283 BOOK SEVEN: 1810 - 11
311 BOOK EIGHT: 1811 - 12
669 BOOK FIFTEEN: 1812 - 13
711 FIRST EPILOGUE: 1813 - 20
778 "Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
779 Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war,
780 if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that
781 Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have nothing more
782 to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful
783 slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened
784 you--sit down and tell me all the news."
786 It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna
787 Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With
788 these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and
789 importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna
790 had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la
791 grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the
794 All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered
795 by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows:
797 "If you have nothing better to do, Count (or Prince), and if the
798 prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible,
799 I shall be very charmed to see you tonight between 7 and 10--Annette
802 "Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied the prince, not in the least
803 disconcerted by this reception. He had just entered, wearing an
804 embroidered court uniform, knee breeches, and shoes, and had stars on
805 his breast and a serene expression on his flat face. He spoke in that
806 refined French in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought, and
807 with the gentle, patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance
808 who had grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna,
809 kissed her hand, presenting to her his bald, scented, and shining head,
810 and complacently seated himself on the sofa.
812 "First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Set your friend's mind
813 at rest," said he without altering his tone, beneath the politeness and
814 affected sympathy of which indifference and even irony could be
817 "Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in times like
818 these if one has any feeling?" said Anna Pavlovna. "You are staying the
819 whole evening, I hope?"
821 "And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today is Wednesday. I must
822 put in an appearance there," said the prince. "My daughter is coming for
823 me to take me there."
825 "I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confess all these
826 festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."
828 "If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been
829 put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit
830 said things he did not even wish to be believed.
832 "Don't tease! Well, and what has been decided about Novosiltsev's
833 dispatch? You know everything."
835 "What can one say about it?" replied the prince in a cold, listless
836 tone. "What has been decided? They have decided that Buonaparte has
837 burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready to burn ours."
839 Prince Vasili always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale
840 part. Anna Pavlovna Scherer on the contrary, despite her forty years,
841 overflowed with animation and impulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had
842 become her social vocation and, sometimes even when she did not feel
843 like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the
844 expectations of those who knew her. The subdued smile which, though it
845 did not suit her faded features, always played round her lips expressed,
846 as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect,
847 which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to
850 In the midst of a conversation on political matters Anna Pavlovna burst
853 "Oh, don't speak to me of Austria. Perhaps I don't understand things,
854 but Austria never has wished, and does not wish, for war. She is
855 betraying us! Russia alone must save Europe. Our gracious sovereign
856 recognizes his high vocation and will be true to it. That is the one
857 thing I have faith in! Our good and wonderful sovereign has to perform
858 the noblest role on earth, and he is so virtuous and noble that God will
859 not forsake him. He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of
860 revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of
861 this murderer and villain! We alone must avenge the blood of the just
862 one.... Whom, I ask you, can we rely on?... England with her commercial
863 spirit will not and cannot understand the Emperor Alexander's loftiness
864 of soul. She has refused to evacuate Malta. She wanted to find, and
865 still seeks, some secret motive in our actions. What answer did
866 Novosiltsev get? None. The English have not understood and cannot
867 understand the self-abnegation of our Emperor who wants nothing for
868 himself, but only desires the good of mankind. And what have they
869 promised? Nothing! And what little they have promised they will not
870 perform! Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible, and
871 that all Europe is powerless before him.... And I don't believe a word
872 that Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussian
873 neutrality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the lofty
874 destiny of our adored monarch. He will save Europe!"
876 She suddenly paused, smiling at her own impetuosity.
878 "I think," said the prince with a smile, "that if you had been sent
879 instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would have captured the King of
880 Prussia's consent by assault. You are so eloquent. Will you give me a
883 "In a moment. A propos," she added, becoming calm again, "I am expecting
884 two very interesting men tonight, le Vicomte de Mortemart, who is
885 connected with the Montmorencys through the Rohans, one of the best
886 French families. He is one of the genuine emigres, the good ones. And
887 also the Abbe Morio. Do you know that profound thinker? He has been
888 received by the Emperor. Had you heard?"
890 "I shall be delighted to meet them," said the prince. "But tell me," he
891 added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him,
892 though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his
893 visit, "is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron Funke to be
894 appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor
897 Prince Vasili wished to obtain this post for his son, but others were
898 trying through the Dowager Empress Marya Fedorovna to secure it for the
901 Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicate that neither she nor
902 anyone else had a right to criticize what the Empress desired or was
905 "Baron Funke has been recommended to the Dowager Empress by her sister,"
906 was all she said, in a dry and mournful tone.
908 As she named the Empress, Anna Pavlovna's face suddenly assumed an
909 expression of profound and sincere devotion and respect mingled with
910 sadness, and this occurred every time she mentioned her illustrious
911 patroness. She added that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke
912 beaucoup d'estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.
914 The prince was silent and looked indifferent. But, with the womanly and
915 courtierlike quickness and tact habitual to her, Anna Pavlovna wished
916 both to rebuke him (for daring to speak as he had done of a man
917 recommended to the Empress) and at the same time to console him, so she
920 "Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out
921 everyone has been enraptured by her? They say she is amazingly
924 The prince bowed to signify his respect and gratitude.
926 "I often think," she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to
927 the prince and smiling amiably at him as if to show that political and
928 social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate
929 conversation--"I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are
930 distributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don't
931 speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don't like him," she added in a tone
932 admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows. "Two such charming
933 children. And really you appreciate them less than anyone, and so you
934 don't deserve to have them."
936 And she smiled her ecstatic smile.
938 "I can't help it," said the prince. "Lavater would have said I lack the
941 "Don't joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know I am
942 dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves" (and her face
943 assumed its melancholy expression), "he was mentioned at Her Majesty's
944 and you were pitied...."
946 The prince answered nothing, but she looked at him significantly,
947 awaiting a reply. He frowned.
949 "What would you have me do?" he said at last. "You know I did all a
950 father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools.
951 Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one. That
952 is the only difference between them." He said this smiling in a way more
953 natural and animated than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth
954 very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.
956 "And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a father
957 there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said Anna Pavlovna,
958 looking up pensively.
960 "I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my
961 children are the bane of my life. It is the cross I have to bear. That
962 is how I explain it to myself. It can't be helped!"
964 He said no more, but expressed his resignation to cruel fate by a
965 gesture. Anna Pavlovna meditated.
967 "Have you never thought of marrying your prodigal son Anatole?" she
968 asked. "They say old maids have a mania for matchmaking, and though I
969 don't feel that weakness in myself as yet, I know a little person who is
970 very unhappy with her father. She is a relation of yours, Princess Mary
973 Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and
974 perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of
975 the head that he was considering this information.
977 "Do you know," he said at last, evidently unable to check the sad
978 current of his thoughts, "that Anatole is costing me forty thousand
979 rubles a year? And," he went on after a pause, "what will it be in five
980 years, if he goes on like this?" Presently he added: "That's what we
981 fathers have to put up with.... Is this princess of yours rich?"
983 "Her father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the country. He is the
984 well-known Prince Bolkonski who had to retire from the army under the
985 late Emperor, and was nicknamed 'the King of Prussia.' He is very clever
986 but eccentric, and a bore. The poor girl is very unhappy. She has a
987 brother; I think you know him, he married Lise Meinen lately. He is an
988 aide-de-camp of Kutuzov's and will be here tonight."
990 "Listen, dear Annette," said the prince, suddenly taking Anna Pavlovna's
991 hand and for some reason drawing it downwards. "Arrange that affair for
992 me and I shall always be your most devoted slave-slafe with an f, as a
993 village elder of mine writes in his reports. She is rich and of good
994 family and that's all I want."
996 And with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar to him, he raised the
997 maid of honor's hand to his lips, kissed it, and swung it to and fro as
998 he lay back in his armchair, looking in another direction.
1000 "Attendez," said Anna Pavlovna, reflecting, "I'll speak to Lise, young
1001 Bolkonski's wife, this very evening, and perhaps the thing can be
1002 arranged. It shall be on your family's behalf that I'll start my
1003 apprenticeship as old maid."
1010 Anna Pavlovna's drawing room was gradually filling. The highest
1011 Petersburg society was assembled there: people differing widely in age
1012 and character but alike in the social circle to which they belonged.
1013 Prince Vasili's daughter, the beautiful Helene, came to take her father
1014 to the ambassador's entertainment; she wore a ball dress and her badge
1015 as maid of honor. The youthful little Princess Bolkonskaya, known as la
1016 femme la plus seduisante de Petersbourg, * was also there. She had been
1017 married during the previous winter, and being pregnant did not go to any
1018 large gatherings, but only to small receptions. Prince Vasili's son,
1019 Hippolyte, had come with Mortemart, whom he introduced. The Abbe Morio
1020 and many others had also come.
1023 * The most fascinating woman in Petersburg.
1025 To each new arrival Anna Pavlovna said, "You have not yet seen my aunt,"
1026 or "You do not know my aunt?" and very gravely conducted him or her to a
1027 little old lady, wearing large bows of ribbon in her cap, who had come
1028 sailing in from another room as soon as the guests began to arrive; and
1029 slowly turning her eyes from the visitor to her aunt, Anna Pavlovna
1030 mentioned each one's name and then left them.
1032 Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not
1033 one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them
1034 cared about; Anna Pavlovna observed these greetings with mournful and
1035 solemn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in
1036 the same words, about their health and her own, and the health of Her
1037 Majesty, "who, thank God, was better today." And each visitor, though
1038 politeness prevented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a
1039 sense of relief at having performed a vexatious duty and did not return
1040 to her the whole evening.
1042 The young Princess Bolkonskaya had brought some work in a gold-
1043 embroidered velvet bag. Her pretty little upper lip, on which a delicate
1044 dark down was just perceptible, was too short for her teeth, but it
1045 lifted all the more sweetly, and was especially charming when she
1046 occasionally drew it down to meet the lower lip. As is always the case
1047 with a thoroughly attractive woman, her defect--the shortness of her
1048 upper lip and her half-open mouth--seemed to be her own special and
1049 peculiar form of beauty. Everyone brightened at the sight of this pretty
1050 young woman, so soon to become a mother, so full of life and health, and
1051 carrying her burden so lightly. Old men and dull dispirited young ones
1052 who looked at her, after being in her company and talking to her a
1053 little while, felt as if they too were becoming, like her, full of life
1054 and health. All who talked to her, and at each word saw her bright smile
1055 and the constant gleam of her white teeth, thought that they were in a
1056 specially amiable mood that day.
1058 The little princess went round the table with quick, short, swaying
1059 steps, her workbag on her arm, and gaily spreading out her dress sat
1060 down on a sofa near the silver samovar, as if all she was doing was a
1061 pleasure to herself and to all around her. "I have brought my work,"
1062 said she in French, displaying her bag and addressing all present.
1063 "Mind, Annette, I hope you have not played a wicked trick on me," she
1064 added, turning to her hostess. "You wrote that it was to be quite a
1065 small reception, and just see how badly I am dressed." And she spread
1066 out her arms to show her short-waisted, lace-trimmed, dainty gray dress,
1067 girdled with a broad ribbon just below the breast.
1069 "Soyez tranquille, Lise, you will always be prettier than anyone else,"
1070 replied Anna Pavlovna.
1072 "You know," said the princess in the same tone of voice and still in
1073 French, turning to a general, "my husband is deserting me? He is going
1074 to get himself killed. Tell me what this wretched war is for?" she
1075 added, addressing Prince Vasili, and without waiting for an answer she
1076 turned to speak to his daughter, the beautiful Helene.
1078 "What a delightful woman this little princess is!" said Prince Vasili to
1081 One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man with
1082 close-cropped hair, spectacles, the light-colored breeches fashionable
1083 at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown dress coat. This stout
1084 young man was an illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, a well-known
1085 grandee of Catherine's time who now lay dying in Moscow. The young man
1086 had not yet entered either the military or civil service, as he had only
1087 just returned from abroad where he had been educated, and this was his
1088 first appearance in society. Anna Pavlovna greeted him with the nod she
1089 accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room. But in spite of
1090 this lowest-grade greeting, a look of anxiety and fear, as at the sight
1091 of something too large and unsuited to the place, came over her face
1092 when she saw Pierre enter. Though he was certainly rather bigger than
1093 the other men in the room, her anxiety could only have reference to the
1094 clever though shy, but observant and natural, expression which
1095 distinguished him from everyone else in that drawing room.
1097 "It is very good of you, Monsieur Pierre, to come and visit a poor
1098 invalid," said Anna Pavlovna, exchanging an alarmed glance with her aunt
1099 as she conducted him to her.
1101 Pierre murmured something unintelligible, and continued to look round as
1102 if in search of something. On his way to the aunt he bowed to the little
1103 princess with a pleased smile, as to an intimate acquaintance.
1105 Anna Pavlovna's alarm was justified, for Pierre turned away from the
1106 aunt without waiting to hear her speech about Her Majesty's health. Anna
1107 Pavlovna in dismay detained him with the words: "Do you know the Abbe
1108 Morio? He is a most interesting man."
1110 "Yes, I have heard of his scheme for perpetual peace, and it is very
1111 interesting but hardly feasible."
1113 "You think so?" rejoined Anna Pavlovna in order to say something and get
1114 away to attend to her duties as hostess. But Pierre now committed a
1115 reverse act of impoliteness. First he had left a lady before she had
1116 finished speaking to him, and now he continued to speak to another who
1117 wished to get away. With his head bent, and his big feet spread apart,
1118 he began explaining his reasons for thinking the abbe's plan chimerical.
1120 "We will talk of it later," said Anna Pavlovna with a smile.
1122 And having got rid of this young man who did not know how to behave, she
1123 resumed her duties as hostess and continued to listen and watch, ready
1124 to help at any point where the conversation might happen to flag. As the
1125 foreman of a spinning mill, when he has set the hands to work, goes
1126 round and notices here a spindle that has stopped or there one that
1127 creaks or makes more noise than it should, and hastens to check the
1128 machine or set it in proper motion, so Anna Pavlovna moved about her
1129 drawing room, approaching now a silent, now a too-noisy group, and by a
1130 word or slight rearrangement kept the conversational machine in steady,
1131 proper, and regular motion. But amid these cares her anxiety about
1132 Pierre was evident. She kept an anxious watch on him when he approached
1133 the group round Mortemart to listen to what was being said there, and
1134 again when he passed to another group whose center was the abbe.
1136 Pierre had been educated abroad, and this reception at Anna Pavlovna's
1137 was the first he had attended in Russia. He knew that all the
1138 intellectual lights of Petersburg were gathered there and, like a child
1139 in a toyshop, did not know which way to look, afraid of missing any
1140 clever conversation that was to be heard. Seeing the self-confident and
1141 refined expression on the faces of those present he was always expecting
1142 to hear something very profound. At last he came up to Morio. Here the
1143 conversation seemed interesting and he stood waiting for an opportunity
1144 to express his own views, as young people are fond of doing.
1151 Anna Pavlovna's reception was in full swing. The spindles hummed
1152 steadily and ceaselessly on all sides. With the exception of the aunt,
1153 beside whom sat only one elderly lady, who with her thin careworn face
1154 was rather out of place in this brilliant society, the whole company had
1155 settled into three groups. One, chiefly masculine, had formed round the
1156 abbe. Another, of young people, was grouped round the beautiful Princess
1157 Helene, Prince Vasili's daughter, and the little Princess Bolkonskaya,
1158 very pretty and rosy, though rather too plump for her age. The third
1159 group was gathered round Mortemart and Anna Pavlovna.
1161 The vicomte was a nice-looking young man with soft features and polished
1162 manners, who evidently considered himself a celebrity but out of
1163 politeness modestly placed himself at the disposal of the circle in
1164 which he found himself. Anna Pavlovna was obviously serving him up as a
1165 treat to her guests. As a clever maitre d'hotel serves up as a specially
1166 choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the
1167 kitchen would have cared to eat, so Anna Pavlovna served up to her
1168 guests, first the vicomte and then the abbe, as peculiarly choice
1169 morsels. The group about Mortemart immediately began discussing the
1170 murder of the Duc d'Enghien. The vicomte said that the Duc d'Enghien had
1171 perished by his own magnanimity, and that there were particular reasons
1172 for Buonaparte's hatred of him.
1174 "Ah, yes! Do tell us all about it, Vicomte," said Anna Pavlovna, with a
1175 pleasant feeling that there was something a la Louis XV in the sound of
1176 that sentence: "Contez nous cela, Vicomte."
1178 The vicomte bowed and smiled courteously in token of his willingness to
1179 comply. Anna Pavlovna arranged a group round him, inviting everyone to
1182 "The vicomte knew the duc personally," whispered Anna Pavlovna to one of
1183 the guests. "The vicomte is a wonderful raconteur," said she to another.
1184 "How evidently he belongs to the best society," said she to a third; and
1185 the vicomte was served up to the company in the choicest and most
1186 advantageous style, like a well-garnished joint of roast beef on a hot
1189 The vicomte wished to begin his story and gave a subtle smile.
1191 "Come over here, Helene, dear," said Anna Pavlovna to the beautiful
1192 young princess who was sitting some way off, the center of another
1195 The princess smiled. She rose with the same unchanging smile with which
1196 she had first entered the room--the smile of a perfectly beautiful
1197 woman. With a slight rustle of her white dress trimmed with moss and
1198 ivy, with a gleam of white shoulders, glossy hair, and sparkling
1199 diamonds, she passed between the men who made way for her, not looking
1200 at any of them but smiling on all, as if graciously allowing each the
1201 privilege of admiring her beautiful figure and shapely shoulders, back,
1202 and bosom--which in the fashion of those days were very much exposed--
1203 and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved
1204 toward Anna Pavlovna. Helene was so lovely that not only did she not
1205 show any trace of coquetry, but on the contrary she even appeared shy of
1206 her unquestionable and all too victorious beauty. She seemed to wish,
1207 but to be unable, to diminish its effect.
1209 "How lovely!" said everyone who saw her; and the vicomte lifted his
1210 shoulders and dropped his eyes as if startled by something extraordinary
1211 when she took her seat opposite and beamed upon him also with her
1214 "Madame, I doubt my ability before such an audience," said he, smilingly
1217 The princess rested her bare round arm on a little table and considered
1218 a reply unnecessary. She smilingly waited. All the time the story was
1219 being told she sat upright, glancing now at her beautiful round arm,
1220 altered in shape by its pressure on the table, now at her still more
1221 beautiful bosom, on which she readjusted a diamond necklace. From time
1222 to time she smoothed the folds of her dress, and whenever the story
1223 produced an effect she glanced at Anna Pavlovna, at once adopted just
1224 the expression she saw on the maid of honor's face, and again relapsed
1225 into her radiant smile.
1227 The little princess had also left the tea table and followed Helene.
1229 "Wait a moment, I'll get my work.... Now then, what are you thinking
1230 of?" she went on, turning to Prince Hippolyte. "Fetch me my workbag."
1232 There was a general movement as the princess, smiling and talking
1233 merrily to everyone at once, sat down and gaily arranged herself in her
1236 "Now I am all right," she said, and asking the vicomte to begin, she
1239 Prince Hippolyte, having brought the workbag, joined the circle and
1240 moving a chair close to hers seated himself beside her.
1242 Le charmant Hippolyte was surprising by his extraordinary resemblance to
1243 his beautiful sister, but yet more by the fact that in spite of this
1244 resemblance he was exceedingly ugly. His features were like his
1245 sister's, but while in her case everything was lit up by a joyous, self-
1246 satisfied, youthful, and constant smile of animation, and by the
1247 wonderful classic beauty of her figure, his face on the contrary was
1248 dulled by imbecility and a constant expression of sullen self-
1249 confidence, while his body was thin and weak. His eyes, nose, and mouth
1250 all seemed puckered into a vacant, wearied grimace, and his arms and
1251 legs always fell into unnatural positions.
1253 "It's not going to be a ghost story?" said he, sitting down beside the
1254 princess and hastily adjusting his lorgnette, as if without this
1255 instrument he could not begin to speak.
1257 "Why no, my dear fellow," said the astonished narrator, shrugging his
1260 "Because I hate ghost stories," said Prince Hippolyte in a tone which
1261 showed that he only understood the meaning of his words after he had
1264 He spoke with such self-confidence that his hearers could not be sure
1265 whether what he said was very witty or very stupid. He was dressed in a
1266 dark-green dress coat, knee breeches of the color of cuisse de nymphe
1267 effrayee, as he called it, shoes, and silk stockings.
1269 The vicomte told his tale very neatly. It was an anecdote, then current,
1270 to the effect that the Duc d'Enghien had gone secretly to Paris to visit
1271 Mademoiselle George; that at her house he came upon Bonaparte, who also
1272 enjoyed the famous actress' favors, and that in his presence Napoleon
1273 happened to fall into one of the fainting fits to which he was subject,
1274 and was thus at the duc's mercy. The latter spared him, and this
1275 magnanimity Bonaparte subsequently repaid by death.
1277 The story was very pretty and interesting, especially at the point where
1278 the rivals suddenly recognized one another; and the ladies looked
1281 "Charming!" said Anna Pavlovna with an inquiring glance at the little
1284 "Charming!" whispered the little princess, sticking the needle into her
1285 work as if to testify that the interest and fascination of the story
1286 prevented her from going on with it.
1288 The vicomte appreciated this silent praise and smiling gratefully
1289 prepared to continue, but just then Anna Pavlovna, who had kept a
1290 watchful eye on the young man who so alarmed her, noticed that he was
1291 talking too loudly and vehemently with the abbe, so she hurried to the
1292 rescue. Pierre had managed to start a conversation with the abbe about
1293 the balance of power, and the latter, evidently interested by the young
1294 man's simple-minded eagerness, was explaining his pet theory. Both were
1295 talking and listening too eagerly and too naturally, which was why Anna
1296 Pavlovna disapproved.
1298 "The means are... the balance of power in Europe and the rights of the
1299 people," the abbe was saying. "It is only necessary for one powerful
1300 nation like Russia--barbaric as she is said to be--to place herself
1301 disinterestedly at the head of an alliance having for its object the
1302 maintenance of the balance of power of Europe, and it would save the
1305 "But how are you to get that balance?" Pierre was beginning.
1307 At that moment Anna Pavlovna came up and, looking severely at Pierre,
1308 asked the Italian how he stood Russian climate. The Italian's face
1309 instantly changed and assumed an offensively affected, sugary
1310 expression, evidently habitual to him when conversing with women.
1312 "I am so enchanted by the brilliancy of the wit and culture of the
1313 society, more especially of the feminine society, in which I have had
1314 the honor of being received, that I have not yet had time to think of
1315 the climate," said he.
1317 Not letting the abbe and Pierre escape, Anna Pavlovna, the more
1318 conveniently to keep them under observation, brought them into the
1326 Just then another visitor entered the drawing room: Prince Andrew
1327 Bolkonski, the little princess' husband. He was a very handsome young
1328 man, of medium height, with firm, clearcut features. Everything about
1329 him, from his weary, bored expression to his quiet, measured step,
1330 offered a most striking contrast to his quiet, little wife. It was
1331 evident that he not only knew everyone in the drawing room, but had
1332 found them to be so tiresome that it wearied him to look at or listen to
1333 them. And among all these faces that he found so tedious, none seemed to
1334 bore him so much as that of his pretty wife. He turned away from her
1335 with a grimace that distorted his handsome face, kissed Anna Pavlovna's
1336 hand, and screwing up his eyes scanned the whole company.
1338 "You are off to the war, Prince?" said Anna Pavlovna.
1340 "General Kutuzov," said Bolkonski, speaking French and stressing the
1341 last syllable of the general's name like a Frenchman, "has been pleased
1342 to take me as an aide-de-camp...."
1344 "And Lise, your wife?"
1346 "She will go to the country."
1348 "Are you not ashamed to deprive us of your charming wife?"
1350 "Andre," said his wife, addressing her husband in the same coquettish
1351 manner in which she spoke to other men, "the vicomte has been telling us
1352 such a tale about Mademoiselle George and Buonaparte!"
1354 Prince Andrew screwed up his eyes and turned away. Pierre, who from the
1355 moment Prince Andrew entered the room had watched him with glad,
1356 affectionate eyes, now came up and took his arm. Before he looked round
1357 Prince Andrew frowned again, expressing his annoyance with whoever was
1358 touching his arm, but when he saw Pierre's beaming face he gave him an
1359 unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile.
1361 "There now!... So you, too, are in the great world?" said he to Pierre.
1363 "I knew you would be here," replied Pierre. "I will come to supper with
1364 you. May I?" he added in a low voice so as not to disturb the vicomte
1365 who was continuing his story.
1367 "No, impossible!" said Prince Andrew, laughing and pressing Pierre's
1368 hand to show that there was no need to ask the question. He wished to
1369 say something more, but at that moment Prince Vasili and his daughter
1370 got up to go and the two young men rose to let them pass.
1372 "You must excuse me, dear Vicomte," said Prince Vasili to the Frenchman,
1373 holding him down by the sleeve in a friendly way to prevent his rising.
1374 "This unfortunate fete at the ambassador's deprives me of a pleasure,
1375 and obliges me to interrupt you. I am very sorry to leave your
1376 enchanting party," said he, turning to Anna Pavlovna.
1378 His daughter, Princess Helene, passed between the chairs, lightly
1379 holding up the folds of her dress, and the smile shone still more
1380 radiantly on her beautiful face. Pierre gazed at her with rapturous,
1381 almost frightened, eyes as she passed him.
1383 "Very lovely," said Prince Andrew.
1385 "Very," said Pierre.
1387 In passing Prince Vasili seized Pierre's hand and said to Anna Pavlovna:
1388 "Educate this bear for me! He has been staying with me a whole month and
1389 this is the first time I have seen him in society. Nothing is so
1390 necessary for a young man as the society of clever women."
1392 Anna Pavlovna smiled and promised to take Pierre in hand. She knew his
1393 father to be a connection of Prince Vasili's. The elderly lady who had
1394 been sitting with the old aunt rose hurriedly and overtook Prince Vasili
1395 in the anteroom. All the affectation of interest she had assumed had
1396 left her kindly and tear-worn face and it now expressed only anxiety and
1399 "How about my son Boris, Prince?" said she, hurrying after him into the
1400 anteroom. "I can't remain any longer in Petersburg. Tell me what news I
1401 may take back to my poor boy."
1403 Although Prince Vasili listened reluctantly and not very politely to the
1404 elderly lady, even betraying some impatience, she gave him an
1405 ingratiating and appealing smile, and took his hand that he might not go
1408 "What would it cost you to say a word to the Emperor, and then he would
1409 be transferred to the Guards at once?" said she.
1411 "Believe me, Princess, I am ready to do all I can," answered Prince
1412 Vasili, "but it is difficult for me to ask the Emperor. I should advise
1413 you to appeal to Rumyantsev through Prince Golitsyn. That would be the
1416 The elderly lady was a Princess Drubetskaya, belonging to one of the
1417 best families in Russia, but she was poor, and having long been out of
1418 society had lost her former influential connections. She had now come to
1419 Petersburg to procure an appointment in the Guards for her only son. It
1420 was, in fact, solely to meet Prince Vasili that she had obtained an
1421 invitation to Anna Pavlovna's reception and had sat listening to the
1422 vicomte's story. Prince Vasili's words frightened her, an embittered
1423 look clouded her once handsome face, but only for a moment; then she
1424 smiled again and clutched Prince Vasili's arm more tightly.
1426 "Listen to me, Prince," said she. "I have never yet asked you for
1427 anything and I never will again, nor have I ever reminded you of my
1428 father's friendship for you; but now I entreat you for God's sake to do
1429 this for my son--and I shall always regard you as a benefactor," she
1430 added hurriedly. "No, don't be angry, but promise! I have asked Golitsyn
1431 and he has refused. Be the kindhearted man you always were," she said,
1432 trying to smile though tears were in her eyes.
1434 "Papa, we shall be late," said Princess Helene, turning her beautiful
1435 head and looking over her classically molded shoulder as she stood
1436 waiting by the door.
1438 Influence in society, however, is a capital which has to be economized
1439 if it is to last. Prince Vasili knew this, and having once realized that
1440 if he asked on behalf of all who begged of him, he would soon be unable
1441 to ask for himself, he became chary of using his influence. But in
1442 Princess Drubetskaya's case he felt, after her second appeal, something
1443 like qualms of conscience. She had reminded him of what was quite true;
1444 he had been indebted to her father for the first steps in his career.
1445 Moreover, he could see by her manners that she was one of those women--
1446 mostly mothers--who, having once made up their minds, will not rest
1447 until they have gained their end, and are prepared if necessary to go on
1448 insisting day after day and hour after hour, and even to make scenes.
1449 This last consideration moved him.
1451 "My dear Anna Mikhaylovna," said he with his usual familiarity and
1452 weariness of tone, "it is almost impossible for me to do what you ask;
1453 but to prove my devotion to you and how I respect your father's memory,
1454 I will do the impossible--your son shall be transferred to the Guards.
1455 Here is my hand on it. Are you satisfied?"
1457 "My dear benefactor! This is what I expected from you--I knew your
1458 kindness!" He turned to go.
1460 "Wait--just a word! When he has been transferred to the Guards..." she
1461 faltered. "You are on good terms with Michael Ilarionovich Kutuzov...
1462 recommend Boris to him as adjutant! Then I shall be at rest, and
1465 Prince Vasili smiled.
1467 "No, I won't promise that. You don't know how Kutuzov is pestered since
1468 his appointment as Commander in Chief. He told me himself that all the
1469 Moscow ladies have conspired to give him all their sons as adjutants."
1471 "No, but do promise! I won't let you go! My dear benefactor..."
1473 "Papa," said his beautiful daughter in the same tone as before, "we
1476 "Well, au revoir! Good-bye! You hear her?"
1478 "Then tomorrow you will speak to the Emperor?"
1480 "Certainly; but about Kutuzov, I don't promise."
1482 "Do promise, do promise, Vasili!" cried Anna Mikhaylovna as he went,
1483 with the smile of a coquettish girl, which at one time probably came
1484 naturally to her, but was now very ill-suited to her careworn face.
1486 Apparently she had forgotten her age and by force of habit employed all
1487 the old feminine arts. But as soon as the prince had gone her face
1488 resumed its former cold, artificial expression. She returned to the
1489 group where the vicomte was still talking, and again pretended to
1490 listen, while waiting till it would be time to leave. Her task was
1498 "And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan?"
1499 asked Anna Pavlovna, "and of the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca
1500 laying their petitions before Monsieur Buonaparte, and Monsieur
1501 Buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the
1502 nations? Adorable! It is enough to make one's head whirl! It is as if
1503 the whole world had gone crazy."
1505 Prince Andrew looked Anna Pavlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic
1508 "'Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touche!' * They say he was very fine
1509 when he said that," he remarked, repeating the words in Italian: "'Dio
1510 mi l'ha dato. Guai a chi la tocchi!'"
1513 * God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware!
1515 "I hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass run
1516 over," Anna Pavlovna continued. "The sovereigns will not be able to
1517 endure this man who is a menace to everything."
1519 "The sovereigns? I do not speak of Russia," said the vicomte, polite but
1520 hopeless: "The sovereigns, madame... What have they done for Louis XVII,
1521 for the Queen, or for Madame Elizabeth? Nothing!" and he became more
1522 animated. "And believe me, they are reaping the reward of their betrayal
1523 of the Bourbon cause. The sovereigns! Why, they are sending ambassadors
1524 to compliment the usurper."
1526 And sighing disdainfully, he again changed his position.
1528 Prince Hippolyte, who had been gazing at the vicomte for some time
1529 through his lorgnette, suddenly turned completely round toward the
1530 little princess, and having asked for a needle began tracing the Conde
1531 coat of arms on the table. He explained this to her with as much gravity
1532 as if she had asked him to do it.
1534 "Baton de gueules, engrele de gueules d'azur--maison Conde," said he.
1536 The princess listened, smiling.
1538 "If Buonaparte remains on the throne of France a year longer," the
1539 vicomte continued, with the air of a man who, in a matter with which he
1540 is better acquainted than anyone else, does not listen to others but
1541 follows the current of his own thoughts, "things will have gone too far.
1542 By intrigues, violence, exile, and executions, French society--I mean
1543 good French society--will have been forever destroyed, and then..."
1545 He shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands. Pierre wished to
1546 make a remark, for the conversation interested him, but Anna Pavlovna,
1547 who had him under observation, interrupted:
1549 "The Emperor Alexander," said she, with the melancholy which always
1550 accompanied any reference of hers to the Imperial family, "has declared
1551 that he will leave it to the French people themselves to choose their
1552 own form of government; and I believe that once free from the usurper,
1553 the whole nation will certainly throw itself into the arms of its
1554 rightful king," she concluded, trying to be amiable to the royalist
1557 "That is doubtful," said Prince Andrew. "Monsieur le Vicomte quite
1558 rightly supposes that matters have already gone too far. I think it will
1559 be difficult to return to the old regime."
1561 "From what I have heard," said Pierre, blushing and breaking into the
1562 conversation, "almost all the aristocracy has already gone over to
1565 "It is the Buonapartists who say that," replied the vicomte without
1566 looking at Pierre. "At the present time it is difficult to know the real
1567 state of French public opinion."
1569 "Bonaparte has said so," remarked Prince Andrew with a sarcastic smile.
1571 It was evident that he did not like the vicomte and was aiming his
1572 remarks at him, though without looking at him.
1574 "'I showed them the path to glory, but they did not follow it,'" Prince
1575 Andrew continued after a short silence, again quoting Napoleon's words.
1576 "'I opened my antechambers and they crowded in.' I do not know how far
1577 he was justified in saying so."
1579 "Not in the least," replied the vicomte. "After the murder of the duc
1580 even the most partial ceased to regard him as a hero. If to some
1581 people," he went on, turning to Anna Pavlovna, "he ever was a hero,
1582 after the murder of the duc there was one martyr more in heaven and one
1583 hero less on earth."
1585 Before Anna Pavlovna and the others had time to smile their appreciation
1586 of the vicomte's epigram, Pierre again broke into the conversation, and
1587 though Anna Pavlovna felt sure he would say something inappropriate, she
1588 was unable to stop him.
1590 "The execution of the Duc d'Enghien," declared Monsieur Pierre, "was a
1591 political necessity, and it seems to me that Napoleon showed greatness
1592 of soul by not fearing to take on himself the whole responsibility of
1595 "Dieu! Mon Dieu!" muttered Anna Pavlovna in a terrified whisper.
1597 "What, Monsieur Pierre... Do you consider that assassination shows
1598 greatness of soul?" said the little princess, smiling and drawing her
1601 "Oh! Oh!" exclaimed several voices.
1603 "Capital!" said Prince Hippolyte in English, and began slapping his knee
1604 with the palm of his hand.
1606 The vicomte merely shrugged his shoulders. Pierre looked solemnly at his
1607 audience over his spectacles and continued.
1609 "I say so," he continued desperately, "because the Bourbons fled from
1610 the Revolution leaving the people to anarchy, and Napoleon alone
1611 understood the Revolution and quelled it, and so for the general good,
1612 he could not stop short for the sake of one man's life."
1614 "Won't you come over to the other table?" suggested Anna Pavlovna.
1616 But Pierre continued his speech without heeding her.
1618 "No," cried he, becoming more and more eager, "Napoleon is great because
1619 he rose superior to the Revolution, suppressed its abuses, preserved all
1620 that was good in it--equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and
1621 of the press--and only for that reason did he obtain power."
1623 "Yes, if having obtained power, without availing himself of it to commit
1624 murder he had restored it to the rightful king, I should have called him
1625 a great man," remarked the vicomte.
1627 "He could not do that. The people only gave him power that he might rid
1628 them of the Bourbons and because they saw that he was a great man. The
1629 Revolution was a grand thing!" continued Monsieur Pierre, betraying by
1630 this desperate and provocative proposition his extreme youth and his
1631 wish to express all that was in his mind.
1633 "What? Revolution and regicide a grand thing?... Well, after that... But
1634 won't you come to this other table?" repeated Anna Pavlovna.
1636 "Rousseau's Contrat Social," said the vicomte with a tolerant smile.
1638 "I am not speaking of regicide, I am speaking about ideas."
1640 "Yes: ideas of robbery, murder, and regicide," again interjected an
1643 "Those were extremes, no doubt, but they are not what is most important.
1644 What is important are the rights of man, emancipation from prejudices,
1645 and equality of citizenship, and all these ideas Napoleon has retained
1648 "Liberty and equality," said the vicomte contemptuously, as if at last
1649 deciding seriously to prove to this youth how foolish his words were,
1650 "high-sounding words which have long been discredited. Who does not love
1651 liberty and equality? Even our Saviour preached liberty and equality.
1652 Have people since the Revolution become happier? On the contrary. We
1653 wanted liberty, but Buonaparte has destroyed it."
1655 Prince Andrew kept looking with an amused smile from Pierre to the
1656 vicomte and from the vicomte to their hostess. In the first moment of
1657 Pierre's outburst Anna Pavlovna, despite her social experience, was
1658 horror-struck. But when she saw that Pierre's sacrilegious words had not
1659 exasperated the vicomte, and had convinced herself that it was
1660 impossible to stop him, she rallied her forces and joined the vicomte in
1661 a vigorous attack on the orator.
1663 "But, my dear Monsieur Pierre," said she, "how do you explain the fact
1664 of a great man executing a duc--or even an ordinary man who--is innocent
1667 "I should like," said the vicomte, "to ask how monsieur explains the
1668 18th Brumaire; was not that an imposture? It was a swindle, and not at
1669 all like the conduct of a great man!"
1671 "And the prisoners he killed in Africa? That was horrible!" said the
1672 little princess, shrugging her shoulders.
1674 "He's a low fellow, say what you will," remarked Prince Hippolyte.
1676 Pierre, not knowing whom to answer, looked at them all and smiled. His
1677 smile was unlike the half-smile of other people. When he smiled, his
1678 grave, even rather gloomy, look was instantaneously replaced by another-
1679 -a childlike, kindly, even rather silly look, which seemed to ask
1682 The vicomte who was meeting him for the first time saw clearly that this
1683 young Jacobin was not so terrible as his words suggested. All were
1686 "How do you expect him to answer you all at once?" said Prince Andrew.
1687 "Besides, in the actions of a statesman one has to distinguish between
1688 his acts as a private person, as a general, and as an emperor. So it
1691 "Yes, yes, of course!" Pierre chimed in, pleased at the arrival of this
1694 "One must admit," continued Prince Andrew, "that Napoleon as a man was
1695 great on the bridge of Arcola, and in the hospital at Jaffa where he
1696 gave his hand to the plague-stricken; but... but there are other acts
1697 which it is difficult to justify."
1699 Prince Andrew, who had evidently wished to tone down the awkwardness of
1700 Pierre's remarks, rose and made a sign to his wife that it was time to
1703 Suddenly Prince Hippolyte started up making signs to everyone to attend,
1704 and asking them all to be seated began:
1706 "I was told a charming Moscow story today and must treat you to it.
1707 Excuse me, Vicomte--I must tell it in Russian or the point will be
1708 lost...." And Prince Hippolyte began to tell his story in such Russian
1709 as a Frenchman would speak after spending about a year in Russia.
1710 Everyone waited, so emphatically and eagerly did he demand their
1711 attention to his story.
1713 "There is in Moscow a lady, une dame, and she is very stingy. She must
1714 have two footmen behind her carriage, and very big ones. That was her
1715 taste. And she had a lady's maid, also big. She said..."
1717 Here Prince Hippolyte paused, evidently collecting his ideas with
1720 "She said... Oh yes! She said, 'Girl,' to the maid, 'put on a livery,
1721 get up behind the carriage, and come with me while I make some calls.'"
1723 Here Prince Hippolyte spluttered and burst out laughing long before his
1724 audience, which produced an effect unfavorable to the narrator. Several
1725 persons, among them the elderly lady and Anna Pavlovna, did however
1728 "She went. Suddenly there was a great wind. The girl lost her hat and
1729 her long hair came down...." Here he could contain himself no longer and
1730 went on, between gasps of laughter: "And the whole world knew...."
1732 And so the anecdote ended. Though it was unintelligible why he had told
1733 it, or why it had to be told in Russian, still Anna Pavlovna and the
1734 others appreciated Prince Hippolyte's social tact in so agreeably ending
1735 Pierre's unpleasant and unamiable outburst. After the anecdote the
1736 conversation broke up into insignificant small talk about the last and
1737 next balls, about theatricals, and who would meet whom, and when and
1745 Having thanked Anna Pavlovna for her charming soiree, the guests began
1746 to take their leave.
1748 Pierre was ungainly. Stout, about the average height, broad, with huge
1749 red hands; he did not know, as the saying is, how to enter a drawing
1750 room and still less how to leave one; that is, how to say something
1751 particularly agreeable before going away. Besides this he was absent-
1752 minded. When he rose to go, he took up instead of his own, the general's
1753 three-cornered hat, and held it, pulling at the plume, till the general
1754 asked him to restore it. All his absent-mindedness and inability to
1755 enter a room and converse in it was, however, redeemed by his kindly,
1756 simple, and modest expression. Anna Pavlovna turned toward him and, with
1757 a Christian mildness that expressed forgiveness of his indiscretion,
1758 nodded and said: "I hope to see you again, but I also hope you will
1759 change your opinions, my dear Monsieur Pierre."
1761 When she said this, he did not reply and only bowed, but again everybody
1762 saw his smile, which said nothing, unless perhaps, "Opinions are
1763 opinions, but you see what a capital, good-natured fellow I am." And
1764 everyone, including Anna Pavlovna, felt this.
1766 Prince Andrew had gone out into the hall, and, turning his shoulders to
1767 the footman who was helping him on with his cloak, listened
1768 indifferently to his wife's chatter with Prince Hippolyte who had also
1769 come into the hall. Prince Hippolyte stood close to the pretty, pregnant
1770 princess, and stared fixedly at her through his eyeglass.
1772 "Go in, Annette, or you will catch cold," said the little princess,
1773 taking leave of Anna Pavlovna. "It is settled," she added in a low
1776 Anna Pavlovna had already managed to speak to Lise about the match she
1777 contemplated between Anatole and the little princess' sister-in-law.
1779 "I rely on you, my dear," said Anna Pavlovna, also in a low tone. "Write
1780 to her and let me know how her father looks at the matter. Au revoir!"--
1781 and she left the hall.
1783 Prince Hippolyte approached the little princess and, bending his face
1784 close to her, began to whisper something.
1786 Two footmen, the princess' and his own, stood holding a shawl and a
1787 cloak, waiting for the conversation to finish. They listened to the
1788 French sentences which to them were meaningless, with an air of
1789 understanding but not wishing to appear to do so. The princess as usual
1790 spoke smilingly and listened with a laugh.
1792 "I am very glad I did not go to the ambassador's," said Prince Hippolyte
1793 "-so dull-. It has been a delightful evening, has it not? Delightful!"
1795 "They say the ball will be very good," replied the princess, drawing up
1796 her downy little lip. "All the pretty women in society will be there."
1798 "Not all, for you will not be there; not all," said Prince Hippolyte
1799 smiling joyfully; and snatching the shawl from the footman, whom he even
1800 pushed aside, he began wrapping it round the princess. Either from
1801 awkwardness or intentionally (no one could have said which) after the
1802 shawl had been adjusted he kept his arm around her for a long time, as
1803 though embracing her.
1805 Still smiling, she gracefully moved away, turning and glancing at her
1806 husband. Prince Andrew's eyes were closed, so weary and sleepy did he
1809 "Are you ready?" he asked his wife, looking past her.
1811 Prince Hippolyte hurriedly put on his cloak, which in the latest fashion
1812 reached to his very heels, and, stumbling in it, ran out into the porch
1813 following the princess, whom a footman was helping into the carriage.
1815 "Princesse, au revoir," cried he, stumbling with his tongue as well as
1818 The princess, picking up her dress, was taking her seat in the dark
1819 carriage, her husband was adjusting his saber; Prince Hippolyte, under
1820 pretense of helping, was in everyone's way.
1822 "Allow me, sir," said Prince Andrew in Russian in a cold, disagreeable
1823 tone to Prince Hippolyte who was blocking his path.
1825 "I am expecting you, Pierre," said the same voice, but gently and
1828 The postilion started, the carriage wheels rattled. Prince Hippolyte
1829 laughed spasmodically as he stood in the porch waiting for the vicomte
1830 whom he had promised to take home.
1832 "Well, mon cher," said the vicomte, having seated himself beside
1833 Hippolyte in the carriage, "your little princess is very nice, very nice
1834 indeed, quite French," and he kissed the tips of his fingers. Hippolyte
1837 "Do you know, you are a terrible chap for all your innocent airs,"
1838 continued the vicomte. "I pity the poor husband, that little officer who
1839 gives himself the airs of a monarch."
1841 Hippolyte spluttered again, and amid his laughter said, "And you were
1842 saying that the Russian ladies are not equal to the French? One has to
1843 know how to deal with them."
1845 Pierre reaching the house first went into Prince Andrew's study like one
1846 quite at home, and from habit immediately lay down on the sofa, took
1847 from the shelf the first book that came to his hand (it was Caesar's
1848 Commentaries), and resting on his elbow, began reading it in the middle.
1850 "What have you done to Mlle Scherer? She will be quite ill now," said
1851 Prince Andrew, as he entered the study, rubbing his small white hands.
1853 Pierre turned his whole body, making the sofa creak. He lifted his eager
1854 face to Prince Andrew, smiled, and waved his hand.
1856 "That abbe is very interesting but he does not see the thing in the
1857 right light.... In my opinion perpetual peace is possible but--I do not
1858 know how to express it... not by a balance of political power...."
1860 It was evident that Prince Andrew was not interested in such abstract
1863 "One can't everywhere say all one thinks, mon cher. Well, have you at
1864 last decided on anything? Are you going to be a guardsman or a
1865 diplomatist?" asked Prince Andrew after a momentary silence.
1867 Pierre sat up on the sofa, with his legs tucked under him.
1869 "Really, I don't yet know. I don't like either the one or the other."
1871 "But you must decide on something! Your father expects it."
1873 Pierre at the age of ten had been sent abroad with an abbe as tutor, and
1874 had remained away till he was twenty. When he returned to Moscow his
1875 father dismissed the abbe and said to the young man, "Now go to
1876 Petersburg, look round, and choose your profession. I will agree to
1877 anything. Here is a letter to Prince Vasili, and here is money. Write to
1878 me all about it, and I will help you in everything." Pierre had already
1879 been choosing a career for three months, and had not decided on
1880 anything. It was about this choice that Prince Andrew was speaking.
1881 Pierre rubbed his forehead.
1883 "But he must be a Freemason," said he, referring to the abbe whom he had
1886 "That is all nonsense." Prince Andrew again interrupted him, "let us
1887 talk business. Have you been to the Horse Guards?"
1889 "No, I have not; but this is what I have been thinking and wanted to
1890 tell you. There is a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for
1891 freedom I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army;
1892 but to help England and Austria against the greatest man in the world is
1895 Prince Andrew only shrugged his shoulders at Pierre's childish words. He
1896 put on the air of one who finds it impossible to reply to such nonsense,
1897 but it would in fact have been difficult to give any other answer than
1898 the one Prince Andrew gave to this naive question.
1900 "If no one fought except on his own conviction, there would be no wars,"
1903 "And that would be splendid," said Pierre.
1905 Prince Andrew smiled ironically.
1907 "Very likely it would be splendid, but it will never come about..."
1909 "Well, why are you going to the war?" asked Pierre.
1911 "What for? I don't know. I must. Besides that I am going..." He paused.
1912 "I am going because the life I am leading here does not suit me!"
1919 The rustle of a woman's dress was heard in the next room. Prince Andrew
1920 shook himself as if waking up, and his face assumed the look it had had
1921 in Anna Pavlovna's drawing room. Pierre removed his feet from the sofa.
1922 The princess came in. She had changed her gown for a house dress as
1923 fresh and elegant as the other. Prince Andrew rose and politely placed a
1926 "How is it," she began, as usual in French, settling down briskly and
1927 fussily in the easy chair, "how is it Annette never got married? How
1928 stupid you men all are not to have married her! Excuse me for saying so,
1929 but you have no sense about women. What an argumentative fellow you are,
1932 "And I am still arguing with your husband. I can't understand why he
1933 wants to go to the war," replied Pierre, addressing the princess with
1934 none of the embarrassment so commonly shown by young men in their
1935 intercourse with young women.
1937 The princess started. Evidently Pierre's words touched her to the quick.
1939 "Ah, that is just what I tell him!" said she. "I don't understand it; I
1940 don't in the least understand why men can't live without wars. How is it
1941 that we women don't want anything of the kind, don't need it? Now you
1942 shall judge between us. I always tell him: Here he is Uncle's aide-de-
1943 camp, a most brilliant position. He is so well known, so much
1944 appreciated by everyone. The other day at the Apraksins' I heard a lady
1945 asking, 'Is that the famous Prince Andrew?' I did indeed." She laughed.
1946 "He is so well received everywhere. He might easily become aide-de-camp
1947 to the Emperor. You know the Emperor spoke to him most graciously.
1948 Annette and I were speaking of how to arrange it. What do you think?"
1950 Pierre looked at his friend and, noticing that he did not like the
1951 conversation, gave no reply.
1953 "When are you starting?" he asked.
1955 "Oh, don't speak of his going, don't! I won't hear it spoken of," said
1956 the princess in the same petulantly playful tone in which she had spoken
1957 to Hippolyte in the drawing room and which was so plainly ill-suited to
1958 the family circle of which Pierre was almost a member. "Today when I
1959 remembered that all these delightful associations must be broken off...
1960 and then you know, Andre..." (she looked significantly at her husband)
1961 "I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" she whispered, and a shudder ran down her
1964 Her husband looked at her as if surprised to notice that someone besides
1965 Pierre and himself was in the room, and addressed her in a tone of
1968 "What is it you are afraid of, Lise? I don't understand," said he.
1970 "There, what egotists men all are: all, all egotists! Just for a whim of
1971 his own, goodness only knows why, he leaves me and locks me up alone in
1974 "With my father and sister, remember," said Prince Andrew gently.
1976 "Alone all the same, without my friends.... And he expects me not to be
1979 Her tone was now querulous and her lip drawn up, giving her not a
1980 joyful, but an animal, squirrel-like expression. She paused as if she
1981 felt it indecorous to speak of her pregnancy before Pierre, though the
1982 gist of the matter lay in that.
1984 "I still can't understand what you are afraid of," said Prince Andrew
1985 slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife.
1987 The princess blushed, and raised her arms with a gesture of despair.
1989 "No, Andrew, I must say you have changed. Oh, how you have..."
1991 "Your doctor tells you to go to bed earlier," said Prince Andrew. "You
1994 The princess said nothing, but suddenly her short downy lip quivered.
1995 Prince Andrew rose, shrugged his shoulders, and walked about the room.
1997 Pierre looked over his spectacles with naive surprise, now at him and
1998 now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his mind.
2000 "Why should I mind Monsieur Pierre being here?" exclaimed the little
2001 princess suddenly, her pretty face all at once distorted by a tearful
2002 grimace. "I have long wanted to ask you, Andrew, why you have changed so
2003 to me? What have I done to you? You are going to the war and have no
2004 pity for me. Why is it?"
2006 "Lise!" was all Prince Andrew said. But that one word expressed an
2007 entreaty, a threat, and above all conviction that she would herself
2008 regret her words. But she went on hurriedly:
2010 "You treat me like an invalid or a child. I see it all! Did you behave
2011 like that six months ago?"
2013 "Lise, I beg you to desist," said Prince Andrew still more emphatically.
2015 Pierre, who had been growing more and more agitated as he listened to
2016 all this, rose and approached the princess. He seemed unable to bear the
2017 sight of tears and was ready to cry himself.
2019 "Calm yourself, Princess! It seems so to you because... I assure you I
2020 myself have experienced... and so... because... No, excuse me! An
2021 outsider is out of place here... No, don't distress yourself... Good-
2024 Prince Andrew caught him by the hand.
2026 "No, wait, Pierre! The princess is too kind to wish to deprive me of the
2027 pleasure of spending the evening with you."
2029 "No, he thinks only of himself," muttered the princess without
2030 restraining her angry tears.
2032 "Lise!" said Prince Andrew dryly, raising his voice to the pitch which
2033 indicates that patience is exhausted.
2035 Suddenly the angry, squirrel-like expression of the princess' pretty
2036 face changed into a winning and piteous look of fear. Her beautiful eyes
2037 glanced askance at her husband's face, and her own assumed the timid,
2038 deprecating expression of a dog when it rapidly but feebly wags its
2041 "Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!" she muttered, and lifting her dress with one hand
2042 she went up to her husband and kissed him on the forehead.
2044 "Good night, Lise," said he, rising and courteously kissing her hand as
2045 he would have done to a stranger.
2052 The friends were silent. Neither cared to begin talking. Pierre
2053 continually glanced at Prince Andrew; Prince Andrew rubbed his forehead
2054 with his small hand.
2056 "Let us go and have supper," he said with a sigh, going to the door.
2058 They entered the elegant, newly decorated, and luxurious dining room.
2059 Everything from the table napkins to the silver, china, and glass bore
2060 that imprint of newness found in the households of the newly married.
2061 Halfway through supper Prince Andrew leaned his elbows on the table and,
2062 with a look of nervous agitation such as Pierre had never before seen on
2063 his face, began to talk--as one who has long had something on his mind
2064 and suddenly determines to speak out.
2066 "Never, never marry, my dear fellow! That's my advice: never marry till
2067 you can say to yourself that you have done all you are capable of, and
2068 until you have ceased to love the woman of your choice and have seen her
2069 plainly as she is, or else you will make a cruel and irrevocable
2070 mistake. Marry when you are old and good for nothing--or all that is
2071 good and noble in you will be lost. It will all be wasted on trifles.
2072 Yes! Yes! Yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you marry
2073 expecting anything from yourself in the future, you will feel at every
2074 step that for you all is ended, all is closed except the drawing room,
2075 where you will be ranged side by side with a court lackey and an
2076 idiot!... But what's the good?..." and he waved his arm.
2078 Pierre took off his spectacles, which made his face seem different and
2079 the good-natured expression still more apparent, and gazed at his friend
2082 "My wife," continued Prince Andrew, "is an excellent woman, one of those
2083 rare women with whom a man's honor is safe; but, O God, what would I not
2084 give now to be unmarried! You are the first and only one to whom I
2085 mention this, because I like you."
2087 As he said this Prince Andrew was less than ever like that Bolkonski who
2088 had lolled in Anna Pavlovna's easy chairs and with half-closed eyes had
2089 uttered French phrases between his teeth. Every muscle of his thin face
2090 was now quivering with nervous excitement; his eyes, in which the fire
2091 of life had seemed extinguished, now flashed with brilliant light. It
2092 was evident that the more lifeless he seemed at ordinary times, the more
2093 impassioned he became in these moments of almost morbid irritation.
2095 "You don't understand why I say this," he continued, "but it is the
2096 whole story of life. You talk of Bonaparte and his career," said he
2097 (though Pierre had not mentioned Bonaparte), "but Bonaparte when he
2098 worked went step by step toward his goal. He was free, he had nothing
2099 but his aim to consider, and he reached it. But tie yourself up with a
2100 woman and, like a chained convict, you lose all freedom! And all you
2101 have of hope and strength merely weighs you down and torments you with
2102 regret. Drawing rooms, gossip, balls, vanity, and triviality--these are
2103 the enchanted circle I cannot escape from. I am now going to the war,
2104 the greatest war there ever was, and I know nothing and am fit for
2105 nothing. I am very amiable and have a caustic wit," continued Prince
2106 Andrew, "and at Anna Pavlovna's they listen to me. And that stupid set
2107 without whom my wife cannot exist, and those women... If you only knew
2108 what those society women are, and women in general! My father is right.
2109 Selfish, vain, stupid, trivial in everything--that's what women are when
2110 you see them in their true colors! When you meet them in society it
2111 seems as if there were something in them, but there's nothing, nothing,
2112 nothing! No, don't marry, my dear fellow; don't marry!" concluded Prince
2115 "It seems funny to me," said Pierre, "that you, you should consider
2116 yourself incapable and your life a spoiled life. You have everything
2117 before you, everything. And you..."
2119 He did not finish his sentence, but his tone showed how highly he
2120 thought of his friend and how much he expected of him in the future.
2122 "How can he talk like that?" thought Pierre. He considered his friend a
2123 model of perfection because Prince Andrew possessed in the highest
2124 degree just the very qualities Pierre lacked, and which might be best
2125 described as strength of will. Pierre was always astonished at Prince
2126 Andrew's calm manner of treating everybody, his extraordinary memory,
2127 his extensive reading (he had read everything, knew everything, and had
2128 an opinion about everything), but above all at his capacity for work and
2129 study. And if Pierre was often struck by Andrew's lack of capacity for
2130 philosophical meditation (to which he himself was particularly
2131 addicted), he regarded even this not as a defect but as a sign of
2134 Even in the best, most friendly and simplest relations of life, praise
2135 and commendation are essential, just as grease is necessary to wheels
2136 that they may run smoothly.
2138 "My part is played out," said Prince Andrew. "What's the use of talking
2139 about me? Let us talk about you," he added after a silence, smiling at
2140 his reassuring thoughts.
2142 That smile was immediately reflected on Pierre's face.
2144 "But what is there to say about me?" said Pierre, his face relaxing into
2145 a careless, merry smile. "What am I? An illegitimate son!" He suddenly
2146 blushed crimson, and it was plain that he had made a great effort to say
2147 this. "Without a name and without means... And it really..." But he did
2148 not say what "it really" was. "For the present I am free and am all
2149 right. Only I haven't the least idea what I am to do; I wanted to
2150 consult you seriously."
2152 Prince Andrew looked kindly at him, yet his glance--friendly and
2153 affectionate as it was--expressed a sense of his own superiority.
2155 "I am fond of you, especially as you are the one live man among our
2156 whole set. Yes, you're all right! Choose what you will; it's all the
2157 same. You'll be all right anywhere. But look here: give up visiting
2158 those Kuragins and leading that sort of life. It suits you so badly--all
2159 this debauchery, dissipation, and the rest of it!"
2161 "What would you have, my dear fellow?" answered Pierre, shrugging his
2162 shoulders. "Women, my dear fellow; women!"
