When Princess Márya had left Prince Andréy she fully understood what Natásha’s face had told her. She did not speak any more to Natásha of hopes of saving his life. She took turns with her beside his sofa, and did not cry any more, but prayed continually, turning in soul to that Eternal and Unfathomable, whose presence above the dying man was now so evident.

Not only did Prince Andréy know he would die, but he felt that he was dying and was already half dead. He was conscious of an aloofness from everything earthly and a strange and joyous lightness of existence. Without haste or agitation he awaited what was coming. That inexorable, eternal, distant, and unknown the presence of which he had felt continually all his life⁠—was now near to him and, by the strange lightness he experienced, almost comprehensible and palpable.⁠ ⁠…

Formerly he had feared the end. He had twice experienced that terribly tormenting fear of death⁠—the end⁠—but now he no longer understood that fear.