comes across a desperate, wheedling figure, begging for money, telling him she is ‘traumatised and alone’ and asking him to ‘marry’ her.

‘Neither Beatrice and Eugenie want her moving in with them because of the attendant unwelcome publicity it would bring,’ says the Daily Mail’s source.

These latest revelations have also put paid to any lingering hopes Fergie had of being compensated for the loss of her home at Royal Lodge.

As the source put it this week: ‘Any hopes that the King would bail her out with cash for a house and a pension have bitten the dust.’

Fergie took Beatrice and Eugenie to visit Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion just five days after he had been released from jail

The princesses’ relationship with their father is also under immense strain.

In little over ten days Andrew will turn 66, but given the torrid events of the past week it’s hard to imagine he will be celebrating his birthday in any style.

According to the Daily Mail’s source, he is now more fixated on how he will be remembered when it’s time to shuffle off this mortal coil.

An odd footnote to this sorry affair, and one to which mere commoners may struggle to relate, is that he is said to be fretting about what arrangements will be put in place, when the time comes, for his funeral.

It is customary for members of the Royal Family to plan their own, ahead of time.

‘He envisaged a grand affair in St George’s Chapel in Windsor, televised to a grieving nation, but his plans have been put in the shredder,’ says the source.

For the time being, then, Andrew is alone in Norfolk, surrounded by lonely farmland. The nearest shop is the Co-op three miles away in the village of Dersingham. The nearest Pizza Express, should he need one, is a 20-minute drive to King’s Lynn.

His only company will be a handful of royal staff and the memory of his late father, who spent his final days there.

How Philip must be turning in his grave at the battering his son has delivered to the institution he himself faithfully served, alongside the late Queen, for so many glorious years.