2164 "I don't understand it," replied Prince Andrew. "Women who are comme il
2165 faut, that's a different matter; but the Kuragins' set of women, 'women
2166 and wine' I don't understand!"
2168 Pierre was staying at Prince Vasili Kuragin's and sharing the dissipated
2169 life of his son Anatole, the son whom they were planning to reform by
2170 marrying him to Prince Andrew's sister.
2172 "Do you know?" said Pierre, as if suddenly struck by a happy thought,
2173 "seriously, I have long been thinking of it.... Leading such a life I
2174 can't decide or think properly about anything. One's head aches, and one
2175 spends all one's money. He asked me for tonight, but I won't go."
2177 "You give me your word of honor not to go?"
2186 It was past one o'clock when Pierre left his friend. It was a cloudless,
2187 northern, summer night. Pierre took an open cab intending to drive
2188 straight home. But the nearer he drew to the house the more he felt the
2189 impossibility of going to sleep on such a night. It was light enough to
2190 see a long way in the deserted street and it seemed more like morning or
2191 evening than night. On the way Pierre remembered that Anatole Kuragin
2192 was expecting the usual set for cards that evening, after which there
2193 was generally a drinking bout, finishing with visits of a kind Pierre
2196 "I should like to go to Kuragin's," thought he.
2198 But he immediately recalled his promise to Prince Andrew not to go
2199 there. Then, as happens to people of weak character, he desired so
2200 passionately once more to enjoy that dissipation he was so accustomed to
2201 that he decided to go. The thought immediately occurred to him that his
2202 promise to Prince Andrew was of no account, because before he gave it he
2203 had already promised Prince Anatole to come to his gathering; "besides,"
2204 thought he, "all such 'words of honor' are conventional things with no
2205 definite meaning, especially if one considers that by tomorrow one may
2206 be dead, or something so extraordinary may happen to one that honor and
2207 dishonor will be all the same!" Pierre often indulged in reflections of
2208 this sort, nullifying all his decisions and intentions. He went to
2211 Reaching the large house near the Horse Guards' barracks, in which
2212 Anatole lived, Pierre entered the lighted porch, ascended the stairs,
2213 and went in at the open door. There was no one in the anteroom; empty
2214 bottles, cloaks, and overshoes were lying about; there was a smell of
2215 alcohol, and sounds of voices and shouting in the distance.
2217 Cards and supper were over, but the visitors had not yet dispersed.
2218 Pierre threw off his cloak and entered the first room, in which were the
2219 remains of supper. A footman, thinking no one saw him, was drinking on
2220 the sly what was left in the glasses. From the third room came sounds of
2221 laughter, the shouting of familiar voices, the growling of a bear, and
2222 general commotion. Some eight or nine young men were crowding anxiously
2223 round an open window. Three others were romping with a young bear, one
2224 pulling him by the chain and trying to set him at the others.
2226 "I bet a hundred on Stevens!" shouted one.
2228 "Mind, no holding on!" cried another.
2230 "I bet on Dolokhov!" cried a third. "Kuragin, you part our hands."
2232 "There, leave Bruin alone; here's a bet on."
2234 "At one draught, or he loses!" shouted a fourth.
2236 "Jacob, bring a bottle!" shouted the host, a tall, handsome fellow who
2237 stood in the midst of the group, without a coat, and with his fine linen
2238 shirt unfastened in front. "Wait a bit, you fellows.... Here is Petya!
2239 Good man!" cried he, addressing Pierre.
2241 Another voice, from a man of medium height with clear blue eyes,
2242 particularly striking among all these drunken voices by its sober ring,
2243 cried from the window: "Come here; part the bets!" This was Dolokhov, an
2244 officer of the Semenov regiment, a notorious gambler and duelist, who
2245 was living with Anatole. Pierre smiled, looking about him merrily.
2247 "I don't understand. What's it all about?"
2249 "Wait a bit, he is not drunk yet! A bottle here," said Anatole, taking a
2250 glass from the table he went up to Pierre.
2252 "First of all you must drink!"
2254 Pierre drank one glass after another, looking from under his brows at
2255 the tipsy guests who were again crowding round the window, and listening
2256 to their chatter. Anatole kept on refilling Pierre's glass while
2257 explaining that Dolokhov was betting with Stevens, an English naval
2258 officer, that he would drink a bottle of rum sitting on the outer ledge
2259 of the third floor window with his legs hanging out.
2261 "Go on, you must drink it all," said Anatole, giving Pierre the last
2262 glass, "or I won't let you go!"
2264 "No, I won't," said Pierre, pushing Anatole aside, and he went up to the
2267 Dolokhov was holding the Englishman's hand and clearly and distinctly
2268 repeating the terms of the bet, addressing himself particularly to
2271 Dolokhov was of medium height, with curly hair and light-blue eyes. He
2272 was about twenty-five. Like all infantry officers he wore no mustache,
2273 so that his mouth, the most striking feature of his face, was clearly
2274 seen. The lines of that mouth were remarkably finely curved. The middle
2275 of the upper lip formed a sharp wedge and closed firmly on the firm
2276 lower one, and something like two distinct smiles played continually
2277 round the two corners of the mouth; this, together with the resolute,
2278 insolent intelligence of his eyes, produced an effect which made it
2279 impossible not to notice his face. Dolokhov was a man of small means and
2280 no connections. Yet, though Anatole spent tens of thousands of rubles,
2281 Dolokhov lived with him and had placed himself on such a footing that
2282 all who knew them, including Anatole himself, respected him more than
2283 they did Anatole. Dolokhov could play all games and nearly always won.
2284 However much he drank, he never lost his clearheadedness. Both Kuragin
2285 and Dolokhov were at that time notorious among the rakes and scapegraces
2288 The bottle of rum was brought. The window frame which prevented anyone
2289 from sitting on the outer sill was being forced out by two footmen, who
2290 were evidently flurried and intimidated by the directions and shouts of
2291 the gentlemen around.
2293 Anatole with his swaggering air strode up to the window. He wanted to
2294 smash something. Pushing away the footmen he tugged at the frame, but
2295 could not move it. He smashed a pane.
2297 "You have a try, Hercules," said he, turning to Pierre.
2299 Pierre seized the crossbeam, tugged, and wrenched the oak frame out with
2302 "Take it right out, or they'll think I'm holding on," said Dolokhov.
2304 "Is the Englishman bragging?... Eh? Is it all right?" said Anatole.
2306 "First-rate," said Pierre, looking at Dolokhov, who with a bottle of rum
2307 in his hand was approaching the window, from which the light of the sky,
2308 the dawn merging with the afterglow of sunset, was visible.
2310 Dolokhov, the bottle of rum still in his hand, jumped onto the window
2311 sill. "Listen!" cried he, standing there and addressing those in the
2312 room. All were silent.
2314 "I bet fifty imperials"--he spoke French that the Englishman might
2315 understand him, but he did not speak it very well--"I bet fifty
2316 imperials... or do you wish to make it a hundred?" added he, addressing
2319 "No, fifty," replied the latter.
2321 "All right. Fifty imperials... that I will drink a whole bottle of rum
2322 without taking it from my mouth, sitting outside the window on this
2323 spot" (he stooped and pointed to the sloping ledge outside the window)
2324 "and without holding on to anything. Is that right?"
2326 "Quite right," said the Englishman.
2328 Anatole turned to the Englishman and taking him by one of the buttons of
2329 his coat and looking down at him--the Englishman was short--began
2330 repeating the terms of the wager to him in English.
2332 "Wait!" cried Dolokhov, hammering with the bottle on the window sill to
2333 attract attention. "Wait a bit, Kuragin. Listen! If anyone else does the
2334 same, I will pay him a hundred imperials. Do you understand?"
2336 The Englishman nodded, but gave no indication whether he intended to
2337 accept this challenge or not. Anatole did not release him, and though he
2338 kept nodding to show that he understood, Anatole went on translating
2339 Dolokhov's words into English. A thin young lad, an hussar of the Life
2340 Guards, who had been losing that evening, climbed on the window sill,
2341 leaned over, and looked down.
2343 "Oh! Oh! Oh!" he muttered, looking down from the window at the stones of
2346 "Shut up!" cried Dolokhov, pushing him away from the window. The lad
2347 jumped awkwardly back into the room, tripping over his spurs.
2349 Placing the bottle on the window sill where he could reach it easily,
2350 Dolokhov climbed carefully and slowly through the window and lowered his
2351 legs. Pressing against both sides of the window, he adjusted himself on
2352 his seat, lowered his hands, moved a little to the right and then to the
2353 left, and took up the bottle. Anatole brought two candles and placed
2354 them on the window sill, though it was already quite light. Dolokhov's
2355 back in his white shirt, and his curly head, were lit up from both
2356 sides. Everyone crowded to the window, the Englishman in front. Pierre
2357 stood smiling but silent. One man, older than the others present,
2358 suddenly pushed forward with a scared and angry look and wanted to seize
2359 hold of Dolokhov's shirt.
2361 "I say, this is folly! He'll be killed," said this more sensible man.
2363 Anatole stopped him.
2365 "Don't touch him! You'll startle him and then he'll be killed. Eh?...
2368 Dolokhov turned round and, again holding on with both hands, arranged
2369 himself on his seat.
2371 "If anyone comes meddling again," said he, emitting the words separately
2372 through his thin compressed lips, "I will throw him down there. Now
2375 Saying this he again turned round, dropped his hands, took the bottle
2376 and lifted it to his lips, threw back his head, and raised his free hand
2377 to balance himself. One of the footmen who had stooped to pick up some
2378 broken glass remained in that position without taking his eyes from the
2379 window and from Dolokhov's back. Anatole stood erect with staring eyes.
2380 The Englishman looked on sideways, pursing up his lips. The man who had
2381 wished to stop the affair ran to a corner of the room and threw himself
2382 on a sofa with his face to the wall. Pierre hid his face, from which a
2383 faint smile forgot to fade though his features now expressed horror and
2384 fear. All were still. Pierre took his hands from his eyes. Dolokhov
2385 still sat in the same position, only his head was thrown further back
2386 till his curly hair touched his shirt collar, and the hand holding the
2387 bottle was lifted higher and higher and trembled with the effort. The
2388 bottle was emptying perceptibly and rising still higher and his head
2389 tilting yet further back. "Why is it so long?" thought Pierre. It seemed
2390 to him that more than half an hour had elapsed. Suddenly Dolokhov made a
2391 backward movement with his spine, and his arm trembled nervously; this
2392 was sufficient to cause his whole body to slip as he sat on the sloping
2393 ledge. As he began slipping down, his head and arm wavered still more
2394 with the strain. One hand moved as if to clutch the window sill, but
2395 refrained from touching it. Pierre again covered his eyes and thought he
2396 would never open them again. Suddenly he was aware of a stir all around.
2397 He looked up: Dolokhov was standing on the window sill, with a pale but
2402 He threw the bottle to the Englishman, who caught it neatly. Dolokhov
2403 jumped down. He smelt strongly of rum.
2405 "Well done!... Fine fellow!... There's a bet for you!... Devil take
2406 you!" came from different sides.
2408 The Englishman took out his purse and began counting out the money.
2409 Dolokhov stood frowning and did not speak. Pierre jumped upon the window
2412 "Gentlemen, who wishes to bet with me? I'll do the same thing!" he
2413 suddenly cried. "Even without a bet, there! Tell them to bring me a
2414 bottle. I'll do it.... Bring a bottle!"
2416 "Let him do it, let him do it," said Dolokhov, smiling.
2418 "What next? Have you gone mad?... No one would let you!... Why, you go
2419 giddy even on a staircase," exclaimed several voices.
2421 "I'll drink it! Let's have a bottle of rum!" shouted Pierre, banging the
2422 table with a determined and drunken gesture and preparing to climb out
2425 They seized him by his arms; but he was so strong that everyone who
2426 touched him was sent flying.
2428 "No, you'll never manage him that way," said Anatole. "Wait a bit and
2429 I'll get round him.... Listen! I'll take your bet tomorrow, but now we
2430 are all going to ----'s."
2432 "Come on then," cried Pierre. "Come on!... And we'll take Bruin with
2435 And he caught the bear, took it in his arms, lifted it from the ground,
2436 and began dancing round the room with it.
2443 Prince Vasili kept the promise he had given to Princess Drubetskaya who
2444 had spoken to him on behalf of her only son Boris on the evening of Anna
2445 Pavlovna's soiree. The matter was mentioned to the Emperor, an exception
2446 made, and Boris transferred into the regiment of Semenov Guards with the
2447 rank of cornet. He received, however, no appointment to Kutuzov's staff
2448 despite all Anna Mikhaylovna's endeavors and entreaties. Soon after Anna
2449 Pavlovna's reception Anna Mikhaylovna returned to Moscow and went
2450 straight to her rich relations, the Rostovs, with whom she stayed when
2451 in the town and where her darling Bory, who had only just entered a
2452 regiment of the line and was being at once transferred to the Guards as
2453 a cornet, had been educated from childhood and lived for years at a
2454 time. The Guards had already left Petersburg on the tenth of August, and
2455 her son, who had remained in Moscow for his equipment, was to join them
2456 on the march to Radzivilov.
2458 It was St. Natalia's day and the name day of two of the Rostovs--the
2459 mother and the youngest daughter--both named Nataly. Ever since the
2460 morning, carriages with six horses had been coming and going
2461 continually, bringing visitors to the Countess Rostova's big house on
2462 the Povarskaya, so well known to all Moscow. The countess herself and
2463 her handsome eldest daughter were in the drawing-room with the visitors
2464 who came to congratulate, and who constantly succeeded one another in
2467 The countess was a woman of about forty-five, with a thin Oriental type
2468 of face, evidently worn out with childbearing--she had had twelve. A
2469 languor of motion and speech, resulting from weakness, gave her a
2470 distinguished air which inspired respect. Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
2471 Drubetskaya, who as a member of the household was also seated in the
2472 drawing room, helped to receive and entertain the visitors. The young
2473 people were in one of the inner rooms, not considering it necessary to
2474 take part in receiving the visitors. The count met the guests and saw
2475 them off, inviting them all to dinner.
2477 "I am very, very grateful to you, mon cher," or "ma chere"--he called
2478 everyone without exception and without the slightest variation in his
2479 tone, "my dear," whether they were above or below him in rank--"I thank
2480 you for myself and for our two dear ones whose name day we are keeping.
2481 But mind you come to dinner or I shall be offended, ma chere! On behalf
2482 of the whole family I beg you to come, mon cher!" These words he
2483 repeated to everyone without exception or variation, and with the same
2484 expression on his full, cheerful, clean-shaven face, the same firm
2485 pressure of the hand and the same quick, repeated bows. As soon as he
2486 had seen a visitor off he returned to one of those who were still in the
2487 drawing room, drew a chair toward him or her, and jauntily spreading out
2488 his legs and putting his hands on his knees with the air of a man who
2489 enjoys life and knows how to live, he swayed to and fro with dignity,
2490 offered surmises about the weather, or touched on questions of health,
2491 sometimes in Russian and sometimes in very bad but self-confident
2492 French; then again, like a man weary but unflinching in the fulfillment
2493 of duty, he rose to see some visitors off and, stroking his scanty gray
2494 hairs over his bald patch, also asked them to dinner. Sometimes on his
2495 way back from the anteroom he would pass through the conservatory and
2496 pantry into the large marble dining hall, where tables were being set
2497 out for eighty people; and looking at the footmen, who were bringing in
2498 silver and china, moving tables, and unfolding damask table linen, he
2499 would call Dmitri Vasilevich, a man of good family and the manager of
2500 all his affairs, and while looking with pleasure at the enormous table
2501 would say: "Well, Dmitri, you'll see that things are all as they should
2502 be? That's right! The great thing is the serving, that's it." And with a
2503 complacent sigh he would return to the drawing room.
2505 "Marya Lvovna Karagina and her daughter!" announced the countess'
2506 gigantic footman in his bass voice, entering the drawing room. The
2507 countess reflected a moment and took a pinch from a gold snuffbox with
2508 her husband's portrait on it.
2510 "I'm quite worn out by these callers. However, I'll see her and no more.
2511 She is so affected. Ask her in," she said to the footman in a sad voice,
2512 as if saying: "Very well, finish me off."
2514 A tall, stout, and proud-looking woman, with a round-faced smiling
2515 daughter, entered the drawing room, their dresses rustling.
2517 "Dear Countess, what an age... She has been laid up, poor child... at
2518 the Razumovski's ball... and Countess Apraksina... I was so
2519 delighted..." came the sounds of animated feminine voices, interrupting
2520 one another and mingling with the rustling of dresses and the scraping
2521 of chairs. Then one of those conversations began which last out until,
2522 at the first pause, the guests rise with a rustle of dresses and say, "I
2523 am so delighted... Mamma's health... and Countess Apraksina..." and
2524 then, again rustling, pass into the anteroom, put on cloaks or mantles,
2525 and drive away. The conversation was on the chief topic of the day: the
2526 illness of the wealthy and celebrated beau of Catherine's day, Count
2527 Bezukhov, and about his illegitimate son Pierre, the one who had behaved
2528 so improperly at Anna Pavlovna's reception.
2530 "I am so sorry for the poor count," said the visitor. "He is in such bad
2531 health, and now this vexation about his son is enough to kill him!"
2533 "What is that?" asked the countess as if she did not know what the
2534 visitor alluded to, though she had already heard about the cause of
2535 Count Bezukhov's distress some fifteen times.
2537 "That's what comes of a modern education," exclaimed the visitor. "It
2538 seems that while he was abroad this young man was allowed to do as he
2539 liked, now in Petersburg I hear he has been doing such terrible things
2540 that he has been expelled by the police."
2542 "You don't say so!" replied the countess.
2544 "He chose his friends badly," interposed Anna Mikhaylovna. "Prince
2545 Vasili's son, he, and a certain Dolokhov have, it is said, been up to
2546 heaven only knows what! And they have had to suffer for it. Dolokhov has
2547 been degraded to the ranks and Bezukhov's son sent back to Moscow.
2548 Anatole Kuragin's father managed somehow to get his son's affair hushed
2549 up, but even he was ordered out of Petersburg."
2551 "But what have they been up to?" asked the countess.
2553 "They are regular brigands, especially Dolokhov," replied the visitor.
2554 "He is a son of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a worthy woman, but
2555 there, just fancy! Those three got hold of a bear somewhere, put it in a
2556 carriage, and set off with it to visit some actresses! The police tried
2557 to interfere, and what did the young men do? They tied a policeman and
2558 the bear back to back and put the bear into the Moyka Canal. And there
2559 was the bear swimming about with the policeman on his back!"
2561 "What a nice figure the policeman must have cut, my dear!" shouted the
2562 count, dying with laughter.
2564 "Oh, how dreadful! How can you laugh at it, Count?"
2566 Yet the ladies themselves could not help laughing.
2568 "It was all they could do to rescue the poor man," continued the
2569 visitor. "And to think it is Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov's son who
2570 amuses himself in this sensible manner! And he was said to be so well
2571 educated and clever. This is all that his foreign education has done for
2572 him! I hope that here in Moscow no one will receive him, in spite of his
2573 money. They wanted to introduce him to me, but I quite declined: I have
2574 my daughters to consider."
2576 "Why do you say this young man is so rich?" asked the countess, turning
2577 away from the girls, who at once assumed an air of inattention. "His
2578 children are all illegitimate. I think Pierre also is illegitimate."
2580 The visitor made a gesture with her hand.
2582 "I should think he has a score of them."
2584 Princess Anna Mikhaylovna intervened in the conversation, evidently
2585 wishing to show her connections and knowledge of what went on in
2588 "The fact of the matter is," said she significantly, and also in a half
2589 whisper, "everyone knows Count Cyril's reputation.... He has lost count
2590 of his children, but this Pierre was his favorite."
2592 "How handsome the old man still was only a year ago!" remarked the
2593 countess. "I have never seen a handsomer man."
2595 "He is very much altered now," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "Well, as I was
2596 saying, Prince Vasili is the next heir through his wife, but the count
2597 is very fond of Pierre, looked after his education, and wrote to the
2598 Emperor about him; so that in the case of his death--and he is so ill
2599 that he may die at any moment, and Dr. Lorrain has come from Petersburg-
2600 -no one knows who will inherit his immense fortune, Pierre or Prince
2601 Vasili. Forty thousand serfs and millions of rubles! I know it all very
2602 well for Prince Vasili told me himself. Besides, Cyril Vladimirovich is
2603 my mother's second cousin. He's also my Bory's godfather," she added, as
2604 if she attached no importance at all to the fact.
2606 "Prince Vasili arrived in Moscow yesterday. I hear he has come on some
2607 inspection business," remarked the visitor.
2609 "Yes, but between ourselves," said the princess, "that is a pretext. The
2610 fact is he has come to see Count Cyril Vladimirovich, hearing how ill he
2613 "But do you know, my dear, that was a capital joke," said the count; and
2614 seeing that the elder visitor was not listening, he turned to the young
2615 ladies. "I can just imagine what a funny figure that policeman cut!"
2617 And as he waved his arms to impersonate the policeman, his portly form
2618 again shook with a deep ringing laugh, the laugh of one who always eats
2619 well and, in particular, drinks well. "So do come and dine with us!" he
2627 Silence ensued. The countess looked at her callers, smiling affably, but
2628 not concealing the fact that she would not be distressed if they now
2629 rose and took their leave. The visitor's daughter was already smoothing
2630 down her dress with an inquiring look at her mother, when suddenly from
2631 the next room were heard the footsteps of boys and girls running to the
2632 door and the noise of a chair falling over, and a girl of thirteen,
2633 hiding something in the folds of her short muslin frock, darted in and
2634 stopped short in the middle of the room. It was evident that she had not
2635 intended her flight to bring her so far. Behind her in the doorway
2636 appeared a student with a crimson coat collar, an officer of the Guards,
2637 a girl of fifteen, and a plump rosy-faced boy in a short jacket.
2639 The count jumped up and, swaying from side to side, spread his arms wide
2640 and threw them round the little girl who had run in.
2642 "Ah, here she is!" he exclaimed laughing. "My pet, whose name day it is.
2645 "Ma chere, there is a time for everything," said the countess with
2646 feigned severity. "You spoil her, Ilya," she added, turning to her
2649 "How do you do, my dear? I wish you many happy returns of your name
2650 day," said the visitor. "What a charming child," she added, addressing
2653 This black-eyed, wide-mouthed girl, not pretty but full of life--with
2654 childish bare shoulders which after her run heaved and shook her bodice,
2655 with black curls tossed backward, thin bare arms, little legs in lace-
2656 frilled drawers, and feet in low slippers--was just at that charming age
2657 when a girl is no longer a child, though the child is not yet a young
2658 woman. Escaping from her father she ran to hide her flushed face in the
2659 lace of her mother's mantilla--not paying the least attention to her
2660 severe remark--and began to laugh. She laughed, and in fragmentary
2661 sentences tried to explain about a doll which she produced from the
2664 "Do you see?... My doll... Mimi... You see..." was all Natasha managed
2665 to utter (to her everything seemed funny). She leaned against her mother
2666 and burst into such a loud, ringing fit of laughter that even the prim
2667 visitor could not help joining in.
2669 "Now then, go away and take your monstrosity with you," said the mother,
2670 pushing away her daughter with pretended sternness, and turning to the
2671 visitor she added: "She is my youngest girl."
2673 Natasha, raising her face for a moment from her mother's mantilla,
2674 glanced up at her through tears of laughter, and again hid her face.
2676 The visitor, compelled to look on at this family scene, thought it
2677 necessary to take some part in it.
2679 "Tell me, my dear," said she to Natasha, "is Mimi a relation of yours? A
2680 daughter, I suppose?"
2682 Natasha did not like the visitor's tone of condescension to childish
2683 things. She did not reply, but looked at her seriously.
2685 Meanwhile the younger generation: Boris, the officer, Anna Mikhaylovna's
2686 son; Nicholas, the undergraduate, the count's eldest son; Sonya, the
2687 count's fifteen-year-old niece, and little Petya, his youngest boy, had
2688 all settled down in the drawing room and were obviously trying to
2689 restrain within the bounds of decorum the excitement and mirth that
2690 shone in all their faces. Evidently in the back rooms, from which they
2691 had dashed out so impetuously, the conversation had been more amusing
2692 than the drawing-room talk of society scandals, the weather, and
2693 Countess Apraksina. Now and then they glanced at one another, hardly
2694 able to suppress their laughter.
2696 The two young men, the student and the officer, friends from childhood,
2697 were of the same age and both handsome fellows, though not alike. Boris
2698 was tall and fair, and his calm and handsome face had regular, delicate
2699 features. Nicholas was short with curly hair and an open expression.
2700 Dark hairs were already showing on his upper lip, and his whole face
2701 expressed impetuosity and enthusiasm. Nicholas blushed when he entered
2702 the drawing room. He evidently tried to find something to say, but
2703 failed. Boris on the contrary at once found his footing, and related
2704 quietly and humorously how he had known that doll Mimi when she was
2705 still quite a young lady, before her nose was broken; how she had aged
2706 during the five years he had known her, and how her head had cracked
2707 right across the skull. Having said this he glanced at Natasha. She
2708 turned away from him and glanced at her younger brother, who was
2709 screwing up his eyes and shaking with suppressed laughter, and unable to
2710 control herself any longer, she jumped up and rushed from the room as
2711 fast as her nimble little feet would carry her. Boris did not laugh.
2713 "You were meaning to go out, weren't you, Mamma? Do you want the
2714 carriage?" he asked his mother with a smile.
2716 "Yes, yes, go and tell them to get it ready," she answered, returning
2719 Boris quietly left the room and went in search of Natasha. The plump boy
2720 ran after them angrily, as if vexed that their program had been
2728 The only young people remaining in the drawing room, not counting the
2729 young lady visitor and the countess' eldest daughter (who was four years
2730 older than her sister and behaved already like a grown-up person), were
2731 Nicholas and Sonya, the niece. Sonya was a slender little brunette with
2732 a tender look in her eyes which were veiled by long lashes, thick black
2733 plaits coiling twice round her head, and a tawny tint in her complexion
2734 and especially in the color of her slender but graceful and muscular
2735 arms and neck. By the grace of her movements, by the softness and
2736 flexibility of her small limbs, and by a certain coyness and reserve of
2737 manner, she reminded one of a pretty, half-grown kitten which promises
2738 to become a beautiful little cat. She evidently considered it proper to
2739 show an interest in the general conversation by smiling, but in spite of
2740 herself her eyes under their thick long lashes watched her cousin who
2741 was going to join the army, with such passionate girlish adoration that
2742 her smile could not for a single instant impose upon anyone, and it was
2743 clear that the kitten had settled down only to spring up with more
2744 energy and again play with her cousin as soon as they too could, like
2745 Natasha and Boris, escape from the drawing room.
2747 "Ah yes, my dear," said the count, addressing the visitor and pointing
2748 to Nicholas, "his friend Boris has become an officer, and so for
2749 friendship's sake he is leaving the university and me, his old father,
2750 and entering the military service, my dear. And there was a place and
2751 everything waiting for him in the Archives Department! Isn't that
2752 friendship?" remarked the count in an inquiring tone.
2754 "But they say that war has been declared," replied the visitor.
2756 "They've been saying so a long while," said the count, "and they'll say
2757 so again and again, and that will be the end of it. My dear, there's
2758 friendship for you," he repeated. "He's joining the hussars."
2760 The visitor, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
2762 "It's not at all from friendship," declared Nicholas, flaring up and
2763 turning away as if from a shameful aspersion. "It is not from friendship
2764 at all; I simply feel that the army is my vocation."
2766 He glanced at his cousin and the young lady visitor; and they were both
2767 regarding him with a smile of approbation.
2769 "Schubert, the colonel of the Pavlograd Hussars, is dining with us
2770 today. He has been here on leave and is taking Nicholas back with him.
2771 It can't be helped!" said the count, shrugging his shoulders and
2772 speaking playfully of a matter that evidently distressed him.
2774 "I have already told you, Papa," said his son, "that if you don't wish
2775 to let me go, I'll stay. But I know I am no use anywhere except in the
2776 army; I am not a diplomat or a government clerk.--I don't know how to
2777 hide what I feel." As he spoke he kept glancing with the flirtatiousness
2778 of a handsome youth at Sonya and the young lady visitor.
2780 The little kitten, feasting her eyes on him, seemed ready at any moment
2781 to start her gambols again and display her kittenish nature.
2783 "All right, all right!" said the old count. "He always flares up! This
2784 Buonaparte has turned all their heads; they all think of how he rose
2785 from an ensign and became Emperor. Well, well, God grant it," he added,
2786 not noticing his visitor's sarcastic smile.
2788 The elders began talking about Bonaparte. Julie Karagina turned to young
2791 "What a pity you weren't at the Arkharovs' on Thursday. It was so dull
2792 without you," said she, giving him a tender smile.
2794 The young man, flattered, sat down nearer to her with a coquettish
2795 smile, and engaged the smiling Julie in a confidential conversation
2796 without at all noticing that his involuntary smile had stabbed the heart
2797 of Sonya, who blushed and smiled unnaturally. In the midst of his talk
2798 he glanced round at her. She gave him a passionately angry glance, and
2799 hardly able to restrain her tears and maintain the artificial smile on
2800 her lips, she got up and left the room. All Nicholas' animation
2801 vanished. He waited for the first pause in the conversation, and then
2802 with a distressed face left the room to find Sonya.
2804 "How plainly all these young people wear their hearts on their sleeves!"
2805 said Anna Mikhaylovna, pointing to Nicholas as he went out. "Cousinage--
2806 dangereux voisinage;" * she added.
2809 * Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood.
2811 "Yes," said the countess when the brightness these young people had
2812 brought into the room had vanished; and as if answering a question no
2813 one had put but which was always in her mind, "and how much suffering,
2814 how much anxiety one has had to go through that we might rejoice in them
2815 now! And yet really the anxiety is greater now than the joy. One is
2816 always, always anxious! Especially just at this age, so dangerous both
2817 for girls and boys."
2819 "It all depends on the bringing up," remarked the visitor.
2821 "Yes, you're quite right," continued the countess. "Till now I have
2822 always, thank God, been my children's friend and had their full
2823 confidence," said she, repeating the mistake of so many parents who
2824 imagine that their children have no secrets from them. "I know I shall
2825 always be my daughters' first confidante, and that if Nicholas, with his
2826 impulsive nature, does get into mischief (a boy can't help it), he will
2827 all the same never be like those Petersburg young men."
2829 "Yes, they are splendid, splendid youngsters," chimed in the count, who
2830 always solved questions that seemed to him perplexing by deciding that
2831 everything was splendid. "Just fancy: wants to be an hussar. What's one
2834 "What a charming creature your younger girl is," said the visitor; "a
2837 "Yes, a regular volcano," said the count. "Takes after me! And what a
2838 voice she has; though she's my daughter, I tell the truth when I say
2839 she'll be a singer, a second Salomoni! We have engaged an Italian to
2842 "Isn't she too young? I have heard that it harms the voice to train it
2845 "Oh no, not at all too young!" replied the count. "Why, our mothers used
2846 to be married at twelve or thirteen."
2848 "And she's in love with Boris already. Just fancy!" said the countess
2849 with a gentle smile, looking at Boris and went on, evidently concerned
2850 with a thought that always occupied her: "Now you see if I were to be
2851 severe with her and to forbid it... goodness knows what they might be up
2852 to on the sly" (she meant that they would be kissing), "but as it is, I
2853 know every word she utters. She will come running to me of her own
2854 accord in the evening and tell me everything. Perhaps I spoil her, but
2855 really that seems the best plan. With her elder sister I was stricter."
2857 "Yes, I was brought up quite differently," remarked the handsome elder
2858 daughter, Countess Vera, with a smile.
2860 But the smile did not enhance Vera's beauty as smiles generally do; on
2861 the contrary it gave her an unnatural, and therefore unpleasant,
2862 expression. Vera was good-looking, not at all stupid, quick at learning,
2863 was well-brought up, and had a pleasant voice; what she said was true
2864 and appropriate, yet, strange to say, everyone--the visitors and
2865 countess alike--turned to look at her as if wondering why she had said
2866 it, and they all felt awkward.
2868 "People are always too clever with their eldest children and try to make
2869 something exceptional of them," said the visitor.
2871 "What's the good of denying it, my dear? Our dear countess was too
2872 clever with Vera," said the count. "Well, what of that? She's turned out
2873 splendidly all the same," he added, winking at Vera.
2875 The guests got up and took their leave, promising to return to dinner.
2877 "What manners! I thought they would never go," said the countess, when
2878 she had seen her guests out.
2885 When Natasha ran out of the drawing room she only went as far as the
2886 conservatory. There she paused and stood listening to the conversation
2887 in the drawing room, waiting for Boris to come out. She was already
2888 growing impatient, and stamped her foot, ready to cry at his not coming
2889 at once, when she heard the young man's discreet steps approaching
2890 neither quickly nor slowly. At this Natasha dashed swiftly among the
2891 flower tubs and hid there.
2893 Boris paused in the middle of the room, looked round, brushed a little
2894 dust from the sleeve of his uniform, and going up to a mirror examined
2895 his handsome face. Natasha, very still, peered out from her ambush,
2896 waiting to see what he would do. He stood a little while before the
2897 glass, smiled, and walked toward the other door. Natasha was about to
2898 call him but changed her mind. "Let him look for me," thought she.
2899 Hardly had Boris gone than Sonya, flushed, in tears, and muttering
2900 angrily, came in at the other door. Natasha checked her first impulse to
2901 run out to her, and remained in her hiding place, watching--as under an
2902 invisible cap--to see what went on in the world. She was experiencing a
2903 new and peculiar pleasure. Sonya, muttering to herself, kept looking
2904 round toward the drawing-room door. It opened and Nicholas came in.
2906 "Sonya, what is the matter with you? How can you?" said he, running up
2909 "It's nothing, nothing; leave me alone!" sobbed Sonya.
2911 "Ah, I know what it is."
2913 "Well, if you do, so much the better, and you can go back to her!"
2915 "So-o-onya! Look here! How can you torture me and yourself like that,
2916 for a mere fancy?" said Nicholas taking her hand.
2918 Sonya did not pull it away, and left off crying. Natasha, not stirring
2919 and scarcely breathing, watched from her ambush with sparkling eyes.
2920 "What will happen now?" thought she.
2922 "Sonya! What is anyone in the world to me? You alone are everything!"
2923 said Nicholas. "And I will prove it to you."
2925 "I don't like you to talk like that."
2927 "Well, then, I won't; only forgive me, Sonya!" He drew her to him and
2930 "Oh, how nice," thought Natasha; and when Sonya and Nicholas had gone
2931 out of the conservatory she followed and called Boris to her.
2933 "Boris, come here," said she with a sly and significant look. "I have
2934 something to tell you. Here, here!" and she led him into the
2935 conservatory to the place among the tubs where she had been hiding.
2937 Boris followed her, smiling.
2939 "What is the something?" asked he.
2941 She grew confused, glanced round, and, seeing the doll she had thrown
2942 down on one of the tubs, picked it up.
2944 "Kiss the doll," said she.
2946 Boris looked attentively and kindly at her eager face, but did not
2949 "Don't you want to? Well, then, come here," said she, and went further
2950 in among the plants and threw down the doll. "Closer, closer!" she
2953 She caught the young officer by his cuffs, and a look of solemnity and
2954 fear appeared on her flushed face.
2956 "And me? Would you like to kiss me?" she whispered almost inaudibly,
2957 glancing up at him from under her brows, smiling, and almost crying from
2962 "How funny you are!" he said, bending down to her and blushing still
2963 more, but he waited and did nothing.
2965 Suddenly she jumped up onto a tub to be higher than he, embraced him so
2966 that both her slender bare arms clasped him above his neck, and, tossing
2967 back her hair, kissed him full on the lips.
2969 Then she slipped down among the flowerpots on the other side of the tubs
2970 and stood, hanging her head.
2972 "Natasha," he said, "you know that I love you, but..."
2974 "You are in love with me?" Natasha broke in.
2976 "Yes, I am, but please don't let us do like that.... In another four
2977 years... then I will ask for your hand."
2981 "Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen," she counted on her slender
2982 little fingers. "All right! Then it's settled?"
2984 A smile of joy and satisfaction lit up her eager face.
2986 "Settled!" replied Boris.
2988 "Forever?" said the little girl. "Till death itself?"
2990 She took his arm and with a happy face went with him into the adjoining
2998 After receiving her visitors, the countess was so tired that she gave
2999 orders to admit no more, but the porter was told to be sure to invite to
3000 dinner all who came "to congratulate." The countess wished to have a
3001 tete-a-tete talk with the friend of her childhood, Princess Anna
3002 Mikhaylovna, whom she had not seen properly since she returned from
3003 Petersburg. Anna Mikhaylovna, with her tear-worn but pleasant face, drew
3004 her chair nearer to that of the countess.
3006 "With you I will be quite frank," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "There are not
3007 many left of us old friends! That's why I so value your friendship."
3009 Anna Mikhaylovna looked at Vera and paused. The countess pressed her
3012 "Vera," she said to her eldest daughter who was evidently not a
3013 favorite, "how is it you have so little tact? Don't you see you are not
3014 wanted here? Go to the other girls, or..."
3016 The handsome Vera smiled contemptuously but did not seem at all hurt.
3018 "If you had told me sooner, Mamma, I would have gone," she replied as
3019 she rose to go to her own room.
3021 But as she passed the sitting room she noticed two couples sitting, one
3022 pair at each window. She stopped and smiled scornfully. Sonya was
3023 sitting close to Nicholas who was copying out some verses for her, the
3024 first he had ever written. Boris and Natasha were at the other window
3025 and ceased talking when Vera entered. Sonya and Natasha looked at Vera
3026 with guilty, happy faces.
3028 It was pleasant and touching to see these little girls in love; but
3029 apparently the sight of them roused no pleasant feeling in Vera.
3031 "How often have I asked you not to take my things?" she said. "You have
3032 a room of your own," and she took the inkstand from Nicholas.
3034 "In a minute, in a minute," he said, dipping his pen.
3036 "You always manage to do things at the wrong time," continued Vera. "You
3037 came rushing into the drawing room so that everyone felt ashamed of
3040 Though what she said was quite just, perhaps for that very reason no one
3041 replied, and the four simply looked at one another. She lingered in the
3042 room with the inkstand in her hand.
3044 "And at your age what secrets can there be between Natasha and Boris, or
3045 between you two? It's all nonsense!"
3047 "Now, Vera, what does it matter to you?" said Natasha in defense,
3048 speaking very gently.
3050 She seemed that day to be more than ever kind and affectionate to
3053 "Very silly," said Vera. "I am ashamed of you. Secrets indeed!"
3055 "All have secrets of their own," answered Natasha, getting warmer. "We
3056 don't interfere with you and Berg."
3058 "I should think not," said Vera, "because there can never be anything
3059 wrong in my behavior. But I'll just tell Mamma how you are behaving with
3062 "Natalya Ilynichna behaves very well to me," remarked Boris. "I have
3063 nothing to complain of."
3065 "Don't, Boris! You are such a diplomat that it is really tiresome," said
3066 Natasha in a mortified voice that trembled slightly. (She used the word
3067 "diplomat," which was just then much in vogue among the children, in the
3068 special sense they attached to it.) "Why does she bother me?" And she
3069 added, turning to Vera, "You'll never understand it, because you've
3070 never loved anyone. You have no heart! You are a Madame de Genlis and
3071 nothing more" (this nickname, bestowed on Vera by Nicholas, was
3072 considered very stinging), "and your greatest pleasure is to be
3073 unpleasant to people! Go and flirt with Berg as much as you please," she
3076 "I shall at any rate not run after a young man before visitors..."
3078 "Well, now you've done what you wanted," put in Nicholas--"said
3079 unpleasant things to everyone and upset them. Let's go to the nursery."
3081 All four, like a flock of scared birds, got up and left the room.
3083 "The unpleasant things were said to me," remarked Vera, "I said none to
3086 "Madame de Genlis! Madame de Genlis!" shouted laughing voices through
3089 The handsome Vera, who produced such an irritating and unpleasant effect
3090 on everyone, smiled and, evidently unmoved by what had been said to her,
3091 went to the looking glass and arranged her hair and scarf. Looking at
3092 her own handsome face she seemed to become still colder and calmer.
3094 In the drawing room the conversation was still going on.
3096 "Ah, my dear," said the countess, "my life is not all roses either.
3097 Don't I know that at the rate we are living our means won't last long?
3098 It's all the Club and his easygoing nature. Even in the country do we
3099 get any rest? Theatricals, hunting, and heaven knows what besides! But
3100 don't let's talk about me; tell me how you managed everything. I often
3101 wonder at you, Annette--how at your age you can rush off alone in a
3102 carriage to Moscow, to Petersburg, to those ministers and great people,
3103 and know how to deal with them all! It's quite astonishing. How did you
3104 get things settled? I couldn't possibly do it."
3106 "Ah, my love," answered Anna Mikhaylovna, "God grant you never know what
3107 it is to be left a widow without means and with a son you love to
3108 distraction! One learns many things then," she added with a certain
3109 pride. "That lawsuit taught me much. When I want to see one of those big
3110 people I write a note: 'Princess So-and-So desires an interview with So
3111 and-So,' and then I take a cab and go myself two, three, or four times--
3112 till I get what I want. I don't mind what they think of me."
3114 "Well, and to whom did you apply about Bory?" asked the countess. "You
3115 see yours is already an officer in the Guards, while my Nicholas is
3116 going as a cadet. There's no one to interest himself for him. To whom
3119 "To Prince Vasili. He was so kind. He at once agreed to everything, and
3120 put the matter before the Emperor," said Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
3121 enthusiastically, quite forgetting all the humiliation she had endured
3124 "Has Prince Vasili aged much?" asked the countess. "I have not seen him
3125 since we acted together at the Rumyantsovs' theatricals. I expect he has
3126 forgotten me. He paid me attentions in those days," said the countess,
3129 "He is just the same as ever," replied Anna Mikhaylovna, "overflowing
3130 with amiability. His position has not turned his head at all. He said to
3131 me, 'I am sorry I can do so little for you, dear Princess. I am at your
3132 command.' Yes, he is a fine fellow and a very kind relation. But,
3133 Nataly, you know my love for my son: I would do anything for his
3134 happiness! And my affairs are in such a bad way that my position is now
3135 a terrible one," continued Anna Mikhaylovna, sadly, dropping her voice.
3136 "My wretched lawsuit takes all I have and makes no progress. Would you
3137 believe it, I have literally not a penny and don't know how to equip
3138 Boris." She took out her handkerchief and began to cry. "I need five
3139 hundred rubles, and have only one twenty-five-ruble note. I am in such a
3140 state.... My only hope now is in Count Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov. If
3141 he will not assist his godson--you know he is Bory's godfather--and
3142 allow him something for his maintenance, all my trouble will have been
3143 thrown away.... I shall not be able to equip him."
3145 The countess' eyes filled with tears and she pondered in silence.
3147 "I often think, though, perhaps it's a sin," said the princess, "that
3148 here lives Count Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov so rich, all alone... that
3149 tremendous fortune... and what is his life worth? It's a burden to him,
3150 and Bory's life is only just beginning...."
3152 "Surely he will leave something to Boris," said the countess.
3154 "Heaven only knows, my dear! These rich grandees are so selfish. Still,
3155 I will take Boris and go to see him at once, and I shall speak to him
3156 straight out. Let people think what they will of me, it's really all the
3157 same to me when my son's fate is at stake." The princess rose. "It's now
3158 two o'clock and you dine at four. There will just be time."
3160 And like a practical Petersburg lady who knows how to make the most of
3161 time, Anna Mikhaylovna sent someone to call her son, and went into the
3164 "Good-bye, my dear," said she to the countess who saw her to the door,
3165 and added in a whisper so that her son should not hear, "Wish me good
3168 "Are you going to Count Cyril Vladimirovich, my dear?" said the count
3169 coming out from the dining hall into the anteroom, and he added: "If he
3170 is better, ask Pierre to dine with us. He has been to the house, you
3171 know, and danced with the children. Be sure to invite him, my dear. We
3172 will see how Taras distinguishes himself today. He says Count Orlov
3173 never gave such a dinner as ours will be!"
3180 "My dear Boris," said Princess Anna Mikhaylovna to her son as Countess
3181 Rostova's carriage in which they were seated drove over the straw
3182 covered street and turned into the wide courtyard of Count Cyril
3183 Vladimirovich Bezukhov's house. "My dear Boris," said the mother,
3184 drawing her hand from beneath her old mantle and laying it timidly and
3185 tenderly on her son's arm, "be affectionate and attentive to him. Count
3186 Cyril Vladimirovich is your godfather after all, your future depends on
3187 him. Remember that, my dear, and be nice to him, as you so well know how
3190 "If only I knew that anything besides humiliation would come of it..."
3191 answered her son coldly. "But I have promised and will do it for your
3194 Although the hall porter saw someone's carriage standing at the
3195 entrance, after scrutinizing the mother and son (who without asking to
3196 be announced had passed straight through the glass porch between the
3197 rows of statues in niches) and looking significantly at the lady's old
3198 cloak, he asked whether they wanted the count or the princesses, and,
3199 hearing that they wished to see the count, said his excellency was worse
3200 today, and that his excellency was not receiving anyone.
3202 "We may as well go back," said the son in French.
3204 "My dear!" exclaimed his mother imploringly, again laying her hand on
3205 his arm as if that touch might soothe or rouse him.
3207 Boris said no more, but looked inquiringly at his mother without taking
3210 "My friend," said Anna Mikhaylovna in gentle tones, addressing the hall
3211 porter, "I know Count Cyril Vladimirovich is very ill... that's why I
3212 have come... I am a relation. I shall not disturb him, my friend... I
3213 only need see Prince Vasili Sergeevich: he is staying here, is he not?
3214 Please announce me."
3216 The hall porter sullenly pulled a bell that rang upstairs, and turned
3219 "Princess Drubetskaya to see Prince Vasili Sergeevich," he called to a
3220 footman dressed in knee breeches, shoes, and a swallow-tail coat, who
3221 ran downstairs and looked over from the halfway landing.
3223 The mother smoothed the folds of her dyed silk dress before a large
3224 Venetian mirror in the wall, and in her trodden-down shoes briskly
3225 ascended the carpeted stairs.
3227 "My dear," she said to her son, once more stimulating him by a touch,
3230 The son, lowering his eyes, followed her quietly.
3232 They entered the large hall, from which one of the doors led to the
3233 apartments assigned to Prince Vasili.
3235 Just as the mother and son, having reached the middle of the hall, were
3236 about to ask their way of an elderly footman who had sprung up as they
3237 entered, the bronze handle of one of the doors turned and Prince Vasili
3238 came out--wearing a velvet coat with a single star on his breast, as was
3239 his custom when at home--taking leave of a good-looking, dark-haired
3240 man. This was the celebrated Petersburg doctor, Lorrain.
3242 "Then it is certain?" said the prince.
3244 "Prince, humanum est errare, * but..." replied the doctor, swallowing
3245 his r's, and pronouncing the Latin words with a French accent.
3250 "Very well, very well..."
3252 Seeing Anna Mikhaylovna and her son, Prince Vasili dismissed the doctor
3253 with a bow and approached them silently and with a look of inquiry. The
3254 son noticed that an expression of profound sorrow suddenly clouded his
3255 mother's face, and he smiled slightly.
3257 "Ah, Prince! In what sad circumstances we meet again! And how is our
3258 dear invalid?" said she, as though unaware of the cold offensive look
3261 Prince Vasili stared at her and at Boris questioningly and perplexed.
3262 Boris bowed politely. Prince Vasili without acknowledging the bow turned
3263 to Anna Mikhaylovna, answering her query by a movement of the head and
3264 lips indicating very little hope for the patient.
3266 "Is it possible?" exclaimed Anna Mikhaylovna. "Oh, how awful! It is
3267 terrible to think.... This is my son," she added, indicating Boris. "He
3268 wanted to thank you himself."
3270 Boris bowed again politely.
3272 "Believe me, Prince, a mother's heart will never forget what you have
3275 "I am glad I was able to do you a service, my dear Anna Mikhaylovna,"
3276 said Prince Vasili, arranging his lace frill, and in tone and manner,
3277 here in Moscow to Anna Mikhaylovna whom he had placed under an
3278 obligation, assuming an air of much greater importance than he had done
3279 in Petersburg at Anna Scherer's reception.
3281 "Try to serve well and show yourself worthy," added he, addressing Boris
3282 with severity. "I am glad.... Are you here on leave?" he went on in his
3283 usual tone of indifference.
3285 "I am awaiting orders to join my new regiment, your excellency," replied
3286 Boris, betraying neither annoyance at the prince's brusque manner nor a
3287 desire to enter into conversation, but speaking so quietly and
3288 respectfully that the prince gave him a searching glance.
3290 "Are you living with your mother?"
3292 "I am living at Countess Rostova's," replied Boris, again adding, "your
3295 "That is, with Ilya Rostov who married Nataly Shinshina," said Anna
3298 "I know, I know," answered Prince Vasili in his monotonous voice. "I
3299 never could understand how Nataly made up her mind to marry that
3300 unlicked bear! A perfectly absurd and stupid fellow, and a gambler too,
3303 "But a very kind man, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna with a pathetic
3304 smile, as though she too knew that Count Rostov deserved this censure,
3305 but asked him not to be too hard on the poor old man. "What do the
3306 doctors say?" asked the princess after a pause, her worn face again
3307 expressing deep sorrow.
3309 "They give little hope," replied the prince.
3311 "And I should so like to thank Uncle once for all his kindness to me and
3312 Boris. He is his godson," she added, her tone suggesting that this fact
3313 ought to give Prince Vasili much satisfaction.
3315 Prince Vasili became thoughtful and frowned. Anna Mikhaylovna saw that
3316 he was afraid of finding in her a rival for Count Bezukhov's fortune,
3317 and hastened to reassure him.
3319 "If it were not for my sincere affection and devotion to Uncle," said
3320 she, uttering the word with peculiar assurance and unconcern, "I know
3321 his character: noble, upright... but you see he has no one with him
3322 except the young princesses.... They are still young...." She bent her
3323 head and continued in a whisper: "Has he performed his final duty,
3324 Prince? How priceless are those last moments! It can make things no
3325 worse, and it is absolutely necessary to prepare him if he is so ill. We
3326 women, Prince," and she smiled tenderly, "always know how to say these
3327 things. I absolutely must see him, however painful it may be for me. I
3328 am used to suffering."
3330 Evidently the prince understood her, and also understood, as he had done
3331 at Anna Pavlovna's, that it would be difficult to get rid of Anna
3334 "Would not such a meeting be too trying for him, dear Anna Mikhaylovna?"
3335 said he. "Let us wait until evening. The doctors are expecting a
3338 "But one cannot delay, Prince, at such a moment! Consider that the
3339 welfare of his soul is at stake. Ah, it is awful: the duties of a
3342 A door of one of the inner rooms opened and one of the princesses, the
3343 count's niece, entered with a cold, stern face. The length of her body
3344 was strikingly out of proportion to her short legs. Prince Vasili turned
3349 "Still the same; but what can you expect, this noise..." said the
3350 princess, looking at Anna Mikhaylovna as at a stranger.
3352 "Ah, my dear, I hardly knew you," said Anna Mikhaylovna with a happy
3353 smile, ambling lightly up to the count's niece. "I have come, and am at
3354 your service to help you nurse my uncle. I imagine what you have gone
3355 through," and she sympathetically turned up her eyes.
3357 The princess gave no reply and did not even smile, but left the room as
3358 Anna Mikhaylovna took off her gloves and, occupying the position she had
3359 conquered, settled down in an armchair, inviting Prince Vasili to take a
3362 "Boris," she said to her son with a smile, "I shall go in to see the
3363 count, my uncle; but you, my dear, had better go to Pierre meanwhile and
3364 don't forget to give him the Rostovs' invitation. They ask him to
3365 dinner. I suppose he won't go?" she continued, turning to the prince.
3367 "On the contrary," replied the prince, who had plainly become depressed,
3368 "I shall be only too glad if you relieve me of that young man.... Here
3369 he is, and the count has not once asked for him."
3371 He shrugged his shoulders. A footman conducted Boris down one flight of
3372 stairs and up another, to Pierre's rooms.
3379 Pierre, after all, had not managed to choose a career for himself in
3380 Petersburg, and had been expelled from there for riotous conduct and
3381 sent to Moscow. The story told about him at Count Rostov's was true.
3382 Pierre had taken part in tying a policeman to a bear. He had now been
3383 for some days in Moscow and was staying as usual at his father's house.
3384 Though he expected that the story of his escapade would be already known
3385 in Moscow and that the ladies about his father--who were never favorably
3386 disposed toward him--would have used it to turn the count against him,
3387 he nevertheless on the day of his arrival went to his father's part of
3388 the house. Entering the drawing room, where the princesses spent most of
3389 their time, he greeted the ladies, two of whom were sitting at
3390 embroidery frames while a third read aloud. It was the eldest who was
3391 reading--the one who had met Anna Mikhaylovna. The two younger ones were
3392 embroidering: both were rosy and pretty and they differed only in that
3393 one had a little mole on her lip which made her much prettier. Pierre
3394 was received as if he were a corpse or a leper. The eldest princess
3395 paused in her reading and silently stared at him with frightened eyes;
3396 the second assumed precisely the same expression; while the youngest,
3397 the one with the mole, who was of a cheerful and lively disposition,
3398 bent over her frame to hide a smile probably evoked by the amusing scene
3399 she foresaw. She drew her wool down through the canvas and, scarcely
3400 able to refrain from laughing, stooped as if trying to make out the
3403 "How do you do, cousin?" said Pierre. "You don't recognize me?"
3405 "I recognize you only too well, too well."
3407 "How is the count? Can I see him?" asked Pierre, awkwardly as usual, but
3410 "The count is suffering physically and mentally, and apparently you have
3411 done your best to increase his mental sufferings."
3413 "Can I see the count?" Pierre again asked.
3415 "Hm.... If you wish to kill him, to kill him outright, you can see
3416 him... Olga, go and see whether Uncle's beef tea is ready--it is almost
3417 time," she added, giving Pierre to understand that they were busy, and
3418 busy making his father comfortable, while evidently he, Pierre, was only
3419 busy causing him annoyance.
3421 Olga went out. Pierre stood looking at the sisters; then he bowed and
3422 said: "Then I will go to my rooms. You will let me know when I can see
3425 And he left the room, followed by the low but ringing laughter of the
3426 sister with the mole.
3428 Next day Prince Vasili had arrived and settled in the count's house. He
3429 sent for Pierre and said to him: "My dear fellow, if you are going to
3430 behave here as you did in Petersburg, you will end very badly; that is
3431 all I have to say to you. The count is very, very ill, and you must not
3434 Since then Pierre had not been disturbed and had spent the whole time in
3437 When Boris appeared at his door Pierre was pacing up and down his room,
3438 stopping occasionally at a corner to make menacing gestures at the wall,
3439 as if running a sword through an invisible foe, and glaring savagely
3440 over his spectacles, and then again resuming his walk, muttering
3441 indistinct words, shrugging his shoulders and gesticulating.
3443 "England is done for," said he, scowling and pointing his finger at
3444 someone unseen. "Mr. Pitt, as a traitor to the nation and to the rights
3445 of man, is sentenced to..." But before Pierre--who at that moment
3446 imagined himself to be Napoleon in person and to have just effected the
3447 dangerous crossing of the Straits of Dover and captured London--could
3448 pronounce Pitt's sentence, he saw a well-built and handsome young
3449 officer entering his room. Pierre paused. He had left Moscow when Boris
3450 was a boy of fourteen, and had quite forgotten him, but in his usual
3451 impulsive and hearty way he took Boris by the hand with a friendly
3454 "Do you remember me?" asked Boris quietly with a pleasant smile. "I have
3455 come with my mother to see the count, but it seems he is not well."
3457 "Yes, it seems he is ill. People are always disturbing him," answered
3458 Pierre, trying to remember who this young man was.
3460 Boris felt that Pierre did not recognize him but did not consider it
3461 necessary to introduce himself, and without experiencing the least
3462 embarrassment looked Pierre straight in the face.
3464 "Count Rostov asks you to come to dinner today," said he, after a
3465 considerable pause which made Pierre feel uncomfortable.
3467 "Ah, Count Rostov!" exclaimed Pierre joyfully. "Then you are his son,
3468 Ilya? Only fancy, I didn't know you at first. Do you remember how we
3469 went to the Sparrow Hills with Madame Jacquot?... It's such an age..."
3471 "You are mistaken," said Boris deliberately, with a bold and slightly
3472 sarcastic smile. "I am Boris, son of Princess Anna Mikhaylovna
3473 Drubetskaya. Rostov, the father, is Ilya, and his son is Nicholas. I
3474 never knew any Madame Jacquot."
3476 Pierre shook his head and arms as if attacked by mosquitoes or bees.
3478 "Oh dear, what am I thinking about? I've mixed everything up. One has so
3479 many relatives in Moscow! So you are Boris? Of course. Well, now we know
3480 where we are. And what do you think of the Boulogne expedition? The
3481 English will come off badly, you know, if Napoleon gets across the
3482 Channel. I think the expedition is quite feasible. If only Villeneuve
3483 doesn't make a mess of things!"
3485 Boris knew nothing about the Boulogne expedition; he did not read the
3486 papers and it was the first time he had heard Villeneuve's name.
3488 "We here in Moscow are more occupied with dinner parties and scandal
3489 than with politics," said he in his quiet ironical tone. "I know nothing
3490 about it and have not thought about it. Moscow is chiefly busy with
3491 gossip," he continued. "Just now they are talking about you and your
3494 Pierre smiled in his good-natured way as if afraid for his companion's
3495 sake that the latter might say something he would afterwards regret. But
3496 Boris spoke distinctly, clearly, and dryly, looking straight into
3499 "Moscow has nothing else to do but gossip," Boris went on. "Everybody is
3500 wondering to whom the count will leave his fortune, though he may
3501 perhaps outlive us all, as I sincerely hope he will..."
3503 "Yes, it is all very horrid," interrupted Pierre, "very horrid."
3505 Pierre was still afraid that this officer might inadvertently say
3506 something disconcerting to himself.
3508 "And it must seem to you," said Boris flushing slightly, but not
3509 changing his tone or attitude, "it must seem to you that everyone is
3510 trying to get something out of the rich man?"
