But one of the peasant-soldiers of the caravan quietly gives her the desired information, and she adds, that invariably throughout her long and trying experience the peasant men have been truly sympathetic, helpful, and kind to the last degree, when their superiors were not.

Efforts to turn her aside fail.

She overtakes Princess Trubetzkoy, and the two friends pursue their sad journey together.

On arriving in Nertchinsk, the commandant questions their right to see their husbands, refuses to recognize the Emperor's own signature, says he will send to Irkutsk for information (they had offered to go back themselves for it), and until it is received, they will not be permitted to hold communication with those whom they have come so far to see.

The women resign themselves, and pass the night in a peasant hut, so small that their heads touch the wall, their feet the door.