When Princess Márya heard from Nikoláy that her brother was with the Rostóvs at Yaroslávl she at once prepared to go there, in spite of her aunt’s efforts to dissuade her⁠—and not merely to go herself but to take her nephew with her. Whether it were difficult or easy, possible or impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know: it was her duty, not only to herself, to be near her brother who was perhaps dying, but to do everything possible to take his son to him, and so she prepared to set off. That she had not heard from Prince Andréy himself, Princess Márya attributed to his being too weak to write or to his considering the long journey too hard and too dangerous for her and his son.

In a few days Princess Márya was ready to start. Her equipages were the huge family coach in which she had traveled to Vorónezh, a semiopen trap, and a baggage cart. With her traveled Mademoiselle Bourienne, Nikolúshka and his tutor, her old nurse, three maids, Tíkhon, and a young footman and courier her aunt had sent to accompany her.