his attitude.

"From the governor," said Lavrushka in a sleepy voice. "A courier has
arrived and there's a letter for you."

"Well, all right, thanks. You can go!"

Nicholas took the two letters, one of which was from his mother and
the other from Sonya. He recognized them by the handwriting and opened
Sonya's first. He had read only a few lines when he turned pale and his
eyes opened wide with fear and joy.

"No, it's not possible!" he cried aloud.

Unable to sit still he paced up and down the room holding the letter and
reading it. He glanced through it, then read it again, and then again,
and standing still in the middle of the room he raised his shoulders,
stretching out his hands, with his mouth wide open and his eyes fixed.
What he had just been praying for with confidence that God would hear
him had come to pass; but Nicholas was as much astonished as if it were
something extraordinary and unexpected, and as if the very fact that it
had happened so quickly proved that it had not come from God to whom he
had prayed, but by some ordinary coincidence.

This unexpected and, as it seemed to Nicholas, quite voluntary letter
from Sonya freed him from the knot that fettered him and from which
there had seemed no escape. She wrote that the last unfortunate
events--the loss of almost the whole of the Rostovs' Moscow
property--and the countess' repeatedly expressed wish that Nicholas
should marry Princess Bolkonskaya, together with his silence and
coldness of late, had all combined to make her decide to release him
from his promise and set him completely free.

It would be too painful to me to think that I might be a cause of sorrow
or discord in the family that has been so good to me (she wrote), and my
love has no aim but the happiness of those I love; so, Nicholas, I
beg you to consider yourself free, and to be assured that, in spite of
everything, no one can love you more than does

Your Sonya

Both letters were written from Troitsa. The other, from the countess,
described their last days in Moscow, their departure, the fire, and
the destruction of all their property. In this letter the countess also
mentioned that Prince Andrew was among the wounded traveling with them;
his state was very critical, but the doctor said there was now more
hope. Sonya and Natasha were nursing him.

Next day Nicholas took his mother's letter and went to see Princess
Mary. Neither he nor she said a word about what "Natasha