3512 "So it does," thought Pierre.
3514 "But I just wish to say, to avoid misunderstandings, that you are quite
3515 mistaken if you reckon me or my mother among such people. We are very
3516 poor, but for my own part at any rate, for the very reason that your
3517 father is rich, I don't regard myself as a relation of his, and neither
3518 I nor my mother would ever ask or take anything from him."
3520 For a long time Pierre could not understand, but when he did, he jumped
3521 up from the sofa, seized Boris under the elbow in his quick, clumsy way,
3522 and, blushing far more than Boris, began to speak with a feeling of
3523 mingled shame and vexation.
3525 "Well, this is strange! Do you suppose I... who could think?... I know
3528 But Boris again interrupted him.
3530 "I am glad I have spoken out fully. Perhaps you did not like it? You
3531 must excuse me," said he, putting Pierre at ease instead of being put at
3532 ease by him, "but I hope I have not offended you. I always make it a
3533 rule to speak out... Well, what answer am I to take? Will you come to
3534 dinner at the Rostovs'?"
3536 And Boris, having apparently relieved himself of an onerous duty and
3537 extricated himself from an awkward situation and placed another in it,
3538 became quite pleasant again.
3540 "No, but I say," said Pierre, calming down, "you are a wonderful fellow!
3541 What you have just said is good, very good. Of course you don't know me.
3542 We have not met for such a long time... not since we were children. You
3543 might think that I... I understand, quite understand. I could not have
3544 done it myself, I should not have had the courage, but it's splendid. I
3545 am very glad to have made your acquaintance. It's queer," he added after
3546 a pause, "that you should have suspected me!" He began to laugh. "Well,
3547 what of it! I hope we'll get better acquainted," and he pressed Boris'
3548 hand. "Do you know, I have not once been in to see the count. He has not
3549 sent for me.... I am sorry for him as a man, but what can one do?"
3551 "And so you think Napoleon will manage to get an army across?" asked
3554 Pierre saw that Boris wished to change the subject, and being of the
3555 same mind he began explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the
3556 Boulogne expedition.
3558 A footman came in to summon Boris--the princess was going. Pierre, in
3559 order to make Boris' better acquaintance, promised to come to dinner,
3560 and warmly pressing his hand looked affectionately over his spectacles
3561 into Boris' eyes. After he had gone Pierre continued pacing up and down
3562 the room for a long time, no longer piercing an imaginary foe with his
3563 imaginary sword, but smiling at the remembrance of that pleasant,
3564 intelligent, and resolute young man.
3566 As often happens in early youth, especially to one who leads a lonely
3567 life, he felt an unaccountable tenderness for this young man and made up
3568 his mind that they would be friends.
3570 Prince Vasili saw the princess off. She held a handkerchief to her eyes
3571 and her face was tearful.
3573 "It is dreadful, dreadful!" she was saying, "but cost me what it may I
3574 shall do my duty. I will come and spend the night. He must not be left
3575 like this. Every moment is precious. I can't think why his nieces put it
3576 off. Perhaps God will help me to find a way to prepare him!... Adieu,
3577 Prince! May God support you..."
3579 "Adieu, ma bonne," answered Prince Vasili turning away from her.
3581 "Oh, he is in a dreadful state," said the mother to her son when they
3582 were in the carriage. "He hardly recognizes anybody."
3584 "I don't understand, Mamma--what is his attitude to Pierre?" asked the
3587 "The will will show that, my dear; our fate also depends on it."
3589 "But why do you expect that he will leave us anything?"
3591 "Ah, my dear! He is so rich, and we are so poor!"
3593 "Well, that is hardly a sufficient reason, Mamma..."
3595 "Oh, Heaven! How ill he is!" exclaimed the mother.
3602 After Anna Mikhaylovna had driven off with her son to visit Count Cyril
3603 Vladimirovich Bezukhov, Countess Rostova sat for a long time all alone
3604 applying her handkerchief to her eyes. At last she rang.
3606 "What is the matter with you, my dear?" she said crossly to the maid who
3607 kept her waiting some minutes. "Don't you wish to serve me? Then I'll
3608 find you another place."
3610 The countess was upset by her friend's sorrow and humiliating poverty,
3611 and was therefore out of sorts, a state of mind which with her always
3612 found expression in calling her maid "my dear" and speaking to her with
3613 exaggerated politeness.
3615 "I am very sorry, ma'am," answered the maid.
3617 "Ask the count to come to me."
3619 The count came waddling in to see his wife with a rather guilty look as
3622 "Well, little countess? What a saute of game au madere we are to have,
3623 my dear! I tasted it. The thousand rubles I paid for Taras were not ill-
3624 spent. He is worth it!"
3626 He sat down by his wife, his elbows on his knees and his hands ruffling
3629 "What are your commands, little countess?"
3631 "You see, my dear... What's that mess?" she said, pointing to his
3632 waistcoat. "It's the saute, most likely," she added with a smile. "Well,
3633 you see, Count, I want some money."
3635 Her face became sad.
3637 "Oh, little countess!"... and the count began bustling to get out his
3640 "I want a great deal, Count! I want five hundred rubles," and taking out
3641 her cambric handkerchief she began wiping her husband's waistcoat.
3643 "Yes, immediately, immediately! Hey, who's there?" he called out in a
3644 tone only used by persons who are certain that those they call will rush
3645 to obey the summons. "Send Dmitri to me!"
3647 Dmitri, a man of good family who had been brought up in the count's
3648 house and now managed all his affairs, stepped softly into the room.
3650 "This is what I want, my dear fellow," said the count to the deferential
3651 young man who had entered. "Bring me..." he reflected a moment, "yes,
3652 bring me seven hundred rubles, yes! But mind, don't bring me such
3653 tattered and dirty notes as last time, but nice clean ones for the
3656 "Yes, Dmitri, clean ones, please," said the countess, sighing deeply.
3658 "When would you like them, your excellency?" asked Dmitri. "Allow me to
3659 inform you... But, don't be uneasy," he added, noticing that the count
3660 was beginning to breathe heavily and quickly which was always a sign of
3661 approaching anger. "I was forgetting... Do you wish it brought at once?"
3663 "Yes, yes; just so! Bring it. Give it to the countess."
3665 "What a treasure that Dmitri is," added the count with a smile when the
3666 young man had departed. "There is never any 'impossible' with him.
3667 That's a thing I hate! Everything is possible."
3669 "Ah, money, Count, money! How much sorrow it causes in the world," said
3670 the countess. "But I am in great need of this sum."
3672 "You, my little countess, are a notorious spendthrift," said the count,
3673 and having kissed his wife's hand he went back to his study.
3675 When Anna Mikhaylovna returned from Count Bezukhov's the money, all in
3676 clean notes, was lying ready under a handkerchief on the countess'
3677 little table, and Anna Mikhaylovna noticed that something was agitating
3680 "Well, my dear?" asked the countess.
3682 "Oh, what a terrible state he is in! One would not know him, he is so
3683 ill! I was only there a few moments and hardly said a word..."
3685 "Annette, for heaven's sake don't refuse me," the countess began, with a
3686 blush that looked very strange on her thin, dignified, elderly face, and
3687 she took the money from under the handkerchief.
3689 Anna Mikhaylovna instantly guessed her intention and stooped to be ready
3690 to embrace the countess at the appropriate moment.
3692 "This is for Boris from me, for his outfit."
3694 Anna Mikhaylovna was already embracing her and weeping. The countess
3695 wept too. They wept because they were friends, and because they were
3696 kindhearted, and because they--friends from childhood--had to think
3697 about such a base thing as money, and because their youth was over....
3698 But those tears were pleasant to them both.
3705 Countess Rostova, with her daughters and a large number of guests, was
3706 already seated in the drawing room. The count took the gentlemen into
3707 his study and showed them his choice collection of Turkish pipes. From
3708 time to time he went out to ask: "Hasn't she come yet?" They were
3709 expecting Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, known in society as le terrible
3710 dragon, a lady distinguished not for wealth or rank, but for common
3711 sense and frank plainness of speech. Marya Dmitrievna was known to the
3712 Imperial family as well as to all Moscow and Petersburg, and both cities
3713 wondered at her, laughed privately at her rudenesses, and told good
3714 stories about her, while none the less all without exception respected
3717 In the count's room, which was full of tobacco smoke, they talked of war
3718 that had been announced in a manifesto, and about the recruiting. None
3719 of them had yet seen the manifesto, but they all knew it had appeared.
3720 The count sat on the sofa between two guests who were smoking and
3721 talking. He neither smoked nor talked, but bending his head first to one
3722 side and then to the other watched the smokers with evident pleasure and
3723 listened to the conversation of his two neighbors, whom he egged on
3726 One of them was a sallow, clean-shaven civilian with a thin and wrinkled
3727 face, already growing old, though he was dressed like a most fashionable
3728 young man. He sat with his legs up on the sofa as if quite at home and,
3729 having stuck an amber mouthpiece far into his mouth, was inhaling the
3730 smoke spasmodically and screwing up his eyes. This was an old bachelor,
3731 Shinshin, a cousin of the countess', a man with "a sharp tongue" as they
3732 said in Moscow society. He seemed to be condescending to his companion.
3733 The latter, a fresh, rosy officer of the Guards, irreproachably washed,
3734 brushed, and buttoned, held his pipe in the middle of his mouth and with
3735 red lips gently inhaled the smoke, letting it escape from his handsome
3736 mouth in rings. This was Lieutenant Berg, an officer in the Semenov
3737 regiment with whom Boris was to travel to join the army, and about whom
3738 Natasha had teased her elder sister Vera, speaking of Berg as her
3739 "intended." The count sat between them and listened attentively. His
3740 favorite occupation when not playing boston, a card game he was very
3741 fond of, was that of listener, especially when he succeeded in setting
3742 two loquacious talkers at one another.
3744 "Well, then, old chap, mon tres honorable Alphonse Karlovich," said
3745 Shinshin, laughing ironically and mixing the most ordinary Russian
3746 expressions with the choicest French phrases--which was a peculiarity of
3747 his speech. "Vous comptez vous faire des rentes sur l'etat; * you want
3748 to make something out of your company?"
3751 * You expect to make an income out of the government.
3753 "No, Peter Nikolaevich; I only want to show that in the cavalry the
3754 advantages are far less than in the infantry. Just consider my own
3755 position now, Peter Nikolaevich..."
3757 Berg always spoke quietly, politely, and with great precision. His
3758 conversation always related entirely to himself; he would remain calm
3759 and silent when the talk related to any topic that had no direct bearing
3760 on himself. He could remain silent for hours without being at all put
3761 out of countenance himself or making others uncomfortable, but as soon
3762 as the conversation concerned himself he would begin to talk
3763 circumstantially and with evident satisfaction.
3765 "Consider my position, Peter Nikolaevich. Were I in the cavalry I should
3766 get not more than two hundred rubles every four months, even with the
3767 rank of lieutenant; but as it is I receive two hundred and thirty," said
3768 he, looking at Shinshin and the count with a joyful, pleasant smile, as
3769 if it were obvious to him that his success must always be the chief
3770 desire of everyone else.
3772 "Besides that, Peter Nikolaevich, by exchanging into the Guards I shall
3773 be in a more prominent position," continued Berg, "and vacancies occur
3774 much more frequently in the Foot Guards. Then just think what can be
3775 done with two hundred and thirty rubles! I even manage to put a little
3776 aside and to send something to my father," he went on, emitting a smoke
3779 "La balance y est... * A German knows how to skin a flint, as the
3780 proverb says," remarked Shinshin, moving his pipe to the other side of
3781 his mouth and winking at the count.
3784 * So that squares matters.
3786 The count burst out laughing. The other guests seeing that Shinshin was
3787 talking came up to listen. Berg, oblivious of irony or indifference,
3788 continued to explain how by exchanging into the Guards he had already
3789 gained a step on his old comrades of the Cadet Corps; how in wartime the
3790 company commander might get killed and he, as senior in the company,
3791 might easily succeed to the post; how popular he was with everyone in
3792 the regiment, and how satisfied his father was with him. Berg evidently
3793 enjoyed narrating all this, and did not seem to suspect that others,
3794 too, might have their own interests. But all he said was so prettily
3795 sedate, and the naivete of his youthful egotism was so obvious, that he
3796 disarmed his hearers.
3798 "Well, my boy, you'll get along wherever you go--foot or horse--that
3799 I'll warrant," said Shinshin, patting him on the shoulder and taking his
3802 Berg smiled joyously. The count, by his guests, went into the drawing
3805 It was just the moment before a big dinner when the assembled guests,
3806 expecting the summons to zakuska, * avoid engaging in any long
3807 conversation but think it necessary to move about and talk, in order to
3808 show that they are not at all impatient for their food. The host and
3809 hostess look toward the door, and now and then glance at one another,
3810 and the visitors try to guess from these glances who, or what, they are
3811 waiting for--some important relation who has not yet arrived, or a dish
3812 that is not yet ready.
3817 Pierre had come just at dinnertime and was sitting awkwardly in the
3818 middle of the drawing room on the first chair he had come across,
3819 blocking the way for everyone. The countess tried to make him talk, but
3820 he went on naively looking around through his spectacles as if in search
3821 of somebody and answered all her questions in monosyllables. He was in
3822 the way and was the only one who did not notice the fact. Most of the
3823 guests, knowing of the affair with the bear, looked with curiosity at
3824 this big, stout, quiet man, wondering how such a clumsy, modest fellow
3825 could have played such a prank on a policeman.
3827 "You have only lately arrived?" the countess asked him.
3829 "Oui, madame," replied he, looking around him.
3831 "You have not yet seen my husband?"
3833 "Non, madame." He smiled quite inappropriately.
3835 "You have been in Paris recently, I believe? I suppose it's very
3840 The countess exchanged glances with Anna Mikhaylovna. The latter
3841 understood that she was being asked to entertain this young man, and
3842 sitting down beside him she began to speak about his father; but he
3843 answered her, as he had the countess, only in monosyllables. The other
3844 guests were all conversing with one another. "The Razumovskis... It was
3845 charming... You are very kind... Countess Apraksina..." was heard on all
3846 sides. The countess rose and went into the ballroom.
3848 "Marya Dmitrievna?" came her voice from there.
3850 "Herself," came the answer in a rough voice, and Marya Dmitrievna
3853 All the unmarried ladies and even the married ones except the very
3854 oldest rose. Marya Dmitrievna paused at the door. Tall and stout,
3855 holding high her fifty-year-old head with its gray curls, she stood
3856 surveying the guests, and leisurely arranged her wide sleeves as if
3857 rolling them up. Marya Dmitrievna always spoke in Russian.
3859 "Health and happiness to her whose name day we are keeping and to her
3860 children," she said, in her loud, full-toned voice which drowned all
3861 others. "Well, you old sinner," she went on, turning to the count who
3862 was kissing her hand, "you're feeling dull in Moscow, I daresay? Nowhere
3863 to hunt with your dogs? But what is to be done, old man? Just see how
3864 these nestlings are growing up," and she pointed to the girls. "You must
3865 look for husbands for them whether you like it or not...."
3867 "Well," said she, "how's my Cossack?" (Marya Dmitrievna always called
3868 Natasha a Cossack) and she stroked the child's arm as she came up
3869 fearless and gay to kiss her hand. "I know she's a scamp of a girl, but
3872 She took a pair of pear-shaped ruby earrings from her huge reticule and,
3873 having given them to the rosy Natasha, who beamed with the pleasure of
3874 her saint's-day fete, turned away at once and addressed herself to
3877 "Eh, eh, friend! Come here a bit," said she, assuming a soft high tone
3878 of voice. "Come here, my friend..." and she ominously tucked up her
3879 sleeves still higher. Pierre approached, looking at her in a childlike
3880 way through his spectacles.
3882 "Come nearer, come nearer, friend! I used to be the only one to tell
3883 your father the truth when he was in favor, and in your case it's my
3884 evident duty." She paused. All were silent, expectant of what was to
3885 follow, for this was clearly only a prelude.
3887 "A fine lad! My word! A fine lad!... His father lies on his deathbed and
3888 he amuses himself setting a policeman astride a bear! For shame, sir,
3889 for shame! It would be better if you went to the war."
3891 She turned away and gave her hand to the count, who could hardly keep
3894 "Well, I suppose it is time we were at table?" said Marya Dmitrievna.
3896 The count went in first with Marya Dmitrievna, the countess followed on
3897 the arm of a colonel of hussars, a man of importance to them because
3898 Nicholas was to go with him to the regiment; then came Anna Mikhaylovna
3899 with Shinshin. Berg gave his arm to Vera. The smiling Julie Karagina
3900 went in with Nicholas. After them other couples followed, filling the
3901 whole dining hall, and last of all the children, tutors, and governesses
3902 followed singly. The footmen began moving about, chairs scraped, the
3903 band struck up in the gallery, and the guests settled down in their
3904 places. Then the strains of the count's household band were replaced by
3905 the clatter of knives and forks, the voices of visitors, and the soft
3906 steps of the footmen. At one end of the table sat the countess with
3907 Marya Dmitrievna on her right and Anna Mikhaylovna on her left, the
3908 other lady visitors were farther down. At the other end sat the count,
3909 with the hussar colonel on his left and Shinshin and the other male
3910 visitors on his right. Midway down the long table on one side sat the
3911 grownup young people: Vera beside Berg, and Pierre beside Boris; and on
3912 the other side, the children, tutors, and governesses. From behind the
3913 crystal decanters and fruit vases, the count kept glancing at his wife
3914 and her tall cap with its light-blue ribbons, and busily filled his
3915 neighbors' glasses, not neglecting his own. The countess in turn,
3916 without omitting her duties as hostess, threw significant glances from
3917 behind the pineapples at her husband whose face and bald head seemed by
3918 their redness to contrast more than usual with his gray hair. At the
3919 ladies' end an even chatter of voices was heard all the time, at the
3920 men's end the voices sounded louder and louder, especially that of the
3921 colonel of hussars who, growing more and more flushed, ate and drank so
3922 much that the count held him up as a pattern to the other guests. Berg
3923 with tender smiles was saying to Vera that love is not an earthly but a
3924 heavenly feeling. Boris was telling his new friend Pierre who the guests
3925 were and exchanging glances with Natasha, who was sitting opposite.
3926 Pierre spoke little but examined the new faces, and ate a great deal. Of
3927 the two soups he chose turtle with savory patties and went on to the
3928 game without omitting a single dish or one of the wines. These latter
3929 the butler thrust mysteriously forward, wrapped in a napkin, from behind
3930 the next man's shoulders and whispered: "Dry Madeira"... "Hungarian"...
3931 or "Rhine wine" as the case might be. Of the four crystal glasses
3932 engraved with the count's monogram that stood before his plate, Pierre
3933 held out one at random and drank with enjoyment, gazing with ever-
3934 increasing amiability at the other guests. Natasha, who sat opposite,
3935 was looking at Boris as girls of thirteen look at the boy they are in
3936 love with and have just kissed for the first time. Sometimes that same
3937 look fell on Pierre, and that funny lively little girl's look made him
3938 inclined to laugh without knowing why.
3940 Nicholas sat at some distance from Sonya, beside Julie Karagina, to whom
3941 he was again talking with the same involuntary smile. Sonya wore a
3942 company smile but was evidently tormented by jealousy; now she turned
3943 pale, now blushed and strained every nerve to overhear what Nicholas and
3944 Julie were saying to one another. The governess kept looking round
3945 uneasily as if preparing to resent any slight that might be put upon the
3946 children. The German tutor was trying to remember all the dishes, wines,
3947 and kinds of dessert, in order to send a full description of the dinner
3948 to his people in Germany; and he felt greatly offended when the butler
3949 with a bottle wrapped in a napkin passed him by. He frowned, trying to
3950 appear as if he did not want any of that wine, but was mortified because
3951 no one would understand that it was not to quench his thirst or from
3952 greediness that he wanted it, but simply from a conscientious desire for
3960 At the men's end of the table the talk grew more and more animated. The
3961 colonel told them that the declaration of war had already appeared in
3962 Petersburg and that a copy, which he had himself seen, had that day been
3963 forwarded by courier to the commander-in-chief.
3965 "And why the deuce are we going to fight Bonaparte?" remarked Shinshin.
3966 "He has stopped Austria's cackle and I fear it will be our turn next."
3968 The colonel was a stout, tall, plethoric German, evidently devoted to
3969 the service and patriotically Russian. He resented Shinshin's remark.
3971 "It is for the reasson, my goot sir," said he, speaking with a German
3972 accent, "for the reasson zat ze Emperor knows zat. He declares in ze
3973 manifessto zat he cannot fiew wiz indifference ze danger vreatening
3974 Russia and zat ze safety and dignity of ze Empire as vell as ze sanctity
3975 of its alliances..." he spoke this last word with particular emphasis as
3976 if in it lay the gist of the matter.
3978 Then with the unerring official memory that characterized him he
3979 repeated from the opening words of the manifesto:
3981 ... and the wish, which constitutes the Emperor's sole and absolute aim-
3982 -to establish peace in Europe on firm foundations--has now decided him
3983 to despatch part of the army abroad and to create a new condition for
3984 the attainment of that purpose.
3986 "Zat, my dear sir, is vy..." he concluded, drinking a tumbler of wine
3987 with dignity and looking to the count for approval.
3989 "Connaissez-vous le Proverbe: * 'Jerome, Jerome, do not roam, but turn
3990 spindles at home!'?" said Shinshin, puckering his brows and smiling.
3991 "Cela nous convient a merveille.*(2) Suvorov now--he knew what he was
3992 about; yet they beat him a plate couture,*(3) and where are we to find
3993 Suvorovs now? Je vous demande un peu,"*(4) said he, continually changing
3994 from French to Russian.
3997 *Do you know the proverb?
3999 *(2) That suits us down to the ground.
4003 *(4) I just ask you that.
4005 "Ve must vight to the last tr-r-op of our plood!" said the colonel,
4006 thumping the table; "and ve must tie for our Emperor, and zen all vill
4007 pe vell. And ve must discuss it as little as po-o-ossible"... he dwelt
4008 particularly on the word possible... "as po-o-ossible," he ended, again
4009 turning to the count. "Zat is how ve old hussars look at it, and zere's
4010 an end of it! And how do you, a young man and a young hussar, how do you
4011 judge of it?" he added, addressing Nicholas, who when he heard that the
4012 war was being discussed had turned from his partner with eyes and ears
4013 intent on the colonel.
4015 "I am quite of your opinion," replied Nicholas, flaming up, turning his
4016 plate round and moving his wineglasses about with as much decision and
4017 desperation as though he were at that moment facing some great danger.
4018 "I am convinced that we Russians must die or conquer," he concluded,
4019 conscious--as were others--after the words were uttered that his remarks
4020 were too enthusiastic and emphatic for the occasion and were therefore
4023 "What you said just now was splendid!" said his partner Julie.
4025 Sonya trembled all over and blushed to her ears and behind them and down
4026 to her neck and shoulders while Nicholas was speaking.
4028 Pierre listened to the colonel's speech and nodded approvingly.
4030 "That's fine," said he.
4032 "The young man's a real hussar!" shouted the colonel, again thumping the
4035 "What are you making such a noise about over there?" Marya Dmitrievna's
4036 deep voice suddenly inquired from the other end of the table. "What are
4037 you thumping the table for?" she demanded of the hussar, "and why are
4038 you exciting yourself? Do you think the French are here?"
4040 "I am speaking ze truce," replied the hussar with a smile.
4042 "It's all about the war," the count shouted down the table. "You know my
4043 son's going, Marya Dmitrievna? My son is going."
4045 "I have four sons in the army but still I don't fret. It is all in God's
4046 hands. You may die in your bed or God may spare you in a battle,"
4047 replied Marya Dmitrievna's deep voice, which easily carried the whole
4048 length of the table.
4052 Once more the conversations concentrated, the ladies' at the one end and
4053 the men's at the other.
4055 "You won't ask," Natasha's little brother was saying; "I know you won't
4058 "I will," replied Natasha.
4060 Her face suddenly flushed with reckless and joyous resolution. She half
4061 rose, by a glance inviting Pierre, who sat opposite, to listen to what
4062 was coming, and turning to her mother:
4064 "Mamma!" rang out the clear contralto notes of her childish voice,
4065 audible the whole length of the table.
4067 "What is it?" asked the countess, startled; but seeing by her daughter's
4068 face that it was only mischief, she shook a finger at her sternly with a
4069 threatening and forbidding movement of her head.
4071 The conversation was hushed.
4073 "Mamma! What sweets are we going to have?" and Natasha's voice sounded
4074 still more firm and resolute.
4076 The countess tried to frown, but could not. Marya Dmitrievna shook her
4079 "Cossack!" she said threateningly.
4081 Most of the guests, uncertain how to regard this sally, looked at the
4084 "You had better take care!" said the countess.
4086 "Mamma! What sweets are we going to have?" Natasha again cried boldly,
4087 with saucy gaiety, confident that her prank would be taken in good part.
4089 Sonya and fat little Petya doubled up with laughter.
4091 "You see! I have asked," whispered Natasha to her little brother and to
4092 Pierre, glancing at him again.
4094 "Ice pudding, but you won't get any," said Marya Dmitrievna.
4096 Natasha saw there was nothing to be afraid of and so she braved even
4099 "Marya Dmitrievna! What kind of ice pudding? I don't like ice cream."
4103 "No! What kind, Marya Dmitrievna? What kind?" she almost screamed; "I
4106 Marya Dmitrievna and the countess burst out laughing, and all the guests
4107 joined in. Everyone laughed, not at Marya Dmitrievna's answer but at the
4108 incredible boldness and smartness of this little girl who had dared to
4109 treat Marya Dmitrievna in this fashion.
4111 Natasha only desisted when she had been told that there would be
4112 pineapple ice. Before the ices, champagne was served round. The band
4113 again struck up, the count and countess kissed, and the guests, leaving
4114 their seats, went up to "congratulate" the countess, and reached across
4115 the table to clink glasses with the count, with the children, and with
4116 one another. Again the footmen rushed about, chairs scraped, and in the
4117 same order in which they had entered but with redder faces, the guests
4118 returned to the drawing room and to the count's study.
4125 The card tables were drawn out, sets made up for boston, and the count's
4126 visitors settled themselves, some in the two drawing rooms, some in the
4127 sitting room, some in the library.
4129 The count, holding his cards fanwise, kept himself with difficulty from
4130 dropping into his usual after-dinner nap, and laughed at everything. The
4131 young people, at the countess' instigation, gathered round the
4132 clavichord and harp. Julie by general request played first. After she
4133 had played a little air with variations on the harp, she joined the
4134 other young ladies in begging Natasha and Nicholas, who were noted for
4135 their musical talent, to sing something. Natasha, who was treated as
4136 though she were grown up, was evidently very proud of this but at the
4139 "What shall we sing?" she said.
4141 "'The Brook,'" suggested Nicholas.
4143 "Well, then, let's be quick. Boris, come here," said Natasha. "But where
4146 She looked round and seeing that her friend was not in the room ran to
4149 Running into Sonya's room and not finding her there, Natasha ran to the
4150 nursery, but Sonya was not there either. Natasha concluded that she must
4151 be on the chest in the passage. The chest in the passage was the place
4152 of mourning for the younger female generation in the Rostov household.
4153 And there in fact was Sonya lying face downward on Nurse's dirty feather
4154 bed on the top of the chest, crumpling her gauzy pink dress under her,
4155 hiding her face with her slender fingers, and sobbing so convulsively
4156 that her bare little shoulders shook. Natasha's face, which had been so
4157 radiantly happy all that saint's day, suddenly changed: her eyes became
4158 fixed, and then a shiver passed down her broad neck and the corners of
4161 "Sonya! What is it? What is the matter?... Oo... Oo... Oo...!" And
4162 Natasha's large mouth widened, making her look quite ugly, and she began
4163 to wail like a baby without knowing why, except that Sonya was crying.
4164 Sonya tried to lift her head to answer but could not, and hid her face
4165 still deeper in the bed. Natasha wept, sitting on the blue-striped
4166 feather bed and hugging her friend. With an effort Sonya sat up and
4167 began wiping her eyes and explaining.
4169 "Nicholas is going away in a week's time, his... papers... have come...
4170 he told me himself... but still I should not cry," and she showed a
4171 paper she held in her hand--with the verses Nicholas had written,
4172 "still, I should not cry, but you can't... no one can understand... what
4175 And she began to cry again because he had such a noble soul.
4177 "It's all very well for you... I am not envious... I love you and Boris
4178 also," she went on, gaining a little strength; "he is nice... there are
4179 no difficulties in your way.... But Nicholas is my cousin... one would
4180 have to... the Metropolitan himself... and even then it can't be done.
4181 And besides, if she tells Mamma" (Sonya looked upon the countess as her
4182 mother and called her so) "that I am spoiling Nicholas' career and am
4183 heartless and ungrateful, while truly... God is my witness," and she
4184 made the sign of the cross, "I love her so much, and all of you, only
4185 Vera... And what for? What have I done to her? I am so grateful to you
4186 that I would willingly sacrifice everything, only I have nothing...."
4188 Sonya could not continue, and again hid her face in her hands and in the
4189 feather bed. Natasha began consoling her, but her face showed that she
4190 understood all the gravity of her friend's trouble.
4192 "Sonya," she suddenly exclaimed, as if she had guessed the true reason
4193 of her friend's sorrow, "I'm sure Vera has said something to you since
4194 dinner? Hasn't she?"
4196 "Yes, these verses Nicholas wrote himself and I copied some others, and
4197 she found them on my table and said she'd show them to Mamma, and that I
4198 was ungrateful, and that Mamma would never allow him to marry me, but
4199 that he'll marry Julie. You see how he's been with her all day...
4200 Natasha, what have I done to deserve it?..."
4202 And again she began to sob, more bitterly than before. Natasha lifted
4203 her up, hugged her, and, smiling through her tears, began comforting
4206 "Sonya, don't believe her, darling! Don't believe her! Do you remember
4207 how we and Nicholas, all three of us, talked in the sitting room after
4208 supper? Why, we settled how everything was to be. I don't quite remember
4209 how, but don't you remember that it could all be arranged and how nice
4210 it all was? There's Uncle Shinshin's brother has married his first
4211 cousin. And we are only second cousins, you know. And Boris says it is
4212 quite possible. You know I have told him all about it. And he is so
4213 clever and so good!" said Natasha. "Don't you cry, Sonya, dear love,
4214 darling Sonya!" and she kissed her and laughed. "Vera's spiteful; never
4215 mind her! And all will come right and she won't say anything to Mamma.
4216 Nicholas will tell her himself, and he doesn't care at all for Julie."
4218 Natasha kissed her on the hair.
4220 Sonya sat up. The little kitten brightened, its eyes shone, and it
4221 seemed ready to lift its tail, jump down on its soft paws, and begin
4222 playing with the ball of worsted as a kitten should.
4224 "Do you think so?... Really? Truly?" she said, quickly smoothing her
4227 "Really, truly!" answered Natasha, pushing in a crisp lock that had
4228 strayed from under her friend's plaits.
4232 "Well, let's go and sing 'The Brook.'"
4236 "Do you know, that fat Pierre who sat opposite me is so funny!" said
4237 Natasha, stopping suddenly. "I feel so happy!"
4239 And she set off at a run along the passage.
4241 Sonya, shaking off some down which clung to her and tucking away the
4242 verses in the bosom of her dress close to her bony little chest, ran
4243 after Natasha down the passage into the sitting room with flushed face
4244 and light, joyous steps. At the visitors' request the young people sang
4245 the quartette, "The Brook," with which everyone was delighted. Then
4246 Nicholas sang a song he had just learned:
4249 At nighttime in the moon's fair glow How sweet, as fancies wander free,
4250 To feel that in this world there's one Who still is thinking but of
4253 That while her fingers touch the harp Wafting sweet music o'er the lea,
4254 It is for thee thus swells her heart, Sighing its message out to thee...
4256 A day or two, then bliss unspoilt, But oh! till then I cannot live!...
4258 He had not finished the last verse before the young people began to get
4259 ready to dance in the large hall, and the sound of the feet and the
4260 coughing of the musicians were heard from the gallery.
4262 Pierre was sitting in the drawing-room where Shinshin had engaged him,
4263 as a man recently returned from abroad, in a political conversation in
4264 which several others joined but which bored Pierre. When the music began
4265 Natasha came in and walking straight up to Pierre said, laughing and
4268 "Mamma told me to ask you to join the dancers."
4270 "I am afraid of mixing the figures," Pierre replied; "but if you will be
4271 my teacher..." And lowering his big arm he offered it to the slender
4274 While the couples were arranging themselves and the musicians tuning up,
4275 Pierre sat down with his little partner. Natasha was perfectly happy;
4276 she was dancing with a grown-up man, who had been abroad. She was
4277 sitting in a conspicuous place and talking to him like a grown-up lady.
4278 She had a fan in her hand that one of the ladies had given her to hold.
4279 Assuming quite the pose of a society woman (heaven knows when and where
4280 she had learned it) she talked with her partner, fanning herself and
4281 smiling over the fan.
4283 "Dear, dear! Just look at her!" exclaimed the countess as she crossed
4284 the ballroom, pointing to Natasha.
4286 Natasha blushed and laughed.
4288 "Well, really, Mamma! Why should you? What is there to be surprised at?"
4290 In the midst of the third ecossaise there was a clatter of chairs being
4291 pushed back in the sitting room where the count and Marya Dmitrievna had
4292 been playing cards with the majority of the more distinguished and older
4293 visitors. They now, stretching themselves after sitting so long, and
4294 replacing their purses and pocketbooks, entered the ballroom. First came
4295 Marya Dmitrievna and the count, both with merry countenances. The count,
4296 with playful ceremony somewhat in ballet style, offered his bent arm to
4297 Marya Dmitrievna. He drew himself up, a smile of debonair gallantry lit
4298 up his face and as soon as the last figure of the ecossaise was ended,
4299 he clapped his hands to the musicians and shouted up to their gallery,
4300 addressing the first violin:
4302 "Semen! Do you know the Daniel Cooper?"
4304 This was the count's favorite dance, which he had danced in his youth.
4305 (Strictly speaking, Daniel Cooper was one figure of the anglaise.)
4307 "Look at Papa!" shouted Natasha to the whole company, and quite
4308 forgetting that she was dancing with a grown-up partner she bent her
4309 curly head to her knees and made the whole room ring with her laughter.
4311 And indeed everybody in the room looked with a smile of pleasure at the
4312 jovial old gentleman, who standing beside his tall and stout partner,
4313 Marya Dmitrievna, curved his arms, beat time, straightened his
4314 shoulders, turned out his toes, tapped gently with his foot, and, by a
4315 smile that broadened his round face more and more, prepared the
4316 onlookers for what was to follow. As soon as the provocatively gay
4317 strains of Daniel Cooper (somewhat resembling those of a merry peasant
4318 dance) began to sound, all the doorways of the ballroom were suddenly
4319 filled by the domestic serfs--the men on one side and the women on the
4320 other--who with beaming faces had come to see their master making merry.
4322 "Just look at the master! A regular eagle he is!" loudly remarked the
4323 nurse, as she stood in one of the doorways.
4325 The count danced well and knew it. But his partner could not and did not
4326 want to dance well. Her enormous figure stood erect, her powerful arms
4327 hanging down (she had handed her reticule to the countess), and only her
4328 stern but handsome face really joined in the dance. What was expressed
4329 by the whole of the count's plump figure, in Marya Dmitrievna found
4330 expression only in her more and more beaming face and quivering nose.
4331 But if the count, getting more and more into the swing of it, charmed
4332 the spectators by the unexpectedness of his adroit maneuvers and the
4333 agility with which he capered about on his light feet, Marya Dmitrievna
4334 produced no less impression by slight exertions--the least effort to
4335 move her shoulders or bend her arms when turning, or stamp her foot--
4336 which everyone appreciated in view of her size and habitual severity.
4337 The dance grew livelier and livelier. The other couples could not
4338 attract a moment's attention to their own evolutions and did not even
4339 try to do so. All were watching the count and Marya Dmitrievna. Natasha
4340 kept pulling everyone by sleeve or dress, urging them to "look at Papa!"
4341 though as it was they never took their eyes off the couple. In the
4342 intervals of the dance the count, breathing deeply, waved and shouted to
4343 the musicians to play faster. Faster, faster, and faster; lightly, more
4344 lightly, and yet more lightly whirled the count, flying round Marya
4345 Dmitrievna, now on his toes, now on his heels; until, turning his
4346 partner round to her seat, he executed the final pas, raising his soft
4347 foot backwards, bowing his perspiring head, smiling and making a wide
4348 sweep with his arm, amid a thunder of applause and laughter led by
4349 Natasha. Both partners stood still, breathing heavily and wiping their
4350 faces with their cambric handkerchiefs.
4352 "That's how we used to dance in our time, ma chere," said the count.
4354 "That was a Daniel Cooper!" exclaimed Marya Dmitrievna, tucking up her
4355 sleeves and puffing heavily.
4362 While in the Rostovs' ballroom the sixth anglaise was being danced, to a
4363 tune in which the weary musicians blundered, and while tired footmen and
4364 cooks were getting the supper, Count Bezukhov had a sixth stroke. The
4365 doctors pronounced recovery impossible. After a mute confession,
4366 communion was administered to the dying man, preparations made for the
4367 sacrament of unction, and in his house there was the bustle and thrill
4368 of suspense usual at such moments. Outside the house, beyond the gates,
4369 a group of undertakers, who hid whenever a carriage drove up, waited in
4370 expectation of an important order for an expensive funeral. The Military
4371 Governor of Moscow, who had been assiduous in sending aides-de-camp to
4372 inquire after the count's health, came himself that evening to bid a
4373 last farewell to the celebrated grandee of Catherine's court, Count
4376 The magnificent reception room was crowded. Everyone stood up
4377 respectfully when the Military Governor, having stayed about half an
4378 hour alone with the dying man, passed out, slightly acknowledging their
4379 bows and trying to escape as quickly as possible from the glances fixed
4380 on him by the doctors, clergy, and relatives of the family. Prince
4381 Vasili, who had grown thinner and paler during the last few days,
4382 escorted him to the door, repeating something to him several times in
4385 When the Military Governor had gone, Prince Vasili sat down all alone on
4386 a chair in the ballroom, crossing one leg high over the other, leaning
4387 his elbow on his knee and covering his face with his hand. After sitting
4388 so for a while he rose, and, looking about him with frightened eyes,
4389 went with unusually hurried steps down the long corridor leading to the
4390 back of the house, to the room of the eldest princess.
4392 Those who were in the dimly lit reception room spoke in nervous
4393 whispers, and, whenever anyone went into or came from the dying man's
4394 room, grew silent and gazed with eyes full of curiosity or expectancy at
4395 his door, which creaked slightly when opened.
4397 "The limits of human life... are fixed and may not be o'erpassed," said
4398 an old priest to a lady who had taken a seat beside him and was
4399 listening naively to his words.
4401 "I wonder, is it not too late to administer unction?" asked the lady,
4402 adding the priest's clerical title, as if she had no opinion of her own
4405 "Ah, madam, it is a great sacrament," replied the priest, passing his
4406 hand over the thin grizzled strands of hair combed back across his bald
4409 "Who was that? The Military Governor himself?" was being asked at the
4410 other side of the room. "How young-looking he is!"
4412 "Yes, and he is over sixty. I hear the count no longer recognizes
4413 anyone. They wished to administer the sacrament of unction."
4415 "I knew someone who received that sacrament seven times."
4417 The second princess had just come from the sickroom with her eyes red
4418 from weeping and sat down beside Dr. Lorrain, who was sitting in a
4419 graceful pose under a portrait of Catherine, leaning his elbow on a
4422 "Beautiful," said the doctor in answer to a remark about the weather.
4423 "The weather is beautiful, Princess; and besides, in Moscow one feels as
4424 if one were in the country."
4426 "Yes, indeed," replied the princess with a sigh. "So he may have
4427 something to drink?"
4431 "Has he taken his medicine?"
4435 The doctor glanced at his watch.
4437 "Take a glass of boiled water and put a pinch of cream of tartar," and
4438 he indicated with his delicate fingers what he meant by a pinch.
4440 "Dere has neffer been a gase," a German doctor was saying to an aide-de-
4441 camp, "dat one liffs after de sird stroke."
4443 "And what a well-preserved man he was!" remarked the aide-de-camp. "And
4444 who will inherit his wealth?" he added in a whisper.
4446 "It von't go begging," replied the German with a smile.
4448 Everyone again looked toward the door, which creaked as the second
4449 princess went in with the drink she had prepared according to Lorrain's
4450 instructions. The German doctor went up to Lorrain.
4452 "Do you think he can last till morning?" asked the German, addressing
4453 Lorrain in French which he pronounced badly.
4455 Lorrain, pursing up his lips, waved a severely negative finger before
4458 "Tonight, not later," said he in a low voice, and he moved away with a
4459 decorous smile of self-satisfaction at being able clearly to understand
4460 and state the patient's condition.
4462 Meanwhile Prince Vasili had opened the door into the princess' room.
4464 In this room it was almost dark; only two tiny lamps were burning before
4465 the icons and there was a pleasant scent of flowers and burnt pastilles.
4466 The room was crowded with small pieces of furniture, whatnots,
4467 cupboards, and little tables. The quilt of a high, white feather bed was
4468 just visible behind a screen. A small dog began to bark.
4470 "Ah, is it you, cousin?"
4472 She rose and smoothed her hair, which was as usual so extremely smooth
4473 that it seemed to be made of one piece with her head and covered with
4476 "Has anything happened?" she asked. "I am so terrified."
4478 "No, there is no change. I only came to have a talk about business,
4479 Catiche," * muttered the prince, seating himself wearily on the chair
4480 she had just vacated. "You have made the place warm, I must say," he
4481 remarked. "Well, sit down: let's have a talk."
4486 "I thought perhaps something had happened," she said with her unchanging
4487 stonily severe expression; and, sitting down opposite the prince, she
4490 "I wished to get a nap, mon cousin, but I can't."
4492 "Well, my dear?" said Prince Vasili, taking her hand and bending it
4493 downwards as was his habit.
4495 It was plain that this "well?" referred to much that they both
4496 understood without naming.
4498 The princess, who had a straight, rigid body, abnormally long for her
4499 legs, looked directly at Prince Vasili with no sign of emotion in her
4500 prominent gray eyes. Then she shook her head and glanced up at the icons
4501 with a sigh. This might have been taken as an expression of sorrow and
4502 devotion, or of weariness and hope of resting before long. Prince Vasili
4503 understood it as an expression of weariness.
4505 "And I?" he said; "do you think it is easier for me? I am as worn out as
4506 a post horse, but still I must have a talk with you, Catiche, a very
4509 Prince Vasili said no more and his cheeks began to twitch nervously, now
4510 on one side, now on the other, giving his face an unpleasant expression
4511 which was never to be seen on it in a drawing room. His eyes too seemed
4512 strange; at one moment they looked impudently sly and at the next
4513 glanced round in alarm.
4515 The princess, holding her little dog on her lap with her thin bony
4516 hands, looked attentively into Prince Vasili's eyes evidently resolved
4517 not to be the first to break silence, if she had to wait till morning.
4519 "Well, you see, my dear princess and cousin, Catherine Semenovna,"
4520 continued Prince Vasili, returning to his theme, apparently not without
4521 an inner struggle; "at such a moment as this one must think of
4522 everything. One must think of the future, of all of you... I love you
4523 all, like children of my own, as you know."
4525 The princess continued to look at him without moving, and with the same
4528 "And then of course my family has also to be considered," Prince Vasili
4529 went on, testily pushing away a little table without looking at her.
4530 "You know, Catiche, that we--you three sisters, Mamontov, and my wife--
4531 are the count's only direct heirs. I know, I know how hard it is for you
4532 to talk or think of such matters. It is no easier for me; but, my dear,
4533 I am getting on for sixty and must be prepared for anything. Do you know
4534 I have sent for Pierre? The count," pointing to his portrait,
4535 "definitely demanded that he should be called."
4537 Prince Vasili looked questioningly at the princess, but could not make
4538 out whether she was considering what he had just said or whether she was
4539 simply looking at him.
4541 "There is one thing I constantly pray God to grant, mon cousin," she
4542 replied, "and it is that He would be merciful to him and would allow his
4543 noble soul peacefully to leave this..."
4545 "Yes, yes, of course," interrupted Prince Vasili impatiently, rubbing
4546 his bald head and angrily pulling back toward him the little table that
4547 he had pushed away. "But... in short, the fact is... you know yourself
4548 that last winter the count made a will by which he left all his
4549 property, not to us his direct heirs, but to Pierre."
4551 "He has made wills enough!" quietly remarked the princess. "But he
4552 cannot leave the estate to Pierre. Pierre is illegitimate."
4554 "But, my dear," said Prince Vasili suddenly, clutching the little table
4555 and becoming more animated and talking more rapidly: "what if a letter
4556 has been written to the Emperor in which the count asks for Pierre's
4557 legitimation? Do you understand that in consideration of the count's
4558 services, his request would be granted?..."
4560 The princess smiled as people do who think they know more about the
4561 subject under discussion than those they are talking with.
4563 "I can tell you more," continued Prince Vasili, seizing her hand, "that
4564 letter was written, though it was not sent, and the Emperor knew of it.
4565 The only question is, has it been destroyed or not? If not, then as soon
4566 as all is over," and Prince Vasili sighed to intimate what he meant by
4567 the words all is over, "and the count's papers are opened, the will and
4568 letter will be delivered to the Emperor, and the petition will certainly
4569 be granted. Pierre will get everything as the legitimate son."
4571 "And our share?" asked the princess smiling ironically, as if anything
4572 might happen, only not that.
4574 "But, my poor Catiche, it is as clear as daylight! He will then be the
4575 legal heir to everything and you won't get anything. You must know, my
4576 dear, whether the will and letter were written, and whether they have
4577 been destroyed or not. And if they have somehow been overlooked, you
4578 ought to know where they are, and must find them, because..."
4580 "What next?" the princess interrupted, smiling sardonically and not
4581 changing the expression of her eyes. "I am a woman, and you think we are
4582 all stupid; but I know this: an illegitimate son cannot inherit... un
4583 batard!" * she added, as if supposing that this translation of the word
4584 would effectively prove to Prince Vasili the invalidity of his
4590 "Well, really, Catiche! Can't you understand! You are so intelligent,
4591 how is it you don't see that if the count has written a letter to the
4592 Emperor begging him to recognize Pierre as legitimate, it follows that
4593 Pierre will not be Pierre but will become Count Bezukhov, and will then
4594 inherit everything under the will? And if the will and letter are not
4595 destroyed, then you will have nothing but the consolation of having been
4596 dutiful et tout ce qui s'ensuit! * That's certain."
4599 * And all that follows therefrom.
4601 "I know the will was made, but I also know that it is invalid; and you,
4602 mon cousin, seem to consider me a perfect fool," said the princess with
4603 the expression women assume when they suppose they are saying something
4606 "My dear Princess Catherine Semenovna," began Prince Vasili impatiently,
4607 "I came here not to wrangle with you, but to talk about your interests
4608 as with a kinswoman, a good, kind, true relation. And I tell you for the
4609 tenth time that if the letter to the Emperor and the will in Pierre's
4610 favor are among the count's papers, then, my dear girl, you and your
4611 sisters are not heiresses! If you don't believe me, then believe an
4612 expert. I have just been talking to Dmitri Onufrich" (the family
4613 solicitor) "and he says the same."
4615 At this a sudden change evidently took place in the princess' ideas; her
4616 thin lips grew white, though her eyes did not change, and her voice when
4617 she began to speak passed through such transitions as she herself
4618 evidently did not expect.
4620 "That would be a fine thing!" said she. "I never wanted anything and I
4623 She pushed the little dog off her lap and smoothed her dress.
4625 "And this is gratitude--this is recognition for those who have
4626 sacrificed everything for his sake!" she cried. "It's splendid! Fine! I
4627 don't want anything, Prince."
4629 "Yes, but you are not the only one. There are your sisters..." replied
4632 But the princess did not listen to him.
4634 "Yes, I knew it long ago but had forgotten. I knew that I could expect
4635 nothing but meanness, deceit, envy, intrigue, and ingratitude--the
4636 blackest ingratitude--in this house..."
4638 "Do you or do you not know where that will is?" insisted Prince Vasili,
4639 his cheeks twitching more than ever.
4641 "Yes, I was a fool! I still believed in people, loved them, and
4642 sacrificed myself. But only the base, the vile succeed! I know who has
4645 The princess wished to rise, but the prince held her by the hand. She
4646 had the air of one who has suddenly lost faith in the whole human race.
4647 She gave her companion an angry glance.
4649 "There is still time, my dear. You must remember, Catiche, that it was
4650 all done casually in a moment of anger, of illness, and was afterwards
4651 forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to rectify his mistake, to ease his
4652 last moments by not letting him commit this injustice, and not to let
4653 him die feeling that he is rendering unhappy those who..."
4655 "Who sacrificed everything for him," chimed in the princess, who would
4656 again have risen had not the prince still held her fast, "though he
4657 never could appreciate it. No, mon cousin," she added with a sigh, "I
4658 shall always remember that in this world one must expect no reward, that
4659 in this world there is neither honor nor justice. In this world one has
4660 to be cunning and cruel."
4662 "Now come, come! Be reasonable. I know your excellent heart."
4664 "No, I have a wicked heart."
4666 "I know your heart," repeated the prince. "I value your friendship and
4667 wish you to have as good an opinion of me. Don't upset yourself, and let
4668 us talk sensibly while there is still time, be it a day or be it but an
4669 hour.... Tell me all you know about the will, and above all where it is.
4670 You must know. We will take it at once and show it to the count. He has,
4671 no doubt, forgotten it and will wish to destroy it. You understand that
4672 my sole desire is conscientiously to carry out his wishes; that is my
4673 only reason for being here. I came simply to help him and you."
4675 "Now I see it all! I know who has been intriguing--I know!" cried the
4678 "That's not the point, my dear."
4680 "It's that protege of yours, that sweet Princess Drubetskaya, that Anna
4681 Mikhaylovna whom I would not take for a housemaid... the infamous, vile
4684 "Do not let us lose any time..."
4686 "Ah, don't talk to me! Last winter she wheedled herself in here and told
4687 the count such vile, disgraceful things about us, especially about
4688 Sophie--I can't repeat them--that it made the count quite ill and he
4689 would not see us for a whole fortnight. I know it was then he wrote this
4690 vile, infamous paper, but I thought the thing was invalid."
4692 "We've got to it at last--why did you not tell me about it sooner?"
4694 "It's in the inlaid portfolio that he keeps under his pillow," said the
4695 princess, ignoring his question. "Now I know! Yes; if I have a sin, a
4696 great sin, it is hatred of that vile woman!" almost shrieked the
4697 princess, now quite changed. "And what does she come worming herself in
4698 here for? But I will give her a piece of my mind. The time will come!"
4705 While these conversations were going on in the reception room and the
4706 princess' room, a carriage containing Pierre (who had been sent for) and
4707 Anna Mikhaylovna (who found it necessary to accompany him) was driving
4708 into the court of Count Bezukhov's house. As the wheels rolled softly
4709 over the straw beneath the windows, Anna Mikhaylovna, having turned with
4710 words of comfort to her companion, realized that he was asleep in his
4711 corner and woke him up. Rousing himself, Pierre followed Anna
4712 Mikhaylovna out of the carriage, and only then began to think of the
4713 interview with his dying father which awaited him. He noticed that they
4714 had not come to the front entrance but to the back door. While he was
4715 getting down from the carriage steps two men, who looked like
4716 tradespeople, ran hurriedly from the entrance and hid in the shadow of
4717 the wall. Pausing for a moment, Pierre noticed several other men of the
4718 same kind hiding in the shadow of the house on both sides. But neither
4719 Anna Mikhaylovna nor the footman nor the coachman, who could not help
4720 seeing these people, took any notice of them. "It seems to be all
4721 right," Pierre concluded, and followed Anna Mikhaylovna. She hurriedly
4722 ascended the narrow dimly lit stone staircase, calling to Pierre, who
4723 was lagging behind, to follow. Though he did not see why it was
4724 necessary for him to go to the count at all, still less why he had to go
4725 by the back stairs, yet judging by Anna Mikhaylovna's air of assurance
4726 and haste, Pierre concluded that it was all absolutely necessary.
4727 Halfway up the stairs they were almost knocked over by some men who,
4728 carrying pails, came running downstairs, their boots clattering. These
4729 men pressed close to the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna pass
4730 and did not evince the least surprise at seeing them there.
4732 "Is this the way to the princesses' apartments?" asked Anna Mikhaylovna
4735 "Yes," replied a footman in a bold loud voice, as if anything were now
4736 permissible; "the door to the left, ma'am."
4738 "Perhaps the count did not ask for me," said Pierre when he reached the
4739 landing. "I'd better go to my own room."
4741 Anna Mikhaylovna paused and waited for him to come up.
4743 "Ah, my friend!" she said, touching his arm as she had done her son's
4744 when speaking to him that afternoon, "believe me I suffer no less than
4745 you do, but be a man!"
4747 "But really, hadn't I better go away?" he asked, looking kindly at her
4748 over his spectacles.
4750 "Ah, my dear friend! Forget the wrongs that may have been done you.
4751 Think that he is your father... perhaps in the agony of death." She
4752 sighed. "I have loved you like a son from the first. Trust yourself to
4753 me, Pierre. I shall not forget your interests."
4755 Pierre did not understand a word, but the conviction that all this had
4756 to be grew stronger, and he meekly followed Anna Mikhaylovna who was
4757 already opening a door.
4759 This door led into a back anteroom. An old man, a servant of the
4760 princesses, sat in a corner knitting a stocking. Pierre had never been
4761 in this part of the house and did not even know of the existence of
4762 these rooms. Anna Mikhaylovna, addressing a maid who was hurrying past
4763 with a decanter on a tray as "my dear" and "my sweet," asked about the
4764 princess' health and then led Pierre along a stone passage. The first
4765 door on the left led into the princesses' apartments. The maid with the
4766 decanter in her haste had not closed the door (everything in the house
4767 was done in haste at that time), and Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna in
4768 passing instinctively glanced into the room, where Prince Vasili and the
4769 eldest princess were sitting close together talking. Seeing them pass,
4770 Prince Vasili drew back with obvious impatience, while the princess
4771 jumped up and with a gesture of desperation slammed the door with all
4774 This action was so unlike her usual composure and the fear depicted on
4775 Prince Vasili's face so out of keeping with his dignity that Pierre
4776 stopped and glanced inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide. Anna
4777 Mikhaylovna evinced no surprise, she only smiled faintly and sighed, as
4778 if to say that this was no more than she had expected.
4780 "Be a man, my friend. I will look after your interests," said she in
4781 reply to his look, and went still faster along the passage.
4783 Pierre could not make out what it was all about, and still less what
4784 "watching over his interests" meant, but he decided that all these
4785 things had to be. From the passage they went into a large, dimly lit
4786 room adjoining the count's reception room. It was one of those sumptuous
4787 but cold apartments known to Pierre only from the front approach, but
4788 even in this room there now stood an empty bath, and water had been
4789 spilled on the carpet. They were met by a deacon with a censer and by a
4790 servant who passed out on tiptoe without heeding them. They went into
4791 the reception room familiar to Pierre, with two Italian windows opening
4792 into the conservatory, with its large bust and full length portrait of
4793 Catherine the Great. The same people were still sitting here in almost
4794 the same positions as before, whispering to one another. All became
4795 silent and turned to look at the pale tear-worn Anna Mikhaylovna as she
4796 entered, and at the big stout figure of Pierre who, hanging his head,
4797 meekly followed her.
4799 Anna Mikhaylovna's face expressed a consciousness that the decisive
4800 moment had arrived. With the air of a practical Petersburg lady she now,
4801 keeping Pierre close beside her, entered the room even more boldly than
4802 that afternoon. She felt that as she brought with her the person the
4803 dying man wished to see, her own admission was assured. Casting a rapid
4804 glance at all those in the room and noticing the count's confessor
4805 there, she glided up to him with a sort of amble, not exactly bowing yet
4806 seeming to grow suddenly smaller, and respectfully received the blessing
4807 first of one and then of another priest.
4809 "God be thanked that you are in time," said she to one of the priests;
4810 "all we relatives have been in such anxiety. This young man is the
4811 count's son," she added more softly. "What a terrible moment!"
4813 Having said this she went up to the doctor.
4815 "Dear doctor," said she, "this young man is the count's son. Is there
4818 The doctor cast a rapid glance upwards and silently shrugged his
4819 shoulders. Anna Mikhaylovna with just the same movement raised her
4820 shoulders and eyes, almost closing the latter, sighed, and moved away
4821 from the doctor to Pierre. To him, in a particularly respectful and
4822 tenderly sad voice, she said:
4824 "Trust in His mercy!" and pointing out a small sofa for him to sit and
4825 wait for her, she went silently toward the door that everyone was
4826 watching and it creaked very slightly as she disappeared behind it.
4828 Pierre, having made up his mind to obey his monitress implicitly, moved
4829 toward the sofa she had indicated. As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna had
4830 disappeared he noticed that the eyes of all in the room turned to him
4831 with something more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that they
4832 whispered to one another, casting significant looks at him with a kind
4833 of awe and even servility. A deference such as he had never before
4834 received was shown him. A strange lady, the one who had been talking to
4835 the priests, rose and offered him her seat; an aide-de-camp picked up
4836 and returned a glove Pierre had dropped; the doctors became respectfully
4837 silent as he passed by, and moved to make way for him. At first Pierre
4838 wished to take another seat so as not to trouble the lady, and also to
4839 pick up the glove himself and to pass round the doctors who were not
4840 even in his way; but all at once he felt that this would not do, and
4841 that tonight he was a person obliged to perform some sort of awful rite
4842 which everyone expected of him, and that he was therefore bound to
4843 accept their services. He took the glove in silence from the aide-de-
4844 camp, and sat down in the lady's chair, placing his huge hands
4845 symmetrically on his knees in the naive attitude of an Egyptian statue,
4846 and decided in his own mind that all was as it should be, and that in
4847 order not to lose his head and do foolish things he must not act on his
4848 own ideas tonight, but must yield himself up entirely to the will of
4849 those who were guiding him.
4851 Not two minutes had passed before Prince Vasili with head erect
4852 majestically entered the room. He was wearing his long coat with three
4853 stars on his breast. He seemed to have grown thinner since the morning;
4854 his eyes seemed larger than usual when he glanced round and noticed
4855 Pierre. He went up to him, took his hand (a thing he never used to do),
4856 and drew it downwards as if wishing to ascertain whether it was firmly
4859 "Courage, courage, my friend! He has asked to see you. That is well!"
4860 and he turned to go.
4862 But Pierre thought it necessary to ask: "How is..." and hesitated, not
4863 knowing whether it would be proper to call the dying man "the count,"
4864 yet ashamed to call him "father."
4866 "He had another stroke about half an hour ago. Courage, my friend..."
4868 Pierre's mind was in such a confused state that the word "stroke"
4869 suggested to him a blow from something. He looked at Prince Vasili in
4870 perplexity, and only later grasped that a stroke was an attack of
4871 illness. Prince Vasili said something to Lorrain in passing and went
4872 through the door on tiptoe. He could not walk well on tiptoe and his
4873 whole body jerked at each step. The eldest princess followed him, and
4874 the priests and deacons and some servants also went in at the door.
4875 Through that door was heard a noise of things being moved about, and at
4876 last Anna Mikhaylovna, still with the same expression, pale but resolute
4877 in the discharge of duty, ran out and touching Pierre lightly on the arm
4880 "The divine mercy is inexhaustible! Unction is about to be administered.
4883 Pierre went in at the door, stepping on the soft carpet, and noticed
4884 that the strange lady, the aide-de-camp, and some of the servants, all
4885 followed him in, as if there were now no further need for permission to
4893 Pierre well knew this large room divided by columns and an arch, its
4894 walls hung round with Persian carpets. The part of the room behind the
4895 columns, with a high silk-curtained mahogany bedstead on one side and on
4896 the other an immense case containing icons, was brightly illuminated
4897 with red light like a Russian church during evening service. Under the
4898 gleaming icons stood a long invalid chair, and in that chair on snowy-
4899 white smooth pillows, evidently freshly changed, Pierre saw--covered to
4900 the waist by a bright green quilt--the familiar, majestic figure of his
4901 father, Count Bezukhov, with that gray mane of hair above his broad
4902 forehead which reminded one of a lion, and the deep characteristically
4903 noble wrinkles of his handsome, ruddy face. He lay just under the icons;
4904 his large thick hands outside the quilt. Into the right hand, which was
4905 lying palm downwards, a wax taper had been thrust between forefinger and
4906 thumb, and an old servant, bending over from behind the chair, held it
4907 in position. By the chair stood the priests, their long hair falling
4908 over their magnificent glittering vestments, with lighted tapers in
4909 their hands, slowly and solemnly conducting the service. A little behind
4910 them stood the two younger princesses holding handkerchiefs to their
4911 eyes, and just in front of them their eldest sister, Catiche, with a
4912 vicious and determined look steadily fixed on the icons, as though
4913 declaring to all that she could not answer for herself should she glance
4914 round. Anna Mikhaylovna, with a meek, sorrowful, and all-forgiving
4915 expression on her face, stood by the door near the strange lady. Prince
4916 Vasili in front of the door, near the invalid chair, a wax taper in his
4917 left hand, was leaning his left arm on the carved back of a velvet chair
4918 he had turned round for the purpose, and was crossing himself with his
4919 right hand, turning his eyes upward each time he touched his forehead.
4920 His face wore a calm look of piety and resignation to the will of God.
4921 "If you do not understand these sentiments," he seemed to be saying, "so
4922 much the worse for you!"
4924 Behind him stood the aide-de-camp, the doctors, and the menservants; the
4925 men and women had separated as in church. All were silently crossing
4926 themselves, and the reading of the church service, the subdued chanting
4927 of deep bass voices, and in the intervals sighs and the shuffling of
4928 feet were the only sounds that could be heard. Anna Mikhaylovna, with an
4929 air of importance that showed that she felt she quite knew what she was
4930 about, went across the room to where Pierre was standing and gave him a
4931 taper. He lit it and, distracted by observing those around him, began
4932 crossing himself with the hand that held the taper.
4934 Sophie, the rosy, laughter-loving, youngest princess with the mole,
4935 watched him. She smiled, hid her face in her handkerchief, and remained
4936 with it hidden for awhile; then looking up and seeing Pierre she again
4937 began to laugh. She evidently felt unable to look at him without
4938 laughing, but could not resist looking at him: so to be out of
4939 temptation she slipped quietly behind one of the columns. In the midst
4940 of the service the voices of the priests suddenly ceased, they whispered
4941 to one another, and the old servant who was holding the count's hand got
4942 up and said something to the ladies. Anna Mikhaylovna stepped forward
4943 and, stooping over the dying man, beckoned to Lorrain from behind her
4944 back. The French doctor held no taper; he was leaning against one of the
4945 columns in a respectful attitude implying that he, a foreigner, in spite
4946 of all differences of faith, understood the full importance of the rite
4947 now being performed and even approved of it. He now approached the sick
4948 man with the noiseless step of one in full vigor of life, with his
4949 delicate white fingers raised from the green quilt the hand that was
4950 free, and turning sideways felt the pulse and reflected a moment. The
4951 sick man was given something to drink, there was a stir around him, then
4952 the people resumed their places and the service continued. During this
4953 interval Pierre noticed that Prince Vasili left the chair on which he
4954 had been leaning, and--with an air which intimated that he knew what he
4955 was about and if others did not understand him it was so much the worse
4956 for them--did not go up to the dying man, but passed by him, joined the
4957 eldest princess, and moved with her to the side of the room where stood
4958 the high bedstead with its silken hangings. On leaving the bed both
4959 Prince Vasili and the princess passed out by a back door, but returned
4960 to their places one after the other before the service was concluded.
4961 Pierre paid no more attention to this occurrence than to the rest of
4962 what went on, having made up his mind once for all that what he saw
4963 happening around him that evening was in some way essential.
4965 The chanting of the service ceased, and the voice of the priest was
4966 heard respectfully congratulating the dying man on having received the
4967 sacrament. The dying man lay as lifeless and immovable as before. Around
4968 him everyone began to stir: steps were audible and whispers, among which
4969 Anna Mikhaylovna's was the most distinct.
4971 Pierre heard her say:
4973 "Certainly he must be moved onto the bed; here it will be impossible..."
4975 The sick man was so surrounded by doctors, princesses, and servants that
4976 Pierre could no longer see the reddish-yellow face with its gray mane--
4977 which, though he saw other faces as well, he had not lost sight of for a
4978 single moment during the whole service. He judged by the cautious
4979 movements of those who crowded round the invalid chair that they had
4980 lifted the dying man and were moving him.
4982 "Catch hold of my arm or you'll drop him!" he heard one of the servants
4983 say in a frightened whisper. "Catch hold from underneath. Here!"
4984 exclaimed different voices; and the heavy breathing of the bearers and
4985 the shuffling of their feet grew more hurried, as if the weight they
4986 were carrying were too much for them.
4988 As the bearers, among whom was Anna Mikhaylovna, passed the young man he
4989 caught a momentary glimpse between their heads and backs of the dying
4990 man's high, stout, uncovered chest and powerful shoulders, raised by
4991 those who were holding him under the armpits, and of his gray, curly,
4992 leonine head. This head, with its remarkably broad brow and cheekbones,
4993 its handsome, sensual mouth, and its cold, majestic expression, was not
4994 disfigured by the approach of death. It was the same as Pierre
4995 remembered it three months before, when the count had sent him to
4996 Petersburg. But now this head was swaying helplessly with the uneven
4997 movements of the bearers, and the cold listless gaze fixed itself upon
5000 After a few minutes' bustle beside the high bedstead, those who had
5001 carried the sick man dispersed. Anna Mikhaylovna touched Pierre's hand
5002 and said, "Come." Pierre went with her to the bed on which the sick man
5003 had been laid in a stately pose in keeping with the ceremony just
5004 completed. He lay with his head propped high on the pillows. His hands
5005 were symmetrically placed on the green silk quilt, the palms downward.
5006 When Pierre came up the count was gazing straight at him, but with a
5007 look the significance of which could not be understood by mortal man.
5008 Either this look meant nothing but that as long as one has eyes they
5009 must look somewhere, or it meant too much. Pierre hesitated, not knowing
5010 what to do, and glanced inquiringly at his guide. Anna Mikhaylovna made
5011 a hurried sign with her eyes, glancing at the sick man's hand and moving
5012 her lips as if to send it a kiss. Pierre, carefully stretching his neck
5013 so as not to touch the quilt, followed her suggestion and pressed his
5014 lips to the large boned, fleshy hand. Neither the hand nor a single
5015 muscle of the count's face stirred. Once more Pierre looked
5016 questioningly at Anna Mikhaylovna to see what he was to do next. Anna
5017 Mikhaylovna with her eyes indicated a chair that stood beside the bed.
5018 Pierre obediently sat down, his eyes asking if he were doing right. Anna
5019 Mikhaylovna nodded approvingly. Again Pierre fell into the naively
5020 symmetrical pose of an Egyptian statue, evidently distressed that his
5021 stout and clumsy body took up so much room and doing his utmost to look
5022 as small as possible. He looked at the count, who still gazed at the
5023 spot where Pierre's face had been before he sat down. Anna Mikhaylovna
5024 indicated by her attitude her consciousness of the pathetic importance
5025 of these last moments of meeting between the father and son. This lasted
5026 about two minutes, which to Pierre seemed an hour. Suddenly the broad
5027 muscles and lines of the count's face began to twitch. The twitching
5028 increased, the handsome mouth was drawn to one side (only now did Pierre
5029 realize how near death his father was), and from that distorted mouth
5030 issued an indistinct, hoarse sound. Anna Mikhaylovna looked attentively
5031 at the sick man's eyes, trying to guess what he wanted; she pointed
5032 first to Pierre, then to some drink, then named Prince Vasili in an
5033 inquiring whisper, then pointed to the quilt. The eyes and face of the
5034 sick man showed impatience. He made an effort to look at the servant who
5035 stood constantly at the head of the bed.
5037 "Wants to turn on the other side," whispered the servant, and got up to
5038 turn the count's heavy body toward the wall.
5040 Pierre rose to help him.
5042 While the count was being turned over, one of his arms fell back
5043 helplessly and he made a fruitless effort to pull it forward. Whether he
5044 noticed the look of terror with which Pierre regarded that lifeless arm,
5045 or whether some other thought flitted across his dying brain, at any
5046 rate he glanced at the refractory arm, at Pierre's terror-stricken face,
5047 and again at the arm, and on his face a feeble, piteous smile appeared,
5048 quite out of keeping with his features, that seemed to deride his own
5049 helplessness. At sight of this smile Pierre felt an unexpected quivering
5050 in his breast and a tickling in his nose, and tears dimmed his eyes. The
5051 sick man was turned on to his side with his face to the wall. He sighed.
5053 "He is dozing," said Anna Mikhaylovna, observing that one of the
5054 princesses was coming to take her turn at watching. "Let us go."
5063 There was now no one in the reception room except Prince Vasili and the
5064 eldest princess, who were sitting under the portrait of Catherine the
5065 Great and talking eagerly. As soon as they saw Pierre and his companion
5066 they became silent, and Pierre thought he saw the princess hide
5067 something as she whispered:
5069 "I can't bear the sight of that woman."
5071 "Catiche has had tea served in the small drawing room," said Prince
5072 Vasili to Anna Mikhaylovna. "Go and take something, my poor Anna
5073 Mikhaylovna, or you will not hold out."
5075 To Pierre he said nothing, merely giving his arm a sympathetic squeeze
5076 below the shoulder. Pierre went with Anna Mikhaylovna into the small
5079 "There is nothing so refreshing after a sleepless night as a cup of this
5080 delicious Russian tea," Lorrain was saying with an air of restrained
5081 animation as he stood sipping tea from a delicate Chinese handleless cup
5082 before a table on which tea and a cold supper were laid in the small
5083 circular room. Around the table all who were at Count Bezukhov's house
5084 that night had gathered to fortify themselves. Pierre well remembered
5085 this small circular drawing room with its mirrors and little tables.
5086 During balls given at the house Pierre, who did not know how to dance,
5087 had liked sitting in this room to watch the ladies who, as they passed
5088 through in their ball dresses with diamonds and pearls on their bare
5089 shoulders, looked at themselves in the brilliantly lighted mirrors which
5090 repeated their reflections several times. Now this same room was dimly
5091 lighted by two candles. On one small table tea things and supper dishes
5092 stood in disorder, and in the middle of the night a motley throng of
5093 people sat there, not merrymaking, but somberly whispering, and
5094 betraying by every word and movement that they none of them forgot what
5095 was happening and what was about to happen in the bedroom. Pierre did
5096 not eat anything though he would very much have liked to. He looked
5097 inquiringly at his monitress and saw that she was again going on tiptoe
5098 to the reception room where they had left Prince Vasili and the eldest
5099 princess. Pierre concluded that this also was essential, and after a
5100 short interval followed her. Anna Mikhaylovna was standing beside the
5101 princess, and they were both speaking in excited whispers.
5103 "Permit me, Princess, to know what is necessary and what is not
5104 necessary," said the younger of the two speakers, evidently in the same
5105 state of excitement as when she had slammed the door of her room.
5107 "But, my dear princess," answered Anna Mikhaylovna blandly but
5108 impressively, blocking the way to the bedroom and preventing the other
5109 from passing, "won't this be too much for poor Uncle at a moment when he
5110 needs repose? Worldly conversation at a moment when his soul is already
5113 Prince Vasili was seated in an easy chair in his familiar attitude, with
5114 one leg crossed high above the other. His cheeks, which were so flabby
5115 that they looked heavier below, were twitching violently; but he wore
5116 the air of a man little concerned in what the two ladies were saying.
5118 "Come, my dear Anna Mikhaylovna, let Catiche do as she pleases. You know
5119 how fond the count is of her."
5121 "I don't even know what is in this paper," said the younger of the two
5122 ladies, addressing Prince Vasili and pointing to an inlaid portfolio she
5123 held in her hand. "All I know is that his real will is in his writing
5124 table, and this is a paper he has forgotten...."
5126 She tried to pass Anna Mikhaylovna, but the latter sprang so as to bar
5129 "I know, my dear, kind princess," said Anna Mikhaylovna, seizing the
5130 portfolio so firmly that it was plain she would not let go easily. "Dear
5131 princess, I beg and implore you, have some pity on him! Je vous en
5134 The princess did not reply. Their efforts in the struggle for the
5135 portfolio were the only sounds audible, but it was evident that if the
5136 princess did speak, her words would not be flattering to Anna
5137 Mikhaylovna. Though the latter held on tenaciously, her voice lost none
5138 of its honeyed firmness and softness.
5140 "Pierre, my dear, come here. I think he will not be out of place in a
5141 family consultation; is it not so, Prince?"
5143 "Why don't you speak, cousin?" suddenly shrieked the princess so loud
5144 that those in the drawing room heard her and were startled. "Why do you
5145 remain silent when heaven knows who permits herself to interfere, making
5146 a scene on the very threshold of a dying man's room? Intriguer!" she
5147 hissed viciously, and tugged with all her might at the portfolio.
5149 But Anna Mikhaylovna went forward a step or two to keep her hold on the
5150 portfolio, and changed her grip.
5152 Prince Vasili rose. "Oh!" said he with reproach and surprise, "this is
5153 absurd! Come, let go I tell you."
5155 The princess let go.
5159 But Anna Mikhaylovna did not obey him.
5161 "Let go, I tell you! I will take the responsibility. I myself will go
5162 and ask him, I!... does that satisfy you?"
5164 "But, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna, "after such a solemn sacrament,
5165 allow him a moment's peace! Here, Pierre, tell them your opinion," said
5166 she, turning to the young man who, having come quite close, was gazing
5167 with astonishment at the angry face of the princess which had lost all
5168 dignity, and at the twitching cheeks of Prince Vasili.
5170 "Remember that you will answer for the consequences," said Prince Vasili
5171 severely. "You don't know what you are doing."
5173 "Vile woman!" shouted the princess, darting unexpectedly at Anna
5174 Mikhaylovna and snatching the portfolio from her.
5176 Prince Vasili bent his head and spread out his hands.
5178 At this moment that terrible door, which Pierre had watched so long and
5179 which had always opened so quietly, burst noisily open and banged
5180 against the wall, and the second of the three sisters rushed out
5183 "What are you doing!" she cried vehemently. "He is dying and you leave
5186 Her sister dropped the portfolio. Anna Mikhaylovna, stooping, quickly
5187 caught up the object of contention and ran into the bedroom. The eldest
5188 princess and Prince Vasili, recovering themselves, followed her. A few
5189 minutes later the eldest sister came out with a pale hard face, again
5190 biting her underlip. At sight of Pierre her expression showed an
5191 irrepressible hatred.
5193 "Yes, now you may be glad!" said she; "this is what you have been
5194 waiting for." And bursting into tears she hid her face in her
5195 handkerchief and rushed from the room.
5197 Prince Vasili came next. He staggered to the sofa on which Pierre was
5198 sitting and dropped onto it, covering his face with his hand. Pierre
5199 noticed that he was pale and that his jaw quivered and shook as if in an
5202 "Ah, my friend!" said he, taking Pierre by the elbow; and there was in
5203 his voice a sincerity and weakness Pierre had never observed in it
5204 before. "How often we sin, how much we deceive, and all for what? I am
5205 near sixty, dear friend... I too... All will end in death, all! Death is
5206 awful..." and he burst into tears.
5208 Anna Mikhaylovna came out last. She approached Pierre with slow, quiet
5213 Pierre gave her an inquiring look. She kissed the young man on his
5214 forehead, wetting him with her tears. Then after a pause she said:
5218 Pierre looked at her over his spectacles.
5220 "Come, I will go with you. Try to weep, nothing gives such relief as
5223 She led him into the dark drawing room and Pierre was glad no one could
5224 see his face. Anna Mikhaylovna left him, and when she returned he was
5225 fast asleep with his head on his arm.
5227 In the morning Anna Mikhaylovna said to Pierre:
5229 "Yes, my dear, this is a great loss for us all, not to speak of you. But
5230 God will support you: you are young, and are now, I hope, in command of
5231 an immense fortune. The will has not yet been opened. I know you well
5232 enough to be sure that this will not turn your head, but it imposes
5233 duties on you, and you must be a man."
5237 "Perhaps later on I may tell you, my dear boy, that if I had not been
5238 there, God only knows what would have happened! You know, Uncle promised
5239 me only the day before yesterday not to forget Boris. But he had no
5240 time. I hope, my dear friend, you will carry out your father's wish?"
5242 Pierre understood nothing of all this and coloring shyly looked in
5243 silence at Princess Anna Mikhaylovna. After her talk with Pierre, Anna
5244 Mikhaylovna returned to the Rostovs' and went to bed. On waking in the
5245 morning she told the Rostovs and all her acquaintances the details of
5246 Count Bezukhov's death. She said the count had died as she would herself
5247 wish to die, that his end was not only touching but edifying. As to the
5248 last meeting between father and son, it was so touching that she could
5249 not think of it without tears, and did not know which had behaved better
5250 during those awful moments--the father who so remembered everything and
5251 everybody at last and had spoken such pathetic words to the son, or
5252 Pierre, whom it had been pitiful to see, so stricken was he with grief,
5253 though he tried hard to hide it in order not to sadden his dying father.
5254 "It is painful, but it does one good. It uplifts the soul to see such
5255 men as the old count and his worthy son," said she. Of the behavior of
5256 the eldest princess and Prince Vasili she spoke disapprovingly, but in
5257 whispers and as a great secret.
5264 At Bald Hills, Prince Nicholas Andreevich Bolkonski's estate, the
5265 arrival of young Prince Andrew and his wife was daily expected, but this
5266 expectation did not upset the regular routine of life in the old
5267 prince's household. General in Chief Prince Nicholas Andreevich
5268 (nicknamed in society, "the King of Prussia") ever since the Emperor
5269 Paul had exiled him to his country estate had lived there continuously
5270 with his daughter, Princess Mary, and her companion, Mademoiselle
5271 Bourienne. Though in the new reign he was free to return to the
5272 capitals, he still continued to live in the country, remarking that
5273 anyone who wanted to see him could come the hundred miles from Moscow to
5274 Bald Hills, while he himself needed no one and nothing. He used to say
5275 that there are only two sources of human vice--idleness and
5276 superstition, and only two virtues--activity and intelligence. He
5277 himself undertook his daughter's education, and to develop these two
5278 cardinal virtues in her gave her lessons in algebra and geometry till
5279 she was twenty, and arranged her life so that her whole time was
5280 occupied. He was himself always occupied: writing his memoirs, solving
5281 problems in higher mathematics, turning snuffboxes on a lathe, working
5282 in the garden, or superintending the building that was always going on
5283 at his estate. As regularity is a prime condition facilitating activity,
5284 regularity in his household was carried to the highest point of
5285 exactitude. He always came to table under precisely the same conditions,
5286 and not only at the same hour but at the same minute. With those about
5287 him, from his daughter to his serfs, the prince was sharp and invariably
5288 exacting, so that without being a hardhearted man he inspired such fear
5289 and respect as few hardhearted men would have aroused. Although he was
5290 in retirement and had now no influence in political affairs, every high
5291 official appointed to the province in which the prince's estate lay
5292 considered it his duty to visit him and waited in the lofty antechamber
5293 just as the architect, gardener, or Princess Mary did, till the prince
5294 appeared punctually to the appointed hour. Everyone sitting in this
5295 antechamber experienced the same feeling of respect and even fear when
5296 the enormously high study door opened and showed the figure of a rather
5297 small old man, with powdered wig, small withered hands, and bushy gray
5298 eyebrows which, when he frowned, sometimes hid the gleam of his shrewd,
5299 youthfully glittering eyes.
5301 On the morning of the day that the young couple were to arrive, Princess
5302 Mary entered the antechamber as usual at the time appointed for the
5303 morning greeting, crossing herself with trepidation and repeating a
5304 silent prayer. Every morning she came in like that, and every morning
5305 prayed that the daily interview might pass off well.
5307 An old powdered manservant who was sitting in the antechamber rose
5308 quietly and said in a whisper: "Please walk in."
5310 Through the door came the regular hum of a lathe. The princess timidly
5311 opened the door which moved noiselessly and easily. She paused at the
5312 entrance. The prince was working at the lathe and after glancing round
5315 The enormous study was full of things evidently in constant use. The
5316 large table covered with books and plans, the tall glass-fronted
5317 bookcases with keys in the locks, the high desk for writing while
5318 standing up, on which lay an open exercise book, and the lathe with
5319 tools laid ready to hand and shavings scattered around--all indicated
5320 continuous, varied, and orderly activity. The motion of the small foot
5321 shod in a Tartar boot embroidered with silver, and the firm pressure of
5322 the lean sinewy hand, showed that the prince still possessed the
5323 tenacious endurance and vigor of hardy old age. After a few more turns
5324 of the lathe he removed his foot from the pedal, wiped his chisel,
5325 dropped it into a leather pouch attached to the lathe, and, approaching
5326 the table, summoned his daughter. He never gave his children a blessing,
5327 so he simply held out his bristly cheek (as yet unshaven) and, regarding
5328 her tenderly and attentively, said severely:
5330 "Quite well? All right then, sit down." He took the exercise book
5331 containing lessons in geometry written by himself and drew up a chair
5334 "For tomorrow!" said he, quickly finding the page and making a scratch
5335 from one paragraph to another with his hard nail.
5337 The princess bent over the exercise book on the table.
5339 "Wait a bit, here's a letter for you," said the old man suddenly, taking
5340 a letter addressed in a woman's hand from a bag hanging above the table,
5341 onto which he threw it.
5343 At the sight of the letter red patches showed themselves on the
5344 princess' face. She took it quickly and bent her head over it.
5346 "From Heloise?" asked the prince with a cold smile that showed his still
5347 sound, yellowish teeth.
5349 "Yes, it's from Julie," replied the princess with a timid glance and a
5352 "I'll let two more letters pass, but the third I'll read," said the
5353 prince sternly; "I'm afraid you write much nonsense. I'll read the
5356 "Read this if you like, Father," said the princess, blushing still more
5357 and holding out the letter.
5359 "The third, I said the third!" cried the prince abruptly, pushing the
5360 letter away, and leaning his elbows on the table he drew toward him the
5361 exercise book containing geometrical figures.
5363 "Well, madam," he began, stooping over the book close to his daughter
5364 and placing an arm on the back of the chair on which she sat, so that
5365 she felt herself surrounded on all sides by the acrid scent of old age
5366 and tobacco, which she had known so long. "Now, madam, these triangles
5367 are equal; please note that the angle ABC..."
5369 The princess looked in a scared way at her father's eyes glittering
5370 close to her; the red patches on her face came and went, and it was
5371 plain that she understood nothing and was so frightened that her fear
5372 would prevent her understanding any of her father's further
5373 explanations, however clear they might be. Whether it was the teacher's
5374 fault or the pupil's, this same thing happened every day: the princess'
5375 eyes grew dim, she could not see and could not hear anything, but was
5376 only conscious of her stern father's withered face close to her, of his
5377 breath and the smell of him, and could think only of how to get away
5378 quickly to her own room to make out the problem in peace. The old man
5379 was beside himself: moved the chair on which he was sitting noisily
5380 backward and forward, made efforts to control himself and not become
5381 vehement, but almost always did become vehement, scolded, and sometimes
5382 flung the exercise book away.
5384 The princess gave a wrong answer.
5386 "Well now, isn't she a fool!" shouted the prince, pushing the book aside
5387 and turning sharply away; but rising immediately, he paced up and down,
5388 lightly touched his daughter's hair and sat down again.
5390 He drew up his chair, and continued to explain.
5392 "This won't do, Princess; it won't do," said he, when Princess Mary,
5393 having taken and closed the exercise book with the next day's lesson,
5394 was about to leave: "Mathematics are most important, madam! I don't want
5395 to have you like our silly ladies. Get used to it and you'll like it,"
5396 and he patted her cheek. "It will drive all the nonsense out of your
5399 She turned to go, but he stopped her with a gesture and took an uncut
5400 book from the high desk.
5402 "Here is some sort of Key to the Mysteries that your Heloise has sent
5403 you. Religious! I don't interfere with anyone's belief... I have looked
5404 at it. Take it. Well, now go. Go."
5406 He patted her on the shoulder and himself closed the door after her.
5408 Princess Mary went back to her room with the sad, scared expression that
5409 rarely left her and which made her plain, sickly face yet plainer. She
5410 sat down at her writing table, on which stood miniature portraits and
5411 which was littered with books and papers. The princess was as untidy as
5412 her father was tidy. She put down the geometry book and eagerly broke
5413 the seal of her letter. It was from her most intimate friend from
5414 childhood; that same Julie Karagina who had been at the Rostovs' name-
5417 Julie wrote in French:
5419 Dear and precious Friend, How terrible and frightful a thing is
5420 separation! Though I tell myself that half my life and half my happiness
5421 are wrapped up in you, and that in spite of the distance separating us
5422 our hearts are united by indissoluble bonds, my heart rebels against
5423 fate and in spite of the pleasures and distractions around me I cannot
5424 overcome a certain secret sorrow that has been in my heart ever since we
5425 parted. Why are we not together as we were last summer, in your big
5426 study, on the blue sofa, the confidential sofa? Why cannot I now, as
5427 three months ago, draw fresh moral strength from your look, so gentle,
5428 calm, and penetrating, a look I loved so well and seem to see before me
5431 Having read thus far, Princess Mary sighed and glanced into the mirror
5432 which stood on her right. It reflected a weak, ungraceful figure and
5433 thin face. Her eyes, always sad, now looked with particular hopelessness
5434 at her reflection in the glass. "She flatters me," thought the princess,
5435 turning away and continuing to read. But Julie did not flatter her
5436 friend, the princess' eyes--large, deep and luminous (it seemed as if at
5437 times there radiated from them shafts of warm light)--were so beautiful
5438 that very often in spite of the plainness of her face they gave her an
5439 attraction more powerful than that of beauty. But the princess never saw
5440 the beautiful expression of her own eyes--the look they had when she was
5441 not thinking of herself. As with everyone, her face assumed a forced
5442 unnatural expression as soon as she looked in a glass. She went on
5445 All Moscow talks of nothing but war. One of my two brothers is already
5446 abroad, the other is with the Guards, who are starting on their march to
5447 the frontier. Our dear Emperor has left Petersburg and it is thought
5448 intends to expose his precious person to the chances of war. God grant
5449 that the Corsican monster who is destroying the peace of Europe may be
5450 overthrown by the angel whom it has pleased the Almighty, in His
5451 goodness, to give us as sovereign! To say nothing of my brothers, this
5452 war has deprived me of one of the associations nearest my heart. I mean
5453 young Nicholas Rostov, who with his enthusiasm could not bear to remain
5454 inactive and has left the university to join the army. I will confess to
5455 you, dear Mary, that in spite of his extreme youth his departure for the
5456 army was a great grief to me. This young man, of whom I spoke to you
5457 last summer, is so noble-minded and full of that real youthfulness which
5458 one seldom finds nowadays among our old men of twenty and, particularly,
5459 he is so frank and has so much heart. He is so pure and poetic that my
5460 relations with him, transient as they were, have been one of the
5461 sweetest comforts to my poor heart, which has already suffered so much.
5462 Someday I will tell you about our parting and all that was said then.
5463 That is still too fresh. Ah, dear friend, you are happy not to know
5464 these poignant joys and sorrows. You are fortunate, for the latter are
5465 generally the stronger! I know very well that Count Nicholas is too
5466 young ever to be more to me than a friend, but this sweet friendship,
5467 this poetic and pure intimacy, were what my heart needed. But enough of
5468 this! The chief news, about which all Moscow gossips, is the death of
5469 old Count Bezukhov, and his inheritance. Fancy! The three princesses
5470 have received very little, Prince Vasili nothing, and it is Monsieur
5471 Pierre who has inherited all the property and has besides been
5472 recognized as legitimate; so that he is now Count Bezukhov and possessor
5473 of the finest fortune in Russia. It is rumored that Prince Vasili played
5474 a very despicable part in this affair and that he returned to Petersburg
5477 I confess I understand very little about all these matters of wills and
5478 inheritance; but I do know that since this young man, whom we all used
5479 to know as plain Monsieur Pierre, has become Count Bezukhov and the
5480 owner of one of the largest fortunes in Russia, I am much amused to
5481 watch the change in the tone and manners of the mammas burdened by
5482 marriageable daughters, and of the young ladies themselves, toward him,
5483 though, between you and me, he always seemed to me a poor sort of
5484 fellow. As for the past two years people have amused themselves by
5485 finding husbands for me (most of whom I don't even know), the
5486 matchmaking chronicles of Moscow now speak of me as the future Countess
5487 Bezukhova. But you will understand that I have no desire for the post. A
5488 propos of marriages: do you know that a while ago that universal auntie
5489 Anna Mikhaylovna told me, under the seal of strict secrecy, of a plan of
5490 marriage for you. It is neither more nor less than with Prince Vasili's
5491 son Anatole, whom they wish to reform by marrying him to someone rich
5492 and distinguee, and it is on you that his relations' choice has fallen.
5493 I don't know what you will think of it, but I consider it my duty to let
5494 you know of it. He is said to be very handsome and a terrible
5495 scapegrace. That is all I have been able to find out about him.
5497 But enough of gossip. I am at the end of my second sheet of paper, and
5498 Mamma has sent for me to go and dine at the Apraksins'. Read the
5499 mystical book I am sending you; it has an enormous success here. Though
5500 there are things in it difficult for the feeble human mind to grasp, it
5501 is an admirable book which calms and elevates the soul. Adieu! Give my
5502 respects to monsieur your father and my compliments to Mademoiselle
5503 Bourienne. I embrace you as I love you.
5507 P.S. Let me have news of your brother and his charming little wife.
5509 The princess pondered awhile with a thoughtful smile and her luminous
5510 eyes lit up so that her face was entirely transformed. Then she suddenly
5511 rose and with her heavy tread went up to the table. She took a sheet of
5512 paper and her hand moved rapidly over it. This is the reply she wrote,
5515 Dear and precious Friend, Your letter of the 13th has given me great
5516 delight. So you still love me, my romantic Julie? Separation, of which
5517 you say so much that is bad, does not seem to have had its usual effect
5518 on you. You complain of our separation. What then should I say, if I
5519 dared complain, I who am deprived of all who are dear to me? Ah, if we
5520 had not religion to console us life would be very sad. Why do you
5521 suppose that I should look severely on your affection for that young
5522 man? On such matters I am only severe with myself. I understand such
5523 feelings in others, and if never having felt them I cannot approve of
5524 them, neither do I condemn them. Only it seems to me that Christian
5525 love, love of one's neighbor, love of one's enemy, is worthier, sweeter,
5526 and better than the feelings which the beautiful eyes of a young man can
5527 inspire in a romantic and loving young girl like yourself.
5529 The news of Count Bezukhov's death reached us before your letter and my
5530 father was much affected by it. He says the count was the last
5531 representative but one of the great century, and that it is his own turn
5532 now, but that he will do all he can to let his turn come as late as
5533 possible. God preserve us from that terrible misfortune!
5535 I cannot agree with you about Pierre, whom I knew as a child. He always
5536 seemed to me to have an excellent heart, and that is the quality I value
5537 most in people. As to his inheritance and the part played by Prince
5538 Vasili, it is very sad for both. Ah, my dear friend, our divine
5539 Saviour's words, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
5540 a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, are terribly
5541 true. I pity Prince Vasili but am still more sorry for Pierre. So young,
5542 and burdened with such riches--to what temptations he will be exposed!
5543 If I were asked what I desire most on earth, it would be to be poorer
5544 than the poorest beggar. A thousand thanks, dear friend, for the volume
5545 you have sent me and which has such success in Moscow. Yet since you
5546 tell me that among some good things it contains others which our weak
5547 human understanding cannot grasp, it seems to me rather useless to spend
5548 time in reading what is unintelligible and can therefore bear no fruit.
5549 I never could understand the fondness some people have for confusing
5550 their minds by dwelling on mystical books that merely awaken their
5551 doubts and excite their imagination, giving them a bent for exaggeration
5552 quite contrary to Christian simplicity. Let us rather read the Epistles
5553 and Gospels. Let us not seek to penetrate what mysteries they contain;
5554 for how can we, miserable sinners that we are, know the terrible and
5555 holy secrets of Providence while we remain in this flesh which forms an
5556 impenetrable veil between us and the Eternal? Let us rather confine
5557 ourselves to studying those sublime rules which our divine Saviour has
5558 left for our guidance here below. Let us try to conform to them and
5559 follow them, and let us be persuaded that the less we let our feeble
5560 human minds roam, the better we shall please God, who rejects all
5561 knowledge that does not come from Him; and the less we seek to fathom
5562 what He has been pleased to conceal from us, the sooner will He
5563 vouchsafe its revelation to us through His divine Spirit.
5565 My father has not spoken to me of a suitor, but has only told me that he
5566 has received a letter and is expecting a visit from Prince Vasili. In
5567 regard to this project of marriage for me, I will tell you, dear sweet
5568 friend, that I look on marriage as a divine institution to which we must
5569 conform. However painful it may be to me, should the Almighty lay the
5570 duties of wife and mother upon me I shall try to perform them as
5571 faithfully as I can, without disquieting myself by examining my feelings
5572 toward him whom He may give me for husband.
5574 I have had a letter from my brother, who announces his speedy arrival at
5575 Bald Hills with his wife. This pleasure will be but a brief one,
5576 however, for he will leave us again to take part in this unhappy war
5577 into which we have been drawn, God knows how or why. Not only where you
5578 are--at the heart of affairs and of the world--is the talk all of war,
5579 even here amid fieldwork and the calm of nature--which townsfolk
5580 consider characteristic of the country--rumors of war are heard and
5581 painfully felt. My father talks of nothing but marches and
5582 countermarches, things of which I understand nothing; and the day before
5583 yesterday during my daily walk through the village I witnessed a
5584 heartrending scene.... It was a convoy of conscripts enrolled from our
5585 people and starting to join the army. You should have seen the state of
5586 the mothers, wives, and children of the men who were going and should
5587 have heard the sobs. It seems as though mankind has forgotten the laws
5588 of its divine Saviour, Who preached love and forgiveness of injuries--
5589 and that men attribute the greatest merit to skill in killing one
5592 Adieu, dear and kind friend; may our divine Saviour and His most Holy
5593 Mother keep you in their holy and all-powerful care!
5597 "Ah, you are sending off a letter, Princess? I have already dispatched
5598 mine. I have written to my poor mother," said the smiling Mademoiselle
5599 Bourienne rapidly, in her pleasant mellow tones and with guttural r's.
5600 She brought into Princess Mary's strenuous, mournful, and gloomy world a
5601 quite different atmosphere, careless, lighthearted, and self-satisfied.
5603 "Princess, I must warn you," she added, lowering her voice and evidently
5604 listening to herself with pleasure, and speaking with exaggerated
5605 grasseyement, "the prince has been scolding Michael Ivanovich. He is in
5606 a very bad humor, very morose. Be prepared."
5608 "Ah, dear friend," replied Princess Mary, "I have asked you never to
5609 warn me of the humor my father is in. I do not allow myself to judge him
5610 and would not have others do so."
5612 The princess glanced at her watch and, seeing that she was five minutes
5613 late in starting her practice on the clavichord, went into the sitting
5614 room with a look of alarm. Between twelve and two o'clock, as the day
5615 was mapped out, the prince rested and the princess played the
5623 The gray-haired valet was sitting drowsily listening to the snoring of
5624 the prince, who was in his large study. From the far side of the house
5625 through the closed doors came the sound of difficult passages--twenty
5626 times repeated--of a sonata by Dussek.
5628 Just then a closed carriage and another with a hood drove up to the
5629 porch. Prince Andrew got out of the carriage, helped his little wife to
5630 alight, and let her pass into the house before him. Old Tikhon, wearing
5631 a wig, put his head out of the door of the antechamber, reported in a
5632 whisper that the prince was sleeping, and hastily closed the door.
5633 Tikhon knew that neither the son's arrival nor any other unusual event
5634 must be allowed to disturb the appointed order of the day. Prince Andrew
5635 apparently knew this as well as Tikhon; he looked at his watch as if to
5636 ascertain whether his father's habits had changed since he was at home
5637 last, and, having assured himself that they had not, he turned to his
5640 "He will get up in twenty minutes. Let us go across to Mary's room," he
5643 The little princess had grown stouter during this time, but her eyes and
5644 her short, downy, smiling lip lifted when she began to speak just as
5645 merrily and prettily as ever.
5647 "Why, this is a palace!" she said to her husband, looking around with
5648 the expression with which people compliment their host at a ball. "Let's
5649 come, quick, quick!" And with a glance round, she smiled at Tikhon, at
5650 her husband, and at the footman who accompanied them.
5652 "Is that Mary practicing? Let's go quietly and take her by surprise."
5654 Prince Andrew followed her with a courteous but sad expression.
5656 "You've grown older, Tikhon," he said in passing to the old man, who
5659 Before they reached the room from which the sounds of the clavichord
5660 came, the pretty, fair haired Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle Bourienne,
5661 rushed out apparently beside herself with delight.
5663 "Ah! what joy for the princess!" exclaimed she: "At last! I must let her
5666 "No, no, please not... You are Mademoiselle Bourienne," said the little
5667 princess, kissing her. "I know you already through my sister-in-law's
5668 friendship for you. She was not expecting us?"
5670 They went up to the door of the sitting room from which came the sound
5671 of the oft-repeated passage of the sonata. Prince Andrew stopped and
5672 made a grimace, as if expecting something unpleasant.
5674 The little princess entered the room. The passage broke off in the
5675 middle, a cry was heard, then Princess Mary's heavy tread and the sound
5676 of kissing. When Prince Andrew went in the two princesses, who had only
5677 met once before for a short time at his wedding, were in each other's
5678 arms warmly pressing their lips to whatever place they happened to
5679 touch. Mademoiselle Bourienne stood near them pressing her hand to her
5680 heart, with a beatific smile and obviously equally ready to cry or to
5681 laugh. Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders and frowned, as lovers of
5682 music do when they hear a false note. The two women let go of one
5683 another, and then, as if afraid of being too late, seized each other's
5684 hands, kissing them and pulling them away, and again began kissing each
5685 other on the face, and then to Prince Andrew's surprise both began to
5686 cry and kissed again. Mademoiselle Bourienne also began to cry. Prince
5687 Andrew evidently felt ill at ease, but to the two women it seemed quite
5688 natural that they should cry, and apparently it never entered their
5689 heads that it could have been otherwise at this meeting.
5691 "Ah! my dear!... Ah! Mary!" they suddenly exclaimed, and then laughed.
5692 "I dreamed last night..."--"You were not expecting us?..." "Ah! Mary,
5693 you have got thinner?..." "And you have grown stouter!..."
5695 "I knew the princess at once," put in Mademoiselle Bourienne.
5697 "And I had no idea!..." exclaimed Princess Mary. "Ah, Andrew, I did not
5700 Prince Andrew and his sister, hand in hand, kissed one another, and he
5701 told her she was still the same crybaby as ever. Princess Mary had
5702 turned toward her brother, and through her tears the loving, warm,
5703 gentle look of her large luminous eyes, very beautiful at that moment,
5704 rested on Prince Andrew's face.
5706 The little princess talked incessantly, her short, downy upper lip
5707 continually and rapidly touching her rosy nether lip when necessary and
5708 drawing up again next moment when her face broke into a smile of
5709 glittering teeth and sparkling eyes. She told of an accident they had
5710 had on the Spasski Hill which might have been serious for her in her
5711 condition, and immediately after that informed them that she had left
5712 all her clothes in Petersburg and that heaven knew what she would have
5713 to dress in here; and that Andrew had quite changed, and that Kitty
5714 Odyntsova had married an old man, and that there was a suitor for Mary,
5715 a real one, but that they would talk of that later. Princess Mary was
5716 still looking silently at her brother and her beautiful eyes were full
5717 of love and sadness. It was plain that she was following a train of
5718 thought independent of her sister-in-law's words. In the midst of a
5719 description of the last Petersburg fete she addressed her brother:
5721 "So you are really going to the war, Andrew?" she said sighing.
5725 "Yes, and even tomorrow," replied her brother.
5727 "He is leaving me here, God knows why, when he might have had
5730 Princess Mary did not listen to the end, but continuing her train of
5731 thought turned to her sister-in-law with a tender glance at her figure.
5733 "Is it certain?" she said.
5735 The face of the little princess changed. She sighed and said: "Yes,
5736 quite certain. Ah! it is very dreadful..."
5738 Her lip descended. She brought her face close to her sister-in-law's and
5739 unexpectedly again began to cry.
5741 "She needs rest," said Prince Andrew with a frown. "Don't you, Lise?
5742 Take her to your room and I'll go to Father. How is he? Just the same?"
5744 "Yes, just the same. Though I don't know what your opinion will be,"
5745 answered the princess joyfully.
5747 "And are the hours the same? And the walks in the avenues? And the
5748 lathe?" asked Prince Andrew with a scarcely perceptible smile which
5749 showed that, in spite of all his love and respect for his father, he was
5750 aware of his weaknesses.
5752 "The hours are the same, and the lathe, and also the mathematics and my
5753 geometry lessons," said Princess Mary gleefully, as if her lessons in
5754 geometry were among the greatest delights of her life.
5756 When the twenty minutes had elapsed and the time had come for the old
5757 prince to get up, Tikhon came to call the young prince to his father.
5758 The old man made a departure from his usual routine in honor of his
5759 son's arrival: he gave orders to admit him to his apartments while he
5760 dressed for dinner. The old prince always dressed in old-fashioned
5761 style, wearing an antique coat and powdered hair; and when Prince Andrew
5762 entered his father's dressing room (not with the contemptuous look and
5763 manner he wore in drawing rooms, but with the animated face with which
5764 he talked to Pierre), the old man was sitting on a large leather-covered
5765 chair, wrapped in a powdering mantle, entrusting his head to Tikhon.
5767 "Ah! here's the warrior! Wants to vanquish Buonaparte?" said the old
5768 man, shaking his powdered head as much as the tail, which Tikhon was
5769 holding fast to plait, would allow.
5771 "You at least must tackle him properly, or else if he goes on like this
5772 he'll soon have us, too, for his subjects! How are you?" And he held out
5775 The old man was in a good temper after his nap before dinner. (He used
5776 to say that a nap "after dinner was silver--before dinner, golden.") He
5777 cast happy, sidelong glances at his son from under his thick, bushy
5778 eyebrows. Prince Andrew went up and kissed his father on the spot
5779 indicated to him. He made no reply on his father's favorite topic--
5780 making fun of the military men of the day, and more particularly of
5783 "Yes, Father, I have come to you and brought my wife who is pregnant,"
5784 said Prince Andrew, following every movement of his father's face with
5785 an eager and respectful look. "How is your health?"
5787 "Only fools and rakes fall ill, my boy. You know me: I am busy from
5788 morning till night and abstemious, so of course I am well."
5790 "Thank God," said his son smiling.
5792 "God has nothing to do with it! Well, go on," he continued, returning to
5793 his hobby; "tell me how the Germans have taught you to fight Bonaparte
5794 by this new science you call 'strategy.'"
5796 Prince Andrew smiled.
5798 "Give me time to collect my wits, Father," said he, with a smile that
5799 showed that his father's foibles did not prevent his son from loving and
5800 honoring him. "Why, I have not yet had time to settle down!"
5802 "Nonsense, nonsense!" cried the old man, shaking his pigtail to see
5803 whether it was firmly plaited, and grasping his by the hand. "The house
5804 for your wife is ready. Princess Mary will take her there and show her
5805 over, and they'll talk nineteen to the dozen. That's their woman's way!
5806 I am glad to have her. Sit down and talk. About Mikhelson's army I
5807 understand--Tolstoy's too... a simultaneous expedition.... But what's
5808 the southern army to do? Prussia is neutral... I know that. What about
5809 Austria?" said he, rising from his chair and pacing up and down the room
5810 followed by Tikhon, who ran after him, handing him different articles of
5811 clothing. "What of Sweden? How will they cross Pomerania?"
5813 Prince Andrew, seeing that his father insisted, began--at first
5814 reluctantly, but gradually with more and more animation, and from habit
5815 changing unconsciously from Russian to French as he went on--to explain
5816 the plan of operation for the coming campaign. He explained how an army,
5817 ninety thousand strong, was to threaten Prussia so as to bring her out
5818 of her neutrality and draw her into the war; how part of that army was
5819 to join some Swedish forces at Stralsund; how two hundred and twenty
5820 thousand Austrians, with a hundred thousand Russians, were to operate in
5821 Italy and on the Rhine; how fifty thousand Russians and as many English
5822 were to land at Naples, and how a total force of five hundred thousand
5823 men was to attack the French from different sides. The old prince did
5824 not evince the least interest during this explanation, but as if he were
5825 not listening to it continued to dress while walking about, and three
5826 times unexpectedly interrupted. Once he stopped it by shouting: "The
5827 white one, the white one!"
5829 This meant that Tikhon was not handing him the waistcoat he wanted.
5830 Another time he interrupted, saying:
5832 "And will she soon be confined?" and shaking his head reproachfully
5833 said: "That's bad! Go on, go on."
5835 The third interruption came when Prince Andrew was finishing his
5836 description. The old man began to sing, in the cracked voice of old age:
5837 "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre. Dieu sait quand reviendra." *
5840 * "Marlborough is going to the wars; God knows when he'll return."
5842 His son only smiled.
5844 "I don't say it's a plan I approve of," said the son; "I am only telling
5845 you what it is. Napoleon has also formed his plan by now, not worse than
5848 "Well, you've told me nothing new," and the old man repeated,
5849 meditatively and rapidly:
5851 "Dieu sait quand reviendra. Go to the dining room."
5858 At the appointed hour the prince, powdered and shaven, entered the
5859 dining room where his daughter-in-law, Princess Mary, and Mademoiselle
5860 Bourienne were already awaiting him together with his architect, who by
5861 a strange caprice of his employer's was admitted to table though the
5862 position of that insignificant individual was such as could certainly
5863 not have caused him to expect that honor. The prince, who generally kept
5864 very strictly to social distinctions and rarely admitted even important
5865 government officials to his table, had unexpectedly selected Michael
5866 Ivanovich (who always went into a corner to blow his nose on his checked
5867 handkerchief) to illustrate the theory that all men are equals, and had
5868 more than once impressed on his daughter that Michael Ivanovich was "not
5869 a whit worse than you or I." At dinner the prince usually spoke to the
5870 taciturn Michael Ivanovich more often than to anyone else.
5872 In the dining room, which like all the rooms in the house was
5873 exceedingly lofty, the members of the household and the footmen--one
5874 behind each chair--stood waiting for the prince to enter. The head
5875 butler, napkin on arm, was scanning the setting of the table, making
5876 signs to the footmen, and anxiously glancing from the clock to the door
5877 by which the prince was to enter. Prince Andrew was looking at a large
5878 gilt frame, new to him, containing the genealogical tree of the Princes
5879 Bolkonski, opposite which hung another such frame with a badly painted
5880 portrait (evidently by the hand of the artist belonging to the estate)
5881 of a ruling prince, in a crown--an alleged descendant of Rurik and
5882 ancestor of the Bolkonskis. Prince Andrew, looking again at that
5883 genealogical tree, shook his head, laughing as a man laughs who looks at
5884 a portrait so characteristic of the original as to be amusing.
5886 "How thoroughly like him that is!" he said to Princess Mary, who had
5889 Princess Mary looked at her brother in surprise. She did not understand
5890 what he was laughing at. Everything her father did inspired her with
5891 reverence and was beyond question.
5893 "Everyone has his Achilles' heel," continued Prince Andrew. "Fancy, with
5894 his powerful mind, indulging in such nonsense!"
5896 Princess Mary could not understand the boldness of her brother's
5897 criticism and was about to reply, when the expected footsteps were heard
5898 coming from the study. The prince walked in quickly and jauntily as was
5899 his wont, as if intentionally contrasting the briskness of his manners
5900 with the strict formality of his house. At that moment the great clock
5901 struck two and another with a shrill tone joined in from the drawing
5902 room. The prince stood still; his lively glittering eyes from under
5903 their thick, bushy eyebrows sternly scanned all present and rested on
5904 the little princess. She felt, as courtiers do when the Tsar enters, the
5905 sensation of fear and respect which the old man inspired in all around
5906 him. He stroked her hair and then patted her awkwardly on the back of
5909 "I'm glad, glad, to see you," he said, looking attentively into her
5910 eyes, and then quickly went to his place and sat down. "Sit down, sit
5911 down! Sit down, Michael Ianovich!"
5913 He indicated a place beside him to his daughter-in-law. A footman moved
5916 "Ho, ho!" said the old man, casting his eyes on her rounded figure.
5917 "You've been in a hurry. That's bad!"
5919 He laughed in his usual dry, cold, unpleasant way, with his lips only
5920 and not with his eyes.
5922 "You must walk, walk as much as possible, as much as possible," he said.
5924 The little princess did not, or did not wish to, hear his words. She was
5925 silent and seemed confused. The prince asked her about her father, and
5926 she began to smile and talk. He asked about mutual acquaintances, and
5927 she became still more animated and chattered away giving him greetings
5928 from various people and retelling the town gossip.
5930 "Countess Apraksina, poor thing, has lost her husband and she has cried
5931 her eyes out," she said, growing more and more lively.
5933 As she became animated the prince looked at her more and more sternly,
5934 and suddenly, as if he had studied her sufficiently and had formed a
5935 definite idea of her, he turned away and addressed Michael Ivanovich.
5937 "Well, Michael Ivanovich, our Bonaparte will be having a bad time of it.
5938 Prince Andrew" (he always spoke thus of his son) "has been telling me
5939 what forces are being collected against him! While you and I never
5940 thought much of him."
5942 Michael Ivanovich did not at all know when "you and I" had said such
5943 things about Bonaparte, but understanding that he was wanted as a peg on
5944 which to hang the prince's favorite topic, he looked inquiringly at the
5945 young prince, wondering what would follow.
5947 "He is a great tactician!" said the prince to his son, pointing to the
5950 And the conversation again turned on the war, on Bonaparte, and the
5951 generals and statesmen of the day. The old prince seemed convinced not
5952 only that all the men of the day were mere babies who did not know the A
5953 B C of war or of politics, and that Bonaparte was an insignificant
5954 little Frenchy, successful only because there were no longer any
5955 Potemkins or Suvorovs left to oppose him; but he was also convinced that
5956 there were no political difficulties in Europe and no real war, but only
5957 a sort of puppet show at which the men of the day were playing,
5958 pretending to do something real. Prince Andrew gaily bore with his
5959 father's ridicule of the new men, and drew him on and listened to him
5960 with evident pleasure.
5962 "The past always seems good," said he, "but did not Suvorov himself fall
5963 into a trap Moreau set him, and from which he did not know how to
5966 "Who told you that? Who?" cried the prince. "Suvorov!" And he jerked
5967 away his plate, which Tikhon briskly caught. "Suvorov!... Consider,
5968 Prince Andrew. Two... Frederick and Suvorov; Moreau!... Moreau would
5969 have been a prisoner if Suvorov had had a free hand; but he had the
5970 Hofs-kriegs-wurst-schnapps-Rath on his hands. It would have puzzled the
5971 devil himself! When you get there you'll find out what those Hofs-
5972 kriegs-wurst-Raths are! Suvorov couldn't manage them so what chance has
5973 Michael Kutuzov? No, my dear boy," he continued, "you and your generals
5974 won't get on against Buonaparte; you'll have to call in the French, so
5975 that birds of a feather may fight together. The German, Pahlen, has been
5976 sent to New York in America, to fetch the Frenchman, Moreau," he said,
5977 alluding to the invitation made that year to Moreau to enter the Russian
5978 service.... "Wonderful!... Were the Potemkins, Suvorovs, and Orlovs
5979 Germans? No, lad, either you fellows have all lost your wits, or I have
5980 outlived mine. May God help you, but we'll see what will happen.
5981 Buonaparte has become a great commander among them! Hm!..."
5983 "I don't at all say that all the plans are good," said Prince Andrew, "I
5984 am only surprised at your opinion of Bonaparte. You may laugh as much as
5985 you like, but all the same Bonaparte is a great general!"
5987 "Michael Ivanovich!" cried the old prince to the architect who, busy
5988 with his roast meat, hoped he had been forgotten: "Didn't I tell you
5989 Buonaparte was a great tactician? Here, he says the same thing."
5991 "To be sure, your excellency," replied the architect.
5993 The prince again laughed his frigid laugh.
5995 "Buonaparte was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has got
5996 splendid soldiers. Besides he began by attacking Germans. And only
5997 idlers have failed to beat the Germans. Since the world began everybody
5998 has beaten the Germans. They beat no one--except one another. He made
5999 his reputation fighting them."
6001 And the prince began explaining all the blunders which, according to
6002 him, Bonaparte had made in his campaigns and even in politics. His son
6003 made no rejoinder, but it was evident that whatever arguments were
6004 presented he was as little able as his father to change his opinion. He
6005 listened, refraining from a reply, and involuntarily wondered how this
6006 old man, living alone in the country for so many years, could know and
6007 discuss so minutely and acutely all the recent European military and
6010 "You think I'm an old man and don't understand the present state of
6011 affairs?" concluded his father. "But it troubles me. I don't sleep at
6012 night. Come now, where has this great commander of yours shown his
6013 skill?" he concluded.
6015 "That would take too long to tell," answered the son.
6017 "Well, then go to your Buonaparte! Mademoiselle Bourienne, here's
6018 another admirer of that powder-monkey emperor of yours," he exclaimed in
6021 "You know, Prince, I am not a Bonapartist!"
6023 "Dieu sait quand reviendra..." hummed the prince out of tune and, with a
6024 laugh still more so, he quitted the table.
6026 The little princess during the whole discussion and the rest of the
6027 dinner sat silent, glancing with a frightened look now at her father-in-
6028 law and now at Princess Mary. When they left the table she took her
6029 sister-in-law's arm and drew her into another room.
6031 "What a clever man your father is," said she; "perhaps that is why I am
6034 "Oh, he is so kind!" answered Princess Mary.
6041 Prince Andrew was to leave next evening. The old prince, not altering
6042 his routine, retired as usual after dinner. The little princess was in
6043 her sister-in-law's room. Prince Andrew in a traveling coat without
6044 epaulettes had been packing with his valet in the rooms assigned to him.
6045 After inspecting the carriage himself and seeing the trunks put in, he
6046 ordered the horses to be harnessed. Only those things he always kept
6047 with him remained in his room; a small box, a large canteen fitted with
6048 silver plate, two Turkish pistols and a saber--a present from his father
6049 who had brought it from the siege of Ochakov. All these traveling
6050 effects of Prince Andrew's were in very good order: new, clean, and in
6051 cloth covers carefully tied with tapes.
6053 When starting on a journey or changing their mode of life, men capable
6054 of reflection are generally in a serious frame of mind. At such moments
6055 one reviews the past and plans for the future. Prince Andrew's face
6056 looked very thoughtful and tender. With his hands behind him he paced
6057 briskly from corner to corner of the room, looking straight before him
6058 and thoughtfully shaking his head. Did he fear going to the war, or was
6059 he sad at leaving his wife?--perhaps both, but evidently he did not wish
6060 to be seen in that mood, for hearing footsteps in the passage he
6061 hurriedly unclasped his hands, stopped at a table as if tying the cover
6062 of the small box, and assumed his usual tranquil and impenetrable
6063 expression. It was the heavy tread of Princess Mary that he heard.
6065 "I hear you have given orders to harness," she cried, panting (she had
6066 apparently been running), "and I did so wish to have another talk with
6067 you alone! God knows how long we may again be parted. You are not angry
6068 with me for coming? You have changed so, Andrusha," she added, as if to
6069 explain such a question.
6071 She smiled as she uttered his pet name, "Andrusha." It was obviously
6072 strange to her to think that this stern handsome man should be Andrusha-
6073 -the slender mischievous boy who had been her playfellow in childhood.
6075 "And where is Lise?" he asked, answering her question only by a smile.
6077 "She was so tired that she has fallen asleep on the sofa in my room. Oh,
6078 Andrew! What a treasure of a wife you have," said she, sitting down on
6079 the sofa, facing her brother. "She is quite a child: such a dear, merry
6080 child. I have grown so fond of her."
6082 Prince Andrew was silent, but the princess noticed the ironical and
6083 contemptuous look that showed itself on his face.
6085 "One must be indulgent to little weaknesses; who is free from them,
6086 Andrew? Don't forget that she has grown up and been educated in society,
6087 and so her position now is not a rosy one. We should enter into
6088 everyone's situation. Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. * Think
6089 what it must be for her, poor thing, after what she has been used to, to
6090 be parted from her husband and be left alone in the country, in her
6091 condition! It's very hard."
6094 * To understand all is to forgive all.
6096 Prince Andrew smiled as he looked at his sister, as we smile at those we
6097 think we thoroughly understand.
6099 "You live in the country and don't think the life terrible," he replied.
6101 "I... that's different. Why speak of me? I don't want any other life,
6102 and can't, for I know no other. But think, Andrew: for a young society
6103 woman to be buried in the country during the best years of her life, all
6104 alone--for Papa is always busy, and I... well, you know what poor
6105 resources I have for entertaining a woman used to the best society.
6106 There is only Mademoiselle Bourienne...."
6108 "I don't like your Mademoiselle Bourienne at all," said Prince Andrew.
6110 "No? She is very nice and kind and, above all, she's much to be pitied.
6111 She has no one, no one. To tell the truth, I don't need her, and she's
6112 even in my way. You know I always was a savage, and now am even more so.
6113 I like being alone.... Father likes her very much. She and Michael
6114 Ivanovich are the two people to whom he is always gentle and kind,
6115 because he has been a benefactor to them both. As Sterne says: 'We don't
6116 love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we
6117 have done them.' Father took her when she was homeless after losing her
6118 own father. She is very good-natured, and my father likes her way of
6119 reading. She reads to him in the evenings and reads splendidly."
6121 "To be quite frank, Mary, I expect Father's character sometimes makes
6122 things trying for you, doesn't it?" Prince Andrew asked suddenly.
6124 Princess Mary was first surprised and then aghast at this question.
6126 "For me? For me?... Trying for me!..." said she.
6128 "He always was rather harsh; and now I should think he's getting very
6129 trying," said Prince Andrew, apparently speaking lightly of their father
6130 in order to puzzle or test his sister.
6132 "You are good in every way, Andrew, but you have a kind of intellectual
6133 pride," said the princess, following the train of her own thoughts
6134 rather than the trend of the conversation--"and that's a great sin. How
6135 can one judge Father? But even if one might, what feeling except
6136 veneration could such a man as my father evoke? And I am so contented
6137 and happy with him. I only wish you were all as happy as I am."
6139 Her brother shook his head incredulously.
6141 "The only thing that is hard for me... I will tell you the truth,
6142 Andrew... is Father's way of treating religious subjects. I don't
6143 understand how a man of his immense intellect can fail to see what is as
6144 clear as day, and can go so far astray. That is the only thing that
6145 makes me unhappy. But even in this I can see lately a shade of
6146 improvement. His satire has been less bitter of late, and there was a
6147 monk he received and had a long talk with."
6149 "Ah! my dear, I am afraid you and your monk are wasting your powder,"
6150 said Prince Andrew banteringly yet tenderly.
6152 "Ah! mon ami, I only pray, and hope that God will hear me. Andrew..."
6153 she said timidly after a moment's silence, "I have a great favor to ask
6158 "No--promise that you will not refuse! It will give you no trouble and
6159 is nothing unworthy of you, but it will comfort me. Promise,
6160 Andrusha!..." said she, putting her hand in her reticule but not yet
6161 taking out what she was holding inside it, as if what she held were the
6162 subject of her request and must not be shown before the request was
6165 She looked timidly at her brother.
6167 "Even if it were a great deal of trouble..." answered Prince Andrew, as
6168 if guessing what it was about.
6170 "Think what you please! I know you are just like Father. Think as you
6171 please, but do this for my sake! Please do! Father's father, our
6172 grandfather, wore it in all his wars." (She still did not take out what
6173 she was holding in her reticule.) "So you promise?"
6175 "Of course. What is it?"
6177 "Andrew, I bless you with this icon and you must promise me you will
6178 never take it off. Do you promise?"
6180 "If it does not weigh a hundredweight and won't break my neck... To
6181 please you..." said Prince Andrew. But immediately, noticing the pained
6182 expression his joke had brought to his sister's face, he repented and
6183 added: "I am glad; really, dear, I am very glad."
6185 "Against your will He will save and have mercy on you and bring you to
6186 Himself, for in Him alone is truth and peace," said she in a voice
6187 trembling with emotion, solemnly holding up in both hands before her
6188 brother a small, oval, antique, dark-faced icon of the Saviour in a gold
6189 setting, on a finely wrought silver chain.
6191 She crossed herself, kissed the icon, and handed it to Andrew.
6193 "Please, Andrew, for my sake!..."
6195 Rays of gentle light shone from her large, timid eyes. Those eyes lit up
6196 the whole of her thin, sickly face and made it beautiful. Her brother
6197 would have taken the icon, but she stopped him. Andrew understood,
6198 crossed himself and kissed the icon. There was a look of tenderness, for
6199 he was touched, but also a gleam of irony on his face.
6201 "Thank you, my dear." She kissed him on the forehead and sat down again
6202 on the sofa. They were silent for a while.
6204 "As I was saying to you, Andrew, be kind and generous as you always used
6205 to be. Don't judge Lise harshly," she began. "She is so sweet, so good-
6206 natured, and her position now is a very hard one."
6208 "I do not think I have complained of my wife to you, Masha, or blamed
6209 her. Why do you say all this to me?"
6211 Red patches appeared on Princess Mary's face and she was silent as if
6214 "I have said nothing to you, but you have already been talked to. And I
6215 am sorry for that," he went on.
6217 The patches grew deeper on her forehead, neck, and cheeks. She tried to
6218 say something but could not. Her brother had guessed right: the little
6219 princess had been crying after dinner and had spoken of her forebodings
6220 about her confinement, and how she dreaded it, and had complained of her
6221 fate, her father-in-law, and her husband. After crying she had fallen
6222 asleep. Prince Andrew felt sorry for his sister.
6224 "Know this, Masha: I can't reproach, have not reproached, and never
6225 shall reproach my wife with anything, and I cannot reproach myself with
6226 anything in regard to her; and that always will be so in whatever
6227 circumstances I may be placed. But if you want to know the truth... if
6228 you want to know whether I am happy? No! Is she happy? No! But why this
6229 is so I don't know..."
6231 As he said this he rose, went to his sister, and, stooping, kissed her
6232 forehead. His fine eyes lit up with a thoughtful, kindly, and
6233 unaccustomed brightness, but he was looking not at his sister but over
6234 her head toward the darkness of the open doorway.
6236 "Let us go to her, I must say good-by. Or--go and wake and I'll come in
6237 a moment. Petrushka!" he called to his valet: "Come here, take these
6238 away. Put this on the seat and this to the right."
6240 Princess Mary rose and moved to the door, then stopped and said:
6241 "Andrew, if you had faith you would have turned to God and asked Him to
6242 give you the love you do not feel, and your prayer would have been
6245 "Well, may be!" said Prince Andrew. "Go, Masha; I'll come immediately."
6247 On the way to his sister's room, in the passage which connected one wing
6248 with the other, Prince Andrew met Mademoiselle Bourienne smiling
6249 sweetly. It was the third time that day that, with an ecstatic and
6250 artless smile, she had met him in secluded passages.
6252 "Oh! I thought you were in your room," she said, for some reason
6253 blushing and dropping her eyes.
6255 Prince Andrew looked sternly at her and an expression of anger suddenly
6256 came over his face. He said nothing to her but looked at her forehead
6257 and hair, without looking at her eyes, with such contempt that the
6258 Frenchwoman blushed and went away without a word. When he reached his
6259 sister's room his wife was already awake and her merry voice, hurrying
6260 one word after another, came through the open door. She was speaking as
6261 usual in French, and as if after long self-restraint she wished to make
6264 "No, but imagine the old Countess Zubova, with false curls and her mouth
6265 full of false teeth, as if she were trying to cheat old age.... Ha, ha,
6268 This very sentence about Countess Zubova and this same laugh Prince
6269 Andrew had already heard from his wife in the presence of others some
6270 five times. He entered the room softly. The little princess, plump and
6271 rosy, was sitting in an easy chair with her work in her hands, talking
6272 incessantly, repeating Petersburg reminiscences and even phrases. Prince
6273 Andrew came up, stroked her hair, and asked if she felt rested after
6274 their journey. She answered him and continued her chatter.
6276 The coach with six horses was waiting at the porch. It was an autumn
6277 night, so dark that the coachman could not see the carriage pole.
6278 Servants with lanterns were bustling about in the porch. The immense
6279 house was brilliant with lights shining through its lofty windows. The
6280 domestic serfs were crowding in the hall, waiting to bid good-by to the
6281 young prince. The members of the household were all gathered in the
6282 reception hall: Michael Ivanovich, Mademoiselle Bourienne, Princess
6283 Mary, and the little princess. Prince Andrew had been called to his
6284 father's study as the latter wished to say good-by to him alone. All
6285 were waiting for them to come out.
6287 When Prince Andrew entered the study the old man in his old-age
6288 spectacles and white dressing gown, in which he received no one but his
6289 son, sat at the table writing. He glanced round.
6291 "Going?" And he went on writing.
6293 "I've come to say good-by."
6295 "Kiss me here," and he touched his cheek: "Thanks, thanks!"
6297 "What do you thank me for?"
6299 "For not dilly-dallying and not hanging to a woman's apron strings. The
6300 Service before everything. Thanks, thanks!" And he went on writing, so
6301 that his quill spluttered and squeaked. "If you have anything to say,
6302 say it. These two things can be done together," he added.
6304 "About my wife... I am ashamed as it is to leave her on your hands..."
6306 "Why talk nonsense? Say what you want."
6308 "When her confinement is due, send to Moscow for an accoucheur.... Let
6311 The old prince stopped writing and, as if not understanding, fixed his
6312 stern eyes on his son.
6314 "I know that no one can help if nature does not do her work," said
6315 Prince Andrew, evidently confused. "I know that out of a million cases
6316 only one goes wrong, but it is her fancy and mine. They have been
6317 telling her things. She has had a dream and is frightened."
6319 "Hm... Hm..." muttered the old prince to himself, finishing what he was
6320 writing. "I'll do it."
6322 He signed with a flourish and suddenly turning to his son began to
6325 "It's a bad business, eh?"
6327 "What is bad, Father?"
6329 "The wife!" said the old prince, briefly and significantly.
6331 "I don't understand!" said Prince Andrew.
6333 "No, it can't be helped, lad," said the prince. "They're all like that;
6334 one can't unmarry. Don't be afraid; I won't tell anyone, but you know it
6337 He seized his son by the hand with small bony fingers, shook it, looked
6338 straight into his son's face with keen eyes which seemed to see through
6339 him, and again laughed his frigid laugh.
6341 The son sighed, thus admitting that his father had understood him. The
6342 old man continued to fold and seal his letter, snatching up and throwing
6343 down the wax, the seal, and the paper, with his accustomed rapidity.
6345 "What's to be done? She's pretty! I will do everything. Make your mind
6346 easy," said he in abrupt sentences while sealing his letter.
6348 Andrew did not speak; he was both pleased and displeased that his father
6349 understood him. The old man got up and gave the letter to his son.
6351 "Listen!" said he; "don't worry about your wife: what can be done shall
6352 be. Now listen! Give this letter to Michael Ilarionovich. * I have
6353 written that he should make use of you in proper places and not keep you
6354 long as an adjutant: a bad position! Tell him I remember and like him.
6355 Write and tell me how he receives you. If he is all right--serve him.
6356 Nicholas Bolkonski's son need not serve under anyone if he is in
6357 disfavor. Now come here."
6362 He spoke so rapidly that he did not finish half his words, but his son
6363 was accustomed to understand him. He led him to the desk, raised the
6364 lid, drew out a drawer, and took out an exercise book filled with his
6365 bold, tall, close handwriting.
6367 "I shall probably die before you. So remember, these are my memoirs;
6368 hand them to the Emperor after my death. Now here is a Lombard bond and
6369 a letter; it is a premium for the man who writes a history of Suvorov's
6370 wars. Send it to the Academy. Here are some jottings for you to read
6371 when I am gone. You will find them useful."
6373 Andrew did not tell his father that he would no doubt live a long time
6374 yet. He felt that he must not say it.
6376 "I will do it all, Father," he said.
6378 "Well, now, good-by!" He gave his son his hand to kiss, and embraced
6379 him. "Remember this, Prince Andrew, if they kill you it will hurt me,
6380 your old father..." he paused unexpectedly, and then in a querulous
6381 voice suddenly shrieked: "but if I hear that you have not behaved like a
6382 son of Nicholas Bolkonski, I shall be ashamed!"
6384 "You need not have said that to me, Father," said the son with a smile.
6386 The old man was silent.
6388 "I also wanted to ask you," continued Prince Andrew, "if I'm killed and
6389 if I have a son, do not let him be taken away from you--as I said
6390 yesterday... let him grow up with you.... Please."
6392 "Not let the wife have him?" said the old man, and laughed.
6394 They stood silent, facing one another. The old man's sharp eyes were
6395 fixed straight on his son's. Something twitched in the lower part of the
6398 "We've said good-by. Go!" he suddenly shouted in a loud, angry voice,
6401 "What is it? What?" asked both princesses when they saw for a moment at
6402 the door Prince Andrew and the figure of the old man in a white dressing
6403 gown, spectacled and wigless, shouting in an angry voice.
6405 Prince Andrew sighed and made no reply.
6407 "Well!" he said, turning to his wife.
6409 And this "Well!" sounded coldly ironic, as if he were saying,: "Now go
6410 through your performance."
6412 "Andrew, already!" said the little princess, turning pale and looking
6413 with dismay at her husband.
6415 He embraced her. She screamed and fell unconscious on his shoulder.
6417 He cautiously released the shoulder she leaned on, looked into her face,
6418 and carefully placed her in an easy chair.
6420 "Adieu, Mary," said he gently to his sister, taking her by the hand and
6421 kissing her, and then he left the room with rapid steps.
6423 The little princess lay in the armchair, Mademoiselle Bourienne chafing
6424 her temples. Princess Mary, supporting her sister-in-law, still looked
6425 with her beautiful eyes full of tears at the door through which Prince
6426 Andrew had gone and made the sign of the cross in his direction. From
6427 the study, like pistol shots, came the frequent sound of the old man
6428 angrily blowing his nose. Hardly had Prince Andrew gone when the study
6429 door opened quickly and the stern figure of the old man in the white
6430 dressing gown looked out.
6432 "Gone? That's all right!" said he; and looking angrily at the
6433 unconscious little princess, he shook his head reprovingly and slammed
6443 In October, 1805, a Russian army was occupying the villages and towns of
6444 the Archduchy of Austria, and yet other regiments freshly arriving from
6445 Russia were settling near the fortress of Braunau and burdening the
6446 inhabitants on whom they were quartered. Braunau was the headquarters of
6447 the commander-in-chief, Kutuzov.
6449 On October 11, 1805, one of the infantry regiments that had just reached
6450 Braunau had halted half a mile from the town, waiting to be inspected by
6451 the commander-in-chief. Despite the un-Russian appearance of the
6452 locality and surroundings--fruit gardens, stone fences, tiled roofs, and
6453 hills in the distance--and despite the fact that the inhabitants (who
6454 gazed with curiosity at the soldiers) were not Russians, the regiment
6455 had just the appearance of any Russian regiment preparing for an
6456 inspection anywhere in the heart of Russia.
6458 On the evening of the last day's march an order had been received that
6459 the commander-in-chief would inspect the regiment on the march. Though
6460 the words of the order were not clear to the regimental commander, and
6461 the question arose whether the troops were to be in marching order or
6462 not, it was decided at a consultation between the battalion commanders
6463 to present the regiment in parade order, on the principle that it is
6464 always better to "bow too low than not bow low enough." So the soldiers,
6465 after a twenty-mile march, were kept mending and cleaning all night long
6466 without closing their eyes, while the adjutants and company commanders
6467 calculated and reckoned, and by morning the regiment--instead of the
6468 straggling, disorderly crowd it had been on its last march the day
6469 before--presented a well-ordered array of two thousand men each of whom
6470 knew his place and his duty, had every button and every strap in place,
6471 and shone with cleanliness. And not only externally was all in order,
6472 but had it pleased the commander-in-chief to look under the uniforms he
6473 would have found on every man a clean shirt, and in every knapsack the
6474 appointed number of articles, "awl, soap, and all," as the soldiers say.
6475 There was only one circumstance concerning which no one could be at
6476 ease. It was the state of the soldiers' boots. More than half the men's
6477 boots were in holes. But this defect was not due to any fault of the
6478 regimental commander, for in spite of repeated demands boots had not
6479 been issued by the Austrian commissariat, and the regiment had marched
6480 some seven hundred miles.
6482 The commander of the regiment was an elderly, choleric, stout, and
6483 thick-set general with grizzled eyebrows and whiskers, and wider from
6484 chest to back than across the shoulders. He had on a brand-new uniform
6485 showing the creases where it had been folded and thick gold epaulettes
6486 which seemed to stand rather than lie down on his massive shoulders. He
6487 had the air of a man happily performing one of the most solemn duties of
6488 his life. He walked about in front of the line and at every step pulled
6489 himself up, slightly arching his back. It was plain that the commander
6490 admired his regiment, rejoiced in it, and that his whole mind was
6491 engrossed by it, yet his strut seemed to indicate that, besides military
6492 matters, social interests and the fair sex occupied no small part of his
6495 "Well, Michael Mitrich, sir?" he said, addressing one of the battalion
6496 commanders who smilingly pressed forward (it was plain that they both
6497 felt happy). "We had our hands full last night. However, I think the
6498 regiment is not a bad one, eh?"
6500 The battalion commander perceived the jovial irony and laughed.
6502 "It would not be turned off the field even on the Tsaritsin Meadow."
6504 "What?" asked the commander.
6506 At that moment, on the road from the town on which signalers had been
6507 posted, two men appeared on horse back. They were an aide-de-camp
6508 followed by a Cossack.
6510 The aide-de-camp was sent to confirm the order which had not been
6511 clearly worded the day before, namely, that the commander-in-chief
6512 wished to see the regiment just in the state in which it had been on the
6513 march: in their greatcoats, and packs, and without any preparation
6516 A member of the Hofkriegsrath from Vienna had come to Kutuzov the day
6517 before with proposals and demands for him to join up with the army of
6518 the Archduke Ferdinand and Mack, and Kutuzov, not considering this
6519 junction advisable, meant, among other arguments in support of his view,
6520 to show the Austrian general the wretched state in which the troops
6521 arrived from Russia. With this object he intended to meet the regiment;
6522 so the worse the condition it was in, the better pleased the commander-
6523 in-chief would be. Though the aide-de-camp did not know these
6524 circumstances, he nevertheless delivered the definite order that the men
6525 should be in their greatcoats and in marching order, and that the
6526 commander-in-chief would otherwise be dissatisfied. On hearing this the
6527 regimental commander hung his head, silently shrugged his shoulders, and
6528 spread out his arms with a choleric gesture.
6530 "A fine mess we've made of it!" he remarked.
6532 "There now! Didn't I tell you, Michael Mitrich, that if it was said 'on
6533 the march' it meant in greatcoats?" said he reproachfully to the
6534 battalion commander. "Oh, my God!" he added, stepping resolutely
6535 forward. "Company commanders!" he shouted in a voice accustomed to
6536 command. "Sergeants major!... How soon will he be here?" he asked the
6537 aide-de-camp with a respectful politeness evidently relating to the
6538 personage he was referring to.
6540 "In an hour's time, I should say."
6542 "Shall we have time to change clothes?"
6544 "I don't know, General...."
6546 The regimental commander, going up to the line himself, ordered the
6547 soldiers to change into their greatcoats. The company commanders ran off
6548 to their companies, the sergeants major began bustling (the greatcoats
6549 were not in very good condition), and instantly the squares that had up
6550 to then been in regular order and silent began to sway and stretch and
6551 hum with voices. On all sides soldiers were running to and fro, throwing
6552 up their knapsacks with a jerk of their shoulders and pulling the straps
6553 over their heads, unstrapping their overcoats and drawing the sleeves on
6556 In half an hour all was again in order, only the squares had become gray
6557 instead of black. The regimental commander walked with his jerky steps
6558 to the front of the regiment and examined it from a distance.
6560 "Whatever is this? This!" he shouted and stood still. "Commander of the
6563 "Commander of the third company wanted by the general!... commander to
6564 the general... third company to the commander." The words passed along
6565 the lines and an adjutant ran to look for the missing officer.
6567 When the eager but misrepeated words had reached their destination in a
6568 cry of: "The general to the third company," the missing officer appeared
6569 from behind his company and, though he was a middle-aged man and not in
6570 the habit of running, trotted awkwardly stumbling on his toes toward the
6571 general. The captain's face showed the uneasiness of a schoolboy who is
6572 told to repeat a lesson he has not learned. Spots appeared on his nose,
6573 the redness of which was evidently due to intemperance, and his mouth
6574 twitched nervously. The general looked the captain up and down as he
6575 came up panting, slackening his pace as he approached.
6577 "You will soon be dressing your men in petticoats! What is this?"
6578 shouted the regimental commander, thrusting forward his jaw and pointing
6579 at a soldier in the ranks of the third company in a greatcoat of bluish
6580 cloth, which contrasted with the others. "What have you been after? The
6581 commander in chief is expected and you leave your place? Eh? I'll teach
6582 you to dress the men in fancy coats for a parade.... Eh...?"
6584 The commander of the company, with his eyes fixed on his superior,
6585 pressed two fingers more and more rigidly to his cap, as if in this
6586 pressure lay his only hope of salvation.
6588 "Well, why don't you speak? Whom have you got there dressed up as a
6589 Hungarian?" said the commander with an austere gibe.
6591 "Your excellency..."
6593 "Well, your excellency, what? Your excellency! But what about your
6594 excellency?... nobody knows."
6596 "Your excellency, it's the officer Dolokhov, who has been reduced to the
6597 ranks," said the captain softly.
6599 "Well? Has he been degraded into a field marshal, or into a soldier? If
6600 a soldier, he should be dressed in regulation uniform like the others."
6602 "Your excellency, you gave him leave yourself, on the march."
6604 "Gave him leave? Leave? That's just like you young men," said the
6605 regimental commander cooling down a little. "Leave indeed.... One says a
6606 word to you and you... What?" he added with renewed irritation, "I beg
6607 you to dress your men decently."
6609 And the commander, turning to look at the adjutant, directed his jerky
6610 steps down the line. He was evidently pleased at his own display of
6611 anger and walking up to the regiment wished to find a further excuse for
6612 wrath. Having snapped at an officer for an unpolished badge, at another
6613 because his line was not straight, he reached the third company.
6615 "H-o-o-w are you standing? Where's your leg? Your leg?" shouted the
6616 commander with a tone of suffering in his voice, while there were still
6617 five men between him and Dolokhov with his bluish-gray uniform.
6619 Dolokhov slowly straightened his bent knee, looking straight with his
6620 clear, insolent eyes in the general's face.
6622 "Why a blue coat? Off with it... Sergeant major! Change his coat... the
6623 ras..." he did not finish.
6625 "General, I must obey orders, but I am not bound to endure..." Dolokhov
6626 hurriedly interrupted.
6628 "No talking in the ranks!... No talking, no talking!"
6630 "Not bound to endure insults," Dolokhov concluded in loud, ringing
6633 The eyes of the general and the soldier met. The general became silent,
6634 angrily pulling down his tight scarf.
6636 "I request you to have the goodness to change your coat," he said as he
6644 "He's coming!" shouted the signaler at that moment.
6646 The regimental commander, flushing, ran to his horse, seized the stirrup
6647 with trembling hands, threw his body across the saddle, righted himself,
6648 drew his saber, and with a happy and resolute countenance, opening his
6649 mouth awry, prepared to shout. The regiment fluttered like a bird
6650 preening its plumage and became motionless.
6652 "Att-ention!" shouted the regimental commander in a soul-shaking voice
6653 which expressed joy for himself, severity for the regiment, and welcome
6654 for the approaching chief.
6656 Along the broad country road, edged on both sides by trees, came a high,
6657 light blue Viennese caleche, slightly creaking on its springs and drawn
6658 by six horses at a smart trot. Behind the caleche galloped the suite and
6659 a convoy of Croats. Beside Kutuzov sat an Austrian general, in a white
6660 uniform that looked strange among the Russian black ones. The caleche
6661 stopped in front of the regiment. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were
6662 talking in low voices and Kutuzov smiled slightly as treading heavily he
6663 stepped down from the carriage just as if those two thousand men
6664 breathlessly gazing at him and the regimental commander did not exist.
6666 The word of command rang out, and again the regiment quivered, as with a
6667 jingling sound it presented arms. Then amidst a dead silence the feeble
6668 voice of the commander-in-chief was heard. The regiment roared, "Health
6669 to your ex... len... len... lency!" and again all became silent. At
6670 first Kutuzov stood still while the regiment moved; then he and the
6671 general in white, accompanied by the suite, walked between the ranks.
6673 From the way the regimental commander saluted the commander-in-chief and
6674 devoured him with his eyes, drawing himself up obsequiously, and from
6675 the way he walked through the ranks behind the generals, bending forward
6676 and hardly able to restrain his jerky movements, and from the way he
6677 darted forward at every word or gesture of the commander-in-chief, it
6678 was evident that he performed his duty as a subordinate with even
6679 greater zeal than his duty as a commander. Thanks to the strictness and
6680 assiduity of its commander the regiment, in comparison with others that
6681 had reached Braunau at the same time, was in splendid condition. There
6682 were only 217 sick and stragglers. Everything was in good order except
6685 Kutuzov walked through the ranks, sometimes stopping to say a few
6686 friendly words to officers he had known in the Turkish war, sometimes
6687 also to the soldiers. Looking at their boots he several times shook his
6688 head sadly, pointing them out to the Austrian general with an expression
6689 which seemed to say that he was not blaming anyone, but could not help
6690 noticing what a bad state of things it was. The regimental commander ran
6691 forward on each such occasion, fearing to miss a single word of the
6692 commander-in-chief's regarding the regiment. Behind Kutuzov, at a
6693 distance that allowed every softly spoken word to be heard, followed
6694 some twenty men of his suite. These gentlemen talked among themselves
6695 and sometimes laughed. Nearest of all to the commander-in-chief walked a
6696 handsome adjutant. This was Prince Bolkonski. Beside him was his comrade
6697 Nesvitski, a tall staff officer, extremely stout, with a kindly,
6698 smiling, handsome face and moist eyes. Nesvitski could hardly keep from
6699 laughter provoked by a swarthy hussar officer who walked beside him.
6700 This hussar, with a grave face and without a smile or a change in the
6701 expression of his fixed eyes, watched the regimental commander's back
6702 and mimicked his every movement. Each time the commander started and
6703 bent forward, the hussar started and bent forward in exactly the same
6704 manner. Nesvitski laughed and nudged the others to make them look at the
6707 Kutuzov walked slowly and languidly past thousands of eyes which were
6708 starting from their sockets to watch their chief. On reaching the third
6709 company he suddenly stopped. His suite, not having expected this,
6710 involuntarily came closer to him.
6712 "Ah, Timokhin!" said he, recognizing the red-nosed captain who had been
6713 reprimanded on account of the blue greatcoat.
6715 One would have thought it impossible for a man to stretch himself more
6716 than Timokhin had done when he was reprimanded by the regimental
6717 commander, but now that the commander-in-chief addressed him he drew
6718 himself up to such an extent that it seemed he could not have sustained
6719 it had the commander-in-chief continued to look at him, and so Kutuzov,
6720 who evidently understood his case and wished him nothing but good,
6721 quickly turned away, a scarcely perceptible smile flitting over his
6722 scarred and puffy face.
6724 "Another Ismail comrade," said he. "A brave officer! Are you satisfied
6725 with him?" he asked the regimental commander.
6727 And the latter--unconscious that he was being reflected in the hussar
6728 officer as in a looking glass--started, moved forward, and answered:
6729 "Highly satisfied, your excellency!"
6731 "We all have our weaknesses," said Kutuzov smiling and walking away from
6732 him. "He used to have a predilection for Bacchus."
6734 The regimental commander was afraid he might be blamed for this and did
6735 not answer. The hussar at that moment noticed the face of the red-nosed
6736 captain and his drawn-in stomach, and mimicked his expression and pose
6737 with such exactitude that Nesvitski could not help laughing. Kutuzov
6738 turned round. The officer evidently had complete control of his face,
6739 and while Kutuzov was turning managed to make a grimace and then assume
6740 a most serious, deferential, and innocent expression.
6742 The third company was the last, and Kutuzov pondered, apparently trying
6743 to recollect something. Prince Andrew stepped forward from among the
6744 suite and said in French:
6746 "You told me to remind you of the officer Dolokhov, reduced to the ranks
6749 "Where is Dolokhov?" asked Kutuzov.
6751 Dolokhov, who had already changed into a soldier's gray greatcoat, did
6752 not wait to be called. The shapely figure of the fair-haired soldier,
6753 with his clear blue eyes, stepped forward from the ranks, went up to the
6754 commander in chief, and presented arms.
6756 "Have you a complaint to make?" Kutuzov asked with a slight frown.
6758 "This is Dolokhov," said Prince Andrew.
6760 "Ah!" said Kutuzov. "I hope this will be a lesson to you. Do your duty.
6761 The Emperor is gracious, and I shan't forget you if you deserve well."
6763 The clear blue eyes looked at the commander-in-chief just as boldly as
6764 they had looked at the regimental commander, seeming by their expression
6765 to tear open the veil of convention that separates a commander-in-chief
6766 so widely from a private.
6768 "One thing I ask of your excellency," Dolokhov said in his firm,
6769 ringing, deliberate voice. "I ask an opportunity to atone for my fault
6770 and prove my devotion to His Majesty the Emperor and to Russia!"
6772 Kutuzov turned away. The same smile of the eyes with which he had turned
6773 from Captain Timokhin again flitted over his face. He turned away with a
6774 grimace as if to say that everything Dolokhov had said to him and
6775 everything he could say had long been known to him, that he was weary of
6776 it and it was not at all what he wanted. He turned away and went to the
6779 The regiment broke up into companies, which went to their appointed
6780 quarters near Braunau, where they hoped to receive boots and clothes and
6781 to rest after their hard marches.
6783 "You won't bear me a grudge, Prokhor Ignatych?" said the regimental
6784 commander, overtaking the third company on its way to its quarters and
6785 riding up to Captain Timokhin who was walking in front. (The regimental
6786 commander's face now that the inspection was happily over beamed with
6787 irrepressible delight.) "It's in the Emperor's service... it can't be
6788 helped... one is sometimes a bit hasty on parade... I am the first to
6789 apologize, you know me!... He was very pleased!" And he held out his
6790 hand to the captain.
6792 "Don't mention it, General, as if I'd be so bold!" replied the captain,
6793 his nose growing redder as he gave a smile which showed where two front
6794 teeth were missing that had been knocked out by the butt end of a gun at
6797 "And tell Mr. Dolokhov that I won't forget him--he may be quite easy.
6798 And tell me, please--I've been meaning to ask--how is he behaving
6799 himself, and in general..."
6801 "As far as the service goes he is quite punctilious, your excellency;
6802 but his character..." said Timokhin.
6804 "And what about his character?" asked the regimental commander.
6806 "It's different on different days," answered the captain. "One day he is
6807 sensible, well educated, and good-natured, and the next he's a wild
6808 beast.... In Poland, if you please, he nearly killed a Jew."
6810 "Oh, well, well!" remarked the regimental commander. "Still, one must
6811 have pity on a young man in misfortune. You know he has important
6812 connections... Well, then, you just..."
6814 "I will, your excellency," said Timokhin, showing by his smile that he
6815 understood his commander's wish.
6817 "Well, of course, of course!"
6819 The regimental commander sought out Dolokhov in the ranks and, reining
6820 in his horse, said to him:
6822 "After the next affair... epaulettes."
6824 Dolokhov looked round but did not say anything, nor did the mocking
6825 smile on his lips change.
6827 "Well, that's all right," continued the regimental commander. "A cup of
6828 vodka for the men from me," he added so that the soldiers could hear. "I
6829 thank you all! God be praised!" and he rode past that company and
6830 overtook the next one.
6832 "Well, he's really a good fellow, one can serve under him," said
6833 Timokhin to the subaltern beside him.
6835 "In a word, a hearty one..." said the subaltern, laughing (the
6836 regimental commander was nicknamed King of Hearts).
6838 The cheerful mood of their officers after the inspection infected the
6839 soldiers. The company marched on gaily. The soldiers' voices could be
6840 heard on every side.
6842 "And they said Kutuzov was blind of one eye?"
6844 "And so he is! Quite blind!"
6846 "No, friend, he is sharper-eyed than you are. Boots and leg bands... he
6847 noticed everything..."
6849 "When he looked at my feet, friend... well, thinks I..."
6851 "And that other one with him, the Austrian, looked as if he were smeared
6852 with chalk--as white as flour! I suppose they polish him up as they do
6855 "I say, Fedeshon!... Did he say when the battles are to begin? You were
6856 near him. Everybody said that Buonaparte himself was at Braunau."
6858 "Buonaparte himself!... Just listen to the fool, what he doesn't know!
6859 The Prussians are up in arms now. The Austrians, you see, are putting
6860 them down. When they've been put down, the war with Buonaparte will
6861 begin. And he says Buonaparte is in Braunau! Shows you're a fool. You'd
6862 better listen more carefully!"
6864 "What devils these quartermasters are! See, the fifth company is turning
6865 into the village already... they will have their buckwheat cooked before
6866 we reach our quarters."
6868 "Give me a biscuit, you devil!"
6870 "And did you give me tobacco yesterday? That's just it, friend! Ah,
6871 well, never mind, here you are."
6873 "They might call a halt here or we'll have to do another four miles
6876 "Wasn't it fine when those Germans gave us lifts! You just sit still and
6879 "And here, friend, the people are quite beggarly. There they all seemed
6880 to be Poles--all under the Russian crown--but here they're all regular
6883 "Singers to the front" came the captain's order.
6885 And from the different ranks some twenty men ran to the front. A
6886 drummer, their leader, turned round facing the singers, and flourishing
6887 his arm, began a long-drawn-out soldiers' song, commencing with the
6888 words: "Morning dawned, the sun was rising," and concluding: "On then,
6889 brothers, on to glory, led by Father Kamenski." This song had been
6890 composed in the Turkish campaign and now being sung in Austria, the only
6891 change being that the words "Father Kamenski" were replaced by "Father
6894 Having jerked out these last words as soldiers do and waved his arms as
6895 if flinging something to the ground, the drummer--a lean, handsome
6896 soldier of forty--looked sternly at the singers and screwed up his eyes.
6897 Then having satisfied himself that all eyes were fixed on him, he raised
6898 both arms as if carefully lifting some invisible but precious object
6899 above his head and, holding it there for some seconds, suddenly flung it
6902 "Oh, my bower, oh, my bower...!"
6904 "Oh, my bower new...!" chimed in twenty voices, and the castanet player,
6905 in spite of the burden of his equipment, rushed out to the front and,
6906 walking backwards before the company, jerked his shoulders and
6907 flourished his castanets as if threatening someone. The soldiers,
6908 swinging their arms and keeping time spontaneously, marched with long
6909 steps. Behind the company the sound of wheels, the creaking of springs,
6910 and the tramp of horses' hoofs were heard. Kutuzov and his suite were
6911 returning to the town. The commander-in-chief made a sign that the men
6912 should continue to march at ease, and he and all his suite showed
6913 pleasure at the sound of the singing and the sight of the dancing
6914 soldier and the gay and smartly marching men. In the second file from
6915 the right flank, beside which the carriage passed the company, a blue-
6916 eyed soldier involuntarily attracted notice. It was Dolokhov marching
6917 with particular grace and boldness in time to the song and looking at
6918 those driving past as if he pitied all who were not at that moment
6919 marching with the company. The hussar cornet of Kutuzov's suite who had
6920 mimicked the regimental commander, fell back from the carriage and rode
6923 Hussar cornet Zherkov had at one time, in Petersburg, belonged to the
6924 wild set led by Dolokhov. Zherkov had met Dolokhov abroad as a private
6925 and had not seen fit to recognize him. But now that Kutuzov had spoken
6926 to the gentleman ranker, he addressed him with the cordiality of an old
6929 "My dear fellow, how are you?" said he through the singing, making his
6930 horse keep pace with the company.
6932 "How am I?" Dolokhov answered coldly. "I am as you see."
6934 The lively song gave a special flavor to the tone of free and easy
6935 gaiety with which Zherkov spoke, and to the intentional coldness of
6938 "And how do you get on with the officers?" inquired Zherkov.
6940 "All right. They are good fellows. And how have you wriggled onto the
6943 "I was attached; I'm on duty."
6947 "She let the hawk fly upward from her wide right sleeve," went the song,
6948 arousing an involuntary sensation of courage and cheerfulness. Their
6949 conversation would probably have been different but for the effect of
6952 "Is it true that Austrians have been beaten?" asked Dolokhov.
6954 "The devil only knows! They say so."
6956 "I'm glad," answered Dolokhov briefly and clearly, as the song demanded.
6958 "I say, come round some evening and we'll have a game of faro!" said
6961 "Why, have you too much money?"
6965 "I can't. I've sworn not to. I won't drink and won't play till I get
6968 "Well, that's only till the first engagement."
6972 They were again silent.
6974 "Come if you need anything. One can at least be of use on the staff..."
6976 Dolokhov smiled. "Don't trouble. If I want anything, I won't beg--I'll
6979 "Well, never mind; I only..."
6988 "It's a long, long way. To my native land..."
6990 Zherkov touched his horse with the spurs; it pranced excitedly from foot
6991 to foot uncertain with which to start, then settled down, galloped past
6992 the company, and overtook the carriage, still keeping time to the song.
6999 On returning from the review, Kutuzov took the Austrian general into his
7000 private room and, calling his adjutant, asked for some papers relating
7001 to the condition of the troops on their arrival, and the letters that
7002 had come from the Archduke Ferdinand, who was in command of the advanced
7003 army. Prince Andrew Bolkonski came into the room with the required
7004 papers. Kutuzov and the Austrian member of the Hofkriegsrath were
7005 sitting at the table on which a plan was spread out.
7007 "Ah!..." said Kutuzov glancing at Bolkonski as if by this exclamation he
7008 was asking the adjutant to wait, and he went on with the conversation in
7011 "All I can say, General," said he with a pleasant elegance of expression
7012 and intonation that obliged one to listen to each deliberately spoken
7013 word. It was evident that Kutuzov himself listened with pleasure to his
7014 own voice. "All I can say, General, is that if the matter depended on my
7015 personal wishes, the will of His Majesty the Emperor Francis would have
7016 been fulfilled long ago. I should long ago have joined the archduke. And
7017 believe me on my honour that to me personally it would be a pleasure to
7018 hand over the supreme command of the army into the hands of a better
7019 informed and more skillful general--of whom Austria has so many--and to
7020 lay down all this heavy responsibility. But circumstances are sometimes
7021 too strong for us, General."
7023 And Kutuzov smiled in a way that seemed to say, "You are quite at
7024 liberty not to believe me and I don't even care whether you do or not,
7025 but you have no grounds for telling me so. And that is the whole point."
7027 The Austrian general looked dissatisfied, but had no option but to reply
7030 "On the contrary," he said, in a querulous and angry tone that
7031 contrasted with his flattering words, "on the contrary, your
7032 excellency's participation in the common action is highly valued by His
7033 Majesty; but we think the present delay is depriving the splendid
7034 Russian troops and their commander of the laurels they have been
7035 accustomed to win in their battles," he concluded his evidently
7036 prearranged sentence.
7038 Kutuzov bowed with the same smile.
7040 "But that is my conviction, and judging by the last letter with which
7041 His Highness the Archduke Ferdinand has honored me, I imagine that the
7042 Austrian troops, under the direction of so skillful a leader as General
7043 Mack, have by now already gained a decisive victory and no longer need
7044 our aid," said Kutuzov.
7046 The general frowned. Though there was no definite news of an Austrian
7047 defeat, there were many circumstances confirming the unfavorable rumors
7048 that were afloat, and so Kutuzov's suggestion of an Austrian victory
7049 sounded much like irony. But Kutuzov went on blandly smiling with the
7050 same expression, which seemed to say that he had a right to suppose so.
7051 And, in fact, the last letter he had received from Mack's army informed
7052 him of a victory and stated strategically the position of the army was
7055 "Give me that letter," said Kutuzov turning to Prince Andrew. "Please
7056 have a look at it"--and Kutuzov with an ironical smile about the corners
7057 of his mouth read to the Austrian general the following passage, in
7058 German, from the Archduke Ferdinand's letter:
7060 We have fully concentrated forces of nearly seventy thousand men with
7061 which to attack and defeat the enemy should he cross the Lech. Also, as
7062 we are masters of Ulm, we cannot be deprived of the advantage of
7063 commanding both sides of the Danube, so that should the enemy not cross
7064 the Lech, we can cross the Danube, throw ourselves on his line of
7065 communications, recross the river lower down, and frustrate his
7066 intention should he try to direct his whole force against our faithful
7067 ally. We shall therefore confidently await the moment when the Imperial
7068 Russian army will be fully equipped, and shall then, in conjunction with
7069 it, easily find a way to prepare for the enemy the fate he deserves.
7071 Kutuzov sighed deeply on finishing this paragraph and looked at the
7072 member of the Hofkriegsrath mildly and attentively.
7074 "But you know the wise maxim your excellency, advising one to expect the
7075 worst," said the Austrian general, evidently wishing to have done with
7076 jests and to come to business. He involuntarily looked round at the
7079 "Excuse me, General," interrupted Kutuzov, also turning to Prince
7080 Andrew. "Look here, my dear fellow, get from Kozlovski all the reports
7081 from our scouts. Here are two letters from Count Nostitz and here is one
7082 from His Highness the Archduke Ferdinand and here are these," he said,
7083 handing him several papers, "make a neat memorandum in French out of all
7084 this, showing all the news we have had of the movements of the Austrian
7085 army, and then give it to his excellency."
7087 Prince Andrew bowed his head in token of having understood from the
7088 first not only what had been said but also what Kutuzov would have liked
7089 to tell him. He gathered up the papers and with a bow to both, stepped
7090 softly over the carpet and went out into the waiting room.
7092 Though not much time had passed since Prince Andrew had left Russia, he
7093 had changed greatly during that period. In the expression of his face,
7094 in his movements, in his walk, scarcely a trace was left of his former
7095 affected languor and indolence. He now looked like a man who has time to
7096 think of the impression he makes on others, but is occupied with
7097 agreeable and interesting work. His face expressed more satisfaction
7098 with himself and those around him, his smile and glance were brighter
7099 and more attractive.
7101 Kutuzov, whom he had overtaken in Poland, had received him very kindly,
7102 promised not to forget him, distinguished him above the other adjutants,
7103 and had taken him to Vienna and given him the more serious commissions.
7104 From Vienna Kutuzov wrote to his old comrade, Prince Andrew's father.
7106 Your son bids fair to become an officer distinguished by his industry,
7107 firmness, and expedition. I consider myself fortunate to have such a
7110 On Kutuzov's staff, among his fellow officers and in the army generally,
7111 Prince Andrew had, as he had had in Petersburg society, two quite
7112 opposite reputations. Some, a minority, acknowledged him to be different
7113 from themselves and from everyone else, expected great things of him,
7114 listened to him, admired, and imitated him, and with them Prince Andrew
7115 was natural and pleasant. Others, the majority, disliked him and
7116 considered him conceited, cold, and disagreeable. But among these people
7117 Prince Andrew knew how to take his stand so that they respected and even
7120 Coming out of Kutuzov's room into the waiting room with the papers in
7121 his hand Prince Andrew came up to his comrade, the aide-de-camp on duty,
7122 Kozlovski, who was sitting at the window with a book.
7124 "Well, Prince?" asked Kozlovski.
7126 "I am ordered to write a memorandum explaining why we are not
7131 Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders.
7133 "Any news from Mack?"
7137 "If it were true that he has been beaten, news would have come."
7139 "Probably," said Prince Andrew moving toward the outer door.
7141 But at that instant a tall Austrian general in a greatcoat, with the
7142 order of Maria Theresa on his neck and a black bandage round his head,
7143 who had evidently just arrived, entered quickly, slamming the door.
7144 Prince Andrew stopped short.
7146 "Commander in Chief Kutuzov?" said the newly arrived general speaking
7147 quickly with a harsh German accent, looking to both sides and advancing
7148 straight toward the inner door.
7150 "The commander-in-chief is engaged," said Kozlovski, going hurriedly up
7151 to the unknown general and blocking his way to the door. "Whom shall I
7154 The unknown general looked disdainfully down at Kozlovski, who was
7155 rather short, as if surprised that anyone should not know him.
7157 "The commander-in-chief is engaged," repeated Kozlovski calmly.
7159 The general's face clouded, his lips quivered and trembled. He took out
7160 a notebook, hurriedly scribbled something in pencil, tore out the leaf,
7161 gave it to Kozlovski, stepped quickly to the window, and threw himself
7162 into a chair, gazing at those in the room as if asking, "Why do they
7163 look at me?" Then he lifted his head, stretched his neck as if he
7164 intended to say something, but immediately, with affected indifference,
7165 began to hum to himself, producing a queer sound which immediately broke
7166 off. The door of the private room opened and Kutuzov appeared in the
7167 doorway. The general with the bandaged head bent forward as though
7168 running away from some danger, and, making long, quick strides with his
7169 thin legs, went up to Kutuzov.
7171 "Vous voyez le malheureux Mack," he uttered in a broken voice.
7173 Kutuzov's face as he stood in the open doorway remained perfectly
7174 immobile for a few moments. Then wrinkles ran over his face like a wave
7175 and his forehead became smooth again, he bowed his head respectfully,
7176 closed his eyes, silently let Mack enter his room before him, and closed
7177 the door himself behind him.
7179 The report which had been circulated that the Austrians had been beaten
7180 and that the whole army had surrendered at Ulm proved to be correct.
7181 Within half an hour adjutants had been sent in various directions with
7182 orders which showed that the Russian troops, who had hitherto been
7183 inactive, would also soon have to meet the enemy.
7185 Prince Andrew was one of those rare staff officers whose chief interest
7186 lay in the general progress of the war. When he saw Mack and heard the
7187 details of his disaster he understood that half the campaign was lost,
7188 understood all the difficulties of the Russian army's position, and
7189 vividly imagined what awaited it and the part he would have to play.
7190 Involuntarily he felt a joyful agitation at the thought of the
7191 humiliation of arrogant Austria and that in a week's time he might,
7192 perhaps, see and take part in the first Russian encounter with the
7193 French since Suvorov met them. He feared that Bonaparte's genius might
7194 outweigh all the courage of the Russian troops, and at the same time
7195 could not admit the idea of his hero being disgraced.
7197 Excited and irritated by these thoughts Prince Andrew went toward his
7198 room to write to his father, to whom he wrote every day. In the corridor
7199 he met Nesvitski, with whom he shared a room, and the wag Zherkov; they
7200 were as usual laughing.
7202 "Why are you so glum?" asked Nesvitski noticing Prince Andrew's pale
7203 face and glittering eyes.
7205 "There's nothing to be gay about," answered Bolkonski.
7207 Just as Prince Andrew met Nesvitski and Zherkov, there came toward them
7208 from the other end of the corridor, Strauch, an Austrian general who on
7209 Kutuzov's staff in charge of the provisioning of the Russian army, and
7210 the member of the Hofkriegsrath who had arrived the previous evening.
7211 There was room enough in the wide corridor for the generals to pass the
7212 three officers quite easily, but Zherkov, pushing Nesvitski aside with
7213 his arm, said in a breathless voice,
7215 "They're coming!... they're coming!... Stand aside, make way, please
7218 The generals were passing by, looking as if they wished to avoid
7219 embarrassing attentions. On the face of the wag Zherkov there suddenly
7220 appeared a stupid smile of glee which he seemed unable to suppress.
7222 "Your excellency," said he in German, stepping forward and addressing
7223 the Austrian general, "I have the honor to congratulate you."
7225 He bowed his head and scraped first with one foot and then with the
7226 other, awkwardly, like a child at a dancing lesson.
7228 The member of the Hofkriegsrath looked at him severely but, seeing the
7229 seriousness of his stupid smile, could not but give him a moment's
7230 attention. He screwed up his eyes showing that he was listening.
7232 "I have the honor to congratulate you. General Mack has arrived, quite
7233 well, only a little bruised just here," he added, pointing with a
7234 beaming smile to his head.
7236 The general frowned, turned away, and went on.
7238 "Gott, wie naiv!" * said he angrily, after he had gone a few steps.
7241 * "Good God, what simplicity!"
7243 Nesvitski with a laugh threw his arms round Prince Andrew, but
7244 Bolkonski, turning still paler, pushed him away with an angry look and
7245 turned to Zherkov. The nervous irritation aroused by the appearance of
7246 Mack, the news of his defeat, and the thought of what lay before the
7247 Russian army found vent in anger at Zherkov's untimely jest.
7249 "If you, sir, choose to make a buffoon of yourself," he said sharply,
7250 with a slight trembling of the lower jaw, "I can't prevent your doing
7251 so; but I warn you that if you dare to play the fool in my presence, I
7252 will teach you to behave yourself."
7254 Nesvitski and Zherkov were so surprised by this outburst that they gazed
7255 at Bolkonski silently with wide-open eyes.
7257 "What's the matter? I only congratulated them," said Zherkov.
7259 "I am not jesting with you; please be silent!" cried Bolkonski, and
7260 taking Nesvitski's arm he left Zherkov, who did not know what to say.
7262 "Come, what's the matter, old fellow?" said Nesvitski trying to soothe
7265 "What's the matter?" exclaimed Prince Andrew standing still in his
7266 excitement. "Don't you understand that either we are officers serving
7267 our Tsar and our country, rejoicing in the successes and grieving at the
7268 misfortunes of our common cause, or we are merely lackeys who care
7269 nothing for their master's business. Quarante mille hommes massacres et
7270 l'armee de nos allies detruite, et vous trouvez la le mot pour rire," *
7271 he said, as if strengthening his views by this French sentence. "C'est
7272 bien pour un garcon de rien comme cet individu dont vous avez fait un
7273 ami, mais pas pour vous, pas pour vous. *(2) Only a hobbledehoy could
7274 amuse himself in this way," he added in Russian--but pronouncing the
7275 word with a French accent--having noticed that Zherkov could still hear
7279 * "Forty thousand men massacred and the army of our allies destroyed,
7280 and you find that a cause for jesting!"
7282 * (2) "It is all very well for that good-for-nothing fellow of whom you
7283 have made a friend, but not for you, not for you."
7285 He waited a moment to see whether the cornet would answer, but he turned
7286 and went out of the corridor.
7293 The Pavlograd Hussars were stationed two miles from Braunau. The
7294 squadron in which Nicholas Rostov served as a cadet was quartered in the
7295 German village of Salzeneck. The best quarters in the village were
7296 assigned to cavalry-captain Denisov, the squadron commander, known
7297 throughout the whole cavalry division as Vaska Denisov. Cadet Rostov,
7298 ever since he had overtaken the regiment in Poland, had lived with the
7301 On October 11, the day when all was astir at headquarters over the news
7302 of Mack's defeat, the camp life of the officers of this squadron was
7303 proceeding as usual. Denisov, who had been losing at cards all night,
7304 had not yet come home when Rostov rode back early in the morning from a
7305 foraging expedition. Rostov in his cadet uniform, with a jerk to his
7306 horse, rode up to the porch, swung his leg over the saddle with a supple
7307 youthful movement, stood for a moment in the stirrup as if loathe to
7308 part from his horse, and at last sprang down and called to his orderly.
7310 "Ah, Bondarenko, dear friend!" said he to the hussar who rushed up
7311 headlong to the horse. "Walk him up and down, my dear fellow," he
7312 continued, with that gay brotherly cordiality which goodhearted young
7313 people show to everyone when they are happy.
7315 "Yes, your excellency," answered the Ukrainian gaily, tossing his head.
7317 "Mind, walk him up and down well!"
7319 Another hussar also rushed toward the horse, but Bondarenko had already
7320 thrown the reins of the snaffle bridle over the horse's head. It was
7321 evident that the cadet was liberal with his tips and that it paid to
7322 serve him. Rostov patted the horse's neck and then his flank, and
7323 lingered for a moment.
7325 "Splendid! What a horse he will be!" he thought with a smile, and
7326 holding up his saber, his spurs jingling, he ran up the steps of the
7327 porch. His landlord, who in a waistcoat and a pointed cap, pitchfork in
7328 hand, was clearing manure from the cowhouse, looked out, and his face
7329 immediately brightened on seeing Rostov. "Schon gut Morgen! Schon gut
7330 Morgen!" * he said winking with a merry smile, evidently pleased to
7331 greet the young man.
7334 * "A very good morning! A very good morning!"
7336 "Schon fleissig?" * said Rostov with the same gay brotherly smile which
7337 did not leave his eager face. "Hoch Oestreicher! Hoch Russen! Kaiser
7338 Alexander hoch!" *(2) said he, quoting words often repeated by the
7344 * (2) "Hurrah for the Austrians! Hurrah for the Russians! Hurrah for
7347 The German laughed, came out of the cowshed, pulled off his cap, and
7348 waving it above his head cried:
7350 "Und die ganze Welt hoch!" *
7353 * "And hurrah for the whole world!"
7355 Rostov waved his cap above his head like the German and cried laughing,
7356 "Und vivat die ganze Welt!" Though neither the German cleaning his
7357 cowshed nor Rostov back with his platoon from foraging for hay had any
7358 reason for rejoicing, they looked at each other with joyful delight and
7359 brotherly love, wagged their heads in token of their mutual affection,
7360 and parted smiling, the German returning to his cowshed and Rostov going
7361 to the cottage he occupied with Denisov.
7363 "What about your master?" he asked Lavrushka, Denisov's orderly, whom
7364 all the regiment knew for a rogue.
7366 "Hasn't been in since the evening. Must have been losing," answered
7367 Lavrushka. "I know by now, if he wins he comes back early to brag about
7368 it, but if he stays out till morning it means he's lost and will come
7369 back in a rage. Will you have coffee?"
7373 Ten minutes later Lavrushka brought the coffee. "He's coming!" said he.
7374 "Now for trouble!" Rostov looked out of the window and saw Denisov
7375 coming home. Denisov was a small man with a red face, sparkling black
7376 eyes, and black tousled mustache and hair. He wore an unfastened cloak,
7377 wide breeches hanging down in creases, and a crumpled shako on the back
7378 of his head. He came up to the porch gloomily, hanging his head.
7380 "Lavwuska!" he shouted loudly and angrily, "take it off, blockhead!"
7382 "Well, I am taking it off," replied Lavrushka's voice.
7384 "Ah, you're up already," said Denisov, entering the room.
7386 "Long ago," answered Rostov, "I have already been for the hay, and have
7387 seen Fraulein Mathilde."
7389 "Weally! And I've been losing, bwother. I lost yesterday like a damned
7390 fool!" cried Denisov, not pronouncing his r's. "Such ill luck! Such ill
7391 luck. As soon as you left, it began and went on. Hullo there! Tea!"
7393 Puckering up his face though smiling, and showing his short strong
7394 teeth, he began with stubby fingers of both hands to ruffle up his thick
7397 "And what devil made me go to that wat?" (an officer nicknamed "the
7398 rat") he said, rubbing his forehead and whole face with both hands.
7399 "Just fancy, he didn't let me win a single cahd, not one cahd."
7401 He took the lighted pipe that was offered to him, gripped it in his
7402 fist, and tapped it on the floor, making the sparks fly, while he
7405 "He lets one win the singles and collahs it as soon as one doubles it;
7406 gives the singles and snatches the doubles!"
7408 He scattered the burning tobacco, smashed the pipe, and threw it away.
7409 Then he remained silent for a while, and all at once looked cheerfully
7410 with his glittering, black eyes at Rostov.
7412 "If at least we had some women here; but there's nothing foh one to do
7413 but dwink. If we could only get to fighting soon. Hullo, who's there?"
7414 he said, turning to the door as he heard a tread of heavy boots and the
7415 clinking of spurs that came to a stop, and a respectful cough.
7417 "The squadron quartermaster!" said Lavrushka.
7419 Denisov's face puckered still more.
7421 "Wetched!" he muttered, throwing down a purse with some gold in it.
7422 "Wostov, deah fellow, just see how much there is left and shove the
7423 purse undah the pillow," he said, and went out to the quartermaster.
7425 Rostov took the money and, mechanically arranging the old and new coins
7426 in separate piles, began counting them.
7428 "Ah! Telyanin! How d'ye do? They plucked me last night," came Denisov's
7429 voice from the next room.
7431 "Where? At Bykov's, at the rat's... I knew it," replied a piping voice,
7432 and Lieutenant Telyanin, a small officer of the same squadron, entered
7435 Rostov thrust the purse under the pillow and shook the damp little hand
7436 which was offered him. Telyanin for some reason had been transferred
7437 from the Guards just before this campaign. He behaved very well in the
7438 regiment but was not liked; Rostov especially detested him and was
7439 unable to overcome or conceal his groundless antipathy to the man.
7441 "Well, young cavalryman, how is my Rook behaving?" he asked. (Rook was a
7442 young horse Telyanin had sold to Rostov.)
7444 The lieutenant never looked the man he was speaking to straight in the
7445 face; his eyes continually wandered from one object to another.
7447 "I saw you riding this morning..." he added.
7449 "Oh, he's all right, a good horse," answered Rostov, though the horse
7450 for which he had paid seven hundred rubbles was not worth half that sum.
7451 "He's begun to go a little lame on the left foreleg," he added.
7453 "The hoof's cracked! That's nothing. I'll teach you what to do and show
7454 you what kind of rivet to use."
7456 "Yes, please do," said Rostov.
7458 "I'll show you, I'll show you! It's not a secret. And it's a horse
7459 you'll thank me for."
7461 "Then I'll have it brought round," said Rostov wishing to avoid
7462 Telyanin, and he went out to give the order.
7464 In the passage Denisov, with a pipe, was squatting on the threshold
7465 facing the quartermaster who was reporting to him. On seeing Rostov,
7466 Denisov screwed up his face and pointing over his shoulder with his
7467 thumb to the room where Telyanin was sitting, he frowned and gave a
7470 "Ugh! I don't like that fellow," he said, regardless of the
7471 quartermaster's presence.
7473 Rostov shrugged his shoulders as much as to say: "Nor do I, but what's
7474 one to do?" and, having given his order, he returned to Telyanin.
7476 Telyanin was sitting in the same indolent pose in which Rostov had left
7477 him, rubbing his small white hands.
7479 "Well there certainly are disgusting people," thought Rostov as he
7482 "Have you told them to bring the horse?" asked Telyanin, getting up and
7483 looking carelessly about him.
7487 "Let us go ourselves. I only came round to ask Denisov about yesterday's
7488 order. Have you got it, Denisov?"
7490 "Not yet. But where are you off to?"
7492 "I want to teach this young man how to shoe a horse," said Telyanin.
7494 They went through the porch and into the stable. The lieutenant
7495 explained how to rivet the hoof and went away to his own quarters.
7497 When Rostov went back there was a bottle of vodka and a sausage on the
7498 table. Denisov was sitting there scratching with his pen on a sheet of
7499 paper. He looked gloomily in Rostov's face and said: "I am witing to
7502 He leaned his elbows on the table with his pen in his hand and,
7503 evidently glad of a chance to say quicker in words what he wanted to
7504 write, told Rostov the contents of his letter.
7506 "You see, my fwiend," he said, "we sleep when we don't love. We are
7507 childwen of the dust... but one falls in love and one is a God, one is
7508 pua' as on the first day of cweation... Who's that now? Send him to the
7509 devil, I'm busy!" he shouted to Lavrushka, who went up to him not in the
7512 "Who should it be? You yourself told him to come. It's the quartermaster
7515 Denisov frowned and was about to shout some reply but stopped.
7517 "Wetched business," he muttered to himself. "How much is left in the
7518 puhse?" he asked, turning to Rostov.
7520 "Seven new and three old imperials."
7522 "Oh, it's wetched! Well, what are you standing there for, you sca'cwow?
7523 Call the quahtehmasteh," he shouted to Lavrushka.
7525 "Please, Denisov, let me lend you some: I have some, you know," said
7528 "Don't like bowwowing from my own fellows, I don't," growled Denisov.
7530 "But if you won't accept money from me like a comrade, you will offend
7531 me. Really I have some," Rostov repeated.
7535 And Denisov went to the bed to get the purse from under the pillow.
7537 "Where have you put it, Wostov?"
7539 "Under the lower pillow."
7543 Denisov threw both pillows on the floor. The purse was not there.
7547 "Wait, haven't you dropped it?" said Rostov, picking up the pillows one
7548 at a time and shaking them.
7550 He pulled off the quilt and shook it. The purse was not there.
7552 "Dear me, can I have forgotten? No, I remember thinking that you kept it
7553 under your head like a treasure," said Rostov. "I put it just here.
7554 Where is it?" he asked, turning to Lavrushka.
7556 "I haven't been in the room. It must be where you put it."
7560 "You're always like that; you thwow a thing down anywhere and forget it.
7561 Feel in your pockets."
7563 "No, if I hadn't thought of it being a treasure," said Rostov, "but I
7564 remember putting it there."
7566 Lavrushka turned all the bedding over, looked under the bed and under
7567 the table, searched everywhere, and stood still in the middle of the
7568 room. Denisov silently watched Lavrushka's movements, and when the
7569 latter threw up his arms in surprise saying it was nowhere to be found
7570 Denisov glanced at Rostov.
7572 "Wostov, you've not been playing schoolboy twicks..."
7574 Rostov felt Denisov's gaze fixed on him, raised his eyes, and instantly
7575 dropped them again. All the blood which had seemed congested somewhere
7576 below his throat rushed to his face and eyes. He could not draw breath.
7578 "And there hasn't been anyone in the room except the lieutenant and
7579 yourselves. It must be here somewhere," said Lavrushka.
7581 "Now then, you devil's puppet, look alive and hunt for it!" shouted
7582 Denisov, suddenly, turning purple and rushing at the man with a
7583 threatening gesture. "If the purse isn't found I'll flog you, I'll flog
7586 Rostov, his eyes avoiding Denisov, began buttoning his coat, buckled on
7587 his saber, and put on his cap.
7589 "I must have that purse, I tell you," shouted Denisov, shaking his
7590 orderly by the shoulders and knocking him against the wall.
7592 "Denisov, let him alone, I know who has taken it," said Rostov, going
7593 toward the door without raising his eyes. Denisov paused, thought a
7594 moment, and, evidently understanding what Rostov hinted at, seized his
7597 "Nonsense!" he cried, and the veins on his forehead and neck stood out
7598 like cords. "You are mad, I tell you. I won't allow it. The purse is
7599 here! I'll flay this scoundwel alive, and it will be found."
7601 "I know who has taken it," repeated Rostov in an unsteady voice, and
7604 "And I tell you, don't you dahe to do it!" shouted Denisov, rushing at
7605 the cadet to restrain him.
7607 But Rostov pulled away his arm and, with as much anger as though Denisov
7608 were his worst enemy, firmly fixed his eyes directly on his face.
7610 "Do you understand what you're saying?" he said in a trembling voice.
7611 "There was no one else in the room except myself. So that if it is not
7614 He could not finish, and ran out of the room.
7616 "Ah, may the devil take you and evewybody," were the last words Rostov
7619 Rostov went to Telyanin's quarters.
7621 "The master is not in, he's gone to headquarters," said Telyanin's
7622 orderly. "Has something happened?" he added, surprised at the cadet's
7627 "You've only just missed him," said the orderly.
7629 The headquarters were situated two miles away from Salzeneck, and
7630 Rostov, without returning home, took a horse and rode there. There was
7631 an inn in the village which the officers frequented. Rostov rode up to
7632 it and saw Telyanin's horse at the porch.
7634 In the second room of the inn the lieutenant was sitting over a dish of
7635 sausages and a bottle of wine.
7637 "Ah, you've come here too, young man!" he said, smiling and raising his
7640 "Yes," said Rostov as if it cost him a great deal to utter the word; and
7641 he sat down at the nearest table.
7643 Both were silent. There were two Germans and a Russian officer in the
7644 room. No one spoke and the only sounds heard were the clatter of knives
7645 and the munching of the lieutenant.
7647 When Telyanin had finished his lunch he took out of his pocket a double
7648 purse and, drawing its rings aside with his small, white, turned-up
7649 fingers, drew out a gold imperial, and lifting his eyebrows gave it to
7652 "Please be quick," he said.
7654 The coin was a new one. Rostov rose and went up to Telyanin.
7656 "Allow me to look at your purse," he said in a low, almost inaudible,
7659 With shifting eyes but eyebrows still raised, Telyanin handed him the
7662 "Yes, it's a nice purse. Yes, yes," he said, growing suddenly pale, and
7663 added, "Look at it, young man."
7665 Rostov took the purse in his hand, examined it and the money in it, and
7666 looked at Telyanin. The lieutenant was looking about in his usual way
7667 and suddenly seemed to grow very merry.
7669 "If we get to Vienna I'll get rid of it there but in these wretched
7670 little towns there's nowhere to spend it," said he. "Well, let me have
7671 it, young man, I'm going."
7673 Rostov did not speak.
7675 "And you? Are you going to have lunch too? They feed you quite decently
7676 here," continued Telyanin. "Now then, let me have it."
7678 He stretched out his hand to take hold of the purse. Rostov let go of
7679 it. Telyanin took the purse and began carelessly slipping it into the
7680 pocket of his riding breeches, with his eyebrows lifted and his mouth
7681 slightly open, as if to say, "Yes, yes, I am putting my purse in my
7682 pocket and that's quite simple and is no one else's business."
7684 "Well, young man?" he said with a sigh, and from under his lifted brows
7685 he glanced into Rostov's eyes.
7687 Some flash as of an electric spark shot from Telyanin's eyes to Rostov's
7688 and back, and back again and again in an instant.
7690 "Come here," said Rostov, catching hold of Telyanin's arm and almost
7691 dragging him to the window. "That money is Denisov's; you took it..." he
7692 whispered just above Telyanin's ear.
7694 "What? What? How dare you? What?" said Telyanin.
7696 But these words came like a piteous, despairing cry and an entreaty for
7697 pardon. As soon as Rostov heard them, an enormous load of doubt fell
7698 from him. He was glad, and at the same instant began to pity the
7699 miserable man who stood before him, but the task he had begun had to be
7702 "Heaven only knows what the people here may imagine," muttered Telyanin,
7703 taking up his cap and moving toward a small empty room. "We must have an
7706 "I know it and shall prove it," said Rostov.
7710 Every muscle of Telyanin's pale, terrified face began to quiver, his
7711 eyes still shifted from side to side but with a downward look not rising
7712 to Rostov's face, and his sobs were audible.
7714 "Count!... Don't ruin a young fellow... here is this wretched money,
7715 take it..." He threw it on the table. "I have an old father and
7718 Rostov took the money, avoiding Telyanin's eyes, and went out of the
7719 room without a word. But at the door he stopped and then retraced his
7720 steps. "O God," he said with tears in his eyes, "how could you do it?"
7722 "Count..." said Telyanin drawing nearer to him.
7724 "Don't touch me," said Rostov, drawing back. "If you need it, take the
7725 money," and he threw the purse to him and ran out of the inn.
7732 That same evening there was an animated discussion among the squadron's
7733 officers in Denisov's quarters.
7735 "And I tell you, Rostov, that you must apologize to the colonel!" said a
7736 tall, grizzly-haired staff captain, with enormous mustaches and many
7737 wrinkles on his large features, to Rostov who was crimson with
7740 The staff captain, Kirsten, had twice been reduced to the ranks for
7741 affairs of honor and had twice regained his commission.
7743 "I will allow no one to call me a liar!" cried Rostov. "He told me I
7744 lied, and I told him he lied. And there it rests. He may keep me on duty
7745 every day, or may place me under arrest, but no one can make me
7746 apologize, because if he, as commander of this regiment, thinks it
7747 beneath his dignity to give me satisfaction, then..."
7749 "You just wait a moment, my dear fellow, and listen," interrupted the
7750 staff captain in his deep bass, calmly stroking his long mustache. "You
7751 tell the colonel in the presence of other officers that an officer has
7754 "I'm not to blame that the conversation began in the presence of other
7755 officers. Perhaps I ought not to have spoken before them, but I am not a
7756 diplomatist. That's why I joined the hussars, thinking that here one
7757 would not need finesse; and he tells me that I am lying--so let him give
7760 "That's all right. No one thinks you a coward, but that's not the point.
7761 Ask Denisov whether it is not out of the question for a cadet to demand
7762 satisfaction of his regimental commander?"
7764 Denisov sat gloomily biting his mustache and listening to the
7765 conversation, evidently with no wish to take part in it. He answered the
7766 staff captain's question by a disapproving shake of his head.
7768 "You speak to the colonel about this nasty business before other
7769 officers," continued the staff captain, "and Bogdanich" (the colonel was
7770 called Bogdanich) "shuts you up."
7772 "He did not shut me up, he said I was telling an untruth."
7774 "Well, have it so, and you talked a lot of nonsense to him and must
7777 "Not on any account!" exclaimed Rostov.
7779 "I did not expect this of you," said the staff captain seriously and
7780 severely. "You don't wish to apologize, but, man, it's not only to him
7781 but to the whole regiment--all of us--you're to blame all round. The
7782 case is this: you ought to have thought the matter over and taken
7783 advice; but no, you go and blurt it all straight out before the
7784 officers. Now what was the colonel to do? Have the officer tried and
7785 disgrace the whole regiment? Disgrace the whole regiment because of one
7786 scoundrel? Is that how you look at it? We don't see it like that. And
7787 Bogdanich was a brick: he told you you were saying what was not true.
7788 It's not pleasant, but what's to be done, my dear fellow? You landed
7789 yourself in it. And now, when one wants to smooth the thing over, some
7790 conceit prevents your apologizing, and you wish to make the whole affair
7791 public. You are offended at being put on duty a bit, but why not
7792 apologize to an old and honorable officer? Whatever Bogdanich may be,
7793 anyway he is an honorable and brave old colonel! You're quick at taking
7794 offense, but you don't mind disgracing the whole regiment!" The staff
7795 captain's voice began to tremble. "You have been in the regiment next to
7796 no time, my lad, you're here today and tomorrow you'll be appointed
7797 adjutant somewhere and can snap your fingers when it is said 'There are
7798 thieves among the Pavlograd officers!' But it's not all the same to us!
7799 Am I not right, Denisov? It's not the same!"
7801 Denisov remained silent and did not move, but occasionally looked with
7802 his glittering black eyes at Rostov.
7804 "You value your own pride and don't wish to apologize," continued the
7805 staff captain, "but we old fellows, who have grown up in and, God
7806 willing, are going to die in the regiment, we prize the honor of the
7807 regiment, and Bogdanich knows it. Oh, we do prize it, old fellow! And
7808 all this is not right, it's not right! You may take offense or not but I
7809 always stick to mother truth. It's not right!"
7811 And the staff captain rose and turned away from Rostov.
7814 "That's twue, devil take it!" shouted Denisov, jumping up. "Now then,
7817 Rostov, growing red and pale alternately, looked first at one officer
7818 and then at the other.
7820 "No, gentlemen, no... you mustn't think... I quite understand. You're
7821 wrong to think that of me... I... for me... for the honor of the
7822 regiment I'd... Ah well, I'll show that in action, and for me the honor
7823 of the flag... Well, never mind, it's true I'm to blame, to blame all
7824 round. Well, what else do you want?..."
7826 "Come, that's right, Count!" cried the staff captain, turning round and
7827 clapping Rostov on the shoulder with his big hand.
7829 "I tell you," shouted Denisov, "he's a fine fellow."
7831 "That's better, Count," said the staff captain, beginning to address
7832 Rostov by his title, as if in recognition of his confession. "Go and
7833 apologize, your excellency. Yes, go!"
7835 "Gentlemen, I'll do anything. No one shall hear a word from me," said
7836 Rostov in an imploring voice, "but I can't apologize, by God I can't, do
7837 what you will! How can I go and apologize like a little boy asking
7840 Denisov began to laugh.
7842 "It'll be worse for you. Bogdanich is vindictive and you'll pay for your
7843 obstinacy," said Kirsten.
7845 "No, on my word it's not obstinacy! I can't describe the feeling. I
7848 "Well, it's as you like," said the staff captain. "And what has become
7849 of that scoundrel?" he asked Denisov.
7851 "He has weported himself sick, he's to be stwuck off the list tomowwow,"
7854 "It is an illness, there's no other way of explaining it," said the
7857 "Illness or not, he'd better not cwoss my path. I'd kill him!" shouted
7858 Denisov in a bloodthirsty tone.
7860 Just then Zherkov entered the room.
7862 "What brings you here?" cried the officers turning to the newcomer.
7864 "We're to go into action, gentlemen! Mack has surrendered with his whole
7869 "I've seen him myself!"
7871 "What? Saw the real Mack? With hands and feet?"
7873 "Into action! Into action! Bring him a bottle for such news! But how did
7876 "I've been sent back to the regiment all on account of that devil, Mack.
7877 An Austrian general complained of me. I congratulated him on Mack's
7878 arrival... What's the matter, Rostov? You look as if you'd just come out
7881 "Oh, my dear fellow, we're in such a stew here these last two days."
7883 The regimental adjutant came in and confirmed the news brought by
7884 Zherkov. They were under orders to advance next day.
7886 "We're going into action, gentlemen!"
7888 "Well, thank God! We've been sitting here too long!"
7895 Kutuzov fell back toward Vienna, destroying behind him the bridges over
7896 the rivers Inn (at Braunau) and Traun (near Linz). On October 23 the
7897 Russian troops were crossing the river Enns. At midday the Russian
7898 baggage train, the artillery, and columns of troops were defiling
7899 through the town of Enns on both sides of the bridge.
7901 It was a warm, rainy, autumnal day. The wide expanse that opened out
7902 before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the
7903 bridge was at times veiled by a diaphanous curtain of slanting rain, and
7904 then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be
7905 clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished. Down below, the
7906 little town could be seen with its white, red-roofed houses, its
7907 cathedral, and its bridge, on both sides of which streamed jostling
7908 masses of Russian troops. At the bend of the Danube, vessels, an island,
7909 and a castle with a park surrounded by the waters of the confluence of
7910 the Enns and the Danube became visible, and the rocky left bank of the
7911 Danube covered with pine forests, with a mystic background of green
7912 treetops and bluish gorges. The turrets of a convent stood out beyond a
7913 wild virgin pine forest, and far away on the other side of the Enns the
7914 enemy's horse patrols could be discerned.
7916 Among the field guns on the brow of the hill the general in command of
7917 the rearguard stood with a staff officer, scanning the country through
7918 his fieldglass. A little behind them Nesvitski, who had been sent to the
7919 rearguard by the commander-in-chief, was sitting on the trail of a gun
7920 carriage. A Cossack who accompanied him had handed him a knapsack and a
7921 flask, and Nesvitski was treating some officers to pies and real
7922 doppelkummel. The officers gladly gathered round him, some on their
7923 knees, some squatting Turkish fashion on the wet grass.
7925 "Yes, the Austrian prince who built that castle was no fool. It's a fine
7926 place! Why are you not eating anything, gentlemen?" Nesvitski was
7929 "Thank you very much, Prince," answered one of the officers, pleased to
7930 be talking to a staff officer of such importance. "It's a lovely place!
7931 We passed close to the park and saw two deer... and what a splendid
7934 "Look, Prince," said another, who would have dearly liked to take
7935 another pie but felt shy, and therefore pretended to be examining the
7936 countryside--"See, our infantrymen have already got there. Look there in
7937 the meadow behind the village, three of them are dragging something.
7938 They'll ransack that castle," he remarked with evident approval.
7940 "So they will," said Nesvitski. "No, but what I should like," added he,
7941 munching a pie in his moist-lipped handsome mouth, "would be to slip in
7944 He pointed with a smile to a turreted nunnery, and his eyes narrowed and
7947 "That would be fine, gentlemen!"
7949 The officers laughed.
7951 "Just to flutter the nuns a bit. They say there are Italian girls among
7952 them. On my word I'd give five years of my life for it!"
7954 "They must be feeling dull, too," said one of the bolder officers,
7957 Meanwhile the staff officer standing in front pointed out something to
7958 the general, who looked through his field glass.
7960 "Yes, so it is, so it is," said the general angrily, lowering the field
7961 glass and shrugging his shoulders, "so it is! They'll be fired on at the
7962 crossing. And why are they dawdling there?"
7964 On the opposite side the enemy could be seen by the naked eye, and from
7965 their battery a milk-white cloud arose. Then came the distant report of
7966 a shot, and our troops could be seen hurrying to the crossing.
7968 Nesvitski rose, puffing, and went up to the general, smiling.
7970 "Would not your excellency like a little refreshment?" he said.
7972 "It's a bad business," said the general without answering him, "our men
7973 have been wasting time."
7975 "Hadn't I better ride over, your excellency?" asked Nesvitski.
7977 "Yes, please do," answered the general, and he repeated the order that
7978 had already once been given in detail: "and tell the hussars that they
7979 are to cross last and to fire the bridge as I ordered; and the
7980 inflammable material on the bridge must be reinspected."
7982 "Very good," answered Nesvitski.
7984 He called the Cossack with his horse, told him to put away the knapsack
7985 and flask, and swung his heavy person easily into the saddle.
7987 "I'll really call in on the nuns," he said to the officers who watched
7988 him smilingly, and he rode off by the winding path down the hill.
7990 "Now then, let's see how far it will carry, Captain. Just try!" said the
7991 general, turning to an artillery officer. "Have a little fun to pass the
7994 "Crew, to your guns!" commanded the officer.
7996 In a moment the men came running gaily from their campfires and began
7999 "One!" came the command.
8001 Number one jumped briskly aside. The gun rang out with a deafening
8002 metallic roar, and a whistling grenade flew above the heads of our
8003 troops below the hill and fell far short of the enemy, a little smoke
8004 showing the spot where it burst.
8006 The faces of officers and men brightened up at the sound. Everyone got
8007 up and began watching the movements of our troops below, as plainly
8008 visible as if but a stone's throw away, and the movements of the
8009 approaching enemy farther off. At the same instant the sun came fully
8010 out from behind the clouds, and the clear sound of the solitary shot and
8011 the brilliance of the bright sunshine merged in a single joyous and
8012 spirited impression.
8019 Two of the enemy's shots had already flown across the bridge, where
8020 there was a crush. Halfway across stood Prince Nesvitski, who had
8021 alighted from his horse and whose big body was jammed against the
8022 railings. He looked back laughing to the Cossack who stood a few steps
8023 behind him holding two horses by their bridles. Each time Prince
8024 Nesvitski tried to move on, soldiers and carts pushed him back again and
8025 pressed him against the railings, and all he could do was to smile.
8027 "What a fine fellow you are, friend!" said the Cossack to a convoy
8028 soldier with a wagon, who was pressing onto the infantrymen who were
8029 crowded together close to his wheels and his horses. "What a fellow! You
8030 can't wait a moment! Don't you see the general wants to pass?"
8032 But the convoyman took no notice of the word "general" and shouted at
8033 the soldiers who were blocking his way. "Hi there, boys! Keep to the
8034 left! Wait a bit." But the soldiers, crowded together shoulder to
8035 shoulder, their bayonets interlocking, moved over the bridge in a dense
8036 mass. Looking down over the rails Prince Nesvitski saw the rapid, noisy
8037 little waves of the Enns, which rippling and eddying round the piles of
8038 the bridge chased each other along. Looking on the bridge he saw equally
8039 uniform living waves of soldiers, shoulder straps, covered shakos,
8040 knapsacks, bayonets, long muskets, and, under the shakos, faces with
8041 broad cheekbones, sunken cheeks, and listless tired expressions, and
8042 feet that moved through the sticky mud that covered the planks of the
8043 bridge. Sometimes through the monotonous waves of men, like a fleck of
8044 white foam on the waves of the Enns, an officer, in a cloak and with a
8045 type of face different from that of the men, squeezed his way along;
8046 sometimes like a chip of wood whirling in the river, an hussar on foot,
8047 an orderly, or a townsman was carried through the waves of infantry; and
8048 sometimes like a log floating down the river, an officers' or company's
8049 baggage wagon, piled high, leather covered, and hemmed in on all sides,
8050 moved across the bridge.
8052 "It's as if a dam had burst," said the Cossack hopelessly. "Are there
8053 many more of you to come?"
8055 "A million all but one!" replied a waggish soldier in a torn coat, with
8056 a wink, and passed on followed by another, an old man.
8058 "If he" (he meant the enemy) "begins popping at the bridge now," said
8059 the old soldier dismally to a comrade, "you'll forget to scratch
8062 That soldier passed on, and after him came another sitting on a cart.
8064 "Where the devil have the leg bands been shoved to?" said an orderly,
8065 running behind the cart and fumbling in the back of it.
8067 And he also passed on with the wagon. Then came some merry soldiers who
8068 had evidently been drinking.
8070 "And then, old fellow, he gives him one in the teeth with the butt end
8071 of his gun..." a soldier whose greatcoat was well tucked up said gaily,
8072 with a wide swing of his arm.
8074 "Yes, the ham was just delicious..." answered another with a loud laugh.
8075 And they, too, passed on, so that Nesvitski did not learn who had been
8076 struck on the teeth, or what the ham had to do with it.
8078 "Bah! How they scurry. He just sends a ball and they think they'll all
8079 be killed," a sergeant was saying angrily and reproachfully.
8081 "As it flies past me, Daddy, the ball I mean," said a young soldier with
8082 an enormous mouth, hardly refraining from laughing, "I felt like dying
8083 of fright. I did, 'pon my word, I got that frightened!" said he, as if
8084 bragging of having been frightened.
8086 That one also passed. Then followed a cart unlike any that had gone
8087 before. It was a German cart with a pair of horses led by a German, and
8088 seemed loaded with a whole houseful of effects. A fine brindled cow with
8089 a large udder was attached to the cart behind. A woman with an unweaned
8090 baby, an old woman, and a healthy German girl with bright red cheeks
8091 were sitting on some feather beds. Evidently these fugitives were
8092 allowed to pass by special permission. The eyes of all the soldiers
8093 turned toward the women, and while the vehicle was passing at foot pace
8094 all the soldiers' remarks related to the two young ones. Every face bore
8095 almost the same smile, expressing unseemly thoughts about the women.
8097 "Just see, the German sausage is making tracks, too!"
8099 "Sell me the missis," said another soldier, addressing the German, who,
8100 angry and frightened, strode energetically along with downcast eyes.
8102 "See how smart she's made herself! Oh, the devils!"
8104 "There, Fedotov, you should be quartered on them!"
8106 "I have seen as much before now, mate!"
8108 "Where are you going?" asked an infantry officer who was eating an
8109 apple, also half smiling as he looked at the handsome girl.
8111 The German closed his eyes, signifying that he did not understand.
8113 "Take it if you like," said the officer, giving the girl an apple.
8115 The girl smiled and took it. Nesvitski like the rest of the men on the
8116 bridge did not take his eyes off the women till they had passed. When
8117 they had gone by, the same stream of soldiers followed, with the same
8118 kind of talk, and at last all stopped. As often happens, the horses of a
8119 convoy wagon became restive at the end of the bridge, and the whole
8122 "And why are they stopping? There's no proper order!" said the soldiers.
8123 "Where are you shoving to? Devil take you! Can't you wait? It'll be
8124 worse if he fires the bridge. See, here's an officer jammed in too"--
8125 different voices were saying in the crowd, as the men looked at one
8126 another, and all pressed toward the exit from the bridge.
8128 Looking down at the waters of the Enns under the bridge, Nesvitski
8129 suddenly heard a sound new to him, of something swiftly approaching...
8130 something big, that splashed into the water.
8132 "Just see where it carries to!" a soldier near by said sternly, looking
8135 "Encouraging us to get along quicker," said another uneasily.
8137 The crowd moved on again. Nesvitski realized that it was a cannon ball.
8139 "Hey, Cossack, my horse!" he said. "Now, then, you there! get out of the
8142 With great difficulty he managed to get to his horse, and shouting
8143 continually he moved on. The soldiers squeezed themselves to make way
8144 for him, but again pressed on him so that they jammed his leg, and those
8145 nearest him were not to blame for they were themselves pressed still
8148 "Nesvitski, Nesvitski! you numskull!" came a hoarse voice from behind
8151 Nesvitski looked round and saw, some fifteen paces away but separated by
8152 the living mass of moving infantry, Vaska Denisov, red and shaggy, with
8153 his cap on the back of his black head and a cloak hanging jauntily over
8156 "Tell these devils, these fiends, to let me pass!" shouted Denisov
8157 evidently in a fit of rage, his coal-black eyes with their bloodshot
8158 whites glittering and rolling as he waved his sheathed saber in a small
8159 bare hand as red as his face.
8161 "Ah, Vaska!" joyfully replied Nesvitski. "What's up with you?"
8163 "The squadwon can't pass," shouted Vaska Denisov, showing his white
8164 teeth fiercely and spurring his black thoroughbred Arab, which twitched
8165 its ears as the bayonets touched it, and snorted, spurting white foam
8166 from his bit, tramping the planks of the bridge with his hoofs, and
8167 apparently ready to jump over the railings had his rider let him. "What
8168 is this? They're like sheep! Just like sheep! Out of the way!... Let us
8169 pass!... Stop there, you devil with the cart! I'll hack you with my
8170 saber!" he shouted, actually drawing his saber from its scabbard and
8173 The soldiers crowded against one another with terrified faces, and
8174 Denisov joined Nesvitski.
8176 "How's it you're not drunk today?" said Nesvitski when the other had
8179 "They don't even give one time to dwink!" answered Vaska Denisov. "They
8180 keep dwagging the wegiment to and fwo all day. If they mean to fight,
8181 let's fight. But the devil knows what this is."
8183 "What a dandy you are today!" said Nesvitski, looking at Denisov's new
8184 cloak and saddlecloth.
8186 Denisov smiled, took out of his sabretache a handkerchief that diffused
8187 a smell of perfume, and put it to Nesvitski's nose.
8189 "Of course. I'm going into action! I've shaved, bwushed my teeth, and
8192 The imposing figure of Nesvitski followed by his Cossack, and the
8193 determination of Denisov who flourished his sword and shouted
8194 frantically, had such an effect that they managed to squeeze through to
8195 the farther side of the bridge and stopped the infantry. Beside the
8196 bridge Nesvitski found the colonel to whom he had to deliver the order,
8197 and having done this he rode back.
8199 Having cleared the way Denisov stopped at the end of the bridge.
8200 Carelessly holding in his stallion that was neighing and pawing the
8201 ground, eager to rejoin its fellows, he watched his squadron draw
8202 nearer. Then the clang of hoofs, as of several horses galloping,
8203 resounded on the planks of the bridge, and the squadron, officers in
8204 front and men four abreast, spread across the bridge and began to emerge
8207 The infantry who had been stopped crowded near the bridge in the
8208 trampled mud and gazed with that particular feeling of ill-will,
8209 estrangement, and ridicule with which troops of different arms usually
8210 encounter one another at the clean, smart hussars who moved past them in
8213 "Smart lads! Only fit for a fair!" said one.
8215 "What good are they? They're led about just for show!" remarked another.
8217 "Don't kick up the dust, you infantry!" jested an hussar whose prancing
8218 horse had splashed mud over some foot soldiers.
8220 "I'd like to put you on a two days' march with a knapsack! Your fine
8221 cords would soon get a bit rubbed," said an infantryman, wiping the mud
8222 off his face with his sleeve. "Perched up there, you're more like a bird
8225 "There now, Zikin, they ought to put you on a horse. You'd look fine,"
8226 said a corporal, chaffing a thin little soldier who bent under the
8227 weight of his knapsack.
8229 "Take a stick between your legs, that'll suit you for a horse!" the
8230 hussar shouted back.
8237 The last of the infantry hurriedly crossed the bridge, squeezing
8238 together as they approached it as if passing through a funnel. At last
8239 the baggage wagons had all crossed, the crush was less, and the last
8240 battalion came onto the bridge. Only Denisov's squadron of hussars
8241 remained on the farther side of the bridge facing the enemy, who could
8242 be seen from the hill on the opposite bank but was not yet visible from
8243 the bridge, for the horizon as seen from the valley through which the
8244 river flowed was formed by the rising ground only half a mile away. At
8245 the foot of the hill lay wasteland over which a few groups of our
8246 Cossack scouts were moving. Suddenly on the road at the top of the high
8247 ground, artillery and troops in blue uniform were seen. These were the
8248 French. A group of Cossack scouts retired down the hill at a trot. All
8249 the officers and men of Denisov's squadron, though they tried to talk of
8250 other things and to look in other directions, thought only of what was
8251 there on the hilltop, and kept constantly looking at the patches
8252 appearing on the skyline, which they knew to be the enemy's troops. The
8253 weather had cleared again since noon and the sun was descending brightly
8254 upon the Danube and the dark hills around it. It was calm, and at
8255 intervals the bugle calls and the shouts of the enemy could be heard
8256 from the hill. There was no one now between the squadron and the enemy
8257 except a few scattered skirmishers. An empty space of some seven hundred
8258 yards was all that separated them. The enemy ceased firing, and that
8259 stern, threatening, inaccessible, and intangible line which separates
8260 two hostile armies was all the more clearly felt.
8262 "One step beyond that boundary line which resembles the line dividing
8263 the living from the dead lies uncertainty, suffering, and death. And
8264 what is there? Who is there?--there beyond that field, that tree, that
8265 roof lit up by the sun? No one knows, but one wants to know. You fear
8266 and yet long to cross that line, and know that sooner or later it must
8267 be crossed and you will have to find out what is there, just as you will
8268 inevitably have to learn what lies the other side of death. But you are
8269 strong, healthy, cheerful, and excited, and are surrounded by other such
8270 excitedly animated and healthy men." So thinks, or at any rate feels,
8271 anyone who comes in sight of the enemy, and that feeling gives a
8272 particular glamour and glad keenness of impression to everything that
8273 takes place at such moments.
8275 On the high ground where the enemy was, the smoke of a cannon rose, and
8276 a ball flew whistling over the heads of the hussar squadron. The
8277 officers who had been standing together rode off to their places. The
8278 hussars began carefully aligning their horses. Silence fell on the whole
8279 squadron. All were looking at the enemy in front and at the squadron
8280 commander, awaiting the word of command. A second and a third cannon
8281 ball flew past. Evidently they were firing at the hussars, but the balls
8282 with rapid rhythmic whistle flew over the heads of the horsemen and fell
8283 somewhere beyond them. The hussars did not look round, but at the sound
8284 of each shot, as at the word of command, the whole squadron with its
8285 rows of faces so alike yet so different, holding its breath while the
8286 ball flew past, rose in the stirrups and sank back again. The soldiers
8287 without turning their heads glanced at one another, curious to see their
8288 comrades' impression. Every face, from Denisov's to that of the bugler,
8289 showed one common expression of conflict, irritation, and excitement,
8290 around chin and mouth. The quartermaster frowned, looking at the
8291 soldiers as if threatening to punish them. Cadet Mironov ducked every
8292 time a ball flew past. Rostov on the left flank, mounted on his Rook--a
8293 handsome horse despite its game leg--had the happy air of a schoolboy
8294 called up before a large audience for an examination in which he feels
8295 sure he will distinguish himself. He was glancing at everyone with a
8296 clear, bright expression, as if asking them to notice how calmly he sat
8297 under fire. But despite himself, on his face too that same indication of
8298 something new and stern showed round the mouth.
8300 "Who's that curtseying there? Cadet Miwonov! That's not wight! Look at
8301 me," cried Denisov who, unable to keep still on one spot, kept turning
8302 his horse in front of the squadron.
8304 The black, hairy, snub-nosed face of Vaska Denisov, and his whole short
8305 sturdy figure with the sinewy hairy hand and stumpy fingers in which he
8306 held the hilt of his naked saber, looked just as it usually did,
8307 especially toward evening when he had emptied his second bottle; he was
8308 only redder than usual. With his shaggy head thrown back like birds when
8309 they drink, pressing his spurs mercilessly into the sides of his good
8310 horse, Bedouin, and sitting as though falling backwards in the saddle,
8311 he galloped to the other flank of the squadron and shouted in a hoarse
8312 voice to the men to look to their pistols. He rode up to Kirsten. The
8313 staff captain on his broad-backed, steady mare came at a walk to meet
8314 him. His face with its long mustache was serious as always, only his
8315 eyes were brighter than usual.
8317 "Well, what about it?" said he to Denisov. "It won't come to a fight.
8318 You'll see--we shall retire."
8320 "The devil only knows what they're about!" muttered Denisov. "Ah,
8321 Wostov," he cried noticing the cadet's bright face, "you've got it at
8324 And he smiled approvingly, evidently pleased with the cadet. Rostov felt
8325 perfectly happy. Just then the commander appeared on the bridge. Denisov
8328 "Your excellency! Let us attack them! I'll dwive them off."
8330 "Attack indeed!" said the colonel in a bored voice, puckering up his
8331 face as if driving off a troublesome fly. "And why are you stopping
8332 here? Don't you see the skirmishers are retreating? Lead the squadron
8335 The squadron crossed the bridge and drew out of range of fire without
8336 having lost a single man. The second squadron that had been in the front
8337 line followed them across and the last Cossacks quitted the farther side
8340 The two Pavlograd squadrons, having crossed the bridge, retired up the
8341 hill one after the other. Their colonel, Karl Bogdanich Schubert, came
8342 up to Denisov's squadron and rode at a footpace not far from Rostov,
8343 without taking any notice of him although they were now meeting for the
8344 first time since their encounter concerning Telyanin. Rostov, feeling
8345 that he was at the front and in the power of a man toward whom he now
8346 admitted that he had been to blame, did not lift his eyes from the
8347 colonel's athletic back, his nape covered with light hair, and his red
8348 neck. It seemed to Rostov that Bogdanich was only pretending not to
8349 notice him, and that his whole aim now was to test the cadet's courage,
8350 so he drew himself up and looked around him merrily; then it seemed to
8351 him that Bogdanich rode so near in order to show him his courage. Next
8352 he thought that his enemy would send the squadron on a desperate attack
8353 just to punish him--Rostov. Then he imagined how, after the attack,
8354 Bogdanich would come up to him as he lay wounded and would magnanimously
8355 extend the hand of reconciliation.
8357 The high-shouldered figure of Zherkov, familiar to the Pavlograds as he
8358 had but recently left their regiment, rode up to the colonel. After his
8359 dismissal from headquarters Zherkov had not remained in the regiment,
8360 saying he was not such a fool as to slave at the front when he could get
8361 more rewards by doing nothing on the staff, and had succeeded in
8362 attaching himself as an orderly officer to Prince Bagration. He now came
8363 to his former chief with an order from the commander of the rear guard.
8365 "Colonel," he said, addressing Rostov's enemy with an air of gloomy
8366 gravity and glancing round at his comrades, "there is an order to stop
8367 and fire the bridge."
8369 "An order to who?" asked the colonel morosely.
8371 "I don't myself know 'to who,'" replied the cornet in a serious tone,
8372 "but the prince told me to 'go and tell the colonel that the hussars
8373 must return quickly and fire the bridge.'"
8375 Zherkov was followed by an officer of the suite who rode up to the
8376 colonel of hussars with the same order. After him the stout Nesvitski
8377 came galloping up on a Cossack horse that could scarcely carry his
8380 "How's this, Colonel?" he shouted as he approached. "I told you to fire
8381 the bridge, and now someone has gone and blundered; they are all beside
8382 themselves over there and one can't make anything out."
8384 The colonel deliberately stopped the regiment and turned to Nesvitski.
8386 "You spoke to me of inflammable material," said he, "but you said
8387 nothing about firing it."
8389 "But, my dear sir," said Nesvitski as he drew up, taking off his cap and
8390 smoothing his hair wet with perspiration with his plump hand, "wasn't I
8391 telling you to fire the bridge, when inflammable material had been put
8394 "I am not your 'dear sir,' Mr. Staff Officer, and you did not tell me to
8395 burn the bridge! I know the service, and it is my habit orders strictly
8396 to obey. You said the bridge would be burned, but who would it burn, I
8397 could not know by the holy spirit!"
8399 "Ah, that's always the way!" said Nesvitski with a wave of the hand.
8400 "How did you get here?" said he, turning to Zherkov.
8402 "On the same business. But you are damp! Let me wring you out!"
8404 "You were saying, Mr. Staff Officer..." continued the colonel in an
8407 "Colonel," interrupted the officer of the suite, "You must be quick or
8408 the enemy will bring up his guns to use grapeshot."
8410 The colonel looked silently at the officer of the suite, at the stout
8411 staff officer, and at Zherkov, and he frowned.
8413 "I will the bridge fire," he said in a solemn tone as if to announce
8414 that in spite of all the unpleasantness he had to endure he would still
8417 Striking his horse with his long muscular legs as if it were to blame
8418 for everything, the colonel moved forward and ordered the second
8419 squadron, that in which Rostov was serving under Denisov, to return to
8422 "There, it's just as I thought," said Rostov to himself. "He wishes to
8423 test me!" His heart contracted and the blood rushed to his face. "Let
8424 him see whether I am a coward!" he thought.
8426 Again on all the bright faces of the squadron the serious expression
8427 appeared that they had worn when under fire. Rostov watched his enemy,
8428 the colonel, closely--to find in his face confirmation of his own
8429 conjecture, but the colonel did not once glance at Rostov, and looked as
8430 he always did when at the front, solemn and stern. Then came the word of
8433 "Look sharp! Look sharp!" several voices repeated around him.
8435 Their sabers catching in the bridles and their spurs jingling, the
8436 hussars hastily dismounted, not knowing what they were to do. The men
8437 were crossing themselves. Rostov no longer looked at the colonel, he had
8438 no time. He was afraid of falling behind the hussars, so much afraid
8439 that his heart stood still. His hand trembled as he gave his horse into
8440 an orderly's charge, and he felt the blood rush to his heart with a
8441 thud. Denisov rode past him, leaning back and shouting something. Rostov
8442 saw nothing but the hussars running all around him, their spurs catching
8443 and their sabers clattering.
8445 "Stretchers!" shouted someone behind him.
8447 Rostov did not think what this call for stretchers meant; he ran on,
8448 trying only to be ahead of the others; but just at the bridge, not
8449 looking at the ground, he came on some sticky, trodden mud, stumbled,
8450 and fell on his hands. The others outstripped him.
8452 "At boss zides, Captain," he heard the voice of the colonel, who, having
8453 ridden ahead, had pulled up his horse near the bridge, with a
8454 triumphant, cheerful face.
8456 Rostov wiping his muddy hands on his breeches looked at his enemy and
8457 was about to run on, thinking that the farther he went to the front the
8458 better. But Bogdanich, without looking at or recognizing Rostov, shouted
8461 "Who's that running on the middle of the bridge? To the right! Come
8462 back, Cadet!" he cried angrily; and turning to Denisov, who, showing off
8463 his courage, had ridden on to the planks of the bridge:
8465 "Why run risks, Captain? You should dismount," he said.
8467 "Oh, every bullet has its billet," answered Vaska Denisov, turning in
8470 Meanwhile Nesvitski, Zherkov, and the officer of the suite were standing
8471 together out of range of the shots, watching, now the small group of men
8472 with yellow shakos, dark-green jackets braided with cord, and blue
8473 riding breeches, who were swarming near the bridge, and then at what was
8474 approaching in the distance from the opposite side--the blue uniforms
8475 and groups with horses, easily recognizable as artillery.
8477 "Will they burn the bridge or not? Who'll get there first? Will they get
8478 there and fire the bridge or will the French get within grapeshot range
8479 and wipe them out?" These were the questions each man of the troops on
8480 the high ground above the bridge involuntarily asked himself with a
8481 sinking heart--watching the bridge and the hussars in the bright evening
8482 light and the blue tunics advancing from the other side with their
8485 "Ugh. The hussars will get it hot!" said Nesvitski; "they are within
8486 grapeshot range now."
8488 "He shouldn't have taken so many men," said the officer of the suite.
8490 "True enough," answered Nesvitski; "two smart fellows could have done
8491 the job just as well."
8493 "Ah, your excellency," put in Zherkov, his eyes fixed on the hussars,
8494 but still with that naive air that made it impossible to know whether he
8495 was speaking in jest or in earnest. "Ah, your excellency! How you look
8496 at things! Send two men? And who then would give us the Vladimir medal
8497 and ribbon? But now, even if they do get peppered, the squadron may be
8498 recommended for honors and he may get a ribbon. Our Bogdanich knows how
8501 "There now!" said the officer of the suite, "that's grapeshot."
8503 He pointed to the French guns, the limbers of which were being detached
8504 and hurriedly removed.
8506 On the French side, amid the groups with cannon, a cloud of smoke
8507 appeared, then a second and a third almost simultaneously, and at the
8508 moment when the first report was heard a fourth was seen. Then two
8509 reports one after another, and a third.
8511 "Oh! Oh!" groaned Nesvitski as if in fierce pain, seizing the officer of
8512 the suite by the arm. "Look! A man has fallen! Fallen, fallen!"
8516 "If I were Tsar I would never go to war," said Nesvitski, turning away.
8518 The French guns were hastily reloaded. The infantry in their blue
8519 uniforms advanced toward the bridge at a run. Smoke appeared again but
8520 at irregular intervals, and grapeshot cracked and rattled onto the
8521 bridge. But this time Nesvitski could not see what was happening there,
8522 as a dense cloud of smoke arose from it. The hussars had succeeded in
8523 setting it on fire and the French batteries were now firing at them, no
8524 longer to hinder them but because the guns were trained and there was
8527 The French had time to fire three rounds of grapeshot before the hussars
8528 got back to their horses. Two were misdirected and the shot went too
8529 high, but the last round fell in the midst of a group of hussars and
8530 knocked three of them over.
8532 Rostov, absorbed by his relations with Bogdanich, had paused on the
8533 bridge not knowing what to do. There was no one to hew down (as he had
8534 always imagined battles to himself), nor could he help to fire the
8535 bridge because he had not brought any burning straw with him like the
8536 other soldiers. He stood looking about him, when suddenly he heard a
8537 rattle on the bridge as if nuts were being spilt, and the hussar nearest
8538 to him fell against the rails with a groan. Rostov ran up to him with
8539 the others. Again someone shouted, "Stretchers!" Four men seized the
8540 hussar and began lifting him.
8542 "Oooh! For Christ's sake let me alone!" cried the wounded man, but still
8543 he was lifted and laid on the stretcher.
8545 Nicholas Rostov turned away and, as if searching for something, gazed
8546 into the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, and at the
8547 sun. How beautiful the sky looked; how blue, how calm, and how deep! How
8548 bright and glorious was the setting sun! With what soft glitter the
8549 waters of the distant Danube shone. And fairer still were the faraway
8550 blue mountains beyond the river, the nunnery, the mysterious gorges, and
8551 the pine forests veiled in the mist of their summits... There was peace
8552 and happiness... "I should wish for nothing else, nothing, if only I
8553 were there," thought Rostov. "In myself alone and in that sunshine there
8554 is so much happiness; but here... groans, suffering, fear, and this
8555 uncertainty and hurry... There--they are shouting again, and again are
8556 all running back somewhere, and I shall run with them, and it, death, is
8557 here above me and around... Another instant and I shall never again see
8558 the sun, this water, that gorge!..."
8560 At that instant the sun began to hide behind the clouds, and other
8561 stretchers came into view before Rostov. And the fear of death and of
8562 the stretchers, and love of the sun and of life, all merged into one
8563 feeling of sickening agitation.
8565 "O Lord God! Thou who art in that heaven, save, forgive, and protect
8566 me!" Rostov whispered.
8568 The hussars ran back to the men who held their horses; their voices
8569 sounded louder and calmer, the stretchers disappeared from sight.
8571 "Well, fwiend? So you've smelt powdah!" shouted Vaska Denisov just above
8574 "It's all over; but I am a coward--yes, a coward!" thought Rostov, and
8575 sighing deeply he took Rook, his horse, which stood resting one foot,
8576 from the orderly and began to mount.
8578 "Was that grapeshot?" he asked Denisov.
8580 "Yes and no mistake!" cried Denisov. "You worked like wegular bwicks and
8581 it's nasty work! An attack's pleasant work! Hacking away at the dogs!
8582 But this sort of thing is the very devil, with them shooting at you like
8585 And Denisov rode up to a group that had stopped near Rostov, composed of
8586 the colonel, Nesvitski, Zherkov, and the officer from the suite.
8588 "Well, it seems that no one has noticed," thought Rostov. And this was
8589 true. No one had taken any notice, for everyone knew the sensation which
8590 the cadet under fire for the first time had experienced.
8592 "Here's something for you to report," said Zherkov. "See if I don't get
8593 promoted to a sublieutenancy."
8595 "Inform the prince that I the bridge fired!" said the colonel
8596 triumphantly and gaily.
8598 "And if he asks about the losses?"
8600 "A trifle," said the colonel in his bass voice: "two hussars wounded,
8601 and one knocked out," he added, unable to restrain a happy smile, and
8602 pronouncing the phrase "knocked out" with ringing distinctness.
8609 Pursued by the French army of a hundred thousand men under the command
8610 of Bonaparte, encountering a population that was unfriendly to it,
8611 losing confidence in its allies, suffering from shortness of supplies,
8612 and compelled to act under conditions of war unlike anything that had
8613 been foreseen, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand men commanded by
8614 Kutuzov was hurriedly retreating along the Danube, stopping where
8615 overtaken by the enemy and fighting rearguard actions only as far as
8616 necessary to enable it to retreat without losing its heavy equipment.
8617 There had been actions at Lambach, Amstetten, and Melk; but despite the
8618 courage and endurance--acknowledged even by the enemy--with which the
8619 Russians fought, the only consequence of these actions was a yet more
8620 rapid retreat. Austrian troops that had escaped capture at Ulm and had
8621 joined Kutuzov at Braunau now separated from the Russian army, and
8622 Kutuzov was left with only his own weak and exhausted forces. The
8623 defense of Vienna was no longer to be thought of. Instead of an
8624 offensive, the plan of which, carefully prepared in accord with the
8625 modern science of strategics, had been handed to Kutuzov when he was in
8626 Vienna by the Austrian Hofkriegsrath, the sole and almost unattainable
8627 aim remaining for him was to effect a junction with the forces that were
8628 advancing from Russia, without losing his army as Mack had done at Ulm.
8630 On the twenty-eighth of October Kutuzov with his army crossed to the
8631 left bank of the Danube and took up a position for the first time with
8632 the river between himself and the main body of the French. On the
8633 thirtieth he attacked Mortier's division, which was on the left bank,
8634 and broke it up. In this action for the first time trophies were taken:
8635 banners, cannon, and two enemy generals. For the first time, after a
8636 fortnight's retreat, the Russian troops had halted and after a fight had
8637 not only held the field but had repulsed the French. Though the troops
8638 were ill-clad, exhausted, and had lost a third of their number in
8639 killed, wounded, sick, and stragglers; though a number of sick and
8640 wounded had been abandoned on the other side of the Danube with a letter
8641 in which Kutuzov entrusted them to the humanity of the enemy; and though
8642 the big hospitals and the houses in Krems converted into military
8643 hospitals could no longer accommodate all the sick and wounded, yet the
8644 stand made at Krems and the victory over Mortier raised the spirits of
8645 the army considerably. Throughout the whole army and at headquarters
8646 most joyful though erroneous rumors were rife of the imaginary approach
8647 of columns from Russia, of some victory gained by the Austrians, and of
8648 the retreat of the frightened Bonaparte.
8650 Prince Andrew during the battle had been in attendance on the Austrian
8651 General Schmidt, who was killed in the action. His horse had been
8652 wounded under him and his own arm slightly grazed by a bullet. As a mark
8653 of the commander-in-chief's special favor he was sent with the news of
8654 this victory to the Austrian court, now no longer at Vienna (which was
8655 threatened by the French) but at Brunn. Despite his apparently delicate
8656 build Prince Andrew could endure physical fatigue far better than many
8657 very muscular men, and on the night of the battle, having arrived at
8658 Krems excited but not weary, with dispatches from Dokhturov to Kutuzov,
8659 he was sent immediately with a special dispatch to Brunn. To be so sent
8660 meant not only a reward but an important step toward promotion.
8662 The night was dark but starry, the road showed black in the snow that
8663 had fallen the previous day--the day of the battle. Reviewing his
8664 impressions of the recent battle, picturing pleasantly to himself the
8665 impression his news of a victory would create, or recalling the send-off
8666 given him by the commander-in-chief and his fellow officers, Prince
8667 Andrew was galloping along in a post chaise enjoying the feelings of a
8668 man who has at length begun to attain a long-desired happiness. As soon
8669 as he closed his eyes his ears seemed filled with the rattle of the
8670 wheels and the sensation of victory. Then he began to imagine that the
8671 Russians were running away and that he himself was killed, but he
8672 quickly roused himself with a feeling of joy, as if learning afresh that
8673 this was not so but that on the contrary the French had run away. He
8674 again recalled all the details of the victory and his own calm courage
8675 during the battle, and feeling reassured he dozed off.... The dark
8676 starry night was followed by a bright cheerful morning. The snow was
8677 thawing in the sunshine, the horses galloped quickly, and on both sides
8678 of the road were forests of different kinds, fields, and villages.
8680 At one of the post stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded. The
8681 Russian officer in charge of the transport lolled back in the front
8682 cart, shouting and scolding a soldier with coarse abuse. In each of the
8683 long German carts six or more pale, dirty, bandaged men were being
8684 jolted over the stony road. Some of them were talking (he heard Russian
8685 words), others were eating bread; the more severely wounded looked
8686 silently, with the languid interest of sick children, at the envoy
8689 Prince Andrew told his driver to stop, and asked a soldier in what
8690 action they had been wounded. "Day before yesterday, on the Danube,"
8691 answered the soldier. Prince Andrew took out his purse and gave the
8692 soldier three gold pieces.
8694 "That's for them all," he said to the officer who came up.
8696 "Get well soon, lads!" he continued, turning to the soldiers. "There's
8697 plenty to do still."
8699 "What news, sir?" asked the officer, evidently anxious to start a
8702 "Good news!... Go on!" he shouted to the driver, and they galloped on.
8704 It was already quite dark when Prince Andrew rattled over the paved
8705 streets of Brunn and found himself surrounded by high buildings, the
8706 lights of shops, houses, and street lamps, fine carriages, and all that
8707 atmosphere of a large and active town which is always so attractive to a
8708 soldier after camp life. Despite his rapid journey and sleepless night,
8709 Prince Andrew when he drove up to the palace felt even more vigorous and
8710 alert than he had done the day before. Only his eyes gleamed feverishly
8711 and his thoughts followed one another with extraordinary clearness and
8712 rapidity. He again vividly recalled the details of the battle, no longer
8713 dim, but definite and in the concise form in which he imagined himself
8714 stating them to the Emperor Francis. He vividly imagined the casual
8715 questions that might be put to him and the answers he would give. He
8716 expected to be at once presented to the Emperor. At the chief entrance
8717 to the palace, however, an official came running out to meet him, and
8718 learning that he was a special messenger led him to another entrance.
8720 "To the right from the corridor, Euer Hochgeboren! There you will find
8721 the adjutant on duty," said the official. "He will conduct you to the
8724 The adjutant on duty, meeting Prince Andrew, asked him to wait, and went
8725 in to the Minister of War. Five minutes later he returned and bowing
8726 with particular courtesy ushered Prince Andrew before him along a
8727 corridor to the cabinet where the Minister of War was at work. The
8728 adjutant by his elaborate courtesy appeared to wish to ward off any
8729 attempt at familiarity on the part of the Russian messenger.
8731 Prince Andrew's joyous feeling was considerably weakened as he
8732 approached the door of the minister's room. He felt offended, and
8733 without his noticing it the feeling of offense immediately turned into
8734 one of disdain which was quite uncalled for. His fertile mind instantly
8735 suggested to him a point of view which gave him a right to despise the
8736 adjutant and the minister. "Away from the smell of powder, they probably
8737 think it easy to gain victories!" he thought. His eyes narrowed
8738 disdainfully, he entered the room of the Minister of War with peculiarly
8739 deliberate steps. This feeling of disdain was heightened when he saw the
8740 minister seated at a large table reading some papers and making pencil
8741 notes on them, and for the first two or three minutes taking no notice
8742 of his arrival. A wax candle stood at each side of the minister's bent
8743 bald head with its gray temples. He went on reading to the end, without
8744 raising his eyes at the opening of the door and the sound of footsteps.
8746 "Take this and deliver it," said he to his adjutant, handing him the
8747 papers and still taking no notice of the special messenger.
8749 Prince Andrew felt that either the actions of Kutuzov's army interested
8750 the Minister of War less than any of the other matters he was concerned
8751 with, or he wanted to give the Russian special messenger that
8752 impression. "But that is a matter of perfect indifference to me," he
8753 thought. The minister drew the remaining papers together, arranged them
8754 evenly, and then raised his head. He had an intellectual and distinctive
8755 head, but the instant he turned to Prince Andrew the firm, intelligent
8756 expression on his face changed in a way evidently deliberate and
8757 habitual to him. His face took on the stupid artificial smile (which
8758 does not even attempt to hide its artificiality) of a man who is
8759 continually receiving many petitioners one after another.
8761 "From General Field Marshal Kutuzov?" he asked. "I hope it is good news?
8762 There has been an encounter with Mortier? A victory? It was high time!"
8764 He took the dispatch which was addressed to him and began to read it
8765 with a mournful expression.
8767 "Oh, my God! My God! Schmidt!" he exclaimed in German. "What a calamity!
8770 Having glanced through the dispatch he laid it on the table and looked
8771 at Prince Andrew, evidently considering something.
8773 "Ah what a calamity! You say the affair was decisive? But Mortier is not
8774 captured." Again he pondered. "I am very glad you have brought good
8775 news, though Schmidt's death is a heavy price to pay for the victory.
8776 His Majesty will no doubt wish to see you, but not today. I thank you!
8777 You must have a rest. Be at the levee tomorrow after the parade.
8778 However, I will let you know."
8780 The stupid smile, which had left his face while he was speaking,
8783 "Au revoir! Thank you very much. His Majesty will probably desire to see
8784 you," he added, bowing his head.
8786 When Prince Andrew left the palace he felt that all the interest and
8787 happiness the victory had afforded him had been now left in the
8788 indifferent hands of the Minister of War and the polite adjutant. The
8789 whole tenor of his thoughts instantaneously changed; the battle seemed
8790 the memory of a remote event long past.
8797 Prince Andrew stayed at Brunn with Bilibin, a Russian acquaintance of
8798 his in the diplomatic service.
8800 "Ah, my dear prince! I could not have a more welcome visitor," said
8801 Bilibin as he came out to meet Prince Andrew. "Franz, put the prince's
8802 things in my bedroom," said he to the servant who was ushering Bolkonski
8803 in. "So you're a messenger of victory, eh? Splendid! And I am sitting
8804 here ill, as you see."
8806 After washing and dressing, Prince Andrew came into the diplomat's
8807 luxurious study and sat down to the dinner prepared for him. Bilibin
8808 settled down comfortably beside the fire.
8810 After his journey and the campaign during which he had been deprived of
8811 all the comforts of cleanliness and all the refinements of life, Prince
8812 Andrew felt a pleasant sense of repose among luxurious surroundings such
8813 as he had been accustomed to from childhood. Besides it was pleasant,
8814 after his reception by the Austrians, to speak if not in Russian (for
8815 they were speaking French) at least with a Russian who would, he
8816 supposed, share the general Russian antipathy to the Austrians which was
8817 then particularly strong.
8819 Bilibin was a man of thirty-five, a bachelor, and of the same circle as
8820 Prince Andrew. They had known each other previously in Petersburg, but
8821 had become more intimate when Prince Andrew was in Vienna with Kutuzov.
8822 Just as Prince Andrew was a young man who gave promise of rising high in
8823 the military profession, so to an even greater extent Bilibin gave
8824 promise of rising in his diplomatic career. He still a young man but no
8825 longer a young diplomat, as he had entered the service at the age of
8826 sixteen, had been in Paris and Copenhagen, and now held a rather
8827 important post in Vienna. Both the foreign minister and our ambassador
8828 in Vienna knew him and valued him. He was not one of those many
8829 diplomats who are esteemed because they have certain negative qualities,
8830 avoid doing certain things, and speak French. He was one of those, who,
8831 liking work, knew how to do it, and despite his indolence would
8832 sometimes spend a whole night at his writing table. He worked well
8833 whatever the import of his work. It was not the question "What for?" but
8834 the question "How?" that interested him. What the diplomatic matter
8835 might be he did not care, but it gave him great pleasure to prepare a
8836 circular, memorandum, or report, skillfully, pointedly, and elegantly.
8837 Bilibin's services were valued not only for what he wrote, but also for
8838 his skill in dealing and conversing with those in the highest spheres.
8840 Bilibin liked conversation as he liked work, only when it could be made
8841 elegantly witty. In society he always awaited an opportunity to say
8842 something striking and took part in a conversation only when that was
8843 possible. His conversation was always sprinkled with wittily original,
8844 finished phrases of general interest. These sayings were prepared in the
8845 inner laboratory of his mind in a portable form as if intentionally, so
8846 that insignificant society people might carry them from drawing room to
8847 drawing room. And, in fact, Bilibin's witticisms were hawked about in
8848 the Viennese drawing rooms and often had an influence on matters
8849 considered important.
8851 His thin, worn, sallow face was covered with deep wrinkles, which always
8852 looked as clean and well washed as the tips of one's fingers after a
8853 Russian bath. The movement of these wrinkles formed the principal play
8854 of expression on his face. Now his forehead would pucker into deep folds
8855 and his eyebrows were lifted, then his eyebrows would descend and deep
8856 wrinkles would crease his cheeks. His small, deep-set eyes always
8857 twinkled and looked out straight.
8859 "Well, now tell me about your exploits," said he.
8861 Bolkonski, very modestly without once mentioning himself, described the
8862 engagement and his reception by the Minister of War.
8864 "They received me and my news as one receives a dog in a game of
8865 skittles," said he in conclusion.
8867 Bilibin smiled and the wrinkles on his face disappeared.
8869 "Cependant, mon cher," he remarked, examining his nails from a distance
8870 and puckering the skin above his left eye, "malgre la haute estime que
8871 je professe pour the Orthodox Russian army, j'avoue que votre victoire
8872 n'est pas des plus victorieuses." *
8875 * "But my dear fellow, with all my respect for the Orthodox Russian
8876 army, I must say that your victory was not particularly victorious."
8878 He went on talking in this way in French, uttering only those words in
8879 Russian on which he wished to put a contemptuous emphasis.
8881 "Come now! You with all your forces fall on the unfortunate Mortier and
8882 his one division, and even then Mortier slips through your fingers!
8883 Where's the victory?"
8885 "But seriously," said Prince Andrew, "we can at any rate say without
8886 boasting that it was a little better than at Ulm..."
8888 "Why didn't you capture one, just one, marshal for us?"
8890 "Because not everything happens as one expects or with the smoothness of
8891 a parade. We had expected, as I told you, to get at their rear by seven
8892 in the morning but had not reached it by five in the afternoon."
8894 "And why didn't you do it at seven in the morning? You ought to have
8895 been there at seven in the morning," returned Bilibin with a smile. "You
8896 ought to have been there at seven in the morning."
8898 "Why did you not succeed in impressing on Bonaparte by diplomatic
8899 methods that he had better leave Genoa alone?" retorted Prince Andrew in
8902 "I know," interrupted Bilibin, "you're thinking it's very easy to take
8903 marshals, sitting on a sofa by the fire! That is true, but still why
8904 didn't you capture him? So don't be surprised if not only the Minister
8905 of War but also his Most August Majesty the Emperor and King Francis is
8906 not much delighted by your victory. Even I, a poor secretary of the
8907 Russian Embassy, do not feel any need in token of my joy to give my
8908 Franz a thaler, or let him go with his Liebchen to the Prater... True,
8909 we have no Prater here..."
8911 He looked straight at Prince Andrew and suddenly unwrinkled his
8914 "It is now my turn to ask you 'why?' mon cher," said Bolkonski. "I
8915 confess I do not understand: perhaps there are diplomatic subtleties
8916 here beyond my feeble intelligence, but I can't make it out. Mack loses
8917 a whole army, the Archduke Ferdinand and the Archduke Karl give no signs
8918 of life and make blunder after blunder. Kutuzov alone at last gains a
8919 real victory, destroying the spell of the invincibility of the French,
8920 and the Minister of War does not even care to hear the details."
8922 "That's just it, my dear fellow. You see it's hurrah for the Tsar, for
8923 Russia, for the Orthodox Greek faith! All that is beautiful, but what do
8924 we, I mean the Austrian court, care for your victories? Bring us nice
8925 news of a victory by the Archduke Karl or Ferdinand (one archduke's as
8926 good as another, as you know) and even if it is only over a fire brigade
8927 of Bonaparte's, that will be another story and we'll fire off some
8928 cannon! But this sort of thing seems done on purpose to vex us. The
8929 Archduke Karl does nothing, the Archduke Ferdinand disgraces himself.
8930 You abandon Vienna, give up its defense--as much as to say: 'Heaven is
8931 with us, but heaven help you and your capital!' The one general whom we
8932 all loved, Schmidt, you expose to a bullet, and then you congratulate us
8933 on the victory! Admit that more irritating news than yours could not
8934 have been conceived. It's as if it had been done on purpose, on purpose.
8935 Besides, suppose you did gain a brilliant victory, if even the Archduke
8936 Karl gained a victory, what effect would that have on the general course
8937 of events? It's too late now when Vienna is occupied by the French
8940 "What? Occupied? Vienna occupied?"
8942 "Not only occupied, but Bonaparte is at Schonbrunn, and the count, our
8943 dear Count Vrbna, goes to him for orders."
8945 After the fatigues and impressions of the journey, his reception, and
8946 especially after having dined, Bolkonski felt that he could not take in
8947 the full significance of the words he heard.
8949 "Count Lichtenfels was here this morning," Bilibin continued, "and
8950 showed me a letter in which the parade of the French in Vienna was fully
8951 described: Prince Murat et tout le tremblement... You see that your
8952 victory is not a matter for great rejoicing and that you can't be
8953 received as a savior."
8955 "Really I don't care about that, I don't care at all," said Prince
8956 Andrew, beginning to understand that his news of the battle before Krems
8957 was really of small importance in view of such events as the fall of
8958 Austria's capital. "How is it Vienna was taken? What of the bridge and
8959 its celebrated bridgehead and Prince Auersperg? We heard reports that
8960 Prince Auersperg was defending Vienna?" he said.
8962 "Prince Auersperg is on this, on our side of the river, and is defending
8963 us--doing it very badly, I think, but still he is defending us. But
8964 Vienna is on the other side. No, the bridge has not yet been taken and I
8965 hope it will not be, for it is mined and orders have been given to blow
8966 it up. Otherwise we should long ago have been in the mountains of
8967 Bohemia, and you and your army would have spent a bad quarter of an hour
8970 "But still this does not mean that the campaign is over," said Prince
8973 "Well, I think it is. The bigwigs here think so too, but they daren't
8974 say so. It will be as I said at the beginning of the campaign, it won't
8975 be your skirmishing at Durrenstein, or gunpowder at all, that will
8976 decide the matter, but those who devised it," said Bilibin quoting one
8977 of his own mots, releasing the wrinkles on his forehead, and pausing.
8978 "The only question is what will come of the meeting between the Emperor
8979 Alexander and the King of Prussia in Berlin? If Prussia joins the
8980 Allies, Austria's hand will be forced and there will be war. If not it
8981 is merely a question of settling where the preliminaries of the new
8982 Campo Formio are to be drawn up."
8984 "What an extraordinary genius!" Prince Andrew suddenly exclaimed,
8985 clenching his small hand and striking the table with it, "and what luck
8988 "Buonaparte?" said Bilibin inquiringly, puckering up his forehead to
8989 indicate that he was about to say something witty. "Buonaparte?" he
8990 repeated, accentuating the u: "I think, however, now that he lays down
8991 laws for Austria at Schonbrunn, il faut lui faire grace de l'u! * I
8992 shall certainly adopt an innovation and call him simply Bonaparte!"
8995 * "We must let him off the u!"
8997 "But joking apart," said Prince Andrew, "do you really think the
9000 "This is what I think. Austria has been made a fool of, and she is not
9001 used to it. She will retaliate. And she has been fooled in the first
9002 place because her provinces have been pillaged--they say the Holy
9003 Russian army loots terribly--her army is destroyed, her capital taken,
9004 and all this for the beaux yeux * of His Sardinian Majesty. And
9005 therefore--this is between ourselves--I instinctively feel that we are
9006 being deceived, my instinct tells me of negotiations with France and
9007 projects for peace, a secret peace concluded separately."
9012 "Impossible!" cried Prince Andrew. "That would be too base."
9014 "If we live we shall see," replied Bilibin, his face again becoming
9015 smooth as a sign that the conversation was at an end.
9017 When Prince Andrew reached the room prepared for him and lay down in a
9018 clean shirt on the feather bed with its warmed and fragrant pillows, he
9019 felt that the battle of which he had brought tidings was far, far away
9020 from him. The alliance with Prussia, Austria's treachery, Bonaparte's
9021 new triumph, tomorrow's levee and parade, and the audience with the
9022 Emperor Francis occupied his thoughts.
9024 He closed his eyes, and immediately a sound of cannonading, of musketry
9025 and the rattling of carriage wheels seemed to fill his ears, and now
9026 again drawn out in a thin line the musketeers were descending the hill,
9027 the French were firing, and he felt his heart palpitating as he rode
9028 forward beside Schmidt with the bullets merrily whistling all around,
9029 and he experienced tenfold the joy of living, as he had not done since
9034 "Yes, that all happened!" he said, and, smiling happily to himself like
9035 a child, he fell into a deep, youthful slumber.
9042 Next day he woke late. Recalling his recent impressions, the first
9043 thought that came into his mind was that today he had to be presented to
9044 the Emperor Francis; he remembered the Minister of War, the polite
9045 Austrian adjutant, Bilibin, and last night's conversation. Having
9046 dressed for his attendance at court in full parade uniform, which he had
9047 not worn for a long time, he went into Bilibin's study fresh, animated,
9048 and handsome, with his hand bandaged. In the study were four gentlemen
9049 of the diplomatic corps. With Prince Hippolyte Kuragin, who was a
9050 secretary to the embassy, Bolkonski was already acquainted. Bilibin
9051 introduced him to the others.
9053 The gentlemen assembled at Bilibin's were young, wealthy, gay society
9054 men, who here, as in Vienna, formed a special set which Bilibin, their
9055 leader, called les notres. * This set, consisting almost exclusively of
9056 diplomats, evidently had its own interests which had nothing to do with
9057 war or politics but related to high society, to certain women, and to
9058 the official side of the service. These gentlemen received Prince Andrew
9059 as one of themselves, an honor they did not extend to many. From
9060 politeness and to start conversation, they asked him a few questions
9061 about the army and the battle, and then the talk went off into merry
9067 "But the best of it was," said one, telling of the misfortune of a
9068 fellow diplomat, "that the Chancellor told him flatly that his
9069 appointment to London was a promotion and that he was so to regard it.
9070 Can you fancy the figure he cut?..."
9072 "But the worst of it, gentlemen--I am giving Kuragin away to you--is
9073 that that man suffers, and this Don Juan, wicked fellow, is taking
9076 Prince Hippolyte was lolling in a lounge chair with his legs over its
9077 arm. He began to laugh.
9079 "Tell me about that!" he said.
9081 "Oh, you Don Juan! You serpent!" cried several voices.
9083 "You, Bolkonski, don't know," said Bilibin turning to Prince Andrew,
9084 "that all the atrocities of the French army (I nearly said of the
9085 Russian army) are nothing compared to what this man has been doing among
9088 "La femme est la compagne de l'homme," * announced Prince Hippolyte, and
9089 began looking through a lorgnette at his elevated legs.
9092 * "Woman is man's companion."
9094 Bilibin and the rest of "ours" burst out laughing in Hippolyte's face,
9095 and Prince Andrew saw that Hippolyte, of whom--he had to admit--he had
9096 almost been jealous on his wife's account, was the butt of this set.
9098 "Oh, I must give you a treat," Bilibin whispered to Bolkonski. "Kuragin
9099 is exquisite when he discusses politics--you should see his gravity!"
9101 He sat down beside Hippolyte and wrinkling his forehead began talking to
9102 him about politics. Prince Andrew and the others gathered round these
9105 "The Berlin cabinet cannot express a feeling of alliance," began
9106 Hippolyte gazing round with importance at the others, "without
9107 expressing... as in its last note... you understand... Besides, unless
9108 His Majesty the Emperor derogates from the principle of our alliance...
9110 "Wait, I have not finished..." he said to Prince Andrew, seizing him by
9111 the arm, "I believe that intervention will be stronger than
9112 nonintervention. And..." he paused. "Finally one cannot impute the
9113 nonreceipt of our dispatch of November 18. That is how it will end." And
9114 he released Bolkonski's arm to indicate that he had now quite finished.
9116 "Demosthenes, I know thee by the pebble thou secretest in thy golden
9117 mouth!" said Bilibin, and the mop of hair on his head moved with
9120 Everybody laughed, and Hippolyte louder than anyone. He was evidently
9121 distressed, and breathed painfully, but could not restrain the wild
9122 laughter that convulsed his usually impassive features.
9124 "Well now, gentlemen," said Bilibin, "Bolkonski is my guest in this
9125 house and in Brunn itself. I want to entertain him as far as I can, with
9126 all the pleasures of life here. If we were in Vienna it would be easy,
9127 but here, in this wretched Moravian hole, it is more difficult, and I
9128 beg you all to help me. Brunn's attractions must be shown him. You can
9129 undertake the theater, I society, and you, Hippolyte, of course the
9132 "We must let him see Amelie, she's exquisite!" said one of "ours,"
9133 kissing his finger tips.
9135 "In general we must turn this bloodthirsty soldier to more humane
9136 interests," said Bilibin.
9138 "I shall scarcely be able to avail myself of your hospitality,
9139 gentlemen, it is already time for me to go," replied Prince Andrew
9140 looking at his watch.
9146 "Oh! Oh! Oh! Well, au revoir, Bolkonski! Au revoir, Prince! Come back
9147 early to dinner," cried several voices. "We'll take you in hand."
9149 "When speaking to the Emperor, try as far as you can to praise the way
9150 that provisions are supplied and the routes indicated," said Bilibin,
9151 accompanying him to the hall.
9153 "I should like to speak well of them, but as far as I know the facts, I
9154 can't," replied Bolkonski, smiling.
9156 "Well, talk as much as you can, anyway. He has a passion for giving
9157 audiences, but he does not like talking himself and can't do it, as you
9165 At the levee Prince Andrew stood among the Austrian officers as he had
9166 been told to, and the Emperor Francis merely looked fixedly into his
9167 face and just nodded to him with his long head. But after it was over,
9168 the adjutant he had seen the previous day ceremoniously informed
9169 Bolkonski that the Emperor desired to give him an audience. The Emperor
9170 Francis received him standing in the middle of the room. Before the
9171 conversation began Prince Andrew was struck by the fact that the Emperor
9172 seemed confused and blushed as if not knowing what to say.
9174 "Tell me, when did the battle begin?" he asked hurriedly.
9176 Prince Andrew replied. Then followed other questions just as simple:
9177 "Was Kutuzov well? When had he left Krems?" and so on. The Emperor spoke
9178 as if his sole aim were to put a given number of questions--the answers
9179 to these questions, as was only too evident, did not interest him.
9181 "At what o'clock did the battle begin?" asked the Emperor.
9183 "I cannot inform Your Majesty at what o'clock the battle began at the
9184 front, but at Durrenstein, where I was, our attack began after five in
9185 the afternoon," replied Bolkonski growing more animated and expecting
9186 that he would have a chance to give a reliable account, which he had
9187 ready in his mind, of all he knew and had seen. But the Emperor smiled
9188 and interrupted him.
9192 "From where to where, Your Majesty?"
9194 "From Durrenstein to Krems."
9196 "Three and a half miles, Your Majesty."
9198 "The French have abandoned the left bank?"
9200 "According to the scouts the last of them crossed on rafts during the
9203 "Is there sufficient forage in Krems?"
9205 "Forage has not been supplied to the extent..."
9207 The Emperor interrupted him.
9209 "At what o'clock was General Schmidt killed?"
9211 "At seven o'clock, I believe."
9213 "At seven o'clock? It's very sad, very sad!"
9215 The Emperor thanked Prince Andrew and bowed. Prince Andrew withdrew and
9216 was immediately surrounded by courtiers on all sides. Everywhere he saw
9217 friendly looks and heard friendly words. Yesterday's adjutant reproached
9218 him for not having stayed at the palace, and offered him his own house.
9219 The Minister of War came up and congratulated him on the Maria Theresa
9220 Order of the third grade, which the Emperor was conferring on him. The
9221 Empress' chamberlain invited him to see Her Majesty. The archduchess
9222 also wished to see him. He did not know whom to answer, and for a few
9223 seconds collected his thoughts. Then the Russian ambassador took him by
9224 the shoulder, led him to the window, and began to talk to him.
9226 Contrary to Bilibin's forecast the news he had brought was joyfully
9227 received. A thanksgiving service was arranged, Kutuzov was awarded the
9228 Grand Cross of Maria Theresa, and the whole army received rewards.
9229 Bolkonski was invited everywhere, and had to spend the whole morning
9230 calling on the principal Austrian dignitaries. Between four and five in
9231 the afternoon, having made all his calls, he was returning to Bilibin's
9232 house thinking out a letter to his father about the battle and his visit
9233 to Brunn. At the door he found a vehicle half full of luggage. Franz,
9234 Bilibin's man, was dragging a portmanteau with some difficulty out of
9237 Before returning to Bilibin's Prince Andrew had gone to a bookshop to
9238 provide himself with some books for the campaign, and had spent some
9241 "What is it?" he asked.
9243 "Oh, your excellency!" said Franz, with difficulty rolling the
9244 portmanteau into the vehicle, "we are to move on still farther. The
9245 scoundrel is again at our heels!"
9247 "Eh? What?" asked Prince Andrew.
9249 Bilibin came out to meet him. His usually calm face showed excitement.
9251 "There now! Confess that this is delightful," said he. "This affair of
9252 the Thabor Bridge, at Vienna.... They have crossed without striking a
9255 Prince Andrew could not understand.
9257 "But where do you come from not to know what every coachman in the town
9260 "I come from the archduchess'. I heard nothing there."
9262 "And you didn't see that everybody is packing up?"
9264 "I did not... What is it all about?" inquired Prince Andrew impatiently.
9266 "What's it all about? Why, the French have crossed the bridge that
9267 Auersperg was defending, and the bridge was not blown up: so Murat is
9268 now rushing along the road to Brunn and will be here in a day or two."
9270 "What? Here? But why did they not blow up the bridge, if it was mined?"
9272 "That is what I ask you. No one, not even Bonaparte, knows why."
9274 Bolkonski shrugged his shoulders.
9276 "But if the bridge is crossed it means that the army too is lost? It
9277 will be cut off," said he.
9279 "That's just it," answered Bilibin. "Listen! The French entered Vienna
9280 as I told you. Very well. Next day, which was yesterday, those
9281 gentlemen, messieurs les marechaux, * Murat, Lannes, and Belliard, mount
9282 and ride to the bridge. (Observe that all three are Gascons.)
9283 'Gentlemen,' says one of them, 'you know the Thabor Bridge is mined and
9284 doubly mined and that there are menacing fortifications at its head and
9285 an army of fifteen thousand men has been ordered to blow up the bridge
9286 and not let us cross? But it will please our sovereign the Emperor
9287 Napoleon if we take this bridge, so let us three go and take it!' 'Yes,
9288 let's!' say the others. And off they go and take the bridge, cross it,
9289 and now with their whole army are on this side of the Danube, marching
9290 on us, you, and your lines of communication."
9295 "Stop jesting," said Prince Andrew sadly and seriously. This news
9296 grieved him and yet he was pleased.
9298 As soon as he learned that the Russian army was in such a hopeless
9299 situation it occurred to him that it was he who was destined to lead it
9300 out of this position; that here was the Toulon that would lift him from
9301 the ranks of obscure officers and offer him the first step to fame!
9302 Listening to Bilibin he was already imagining how on reaching the army
9303 he would give an opinion at the war council which would be the only one
9304 that could save the army, and how he alone would be entrusted with the
9305 executing of the plan.
9307 "Stop this jesting," he said
9309 "I am not jesting," Bilibin went on. "Nothing is truer or sadder. These
9310 gentlemen ride onto the bridge alone and wave white handkerchiefs; they
9311 assure the officer on duty that they, the marshals, are on their way to
9312 negotiate with Prince Auersperg. He lets them enter the tete-de-pont. *
9313 They spin him a thousand gasconades, saying that the war is over, that
9314 the Emperor Francis is arranging a meeting with Bonaparte, that they
9315 desire to see Prince Auersperg, and so on. The officer sends for
9316 Auersperg; these gentlemen embrace the officers, crack jokes, sit on the
9317 cannon, and meanwhile a French battalion gets to the bridge unobserved,
9318 flings the bags of incendiary material into the water, and approaches
9319 the tete-de-pont. At length appears the lieutenant general, our dear
9320 Prince Auersperg von Mautern himself. 'Dearest foe! Flower of the
9321 Austrian army, hero of the Turkish wars Hostilities are ended, we can
9322 shake one another's hand.... The Emperor Napoleon burns with impatience
9323 to make Prince Auersperg's acquaintance.' In a word, those gentlemen,
9324 Gascons indeed, so bewildered him with fine words, and he is so
9325 flattered by his rapidly established intimacy with the French marshals,
9326 and so dazzled by the sight of Murat's mantle and ostrich plumes, qu'il
9327 n'y voit que du feu, et oublie celui qu'il devait faire faire sur
9328 l'ennemi!" *(2) In spite of the animation of his speech, Bilibin did not
9329 forget to pause after this mot to give time for its due appreciation.
9330 "The French battalion rushes to the bridgehead, spikes the guns, and the
9331 bridge is taken! But what is best of all," he went on, his excitement
9332 subsiding under the delightful interest of his own story, "is that the
9333 sergeant in charge of the cannon which was to give the signal to fire
9334 the mines and blow up the bridge, this sergeant, seeing that the French
9335 troops were running onto the bridge, was about to fire, but Lannes
9336 stayed his hand. The sergeant, who was evidently wiser than his general,
9337 goes up to Auersperg and says: 'Prince, you are being deceived, here are
9338 the French!' Murat, seeing that all is lost if the sergeant is allowed
9339 to speak, turns to Auersperg with feigned astonishment (he is a true
9340 Gascon) and says: 'I don't recognize the world-famous Austrian
9341 discipline, if you allow a subordinate to address you like that!' It was
9342 a stroke of genius. Prince Auersperg feels his dignity at stake and
9343 orders the sergeant to be arrested. Come, you must own that this affair
9344 of the Thabor Bridge is delightful! It is not exactly stupidity, nor
9350 * (2) That their fire gets into his eyes and he forgets that he ought to
9351 be firing at the enemy.
9353 "It may be treachery," said Prince Andrew, vividly imagining the gray
9354 overcoats, wounds, the smoke of gunpowder, the sounds of firing, and the
9355 glory that awaited him.
9357 "Not that either. That puts the court in too bad a light," replied
9358 Bilibin. "It's not treachery nor rascality nor stupidity: it is just as
9359 at Ulm... it is..."--he seemed to be trying to find the right
9360 expression. "C'est... c'est du Mack. Nous sommes mackes (It is... it is
9361 a bit of Mack. We are Macked)," he concluded, feeling that he had
9362 produced a good epigram, a fresh one that would be repeated. His
9363 hitherto puckered brow became smooth as a sign of pleasure, and with a
9364 slight smile he began to examine his nails.
9366 "Where are you off to?" he said suddenly to Prince Andrew who had risen
9367 and was going toward his room.
9375 "But you meant to stay another two days?"
9377 "But now I am off at once."
9379 And Prince Andrew after giving directions about his departure went to
9382 "Do you know, mon cher," said Bilibin following him, "I have been
9383 thinking about you. Why are you going?"
9385 And in proof of the conclusiveness of his opinion all the wrinkles
9386 vanished from his face.
9388 Prince Andrew looked inquiringly at him and gave no reply.
9390 "Why are you going? I know you think it your duty to gallop back to the
9391 army now that it is in danger. I understand that. Mon cher, it is
9394 "Not at all," said Prince Andrew.
9396 "But as you are a philosopher, be a consistent one, look at the other
9397 side of the question and you will see that your duty, on the contrary,
9398 is to take care of yourself. Leave it to those who are no longer fit for
9399 anything else.... You have not been ordered to return and have not been
9400 dismissed from here; therefore, you can stay and go with us wherever our
9401 ill luck takes us. They say we are going to Olmutz, and Olmutz is a very
9402 decent town. You and I will travel comfortably in my caleche."
9404 "Do stop joking, Bilibin," cried Bolkonski.
9406 "I am speaking sincerely as a friend! Consider! Where and why are you
9407 going, when you might remain here? You are faced by one of two things,"
9408 and the skin over his left temple puckered, "either you will not reach
9409 your regiment before peace is concluded, or you will share defeat and
9410 disgrace with Kutuzov's whole army."
9412 And Bilibin unwrinkled his temple, feeling that the dilemma was
9415 "I cannot argue about it," replied Prince Andrew coldly, but he thought:
9416 "I am going to save the army."
9418 "My dear fellow, you are a hero!" said Bilibin.
9425 That same night, having taken leave of the Minister of War, Bolkonski
9426 set off to rejoin the army, not knowing where he would find it and
9427 fearing to be captured by the French on the way to Krems.
9429 In Brunn everybody attached to the court was packing up, and the heavy
9430 baggage was already being dispatched to Olmutz. Near Hetzelsdorf Prince
9431 Andrew struck the high road along which the Russian army was moving with
9432 great haste and in the greatest disorder. The road was so obstructed
9433 with carts that it was impossible to get by in a carriage. Prince Andrew
9434 took a horse and a Cossack from a Cossack commander, and hungry and
9435 weary, making his way past the baggage wagons, rode in search of the
9436 commander-in-chief and of his own luggage. Very sinister reports of the
9437 position of the army reached him as he went along, and the appearance of
9438 the troops in their disorderly flight confirmed these rumors.
9440 "Cette armee russe que l'or de l'Angleterre a transportee des extremites
9441 de l'univers, nous allons lui faire eprouver le meme sort--(le sort de
9442 l'armee d'Ulm)." * He remembered these words in Bonaparte's address to
9443 his army at the beginning of the campaign, and they awoke in him
9444 astonishment at the genius of his hero, a feeling of wounded pride, and
9445 a hope of glory. "And should there be nothing left but to die?" he
9446 thought. "Well, if need be, I shall do it no worse than others."
9449 * "That Russian army which has been brought from the ends of the earth
9450 by English gold, we shall cause to share the same fate--(the fate of the
9453 He looked with disdain at the endless confused mass of detachments,
9454 carts, guns, artillery, and again baggage wagons and vehicles of all
9455 kinds overtaking one another and blocking the muddy road, three and
9456 sometimes four abreast. From all sides, behind and before, as far as ear
9457 could reach, there were the rattle of wheels, the creaking of carts and
9458 gun carriages, the tramp of horses, the crack of whips, shouts, the
9459 urging of horses, and the swearing of soldiers, orderlies, and officers.
9460 All along the sides of the road fallen horses were to be seen, some
9461 flayed, some not, and broken-down carts beside which solitary soldiers
9462 sat waiting for something, and again soldiers straggling from their
9463 companies, crowds of whom set off to the neighboring villages, or
9464 returned from them dragging sheep, fowls, hay, and bulging sacks. At
9465 each ascent or descent of the road the crowds were yet denser and the
9466 din of shouting more incessant. Soldiers floundering knee-deep in mud
9467 pushed the guns and wagons themselves. Whips cracked, hoofs slipped,
9468 traces broke, and lungs were strained with shouting. The officers
9469 directing the march rode backward and forward between the carts. Their
9470 voices were but feebly heard amid the uproar and one saw by their faces
9471 that they despaired of the possibility of checking this disorder.
9473 "Here is our dear Orthodox Russian army," thought Bolkonski, recalling
9476 Wishing to find out where the commander-in-chief was, he rode up to a
9477 convoy. Directly opposite to him came a strange one-horse vehicle,
9478 evidently rigged up by soldiers out of any available materials and
9479 looking like something between a cart, a cabriolet, and a caleche. A
9480 soldier was driving, and a woman enveloped in shawls sat behind the
9481 apron under the leather hood of the vehicle. Prince Andrew rode up and
9482 was just putting his question to a soldier when his attention was
9483 diverted by the desperate shrieks of the woman in the vehicle. An
9484 officer in charge of transport was beating the soldier who was driving
9485 the woman's vehicle for trying to get ahead of others, and the strokes
9486 of his whip fell on the apron of the equipage. The woman screamed
9487 piercingly. Seeing Prince Andrew she leaned out from behind the apron
9488 and, waving her thin arms from under the woolen shawl, cried:
9490 "Mr. Aide-de-camp! Mr. Aide-de-camp!... For heaven's sake... Protect me!
9491 What will become of us? I am the wife of the doctor of the Seventh
9492 Chasseurs.... They won't let us pass, we are left behind and have lost
9495 "I'll flatten you into a pancake!" shouted the angry officer to the
9496 soldier. "Turn back with your slut!"
9498 "Mr. Aide-de-camp! Help me!... What does it all mean?" screamed the
9501 "Kindly let this cart pass. Don't you see it's a woman?" said Prince
9502 Andrew riding up to the officer.
9504 The officer glanced at him, and without replying turned again to the
9505 soldier. "I'll teach you to push on!... Back!"
9507 "Let them pass, I tell you!" repeated Prince Andrew, compressing his
9510 "And who are you?" cried the officer, turning on him with tipsy rage,
9511 "who are you? Are you in command here? Eh? I am commander here, not you!
9512 Go back or I'll flatten you into a pancake," repeated he. This
9513 expression evidently pleased him.
9515 "That was a nice snub for the little aide-de-camp," came a voice from
9518 Prince Andrew saw that the officer was in that state of senseless, tipsy
9519 rage when a man does not know what he is saying. He saw that his
9520 championship of the doctor's wife in her queer trap might expose him to
9521 what he dreaded more than anything in the world--to ridicule; but his
9522 instinct urged him on. Before the officer finished his sentence Prince
9523 Andrew, his face distorted with fury, rode up to him and raised his
9526 "Kind...ly let--them--pass!"
9528 The officer flourished his arm and hastily rode away.
9530 "It's all the fault of these fellows on the staff that there's this
9531 disorder," he muttered. "Do as you like."
9533 Prince Andrew without lifting his eyes rode hastily away from the
9534 doctor's wife, who was calling him her deliverer, and recalling with a
9535 sense of disgust the minutest details of this humiliating scene he
9536 galloped on to the village where he was told that the commander-in-chief
9539 On reaching the village he dismounted and went to the nearest house,
9540 intending to rest if but for a moment, eat something, and try to sort
9541 out the stinging and tormenting thoughts that confused his mind. "This
9542 is a mob of scoundrels and not an army," he was thinking as he went up
9543 to the window of the first house, when a familiar voice called him by
9546 He turned round. Nesvitski's handsome face looked out of the little
9547 window. Nesvitski, moving his moist lips as he chewed something, and
9548 flourishing his arm, called him to enter.
9550 "Bolkonski! Bolkonski!... Don't you hear? Eh? Come quick..." he shouted.
9552 Entering the house, Prince Andrew saw Nesvitski and another adjutant
9553 having something to eat. They hastily turned round to him asking if he
9554 had any news. On their familiar faces he read agitation and alarm. This
9555 was particularly noticeable on Nesvitski's usually laughing countenance.
9557 "Where is the commander-in-chief?" asked Bolkonski.
9559 "Here, in that house," answered the adjutant.
9561 "Well, is it true that it's peace and capitulation?" asked Nesvitski.
9563 "I was going to ask you. I know nothing except that it was all I could
9566 "And we, my dear boy! It's terrible! I was wrong to laugh at Mack, we're
9567 getting it still worse," said Nesvitski. "But sit down and have
9570 "You won't be able to find either your baggage or anything else now,
9571 Prince. And God only knows where your man Peter is," said the other
9574 "Where are headquarters?"
9576 "We are to spend the night in Znaim."
9578 "Well, I have got all I need into packs for two horses," said Nesvitski.
9579 "They've made up splendid packs for me--fit to cross the Bohemian
9580 mountains with. It's a bad lookout, old fellow! But what's the matter
9581 with you? You must be ill to shiver like that," he added, noticing that
9582 Prince Andrew winced as at an electric shock.
9584 "It's nothing," replied Prince Andrew.
9586 He had just remembered his recent encounter with the doctor's wife and
9589 "What is the commander-in-chief doing here?" he asked.
9591 "I can't make out at all," said Nesvitski.
9593 "Well, all I can make out is that everything is abominable, abominable,
9594 quite abominable!" said Prince Andrew, and he went off to the house
9595 where the commander-in-chief was.
9597 Passing by Kutuzov's carriage and the exhausted saddle horses of his
9598 suite, with their Cossacks who were talking loudly together, Prince
9599 Andrew entered the passage. Kutuzov himself, he was told, was in the
9600 house with Prince Bagration and Weyrother. Weyrother was the Austrian
9601 general who had succeeded Schmidt. In the passage little Kozlovski was
9602 squatting on his heels in front of a clerk. The clerk, with cuffs turned
9603 up, was hastily writing at a tub turned bottom upwards. Kozlovski's face
9604 looked worn--he too had evidently not slept all night. He glanced at
9605 Prince Andrew and did not even nod to him.
9607 "Second line... have you written it?" he continued dictating to the
9608 clerk. "The Kiev Grenadiers, Podolian..."
9610 "One can't write so fast, your honor," said the clerk, glancing angrily
9611 and disrespectfully at Kozlovski.
9613 Through the door came the sounds of Kutuzov's voice, excited and
9614 dissatisfied, interrupted by another, an unfamiliar voice. From the
9615 sound of these voices, the inattentive way Kozlovski looked at him, the
9616 disrespectful manner of the exhausted clerk, the fact that the clerk and
9617 Kozlovski were squatting on the floor by a tub so near to the commander
9618 in chief, and from the noisy laughter of the Cossacks holding the horses
9619 near the window, Prince Andrew felt that something important and
9620 disastrous was about to happen.
9622 He turned to Kozlovski with urgent questions.
9624 "Immediately, Prince," said Kozlovski. "Dispositions for Bagration."
9626 "What about capitulation?"
9628 "Nothing of the sort. Orders are issued for a battle."
9630 Prince Andrew moved toward the door from whence voices were heard. Just
9631 as he was going to open it the sounds ceased, the door opened, and
9632 Kutuzov with his eagle nose and puffy face appeared in the doorway.
9633 Prince Andrew stood right in front of Kutuzov but the expression of the
9634 commander in chief's one sound eye showed him to be so preoccupied with
9635 thoughts and anxieties as to be oblivious of his presence. He looked
9636 straight at his adjutant's face without recognizing him.
9638 "Well, have you finished?" said he to Kozlovski.
9640 "One moment, your excellency."
9642 Bagration, a gaunt middle-aged man of medium height with a firm,
9643 impassive face of Oriental type, came out after the commander-in-chief.
9645 "I have the honor to present myself," repeated Prince Andrew rather
9646 loudly, handing Kutuzov an envelope.
9648 "Ah, from Vienna? Very good. Later, later!"
9650 Kutuzov went out into the porch with Bagration.
9652 "Well, good-by, Prince," said he to Bagration. "My blessing, and may
9653 Christ be with you in your great endeavor!"
9655 His face suddenly softened and tears came into his eyes. With his left
9656 hand he drew Bagration toward him, and with his right, on which he wore
9657 a ring, he made the sign of the cross over him with a gesture evidently
9658 habitual, offering his puffy cheek, but Bagration kissed him on the neck
9661 "Christ be with you!" Kutuzov repeated and went toward his carriage.
9662 "Get in with me," said he to Bolkonski.
9664 "Your excellency, I should like to be of use here. Allow me to remain
9665 with Prince Bagration's detachment."
9667 "Get in," said Kutuzov, and noticing that Bolkonski still delayed, he
9668 added: "I need good officers myself, need them myself!"
9670 They got into the carriage and drove for a few minutes in silence.
9672 "There is still much, much before us," he said, as if with an old man's
9673 penetration he understood all that was passing in Bolkonski's mind. "If
9674 a tenth part of his detachment returns I shall thank God," he added as
9675 if speaking to himself.
9677 Prince Andrew glanced at Kutuzov's face only a foot distant from him and
9678 involuntarily noticed the carefully washed seams of the scar near his
9679 temple, where an Ismail bullet had pierced his skull, and the empty eye
9680 socket. "Yes, he has a right to speak so calmly of those men's death,"
9683 "That is why I beg to be sent to that detachment," he said.
9685 Kutuzov did not reply. He seemed to have forgotten what he had been
9686 saying, and sat plunged in thought. Five minutes later, gently swaying
9687 on the soft springs of the carriage, he turned to Prince Andrew. There
9688 was not a trace of agitation on his face. With delicate irony he
9689 questioned Prince Andrew about the details of his interview with the
9690 Emperor, about the remarks he had heard at court concerning the Krems
9691 affair, and about some ladies they both knew.
9698 On November 1 Kutuzov had received, through a spy, news that the army he
9699 commanded was in an almost hopeless position. The spy reported that the
9700 French, after crossing the bridge at Vienna, were advancing in immense
9701 force upon Kutuzov's line of communication with the troops that were
9702 arriving from Russia. If Kutuzov decided to remain at Krems, Napoleon's
9703 army of one hundred and fifty thousand men would cut him off completely
9704 and surround his exhausted army of forty thousand, and he would find
9705 himself in the position of Mack at Ulm. If Kutuzov decided to abandon
9706 the road connecting him with the troops arriving from Russia, he would
9707 have to march with no road into unknown parts of the Bohemian mountains,
9708 defending himself against superior forces of the enemy and abandoning
9709 all hope of a junction with Buxhowden. If Kutuzov decided to retreat
9710 along the road from Krems to Olmutz, to unite with the troops arriving
9711 from Russia, he risked being forestalled on that road by the French who
9712 had crossed the Vienna bridge, and encumbered by his baggage and
9713 transport, having to accept battle on the march against an enemy three
9714 times as strong, who would hem him in from two sides.
9716 Kutuzov chose this latter course.
9718 The French, the spy reported, having crossed the Vienna bridge, were
9719 advancing by forced marches toward Znaim, which lay sixty-six miles off
9720 on the line of Kutuzov's retreat. If he reached Znaim before the French,
9721 there would be great hope of saving the army; to let the French
9722 forestall him at Znaim meant the exposure of his whole army to a
9723 disgrace such as that of Ulm, or to utter destruction. But to forestall
9724 the French with his whole army was impossible. The road for the French
9725 from Vienna to Znaim was shorter and better than the road for the
9726 Russians from Krems to Znaim.
9728 The night he received the news, Kutuzov sent Bagration's vanguard, four
9729 thousand strong, to the right across the hills from the Krems-Znaim to
9730 the Vienna-Znaim road. Bagration was to make this march without resting,
9731 and to halt facing Vienna with Znaim to his rear, and if he succeeded in
9732 forestalling the French he was to delay them as long as possible.
9733 Kutuzov himself with all his transport took the road to Znaim.
9735 Marching thirty miles that stormy night across roadless hills, with his
9736 hungry, ill-shod soldiers, and losing a third of his men as stragglers
9737 by the way, Bagration came out on the Vienna-Znaim road at Hollabrunn a
9738 few hours ahead of the French who were approaching Hollabrunn from
9739 Vienna. Kutuzov with his transport had still to march for some days
9740 before he could reach Znaim. Hence Bagration with his four thousand
9741 hungry, exhausted men would have to detain for days the whole enemy army
9742 that came upon him at Hollabrunn, which was clearly impossible. But a
9743 freak of fate made the impossible possible. The success of the trick
9744 that had placed the Vienna bridge in the hands of the French without a
9745 fight led Murat to try to deceive Kutuzov in a similar way. Meeting
9746 Bagration's weak detachment on the Znaim road he supposed it to be
9747 Kutuzov's whole army. To be able to crush it absolutely he awaited the
9748 arrival of the rest of the troops who were on their way from Vienna, and
9749 with this object offered a three days' truce on condition that both
9750 armies should remain in position without moving. Murat declared that
9751 negotiations for peace were already proceeding, and that he therefore
9752 offered this truce to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Count Nostitz, the
9753 Austrian general occupying the advanced posts, believed Murat's emissary
9754 and retired, leaving Bagration's division exposed. Another emissary rode
9755 to the Russian line to announce the peace negotiations and to offer the
9756 Russian army the three days' truce. Bagration replied that he was not
9757 authorized either to accept or refuse a truce and sent his adjutant to
9758 Kutuzov to report the offer he had received.
9760 A truce was Kutuzov's sole chance of gaining time, giving Bagration's
9761 exhausted troops some rest, and letting the transport and heavy convoys
9762 (whose movements were concealed from the French) advance if but one
9763 stage nearer Znaim. The offer of a truce gave the only, and a quite
9764 unexpected, chance of saving the army. On receiving the news he
9765 immediately dispatched Adjutant General Wintzingerode, who was in
9766 attendance on him, to the enemy camp. Wintzingerode was not merely to
9767 agree to the truce but also to offer terms of capitulation, and
9768 meanwhile Kutuzov sent his adjutants back to hasten to the utmost the
9769 movements of the baggage trains of the entire army along the Krems-Znaim
9770 road. Bagration's exhausted and hungry detachment, which alone covered
9771 this movement of the transport and of the whole army, had to remain
9772 stationary in face of an enemy eight times as strong as itself.
9774 Kutuzov's expectations that the proposals of capitulation (which were in
9775 no way binding) might give time for part of the transport to pass, and
9776 also that Murat's mistake would very soon be discovered, proved correct.
9777 As soon as Bonaparte (who was at Schonbrunn, sixteen miles from
9778 Hollabrunn) received Murat's dispatch with the proposal of a truce and a
9779 capitulation, he detected a ruse and wrote the following letter to
9782 Schonbrunn, 25th Brumaire, 1805,
9784 at eight o'clock in the morning
9788 I cannot find words to express to you my displeasure. You command only
9789 my advance guard, and have no right to arrange an armistice without my
9790 order. You are causing me to lose the fruits of a campaign. Break the
9791 armistice immediately and march on the enemy. Inform him that the
9792 general who signed that capitulation had no right to do so, and that no
9793 one but the Emperor of Russia has that right.
9795 If, however, the Emperor of Russia ratifies that convention, I will
9796 ratify it; but it is only a trick. March on, destroy the Russian
9797 army.... You are in a position to seize its baggage and artillery.
9799 The Russian Emperor's aide-de-camp is an impostor. Officers are nothing
9800 when they have no powers; this one had none.... The Austrians let
9801 themselves be tricked at the crossing of the Vienna bridge, you are
9802 letting yourself be tricked by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor.
9806 Bonaparte's adjutant rode full gallop with this menacing letter to
9807 Murat. Bonaparte himself, not trusting to his generals, moved with all
9808 the Guards to the field of battle, afraid of letting a ready victim
9809 escape, and Bagration's four thousand men merrily lighted campfires,
9810 dried and warmed themselves, cooked their porridge for the first time
9811 for three days, and not one of them knew or imagined what was in store
9819 Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon Prince Andrew, who had
9820 persisted in his request to Kutuzov, arrived at Grunth and reported
9821 himself to Bagration. Bonaparte's adjutant had not yet reached Murat's
9822 detachment and the battle had not yet begun. In Bagration's detachment
9823 no one knew anything of the general position of affairs. They talked of
9824 peace but did not believe in its possibility; others talked of a battle
9825 but also disbelieved in the nearness of an engagement. Bagration,
9826 knowing Bolkonski to be a favorite and trusted adjutant, received him
9827 with distinction and special marks of favor, explaining to him that
9828 there would probably be an engagement that day or the next, and giving
9829 him full liberty to remain with him during the battle or to join the
9830 rearguard and have an eye on the order of retreat, "which is also very
9833 "However, there will hardly be an engagement today," said Bagration as
9834 if to reassure Prince Andrew.
9836 "If he is one of the ordinary little staff dandies sent to earn a medal
9837 he can get his reward just as well in the rearguard, but if he wishes to
9838 stay with me, let him... he'll be of use here if he's a brave officer,"
9839 thought Bagration. Prince Andrew, without replying, asked the prince's
9840 permission to ride round the position to see the disposition of the
9841 forces, so as to know his bearings should he be sent to execute an
9842 order. The officer on duty, a handsome, elegantly dressed man with a
9843 diamond ring on his forefinger, who was fond of speaking French though
9844 he spoke it badly, offered to conduct Prince Andrew.
9846 On all sides they saw rain-soaked officers with dejected faces who
9847 seemed to be seeking something, and soldiers dragging doors, benches,
9848 and fencing from the village.
9850 "There now, Prince! We can't stop those fellows," said the staff officer
9851 pointing to the soldiers. "The officers don't keep them in hand. And
9852 there," he pointed to a sutler's tent, "they crowd in and sit. This
9853 morning I turned them all out and now look, it's full again. I must go
9854 there, Prince, and scare them a bit. It won't take a moment."
9856 "Yes, let's go in and I will get myself a roll and some cheese," said
9857 Prince Andrew who had not yet had time to eat anything.
9859 "Why didn't you mention it, Prince? I would have offered you something."
9861 They dismounted and entered the tent. Several officers, with flushed and
9862 weary faces, were sitting at the table eating and drinking.
9864 "Now what does this mean, gentlemen?" said the staff officer, in the
9865 reproachful tone of a man who has repeated the same thing more than
9866 once. "You know it won't do to leave your posts like this. The prince
9867 gave orders that no one should leave his post. Now you, Captain," and he
9868 turned to a thin, dirty little artillery officer who without his boots
9869 (he had given them to the canteen keeper to dry), in only his stockings,
9870 rose when they entered, smiling not altogether comfortably.
9872 "Well, aren't you ashamed of yourself, Captain Tushin?" he continued.
9873 "One would think that as an artillery officer you would set a good
9874 example, yet here you are without your boots! The alarm will be sounded
9875 and you'll be in a pretty position without your boots!" (The staff
9876 officer smiled.) "Kindly return to your posts, gentlemen, all of you,
9877 all!" he added in a tone of command.
9879 Prince Andrew smiled involuntarily as he looked at the artillery officer
9880 Tushin, who silent and smiling, shifting from one stockinged foot to the
9881 other, glanced inquiringly with his large, intelligent, kindly eyes from
9882 Prince Andrew to the staff officer.
9884 "The soldiers say it feels easier without boots," said Captain Tushin
9885 smiling shyly in his uncomfortable position, evidently wishing to adopt
9886 a jocular tone. But before he had finished he felt that his jest was
9887 unacceptable and had not come off. He grew confused.
9889 "Kindly return to your posts," said the staff officer trying to preserve
9892 Prince Andrew glanced again at the artillery officer's small figure.
9893 There was something peculiar about it, quite unsoldierly, rather comic,
9894 but extremely attractive.
9896 The staff officer and Prince Andrew mounted their horses and rode on.
9898 Having ridden beyond the village, continually meeting and overtaking
9899 soldiers and officers of various regiments, they saw on their left some
9900 entrenchments being thrown up, the freshly dug clay of which showed up
9901 red. Several battalions of soldiers, in their shirt sleeves despite the
9902 cold wind, swarmed in these earthworks like a host of white ants;
9903 spadefuls of red clay were continually being thrown up from behind the
9904 bank by unseen hands. Prince Andrew and the officer rode up, looked at
9905 the entrenchment, and went on again. Just behind it they came upon some
9906 dozens of soldiers, continually replaced by others, who ran from the
9907 entrenchment. They had to hold their noses and put their horses to a
9908 trot to escape from the poisoned atmosphere of these latrines.
9910 "Voila l'agrement des camps, monsieur le Prince," * said the staff
9914 * "This is a pleasure one gets in camp, Prince."
9916 They rode up the opposite hill. From there the French could already be
9917 seen. Prince Andrew stopped and began examining the position.
9919 "That's our battery," said the staff officer indicating the highest
9920 point. "It's in charge of the queer fellow we saw without his boots. You
9921 can see everything from there; let's go there, Prince."
9923 "Thank you very much, I will go on alone," said Prince Andrew, wishing
9924 to rid himself of this staff officer's company, "please don't trouble
9927 The staff officer remained behind and Prince Andrew rode on alone.
9929 The farther forward and nearer the enemy he went, the more orderly and
9930 cheerful were the troops. The greatest disorder and depression had been
9931 in the baggage train he had passed that morning on the Znaim road seven
9932 miles away from the French. At Grunth also some apprehension and alarm
9933 could be felt, but the nearer Prince Andrew came to the French lines the
9934 more confident was the appearance of our troops. The soldiers in their
9935 greatcoats were ranged in lines, the sergeants major and company
9936 officers were counting the men, poking the last man in each section in
9937 the ribs and telling him to hold his hand up. Soldiers scattered over
9938 the whole place were dragging logs and brushwood and were building
9939 shelters with merry chatter and laughter; around the fires sat others,
9940 dressed and undressed, drying their shirts and leg bands or mending
9941 boots or overcoats and crowding round the boilers and porridge cookers.
9942 In one company dinner was ready, and the soldiers were gazing eagerly at
9943 the steaming boiler, waiting till the sample, which a quartermaster
9944 sergeant was carrying in a wooden bowl to an officer who sat on a log
9945 before his shelter, had been tasted.
9947 Another company, a lucky one for not all the companies had vodka,
9948 crowded round a pockmarked, broad-shouldered sergeant major who, tilting
9949 a keg, filled one after another the canteen lids held out to him. The
9950 soldiers lifted the canteen lids to their lips with reverential faces,
9951 emptied them, rolling the vodka in their mouths, and walked away from
9952 the sergeant major with brightened expressions, licking their lips and
9953 wiping them on the sleeves of their greatcoats. All their faces were as
9954 serene as if all this were happening at home awaiting peaceful
9955 encampment, and not within sight of the enemy before an action in which
9956 at least half of them would be left on the field. After passing a
9957 chasseur regiment and in the lines of the Kiev grenadiers--fine fellows
9958 busy with similar peaceful affairs--near the shelter of the regimental
9959 commander, higher than and different from the others, Prince Andrew came
9960 out in front of a platoon of grenadiers before whom lay a naked man. Two
9961 soldiers held him while two others were flourishing their switches and
9962 striking him regularly on his bare back. The man shrieked unnaturally. A
9963 stout major was pacing up and down the line, and regardless of the
9964 screams kept repeating:
9966 "It's a shame for a soldier to steal; a soldier must be honest,
9967 honorable, and brave, but if he robs his fellows there is no honor in
9968 him, he's a scoundrel. Go on! Go on!"
9970 So the swishing sound of the strokes, and the desperate but unnatural
9973 "Go on, go on!" said the major.
9975 A young officer with a bewildered and pained expression on his face
9976 stepped away from the man and looked round inquiringly at the adjutant
9979 Prince Andrew, having reached the front line, rode along it. Our front
9980 line and that of the enemy were far apart on the right and left flanks,
9981 but in the center where the men with a flag of truce had passed that
9982 morning, the lines were so near together that the men could see one
9983 another's faces and speak to one another. Besides the soldiers who
9984 formed the picket line on either side, there were many curious onlookers
9985 who, jesting and laughing, stared at their strange foreign enemies.
9987 Since early morning--despite an injunction not to approach the picket
9988 line--the officers had been unable to keep sight-seers away. The
9989 soldiers forming the picket line, like showmen exhibiting a curiosity,
9990 no longer looked at the French but paid attention to the sight-seers and
9991 grew weary waiting to be relieved. Prince Andrew halted to have a look
9994 "Look! Look there!" one soldier was saying to another, pointing to a
9995 Russian musketeer who had gone up to the picket line with an officer and
9996 was rapidly and excitedly talking to a French grenadier. "Hark to him
9997 jabbering! Fine, isn't it? It's all the Frenchy can do to keep up with
9998 him. There now, Sidorov!"
10000 "Wait a bit and listen. It's fine!" answered Sidorov, who was considered
10001 an adept at French.
10003 The soldier to whom the laughers referred was Dolokhov. Prince Andrew
10004 recognized him and stopped to listen to what he was saying. Dolokhov had
10005 come from the left flank where their regiment was stationed, with his
10008 "Now then, go on, go on!" incited the officer, bending forward and
10009 trying not to lose a word of the speech which was incomprehensible to
10010 him. "More, please: more! What's he saying?"
10012 Dolokhov did not answer the captain; he had been drawn into a hot
10013 dispute with the French grenadier. They were naturally talking about the
10014 campaign. The Frenchman, confusing the Austrians with the Russians, was
10015 trying to prove that the Russians had surrendered and had fled all the
10016 way from Ulm, while Dolokhov maintained that the Russians had not
10017 surrendered but had beaten the French.
10019 "We have orders to drive you off here, and we shall drive you off," said
10022 "Only take care you and your Cossacks are not all captured!" said the
10025 The French onlookers and listeners laughed.
10027 "We'll make you dance as we did under Suvorov...," * said Dolokhov.
10030 * "On vous fera danser."
10032 "Qu' est-ce qu'il chante?" * asked a Frenchman.
10035 * "What's he singing about?"
10037 "It's ancient history," said another, guessing that it referred to a
10038 former war. "The Emperor will teach your Suvara as he has taught the
10041 "Bonaparte..." began Dolokhov, but the Frenchman interrupted him.
10043 "Not Bonaparte. He is the Emperor! Sacre nom...!" cried he angrily.
10045 "The devil skin your Emperor."
10047 And Dolokhov swore at him in coarse soldier's Russian and shouldering
10048 his musket walked away.
10050 "Let us go, Ivan Lukich," he said to the captain.
10052 "Ah, that's the way to talk French," said the picket soldiers. "Now,
10053 Sidorov, you have a try!"
10055 Sidorov, turning to the French, winked, and began to jabber meaningless
10056 sounds very fast: "Kari, mala, tafa, safi, muter, Kaska," he said,
10057 trying to give an expressive intonation to his voice.
10059 "Ho! ho! ho! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ouh! ouh!" came peals of such healthy and
10060 good-humored laughter from the soldiers that it infected the French
10061 involuntarily, so much so that the only thing left to do seemed to be to
10062 unload the muskets, explode the ammunition, and all return home as
10063 quickly as possible.
10065 But the guns remained loaded, the loopholes in blockhouses and
10066 entrenchments looked out just as menacingly, and the unlimbered cannon
10067 confronted one another as before.
10074 Having ridden round the whole line from right flank to left, Prince
10075 Andrew made his way up to the battery from which the staff officer had
10076 told him the whole field could be seen. Here he dismounted, and stopped
10077 beside the farthest of the four unlimbered cannon. Before the guns an
10078 artillery sentry was pacing up and down; he stood at attention when the
10079 officer arrived, but at a sign resumed his measured, monotonous pacing.
10080 Behind the guns were their limbers and still farther back picket ropes
10081 and artillerymen's bonfires. To the left, not far from the farthest
10082 cannon, was a small, newly constructed wattle shed from which came the
10083 sound of officers' voices in eager conversation.
10085 It was true that a view over nearly the whole Russian position and the
10086 greater part of the enemy's opened out from this battery. Just facing
10087 it, on the crest of the opposite hill, the village of Schon Grabern
10088 could be seen, and in three places to left and right the French troops
10089 amid the smoke of their campfires, the greater part of whom were
10090 evidently in the village itself and behind the hill. To the left from
10091 that village, amid the smoke, was something resembling a battery, but it
10092 was impossible to see it clearly with the naked eye. Our right flank was
10093 posted on a rather steep incline which dominated the French position.
10094 Our infantry were stationed there, and at the farthest point the
10095 dragoons. In the center, where Tushin's battery stood and from which
10096 Prince Andrew was surveying the position, was the easiest and most
10097 direct descent and ascent to the brook separating us from Schon Grabern.
10098 On the left our troops were close to a copse, in which smoked the
10099 bonfires of our infantry who were felling wood. The French line was
10100 wider than ours, and it was plain that they could easily outflank us on
10101 both sides. Behind our position was a steep and deep dip, making it
10102 difficult for artillery and cavalry to retire. Prince Andrew took out
10103 his notebook and, leaning on the cannon, sketched a plan of the
10104 position. He made some notes on two points, intending to mention them to
10105 Bagration. His idea was, first, to concentrate all the artillery in the
10106 center, and secondly, to withdraw the cavalry to the other side of the
10107 dip. Prince Andrew, being always near the commander in chief, closely
10108 following the mass movements and general orders, and constantly studying
10109 historical accounts of battles, involuntarily pictured to himself the
10110 course of events in the forthcoming action in broad outline. He imagined
10111 only important possibilities: "If the enemy attacks the right flank," he
10112 said to himself, "the Kiev grenadiers and the Podolsk chasseurs must
10113 hold their position till reserves from the center come up. In that case
10114 the dragoons could successfully make a flank counterattack. If they
10115 attack our center we, having the center battery on this high ground,
10116 shall withdraw the left flank under its cover, and retreat to the dip by
10117 echelons." So he reasoned.... All the time he had been beside the gun,
10118 he had heard the voices of the officers distinctly, but as often happens
10119 had not understood a word of what they were saying. Suddenly, however,
10120 he was struck by a voice coming from the shed, and its tone was so
10121 sincere that he could not but listen.
10123 "No, friend," said a pleasant and, as it seemed to Prince Andrew, a
10124 familiar voice, "what I say is that if it were possible to know what is
10125 beyond death, none of us would be afraid of it. That's so, friend."
10127 Another, a younger voice, interrupted him: "Afraid or not, you can't
10130 "All the same, one is afraid! Oh, you clever people," said a third manly
10131 voice interrupting them both. "Of course you artillery men are very
10132 wise, because you can take everything along with you--vodka and snacks."
10134 And the owner of the manly voice, evidently an infantry officer,
10137 "Yes, one is afraid," continued the first speaker, he of the familiar
10138 voice. "One is afraid of the unknown, that's what it is. Whatever we may
10139 say about the soul going to the sky... we know there is no sky but only
10142 The manly voice again interrupted the artillery officer.
10144 "Well, stand us some of your herb vodka, Tushin," it said.
10146 "Why," thought Prince Andrew, "that's the captain who stood up in the
10147 sutler's hut without his boots." He recognized the agreeable,
10148 philosophizing voice with pleasure.
10150 "Some herb vodka? Certainly!" said Tushin. "But still, to conceive a
10153 He did not finish. Just then there was a whistle in the air; nearer and
10154 nearer, faster and louder, louder and faster, a cannon ball, as if it
10155 had not finished saying what was necessary, thudded into the ground near
10156 the shed with super human force, throwing up a mass of earth. The ground
10157 seemed to groan at the terrible impact.
10159 And immediately Tushin, with a short pipe in the corner of his mouth and
10160 his kind, intelligent face rather pale, rushed out of the shed followed
10161 by the owner of the manly voice, a dashing infantry officer who hurried
10162 off to his company, buttoning up his coat as he ran.
10169 Mounting his horse again Prince Andrew lingered with the battery,
10170 looking at the puff from the gun that had sent the ball. His eyes ran
10171 rapidly over the wide space, but he only saw that the hitherto
10172 motionless masses of the French now swayed and that there really was a
10173 battery to their left. The smoke above it had not yet dispersed. Two
10174 mounted Frenchmen, probably adjutants, were galloping up the hill. A
10175 small but distinctly visible enemy column was moving down the hill,
10176 probably to strengthen the front line. The smoke of the first shot had
10177 not yet dispersed before another puff appeared, followed by a report.
10178 The battle had begun! Prince Andrew turned his horse and galloped back
10179 to Grunth to find Prince Bagration. He heard the cannonade behind him
10180 growing louder and more frequent. Evidently our guns had begun to reply.
10181 From the bottom of the slope, where the parleys had taken place, came
10182 the report of musketry.
10184 Lemarrois had just arrived at a gallop with Bonaparte's stern letter,
10185 and Murat, humiliated and anxious to expiate his fault, had at once
10186 moved his forces to attack the center and outflank both the Russian
10187 wings, hoping before evening and before the arrival of the Emperor to
10188 crush the contemptible detachment that stood before him.
10190 "It has begun. Here it is!" thought Prince Andrew, feeling the blood
10191 rush to his heart. "But where and how will my Toulon present itself?"
10193 Passing between the companies that had been eating porridge and drinking
10194 vodka a quarter of an hour before, he saw everywhere the same rapid
10195 movement of soldiers forming ranks and getting their muskets ready, and
10196 on all their faces he recognized the same eagerness that filled his
10197 heart. "It has begun! Here it is, dreadful but enjoyable!" was what the
10198 face of each soldier and each officer seemed to say.
10200 Before he had reached the embankments that were being thrown up, he saw,
10201 in the light of the dull autumn evening, mounted men coming toward him.
10202 The foremost, wearing a Cossack cloak and lambskin cap and riding a
10203 white horse, was Prince Bagration. Prince Andrew stopped, waiting for
10204 him to come up; Prince Bagration reined in his horse and recognizing
10205 Prince Andrew nodded to him. He still looked ahead while Prince Andrew
10206 told him what he had seen.
10208 The feeling, "It has begun! Here it is!" was seen even on Prince
10209 Bagration's hard brown face with its half-closed, dull, sleepy eyes.
10210 Prince Andrew gazed with anxious curiosity at that impassive face and
10211 wished he could tell what, if anything, this man was thinking and
10212 feeling at that moment. "Is there anything at all behind that impassive
10213 face?" Prince Andrew asked himself as he looked. Prince Bagration bent
10214 his head in sign of agreement with what Prince Andrew told him, and
10215 said, "Very good!" in a tone that seemed to imply that everything that
10216 took place and was reported to him was exactly what he had foreseen.
10217 Prince Andrew, out of breath with his rapid ride, spoke quickly. Prince
10218 Bagration, uttering his words with an Oriental accent, spoke
10219 particularly slowly, as if to impress the fact that there was no need to
10220 hurry. However, he put his horse to a trot in the direction of Tushin's
10221 battery. Prince Andrew followed with the suite. Behind Prince Bagration
10222 rode an officer of the suite, the prince's personal adjutant, Zherkov,
10223 an orderly officer, the staff officer on duty, riding a fine bobtailed
10224 horse, and a civilian--an accountant who had asked permission to be
10225 present at the battle out of curiosity. The accountant, a stout, full-
10226 faced man, looked around him with a naive smile of satisfaction and
10227 presented a strange appearance among the hussars, Cossacks, and
10228 adjutants, in his camlet coat, as he jolted on his horse with a convoy
10231 "He wants to see a battle," said Zherkov to Bolkonski, pointing to the
10232 accountant, "but he feels a pain in the pit of his stomach already."
10234 "Oh, leave off!" said the accountant with a beaming but rather cunning
10235 smile, as if flattered at being made the subject of Zherkov's joke, and
10236 purposely trying to appear stupider than he really was.
10238 "It is very strange, mon Monsieur Prince," said the staff officer. (He
10239 remembered that in French there is some peculiar way of addressing a
10240 prince, but could not get it quite right.)
10242 By this time they were all approaching Tushin's battery, and a ball
10243 struck the ground in front of them.
10245 "What's that that has fallen?" asked the accountant with a naive smile.
10247 "A French pancake," answered Zherkov.
10249 "So that's what they hit with?" asked the accountant. "How awful!"
10251 He seemed to swell with satisfaction. He had hardly finished speaking
10252 when they again heard an unexpectedly violent whistling which suddenly
10253 ended with a thud into something soft... f-f-flop! and a Cossack, riding
10254 a little to their right and behind the accountant, crashed to earth with
10255 his horse. Zherkov and the staff officer bent over their saddles and
10256 turned their horses away. The accountant stopped, facing the Cossack,
10257 and examined him with attentive curiosity. The Cossack was dead, but the
10258 horse still struggled.
10260 Prince Bagration screwed up his eyes, looked round, and, seeing the
10261 cause of the confusion, turned away with indifference, as if to say, "Is
10262 it worth while noticing trifles?" He reined in his horse with the care
10263 of a skillful rider and, slightly bending over, disengaged his saber
10264 which had caught in his cloak. It was an old-fashioned saber of a kind
10265 no longer in general use. Prince Andrew remembered the story of Suvorov
10266 giving his saber to Bagration in Italy, and the recollection was
10267 particularly pleasant at that moment. They had reached the battery at
10268 which Prince Andrew had been when he examined the battlefield.
10270 "Whose company?" asked Prince Bagration of an artilleryman standing by
10271 the ammunition wagon.
10273 He asked, "Whose company?" but he really meant, "Are you frightened
10274 here?" and the artilleryman understood him.
10276 "Captain Tushin's, your excellency!" shouted the red-haired, freckled
10277 gunner in a merry voice, standing to attention.
10279 "Yes, yes," muttered Bagration as if considering something, and he rode
10280 past the limbers to the farthest cannon.
10282 As he approached, a ringing shot issued from it deafening him and his
10283 suite, and in the smoke that suddenly surrounded the gun they could see
10284 the gunners who had seized it straining to roll it quickly back to its
10285 former position. A huge, broad-shouldered gunner, Number One, holding a
10286 mop, his legs far apart, sprang to the wheel; while Number Two with a
10287 trembling hand placed a charge in the cannon's mouth. The short, round-
10288 shouldered Captain Tushin, stumbling over the tail of the gun carriage,
10289 moved forward and, not noticing the general, looked out shading his eyes
10290 with his small hand.
10292 "Lift it two lines more and it will be just right," cried he in a feeble
10293 voice to which he tried to impart a dashing note, ill-suited to his weak
10294 figure. "Number Two!" he squeaked. "Fire, Medvedev!"
10296 Bagration called to him, and Tushin, raising three fingers to his cap
10297 with a bashful and awkward gesture not at all like a military salute but
10298 like a priest's benediction, approached the general. Though Tushin's
10299 guns had been intended to cannonade the valley, he was firing incendiary
10300 balls at the village of Schon Grabern visible just opposite, in front of
10301 which large masses of French were advancing.
10303 No one had given Tushin orders where and at what to fire, but after
10304 consulting his sergeant major, Zakharchenko, for whom he had great
10305 respect, he had decided that it would be a good thing to set fire to the
10306 village. "Very good!" said Bagration in reply to the officer's report,
10307 and began deliberately to examine the whole battlefield extended before
10308 him. The French had advanced nearest on our right. Below the height on
10309 which the Kiev regiment was stationed, in the hollow where the rivulet
10310 flowed, the soul-stirring rolling and crackling of musketry was heard,
10311 and much farther to the right beyond the dragoons, the officer of the
10312 suite pointed out to Bagration a French column that was outflanking us.
10313 To the left the horizon bounded by the adjacent wood. Prince Bagration
10314 ordered two battalions from the center to be sent to reinforce the right
10315 flank. The officer of the suite ventured to remark to the prince that if
10316 these battalions went away, the guns would remain without support.
10317 Prince Bagration turned to the officer and with his dull eyes looked at
10318 him in silence. It seemed to Prince Andrew that the officer's remark was
10319 just and that really no answer could be made to it. But at that moment
10320 an adjutant galloped up with a message from the commander of the
10321 regiment in the hollow and news that immense masses of the French were
10322 coming down upon them and that his regiment was in disorder and was
10323 retreating upon the Kiev grenadiers. Prince Bagration bowed his head in
10324 sign of assent and approval. He rode off at a walk to the right and sent
10325 an adjutant to the dragoons with orders to attack the French. But this
10326 adjutant returned half an hour later with the news that the commander of
10327 the dragoons had already retreated beyond the dip in the ground, as a
10328 heavy fire had been opened on him and he was losing men uselessly, and
10329 so had hastened to throw some sharpshooters into the wood.
10331 "Very good!" said Bagration.
10333 As he was leaving the battery, firing was heard on the left also, and as
10334 it was too far to the left flank for him to have time to go there
10335 himself, Prince Bagration sent Zherkov to tell the general in command
10336 (the one who had paraded his regiment before Kutuzov at Braunau) that he
10337 must retreat as quickly as possible behind the hollow in the rear, as
10338 the right flank would probably not be able to withstand the enemy's
10339 attack very long. About Tushin and the battalion that had been in
10340 support of his battery all was forgotten. Prince Andrew listened
10341 attentively to Bagration's colloquies with the commanding officers and
10342 the orders he gave them and, to his surprise, found that no orders were
10343 really given, but that Prince Bagration tried to make it appear that
10344 everything done by necessity, by accident, or by the will of subordinate
10345 commanders was done, if not by his direct command, at least in accord
10346 with his intentions. Prince Andrew noticed, however, that though what
10347 happened was due to chance and was independent of the commander's will,
10348 owing to the tact Bagration showed, his presence was very valuable.
10349 Officers who approached him with disturbed countenances became calm;
10350 soldiers and officers greeted him gaily, grew more cheerful in his
10351 presence, and were evidently anxious to display their courage before
10359 Prince Bagration, having reached the highest point of our right flank,
10360 began riding downhill to where the roll of musketry was heard but where
10361 on account of the smoke nothing could be seen. The nearer they got to
10362 the hollow the less they could see but the more they felt the nearness
10363 of the actual battlefield. They began to meet wounded men. One with a
10364 bleeding head and no cap was being dragged along by two soldiers who
10365 supported him under the arms. There was a gurgle in his throat and he
10366 was spitting blood. A bullet had evidently hit him in the throat or
10367 mouth. Another was walking sturdily by himself but without his musket,
10368 groaning aloud and swinging his arm which had just been hurt, while
10369 blood from it was streaming over his greatcoat as from a bottle. He had
10370 that moment been wounded and his face showed fear rather than suffering.
10371 Crossing a road they descended a steep incline and saw several men lying
10372 on the ground; they also met a crowd of soldiers some of whom were
10373 unwounded. The soldiers were ascending the hill breathing heavily, and
10374 despite the general's presence were talking loudly and gesticulating. In
10375 front of them rows of gray cloaks were already visible through the
10376 smoke, and an officer catching sight of Bagration rushed shouting after
10377 the crowd of retreating soldiers, ordering them back. Bagration rode up
10378 to the ranks along which shots crackled now here and now there, drowning
10379 the sound of voices and the shouts of command. The whole air reeked with
10380 smoke. The excited faces of the soldiers were blackened with it. Some
10381 were using their ramrods, others putting powder on the touchpans or
10382 taking charges from their pouches, while others were firing, though who
10383 they were firing at could not be seen for the smoke which there was no
10384 wind to carry away. A pleasant humming and whistling of bullets were
10385 often heard. "What is this?" thought Prince Andrew approaching the crowd
10386 of soldiers. "It can't be an attack, for they are not moving; it can't
10387 be a square--for they are not drawn up for that."
10389 The commander of the regiment, a thin, feeble-looking old man with a
10390 pleasant smile--his eyelids drooping more than half over his old eyes,
10391 giving him a mild expression, rode up to Bagration and welcomed him as a
10392 host welcomes an honored guest. He reported that his regiment had been
10393 attacked by French cavalry and that, though the attack had been
10394 repulsed, he had lost more than half his men. He said the attack had
10395 been repulsed, employing this military term to describe what had
10396 occurred to his regiment, but in reality he did not himself know what
10397 had happened during that half-hour to the troops entrusted to him, and
10398 could not say with certainty whether the attack had been repulsed or his
10399 regiment had been broken up. All he knew was that at the commencement of
10400 the action balls and shells began flying all over his regiment and
10401 hitting men and that afterwards someone had shouted "Cavalry!" and our
10402 men had begun firing. They were still firing, not at the cavalry which
10403 had disappeared, but at French infantry who had come into the hollow and
10404 were firing at our men. Prince Bagration bowed his head as a sign that
10405 this was exactly what he had desired and expected. Turning to his
10406 adjutant he ordered him to bring down the two battalions of the Sixth
10407 Chasseurs whom they had just passed. Prince Andrew was struck by the
10408 changed expression on Prince Bagration's face at this moment. It
10409 expressed the concentrated and happy resolution you see on the face of a
10410 man who on a hot day takes a final run before plunging into the water.
10411 The dull, sleepy expression was no longer there, nor the affectation of
10412 profound thought. The round, steady, hawk's eyes looked before him
10413 eagerly and rather disdainfully, not resting on anything although his
10414 movements were still slow and measured.
10416 The commander of the regiment turned to Prince Bagration, entreating him
10417 to go back as it was too dangerous to remain where they were. "Please,
10418 your excellency, for God's sake!" he kept saying, glancing for support
10419 at an officer of the suite who turned away from him. "There, you see!"
10420 and he drew attention to the bullets whistling, singing, and hissing
10421 continually around them. He spoke in the tone of entreaty and reproach
10422 that a carpenter uses to a gentleman who has picked up an ax: "We are
10423 used to it, but you, sir, will blister your hands." He spoke as if those
10424 bullets could not kill him, and his half-closed eyes gave still more
10425 persuasiveness to his words. The staff officer joined in the colonel's
10426 appeals, but Bagration did not reply; he only gave an order to cease
10427 firing and re-form, so as to give room for the two approaching
10428 battalions. While he was speaking, the curtain of smoke that had
10429 concealed the hollow, driven by a rising wind, began to move from right
10430 to left as if drawn by an invisible hand, and the hill opposite, with
10431 the French moving about on it, opened out before them. All eyes fastened
10432 involuntarily on this French column advancing against them and winding
10433 down over the uneven ground. One could already see the soldiers' shaggy
10434 caps, distinguish the officers from the men, and see the standard
10435 flapping against its staff.
10437 "They march splendidly," remarked someone in Bagration's suite.
10439 The head of the column had already descended into the hollow. The clash
10440 would take place on this side of it...
10442 The remains of our regiment which had been in action rapidly formed up
10443 and moved to the right; from behind it, dispersing the laggards, came
10444 two battalions of the Sixth Chasseurs in fine order. Before they had
10445 reached Bagration, the weighty tread of the mass of men marching in step
10446 could be heard. On their left flank, nearest to Bagration, marched a
10447 company commander, a fine round-faced man, with a stupid and happy
10448 expression--the same man who had rushed out of the wattle shed. At that
10449 moment he was clearly thinking of nothing but how dashing a fellow he
10450 would appear as he passed the commander.
10452 With the self-satisfaction of a man on parade, he stepped lightly with
10453 his muscular legs as if sailing along, stretching himself to his full
10454 height without the smallest effort, his ease contrasting with the heavy
10455 tread of the soldiers who were keeping step with him. He carried close
10456 to his leg a narrow unsheathed sword (small, curved, and not like a real
10457 weapon) and looked now at the superior officers and now back at the men
10458 without losing step, his whole powerful body turning flexibly. It was as
10459 if all the powers of his soul were concentrated on passing the commander
10460 in the best possible manner, and feeling that he was doing it well he
10461 was happy. "Left... left... left..." he seemed to repeat to himself at
10462 each alternate step; and in time to this, with stern but varied faces,
10463 the wall of soldiers burdened with knapsacks and muskets marched in
10464 step, and each one of these hundreds of soldiers seemed to be repeating
10465 to himself at each alternate step, "Left... left... left..." A fat major
10466 skirted a bush, puffing and falling out of step; a soldier who had
10467 fallen behind, his face showing alarm at his defection, ran at a trot,
10468 panting to catch up with his company. A cannon ball, cleaving the air,
10469 flew over the heads of Bagration and his suite, and fell into the column
10470 to the measure of "Left... left!" "Close up!" came the company
10471 commander's voice in jaunty tones. The soldiers passed in a semicircle
10472 round something where the ball had fallen, and an old trooper on the
10473 flank, a noncommissioned officer who had stopped beside the dead men,
10474 ran to catch up his line and, falling into step with a hop, looked back
10475 angrily, and through the ominous silence and the regular tramp of feet
10476 beating the ground in unison, one seemed to hear left... left... left.
10478 "Well done, lads!" said Prince Bagration.
10480 "Glad to do our best, your ex'len-lency!" came a confused shout from the
10481 ranks. A morose soldier marching on the left turned his eyes on
10482 Bagration as he shouted, with an expression that seemed to say: "We know
10483 that ourselves!" Another, without looking round, as though fearing to
10484 relax, shouted with his mouth wide open and passed on.
10486 The order was given to halt and down knapsacks.
10488 Bagration rode round the ranks that had marched past him and dismounted.
10489 He gave the reins to a Cossack, took off and handed over his felt coat,
10490 stretched his legs, and set his cap straight. The head of the French
10491 column, with its officers leading, appeared from below the hill.
10493 "Forward, with God!" said Bagration, in a resolute, sonorous voice,
10494 turning for a moment to the front line, and slightly swinging his arms,
10495 he went forward uneasily over the rough field with the awkward gait of a
10496 cavalryman. Prince Andrew felt that an invisible power was leading him
10497 forward, and experienced great happiness.
10499 The French were already near. Prince Andrew, walking beside Bagration,
10500 could clearly distinguish their bandoliers, red epaulets, and even their
10501 faces. (He distinctly saw an old French officer who, with gaitered legs
10502 and turned-out toes, climbed the hill with difficulty.) Prince Bagration
10503 gave no further orders and silently continued to walk on in front of the
10504 ranks. Suddenly one shot after another rang out from the French, smoke
10505 appeared all along their uneven ranks, and musket shots sounded. Several
10506 of our men fell, among them the round-faced officer who had marched so
10507 gaily and complacently. But at the moment the first report was heard,
10508 Bagration looked round and shouted, "Hurrah!"
10510 "Hurrah--ah!--ah!" rang a long-drawn shout from our ranks, and passing
10511 Bagration and racing one another they rushed in an irregular but joyous
10512 and eager crowd down the hill at their disordered foe.
10519 The attack of the Sixth Chasseurs secured the retreat of our right
10520 flank. In the center Tushin's forgotten battery, which had managed to
10521 set fire to the Schon Grabern village, delayed the French advance. The
10522 French were putting out the fire which the wind was spreading, and thus
10523 gave us time to retreat. The retirement of the center to the other side
10524 of the dip in the ground at the rear was hurried and noisy, but the
10525 different companies did not get mixed. But our left--which consisted of
10526 the Azov and Podolsk infantry and the Pavlograd hussars--was
10527 simultaneously attacked and outflanked by superior French forces under
10528 Lannes and was thrown into confusion. Bagration had sent Zherkov to the
10529 general commanding that left flank with orders to retreat immediately.
10531 Zherkov, not removing his hand from his cap, turned his horse about and
10532 galloped off. But no sooner had he left Bagration than his courage
10533 failed him. He was seized by panic and could not go where it was
10536 Having reached the left flank, instead of going to the front where the
10537 firing was, he began to look for the general and his staff where they
10538 could not possibly be, and so did not deliver the order.
10540 The command of the left flank belonged by seniority to the commander of
10541 the regiment Kutuzov had reviewed at Braunau and in which Dolokhov was
10542 serving as a private. But the command of the extreme left flank had been
10543 assigned to the commander of the Pavlograd regiment in which Rostov was
10544 serving, and a misunderstanding arose. The two commanders were much
10545 exasperated with one another and, long after the action had begun on the
10546 right flank and the French were already advancing, were engaged in
10547 discussion with the sole object of offending one another. But the
10548 regiments, both cavalry and infantry, were by no means ready for the
10549 impending action. From privates to general they were not expecting a
10550 battle and were engaged in peaceful occupations, the cavalry feeding the
10551 horses and the infantry collecting wood.
10553 "He higher iss dan I in rank," said the German colonel of the hussars,
10554 flushing and addressing an adjutant who had ridden up, "so let him do
10555 what he vill, but I cannot sacrifice my hussars... Bugler, sount ze
10558 But haste was becoming imperative. Cannon and musketry, mingling
10559 together, thundered on the right and in the center, while the capotes of
10560 Lannes' sharpshooters were already seen crossing the milldam and forming
10561 up within twice the range of a musket shot. The general in command of
10562 the infantry went toward his horse with jerky steps, and having mounted
10563 drew himself up very straight and tall and rode to the Pavlograd
10564 commander. The commanders met with polite bows but with secret
10565 malevolence in their hearts.
10567 "Once again, Colonel," said the general, "I can't leave half my men in
10568 the wood. I beg of you, I beg of you," he repeated, "to occupy the
10569 position and prepare for an attack."
10571 "I peg of you yourself not to mix in vot is not your business!" suddenly
10572 replied the irate colonel. "If you vere in the cavalry..."
10574 "I am not in the cavalry, Colonel, but I am a Russian general and if you
10575 are not aware of the fact..."
10577 "Quite avare, your excellency," suddenly shouted the colonel, touching
10578 his horse and turning purple in the face. "Vill you be so goot to come
10579 to ze front and see dat zis position iss no goot? I don't vish to
10580 destroy my men for your pleasure!"
10582 "You forget yourself, Colonel. I am not considering my own pleasure and
10583 I won't allow it to be said!"
10585 Taking the colonel's outburst as a challenge to his courage, the general
10586 expanded his chest and rode, frowning, beside him to the front line, as
10587 if their differences would be settled there amongst the bullets. They
10588 reached the front, several bullets sped over them, and they halted in
10589 silence. There was nothing fresh to be seen from the line, for from
10590 where they had been before it had been evident that it was impossible
10591 for cavalry to act among the bushes and broken ground, as well as that
10592 the French were outflanking our left. The general and colonel looked
10593 sternly and significantly at one another like two fighting cocks
10594 preparing for battle, each vainly trying to detect signs of cowardice in
10595 the other. Both passed the examination successfully. As there was
10596 nothing to be said, and neither wished to give occasion for it to be
10597 alleged that he had been the first to leave the range of fire, they
10598 would have remained there for a long time testing each other's courage
10599 had it not been that just then they heard the rattle of musketry and a
10600 muffled shout almost behind them in the wood. The French had attacked
10601 the men collecting wood in the copse. It was no longer possible for the
10602 hussars to retreat with the infantry. They were cut off from the line of
10603 retreat on the left by the French. However inconvenient the position, it
10604 was now necessary to attack in order to cut a way through for
10607 The squadron in which Rostov was serving had scarcely time to mount
10608 before it was halted facing the enemy. Again, as at the Enns bridge,
10609 there was nothing between the squadron and the enemy, and again that
10610 terrible dividing line of uncertainty and fear--resembling the line
10611 separating the living from the dead--lay between them. All were
10612 conscious of this unseen line, and the question whether they would cross
10613 it or not, and how they would cross it, agitated them all.
10615 The colonel rode to the front, angrily gave some reply to questions put
10616 to him by the officers, and, like a man desperately insisting on having
10617 his own way, gave an order. No one said anything definite, but the rumor
10618 of an attack spread through the squadron. The command to form up rang
10619 out and the sabers whizzed as they were drawn from their scabbards.
10620 Still no one moved. The troops of the left flank, infantry and hussars
10621 alike, felt that the commander did not himself know what to do, and this
10622 irresolution communicated itself to the men.
10624 "If only they would be quick!" thought Rostov, feeling that at last the
10625 time had come to experience the joy of an attack of which he had so
10626 often heard from his fellow hussars.
10628 "Fo'ward, with God, lads!" rang out Denisov's voice. "At a twot
10631 The horses' croups began to sway in the front line. Rook pulled at the
10632 reins and started of his own accord.
10634 Before him, on the right, Rostov saw the front lines of his hussars and
10635 still farther ahead a dark line which he could not see distinctly but
10636 took to be the enemy. Shots could be heard, but some way off.
10638 "Faster!" came the word of command, and Rostov felt Rook's flanks
10639 drooping as he broke into a gallop.
10641 Rostov anticipated his horse's movements and became more and more
10642 elated. He had noticed a solitary tree ahead of him. This tree had been
10643 in the middle of the line that had seemed so terrible--and now he had
10644 crossed that line and not only was there nothing terrible, but
10645 everything was becoming more and more happy and animated. "Oh, how I
10646 will slash at him!" thought Rostov, gripping the hilt of his saber.
10648 "Hur-a-a-a-ah!" came a roar of voices. "Let anyone come my way now,"
10649 thought Rostov driving his spurs into Rook and letting him go at a full
10650 gallop so that he outstripped the others. Ahead, the enemy was already
10651 visible. Suddenly something like a birch broom seemed to sweep over the
10652 squadron. Rostov raised his saber, ready to strike, but at that instant
10653 the trooper Nikitenko, who was galloping ahead, shot away from him, and
10654 Rostov felt as in a dream that he continued to be carried forward with
10655 unnatural speed but yet stayed on the same spot. From behind him
10656 Bondarchuk, an hussar he knew, jolted against him and looked angrily at
10657 him. Bondarchuk's horse swerved and galloped past.
10659 "How is it I am not moving? I have fallen, I am killed!" Rostov asked
10660 and answered at the same instant. He was alone in the middle of a field.
10661 Instead of the moving horses and hussars' backs, he saw nothing before
10662 him but the motionless earth and the stubble around him. There was warm
10663 blood under his arm. "No, I am wounded and the horse is killed." Rook
10664 tried to rise on his forelegs but fell back, pinning his rider's leg.
10665 Blood was flowing from his head; he struggled but could not rise. Rostov
10666 also tried to rise but fell back, his sabretache having become entangled
10667 in the saddle. Where our men were, and where the French, he did not
10668 know. There was no one near.
10670 Having disentangled his leg, he rose. "Where, on which side, was now the
10671 line that had so sharply divided the two armies?" he asked himself and
10672 could not answer. "Can something bad have happened to me?" he wondered
10673 as he got up: and at that moment he felt that something superfluous was
10674 hanging on his benumbed left arm. The wrist felt as if it were not his.
10675 He examined his hand carefully, vainly trying to find blood on it. "Ah,
10676 here are people coming," he thought joyfully, seeing some men running
10677 toward him. "They will help me!" In front came a man wearing a strange
10678 shako and a blue cloak, swarthy, sunburned, and with a hooked nose. Then
10679 came two more, and many more running behind. One of them said something
10680 strange, not in Russian. In among the hindmost of these men wearing
10681 similar shakos was a Russian hussar. He was being held by the arms and
10682 his horse was being led behind him.
10684 "It must be one of ours, a prisoner. Yes. Can it be that they will take
10685 me too? Who are these men?" thought Rostov, scarcely believing his eyes.
10686 "Can they be French?" He looked at the approaching Frenchmen, and though
10687 but a moment before he had been galloping to get at them and hack them
10688 to pieces, their proximity now seemed so awful that he could not believe
10689 his eyes. "Who are they? Why are they running? Can they be coming at me?
10690 And why? To kill me? Me whom everyone is so fond of?" He remembered his
10691 mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the
10692 enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible. "But perhaps they may
10693 do it!" For more than ten seconds he stood not moving from the spot or
10694 realizing the situation. The foremost Frenchman, the one with the hooked
10695 nose, was already so close that the expression of his face could be
10696 seen. And the excited, alien face of that man, his bayonet hanging down,
10697 holding his breath, and running so lightly, frightened Rostov. He seized
10698 his pistol and, instead of firing it, flung it at the Frenchman and ran
10699 with all his might toward the bushes. He did not now run with the
10700 feeling of doubt and conflict with which he had trodden the Enns bridge,
10701 but with the feeling of a hare fleeing from the hounds. One single
10702 sentiment, that of fear for his young and happy life, possessed his
10703 whole being. Rapidly leaping the furrows, he fled across the field with
10704 the impetuosity he used to show at catchplay, now and then turning his
10705 good-natured, pale, young face to look back. A shudder of terror went
10706 through him: "No, better not look," he thought, but having reached the
10707 bushes he glanced round once more. The French had fallen behind, and
10708 just as he looked round the first man changed his run to a walk and,
10709 turning, shouted something loudly to a comrade farther back. Rostov
10710 paused. "No, there's some mistake," thought he. "They can't have wanted
10711 to kill me." But at the same time, his left arm felt as heavy as if a
10712 seventy-pound weight were tied to it. He could run no more. The
10713 Frenchman also stopped and took aim. Rostov closed his eyes and stooped
10714 down. One bullet and then another whistled past him. He mustered his
10715 last remaining strength, took hold of his left hand with his right, and
10716 reached the bushes. Behind these were some Russian sharpshooters.
10723 The infantry regiments that had been caught unawares in the outskirts of
10724 the wood ran out of it, the different companies getting mixed, and
10725 retreated as a disorderly crowd. One soldier, in his fear, uttered the
10726 senseless cry, "Cut off!" that is so terrible in battle, and that word
10727 infected the whole crowd with a feeling of panic.
10729 "Surrounded! Cut off? We're lost!" shouted the fugitives.
10731 The moment he heard the firing and the cry from behind, the general
10732 realized that something dreadful had happened to his regiment, and the
10733 thought that he, an exemplary officer of many years' service who had
10734 never been to blame, might be held responsible at headquarters for
10735 negligence or inefficiency so staggered him that, forgetting the
10736 recalcitrant cavalry colonel, his own dignity as a general, and above
10737 all quite forgetting the danger and all regard for self-preservation, he
10738 clutched the crupper of his saddle and, spurring his horse, galloped to
10739 the regiment under a hail of bullets which fell around, but fortunately
10740 missed him. His one desire was to know what was happening and at any
10741 cost correct, or remedy, the mistake if he had made one, so that he, an
10742 exemplary officer of twenty-two years' service, who had never been
10743 censured, should not be held to blame.
10745 Having galloped safely through the French, he reached a field behind the
10746 copse across which our men, regardless of orders, were running and
10747 descending the valley. That moment of moral hesitation which decides the
10748 fate of battles had arrived. Would this disorderly crowd of soldiers
10749 attend to the voice of their commander, or would they, disregarding him,
10750 continue their flight? Despite his desperate shouts that used to seem so
10751 terrible to the soldiers, despite his furious purple countenance
10752 distorted out of all likeness to his former self, and the flourishing of
10753 his saber, the soldiers all continued to run, talking, firing into the
10754 air, and disobeying orders. The moral hesitation which decided the fate
10755 of battles was evidently culminating in a panic.
10757 The general had a fit of coughing as a result of shouting and of the
10758 powder smoke and stopped in despair. Everything seemed lost. But at that
10759 moment the French who were attacking, suddenly and without any apparent
10760 reason, ran back and disappeared from the outskirts, and Russian
10761 sharpshooters showed themselves in the copse. It was Timokhin's company,
10762 which alone had maintained its order in the wood and, having lain in
10763 ambush in a ditch, now attacked the French unexpectedly. Timokhin, armed
10764 only with a sword, had rushed at the enemy with such a desperate cry and
10765 such mad, drunken determination that, taken by surprise, the French had
10766 thrown down their muskets and run. Dolokhov, running beside Timokhin,
10767 killed a Frenchman at close quarters and was the first to seize the
10768 surrendering French officer by his collar. Our fugitives returned, the
10769 battalions re-formed, and the French who had nearly cut our left flank
10770 in half were for the moment repulsed. Our reserve units were able to
10771 join up, and the fight was at an end. The regimental commander and Major
10772 Ekonomov had stopped beside a bridge, letting the retreating companies
10773 pass by them, when a soldier came up and took hold of the commander's
10774 stirrup, almost leaning against him. The man was wearing a bluish coat
10775 of broadcloth, he had no knapsack or cap, his head was bandaged, and
10776 over his shoulder a French munition pouch was slung. He had an officer's
10777 sword in his hand. The soldier was pale, his blue eyes looked impudently
10778 into the commander's face, and his lips were smiling. Though the
10779 commander was occupied in giving instructions to Major Ekonomov, he
10780 could not help taking notice of the soldier.
10782 "Your excellency, here are two trophies," said Dolokhov, pointing to the
10783 French sword and pouch. "I have taken an officer prisoner. I stopped the
10784 company." Dolokhov breathed heavily from weariness and spoke in abrupt
10785 sentences. "The whole company can bear witness. I beg you will remember
10786 this, your excellency!"
10788 "All right, all right," replied the commander, and turned to Major
10791 But Dolokhov did not go away; he untied the handkerchief around his
10792 head, pulled it off, and showed the blood congealed on his hair.
10794 "A bayonet wound. I remained at the front. Remember, your excellency!"
10796 Tushin's battery had been forgotten and only at the very end of the
10797 action did Prince Bagration, still hearing the cannonade in the center,
10798 send his orderly staff officer, and later Prince Andrew also, to order
10799 the battery to retire as quickly as possible. When the supports attached
10800 to Tushin's battery had been moved away in the middle of the action by
10801 someone's order, the battery had continued firing and was only not
10802 captured by the French because the enemy could not surmise that anyone
10803 could have the effrontery to continue firing from four quite undefended
10804 guns. On the contrary, the energetic action of that battery led the
10805 French to suppose that here--in the center--the main Russian forces were
10806 concentrated. Twice they had attempted to attack this point, but on each
10807 occasion had been driven back by grapeshot from the four isolated guns
10810 Soon after Prince Bagration had left him, Tushin had succeeded in
10811 setting fire to Schon Grabern.
10813 "Look at them scurrying! It's burning! Just see the smoke! Fine! Grand!
10814 Look at the smoke, the smoke!" exclaimed the artillerymen, brightening
10817 All the guns, without waiting for orders, were being fired in the
10818 direction of the conflagration. As if urging each other on, the soldiers
10819 cried at each shot: "Fine! That's good! Look at it... Grand!" The fire,
10820 fanned by the breeze, was rapidly spreading. The French columns that had
10821 advanced beyond the village went back; but as though in revenge for this
10822 failure, the enemy placed ten guns to the right of the village and began
10823 firing them at Tushin's battery.
10825 In their childlike glee, aroused by the fire and their luck in
10826 successfully cannonading the French, our artillerymen only noticed this
10827 battery when two balls, and then four more, fell among our guns, one
10828 knocking over two horses and another tearing off a munition-wagon
10829 driver's leg. Their spirits once roused were, however, not diminished,
10830 but only changed character. The horses were replaced by others from a
10831 reserve gun carriage, the wounded were carried away, and the four guns
10832 were turned against the ten-gun battery. Tushin's companion officer had
10833 been killed at the beginning of the engagement and within an hour
10834 seventeen of the forty men of the guns' crews had been disabled, but the
10835 artillerymen were still as merry and lively as ever. Twice they noticed
10836 the French appearing below them, and then they fired grapeshot at them.
10838 Little Tushin, moving feebly and awkwardly, kept telling his orderly to
10839 "refill my pipe for that one!" and then, scattering sparks from it, ran
10840 forward shading his eyes with his small hand to look at the French.
10842 "Smack at 'em, lads!" he kept saying, seizing the guns by the wheels and
10843 working the screws himself.
10845 Amid the smoke, deafened by the incessant reports which always made him
10846 jump, Tushin not taking his pipe from his mouth ran from gun to gun, now
10847 aiming, now counting the charges, now giving orders about replacing dead
10848 or wounded horses and harnessing fresh ones, and shouting in his feeble
10849 voice, so high pitched and irresolute. His face grew more and more
10850 animated. Only when a man was killed or wounded did he frown and turn
10851 away from the sight, shouting angrily at the men who, as is always the
10852 case, hesitated about lifting the injured or dead. The soldiers, for the
10853 most part handsome fellows and, as is always the case in an artillery
10854 company, a head and shoulders taller and twice as broad as their
10855 officer--all looked at their commander like children in an embarrassing
10856 situation, and the expression on his face was invariably reflected on
10859 Owing to the terrible uproar and the necessity for concentration and
10860 activity, Tushin did not experience the slightest unpleasant sense of
10861 fear, and the thought that he might be killed or badly wounded never
10862 occurred to him. On the contrary, he became more and more elated. It
10863 seemed to him that it was a very long time ago, almost a day, since he
10864 had first seen the enemy and fired the first shot, and that the corner
10865 of the field he stood on was well-known and familiar ground. Though he
10866 thought of everything, considered everything, and did everything the
10867 best of officers could do in his position, he was in a state akin to
10868 feverish delirium or drunkenness.
10870 From the deafening sounds of his own guns around him, the whistle and
10871 thud of the enemy's cannon balls, from the flushed and perspiring faces
10872 of the crew bustling round the guns, from the sight of the blood of men
10873 and horses, from the little puffs of smoke on the enemy's side (always
10874 followed by a ball flying past and striking the earth, a man, a gun, a
10875 horse), from the sight of all these things a fantastic world of his own
10876 had taken possession of his brain and at that moment afforded him
10877 pleasure. The enemy's guns were in his fancy not guns but pipes from
10878 which occasional puffs were blown by an invisible smoker.
10880 "There... he's puffing again," muttered Tushin to himself, as a small
10881 cloud rose from the hill and was borne in a streak to the left by the
10884 "Now look out for the ball... we'll throw it back."
10886 "What do you want, your honor?" asked an artilleryman, standing close
10887 by, who heard him muttering.
10889 "Nothing... only a shell..." he answered.
10891 "Come along, our Matvevna!" he said to himself. "Matvevna" * was the
10892 name his fancy gave to the farthest gun of the battery, which was large
10893 and of an old pattern. The French swarming round their guns seemed to
10894 him like ants. In that world, the handsome drunkard Number One of the
10895 second gun's crew was "uncle"; Tushin looked at him more often than at
10896 anyone else and took delight in his every movement. The sound of
10897 musketry at the foot of the hill, now diminishing, now increasing,
10898 seemed like someone's breathing. He listened intently to the ebb and
10899 flow of these sounds.
10902 * Daughter of Matthew.
10904 "Ah! Breathing again, breathing!" he muttered to himself.
10906 He imagined himself as an enormously tall, powerful man who was throwing
10907 cannon balls at the French with both hands.
10909 "Now then, Matvevna, dear old lady, don't let me down!" he was saying as
10910 he moved from the gun, when a strange, unfamiliar voice called above his
10911 head: "Captain Tushin! Captain!"
10913 Tushin turned round in dismay. It was the staff officer who had turned
10914 him out of the booth at Grunth. He was shouting in a gasping voice:
10916 "Are you mad? You have twice been ordered to retreat, and you..."
10918 "Why are they down on me?" thought Tushin, looking in alarm at his
10921 "I... don't..." he muttered, holding up two fingers to his cap. "I..."
10923 But the staff officer did not finish what he wanted to say. A cannon
10924 ball, flying close to him, caused him to duck and bend over his horse.
10925 He paused, and just as he was about to say something more, another ball
10926 stopped him. He turned his horse and galloped off.
10928 "Retire! All to retire!" he shouted from a distance.
10930 The soldiers laughed. A moment later, an adjutant arrived with the same
10933 It was Prince Andrew. The first thing he saw on riding up to the space
10934 where Tushin's guns were stationed was an unharnessed horse with a
10935 broken leg, that lay screaming piteously beside the harnessed horses.
10936 Blood was gushing from its leg as from a spring. Among the limbers lay
10937 several dead men. One ball after another passed over as he approached
10938 and he felt a nervous shudder run down his spine. But the mere thought
10939 of being afraid roused him again. "I cannot be afraid," thought he, and
10940 dismounted slowly among the guns. He delivered the order and did not
10941 leave the battery. He decided to have the guns removed from their
10942 positions and withdrawn in his presence. Together with Tushin, stepping
10943 across the bodies and under a terrible fire from the French, he attended
10944 to the removal of the guns.
10946 "A staff officer was here a minute ago, but skipped off," said an
10947 artilleryman to Prince Andrew. "Not like your honor!"
10949 Prince Andrew said nothing to Tushin. They were both so busy as to seem
10950 not to notice one another. When having limbered up the only two cannon
10951 that remained uninjured out of the four, they began moving down the hill
10952 (one shattered gun and one unicorn were left behind), Prince Andrew rode
10955 "Well, till we meet again..." he said, holding out his hand to Tushin.
10957 "Good-bye, my dear fellow," said Tushin. "Dear soul! Good-bye, my dear
10958 fellow!" and for some unknown reason tears suddenly filled his eyes.
10965 The wind had fallen and black clouds, merging with the powder smoke,
10966 hung low over the field of battle on the horizon. It was growing dark
10967 and the glow of two conflagrations was the more conspicuous. The
10968 cannonade was dying down, but the rattle of musketry behind and on the
10969 right sounded oftener and nearer. As soon as Tushin with his guns,
10970 continually driving round or coming upon wounded men, was out of range
10971 of fire and had descended into the dip, he was met by some of the staff,
10972 among them the staff officer and Zherkov, who had been twice sent to
10973 Tushin's battery but had never reached it. Interrupting one another,
10974 they all gave, and transmitted, orders as to how to proceed,
10975 reprimanding and reproaching him. Tushin gave no orders, and, silently--
10976 fearing to speak because at every word he felt ready to weep without
10977 knowing why--rode behind on his artillery nag. Though the orders were to
10978 abandon the wounded, many of them dragged themselves after troops and
10979 begged for seats on the gun carriages. The jaunty infantry officer who
10980 just before the battle had rushed out of Tushin's wattle shed was laid,
10981 with a bullet in his stomach, on "Matvevna's" carriage. At the foot of
10982 the hill, a pale hussar cadet, supporting one hand with the other, came
10983 up to Tushin and asked for a seat.
10985 "Captain, for God's sake! I've hurt my arm," he said timidly. "For God's
10986 sake... I can't walk. For God's sake!"
10988 It was plain that this cadet had already repeatedly asked for a lift and
10989 been refused. He asked in a hesitating, piteous voice.
10991 "Tell them to give me a seat, for God's sake!"
10993 "Give him a seat," said Tushin. "Lay a cloak for him to sit on, lad," he
10994 said, addressing his favorite soldier. "And where is the wounded
10997 "He has been set down. He died," replied someone.
10999 "Help him up. Sit down, dear fellow, sit down! Spread out the cloak,
11002 The cadet was Rostov. With one hand he supported the other; he was pale
11003 and his jaw trembled, shivering feverishly. He was placed on "Matvevna,"
11004 the gun from which they had removed the dead officer. The cloak they
11005 spread under him was wet with blood which stained his breeches and arm.
11007 "What, are you wounded, my lad?" said Tushin, approaching the gun on
11010 "No, it's a sprain."
11012 "Then what is this blood on the gun carriage?" inquired Tushin.
11014 "It was the officer, your honor, stained it," answered the artilleryman,
11015 wiping away the blood with his coat sleeve, as if apologizing for the
11018 It was all that they could do to get the guns up the rise aided by the
11019 infantry, and having reached the village of Gruntersdorf they halted. It
11020 had grown so dark that one could not distinguish the uniforms ten paces
11021 off, and the firing had begun to subside. Suddenly, near by on the
11022 right, shouting and firing were again heard. Flashes of shot gleamed in
11023 the darkness. This was the last French attack and was met by soldiers
11024 who had sheltered in the village houses. They all rushed out of the
11025 village again, but Tushin's guns could not move, and the artillerymen,
11026 Tushin, and the cadet exchanged silent glances as they awaited their
11027 fate. The firing died down and soldiers, talking eagerly, streamed out
11030 "Not hurt, Petrov?" asked one.
11032 "We've given it 'em hot, mate! They won't make another push now," said
11035 "You couldn't see a thing. How they shot at their own fellows! Nothing
11036 could be seen. Pitch-dark, brother! Isn't there something to drink?"
11038 The French had been repulsed for the last time. And again and again in
11039 the complete darkness Tushin's guns moved forward, surrounded by the
11040 humming infantry as by a frame.
11042 In the darkness, it seemed as though a gloomy unseen river was flowing
11043 always in one direction, humming with whispers and talk and the sound of
11044 hoofs and wheels. Amid the general rumble, the groans and voices of the
11045 wounded were more distinctly heard than any other sound in the darkness
11046 of the night. The gloom that enveloped the army was filled with their
11047 groans, which seemed to melt into one with the darkness of the night.
11048 After a while the moving mass became agitated, someone rode past on a
11049 white horse followed by his suite, and said something in passing: "What
11050 did he say? Where to, now? Halt, is it? Did he thank us?" came eager
11051 questions from all sides. The whole moving mass began pressing closer
11052 together and a report spread that they were ordered to halt: evidently
11053 those in front had halted. All remained where they were in the middle of
11056 Fires were lighted and the talk became more audible. Captain Tushin,
11057 having given orders to his company, sent a soldier to find a dressing
11058 station or a doctor for the cadet, and sat down by a bonfire the
11059 soldiers had kindled on the road. Rostov, too, dragged himself to the
11060 fire. From pain, cold, and damp, a feverish shivering shook his whole
11061 body. Drowsiness was irresistibly mastering him, but he kept awake by an
11062 excruciating pain in his arm, for which he could find no satisfactory
11063 position. He kept closing his eyes and then again looking at the fire,
11064 which seemed to him dazzlingly red, and at the feeble, round-shouldered
11065 figure of Tushin who was sitting cross-legged like a Turk beside him.
11066 Tushin's large, kind, intelligent eyes were fixed with sympathy and
11067 commiseration on Rostov, who saw that Tushin with his whole heart wished
11068 to help him but could not.
11070 From all sides were heard the footsteps and talk of the infantry, who
11071 were walking, driving past, and settling down all around. The sound of
11072 voices, the tramping feet, the horses' hoofs moving in mud, the
11073 crackling of wood fires near and afar, merged into one tremulous rumble.
11075 It was no longer, as before, a dark, unseen river flowing through the
11076 gloom, but a dark sea swelling and gradually subsiding after a storm.
11077 Rostov looked at and listened listlessly to what passed before and
11078 around him. An infantryman came to the fire, squatted on his heels, held
11079 his hands to the blaze, and turned away his face.
11081 "You don't mind your honor?" he asked Tushin. "I've lost my company,
11082 your honor. I don't know where... such bad luck!"
11084 With the soldier, an infantry officer with a bandaged cheek came up to
11085 the bonfire, and addressing Tushin asked him to have the guns moved a
11086 trifle to let a wagon go past. After he had gone, two soldiers rushed to
11087 the campfire. They were quarreling and fighting desperately, each trying
11088 to snatch from the other a boot they were both holding on to.
11090 "You picked it up?... I dare say! You're very smart!" one of them
11093 Then a thin, pale soldier, his neck bandaged with a bloodstained leg
11094 band, came up and in angry tones asked the artillerymen for water.
11096 "Must one die like a dog?" said he.
11098 Tushin told them to give the man some water. Then a cheerful soldier ran
11099 up, begging a little fire for the infantry.
11101 "A nice little hot torch for the infantry! Good luck to you, fellow
11102 countrymen. Thanks for the fire--we'll return it with interest," said
11103 he, carrying away into the darkness a glowing stick.
11105 Next came four soldiers, carrying something heavy on a cloak, and passed
11106 by the fire. One of them stumbled.
11108 "Who the devil has put the logs on the road?" snarled he.
11110 "He's dead--why carry him?" said another.
11114 And they disappeared into the darkness with their load.
11116 "Still aching?" Tushin asked Rostov in a whisper.
11120 "Your honor, you're wanted by the general. He is in the hut here," said
11121 a gunner, coming up to Tushin.
11125 Tushin rose and, buttoning his greatcoat and pulling it straight, walked
11126 away from the fire.
11128 Not far from the artillery campfire, in a hut that had been prepared for
11129 him, Prince Bagration sat at dinner, talking with some commanding
11130 officers who had gathered at his quarters. The little old man with the
11131 half-closed eyes was there greedily gnawing a mutton bone, and the
11132 general who had served blamelessly for twenty-two years, flushed by a
11133 glass of vodka and the dinner; and the staff officer with the signet
11134 ring, and Zherkov, uneasily glancing at them all, and Prince Andrew,
11135 pale, with compressed lips and feverishly glittering eyes.
11137 In a corner of the hut stood a standard captured from the French, and
11138 the accountant with the naive face was feeling its texture, shaking his
11139 head in perplexity--perhaps because the banner really interested him,
11140 perhaps because it was hard for him, hungry as he was, to look on at a
11141 dinner where there was no place for him. In the next hut there was a
11142 French colonel who had been taken prisoner by our dragoons. Our officers
11143 were flocking in to look at him. Prince Bagration was thanking the
11144 individual commanders and inquiring into details of the action and our
11145 losses. The general whose regiment had been inspected at Braunau was
11146 informing the prince that as soon as the action began he had withdrawn
11147 from the wood, mustered the men who were woodcutting, and, allowing the
11148 French to pass him, had made a bayonet charge with two battalions and
11149 had broken up the French troops.
11151 "When I saw, your excellency, that their first battalion was
11152 disorganized, I stopped in the road and thought: 'I'll let them come on
11153 and will meet them with the fire of the whole battalion'--and that's
11156 The general had so wished to do this and was so sorry he had not managed
11157 to do it that it seemed to him as if it had really happened. Perhaps it
11158 might really have been so? Could one possibly make out amid all that
11159 confusion what did or did not happen?
11161 "By the way, your excellency, I should inform you," he continued--
11162 remembering Dolokhov's conversation with Kutuzov and his last interview
11163 with the gentleman-ranker--"that Private Dolokhov, who was reduced to
11164 the ranks, took a French officer prisoner in my presence and
11165 particularly distinguished himself."
11167 "I saw the Pavlograd hussars attack there, your excellency," chimed in
11168 Zherkov, looking uneasily around. He had not seen the hussars all that
11169 day, but had heard about them from an infantry officer. "They broke up
11170 two squares, your excellency."
11172 Several of those present smiled at Zherkov's words, expecting one of his
11173 usual jokes, but noticing that what he was saying redounded to the glory
11174 of our arms and of the day's work, they assumed a serious expression,
11175 though many of them knew that what he was saying was a lie devoid of any
11176 foundation. Prince Bagration turned to the old colonel:
11178 "Gentlemen, I thank you all; all arms have behaved heroically: infantry,
11179 cavalry, and artillery. How was it that two guns were abandoned in the
11180 center?" he inquired, searching with his eyes for someone. (Prince
11181 Bagration did not ask about the guns on the left flank; he knew that all
11182 the guns there had been abandoned at the very beginning of the action.)
11183 "I think I sent you?" he added, turning to the staff officer on duty.
11185 "One was damaged," answered the staff officer, "and the other I can't
11186 understand. I was there all the time giving orders and had only just
11187 left.... It is true that it was hot there," he added, modestly.
11189 Someone mentioned that Captain Tushin was bivouacking close to the
11190 village and had already been sent for.
11192 "Oh, but you were there?" said Prince Bagration, addressing Prince
11195 "Of course, we only just missed one another," said the staff officer,
11196 with a smile to Bolkonski.
11198 "I had not the pleasure of seeing you," said Prince Andrew, coldly and
11201 All were silent. Tushin appeared at the threshold and made his way
11202 timidly from behind the backs of the generals. As he stepped past the
11203 generals in the crowded hut, feeling embarrassed as he always was by the
11204 sight of his superiors, he did not notice the staff of the banner and
11205 stumbled over it. Several of those present laughed.
11207 "How was it a gun was abandoned?" asked Bagration, frowning, not so much
11208 at the captain as at those who were laughing, among whom Zherkov laughed
11211 Only now, when he was confronted by the stern authorities, did his guilt
11212 and the disgrace of having lost two guns and yet remaining alive present
11213 themselves to Tushin in all their horror. He had been so excited that he
11214 had not thought about it until that moment. The officers' laughter
11215 confused him still more. He stood before Bagration with his lower jaw
11216 trembling and was hardly able to mutter: "I don't know... your
11217 excellency... I had no men... your excellency."
11219 "You might have taken some from the covering troops."
11221 Tushin did not say that there were no covering troops, though that was
11222 perfectly true. He was afraid of getting some other officer into
11223 trouble, and silently fixed his eyes on Bagration as a schoolboy who has
11224 blundered looks at an examiner.
11226 The silence lasted some time. Prince Bagration, apparently not wishing
11227 to be severe, found nothing to say; the others did not venture to
11228 intervene. Prince Andrew looked at Tushin from under his brows and his
11229 fingers twitched nervously.
11231 "Your excellency!" Prince Andrew broke the silence with his abrupt
11232 voice, "you were pleased to send me to Captain Tushin's battery. I went
11233 there and found two thirds of the men and horses knocked out, two guns
11234 smashed, and no supports at all."
11236 Prince Bagration and Tushin looked with equal intentness at Bolkonski,
11237 who spoke with suppressed agitation.
11239 "And, if your excellency will allow me to express my opinion," he
11240 continued, "we owe today's success chiefly to the action of that battery
11241 and the heroic endurance of Captain Tushin and his company," and without
11242 awaiting a reply, Prince Andrew rose and left the table.
11244 Prince Bagration looked at Tushin, evidently reluctant to show distrust
11245 in Bolkonski's emphatic opinion yet not feeling able fully to credit it,
11246 bent his head, and told Tushin that he could go. Prince Andrew went out
11249 "Thank you; you saved me, my dear fellow!" said Tushin.
11251 Prince Andrew gave him a look, but said nothing and went away. He felt
11252 sad and depressed. It was all so strange, so unlike what he had hoped.
11254 "Who are they? Why are they here? What do they want? And when will all
11255 this end?" thought Rostov, looking at the changing shadows before him.
11256 The pain in his arm became more and more intense. Irresistible
11257 drowsiness overpowered him, red rings danced before his eyes, and the
11258 impression of those voices and faces and a sense of loneliness merged
11259 with the physical pain. It was they, these soldiers--wounded and
11260 unwounded--it was they who were crushing, weighing down, and twisting
11261 the sinews and scorching the flesh of his sprained arm and shoulder. To
11262 rid himself of them he closed his eyes.
11264 For a moment he dozed, but in that short interval innumerable things
11265 appeared to him in a dream: his mother and her large white hand, Sonya's
11266 thin little shoulders, Natasha's eyes and laughter, Denisov with his
11267 voice and mustache, and Telyanin and all that affair with Telyanin and
11268 Bogdanich. That affair was the same thing as this soldier with the harsh
11269 voice, and it was that affair and this soldier that were so agonizingly,
11270 incessantly pulling and pressing his arm and always dragging it in one
11271 direction. He tried to get away from them, but they would not for an
11272 instant let his shoulder move a hair's breadth. It would not ache--it
11273 would be well--if only they did not pull it, but it was impossible to
11276 He opened his eyes and looked up. The black canopy of night hung less
11277 than a yard above the glow of the charcoal. Flakes of falling snow were
11278 fluttering in that light. Tushin had not returned, the doctor had not
11279 come. He was alone now, except for a soldier who was sitting naked at
11280 the other side of the fire, warming his thin yellow body.
11282 "Nobody wants me!" thought Rostov. "There is no one to help me or pity
11283 me. Yet I was once at home, strong, happy, and loved." He sighed and,
11284 doing so, groaned involuntarily.
11286 "Eh, is anything hurting you?" asked the soldier, shaking his shirt out
11287 over the fire, and not waiting for an answer he gave a grunt and added:
11288 "What a lot of men have been crippled today--frightful!"
11290 Rostov did not listen to the soldier. He looked at the snowflakes
11291 fluttering above the fire and remembered a Russian winter at his warm,
11292 bright home, his fluffy fur coat, his quickly gliding sleigh, his
11293 healthy body, and all the affection and care of his family. "And why did
11294 I come here?" he wondered.
11296 Next day the French army did not renew their attack, and the remnant of
11297 Bagration's detachment was reunited to Kutuzov's army.
11306 Prince Vasili was not a man who deliberately thought out his plans.
11307 Still less did he think of injuring anyone for his own advantage. He was
11308 merely a man of the world who had got on and to whom getting on had
11309 become a habit. Schemes and devices for which he never rightly accounted
11310 to himself, but which formed the whole interest of his life, were
11311 constantly shaping themselves in his mind, arising from the
11312 circumstances and persons he met. Of these plans he had not merely one
11313 or two in his head but dozens, some only beginning to form themselves,
11314 some approaching achievement, and some in course of disintegration. He
11315 did not, for instance, say to himself: "This man now has influence, I
11316 must gain his confidence and friendship and through him obtain a special
11317 grant." Nor did he say to himself: "Pierre is a rich man, I must entice
11318 him to marry my daughter and lend me the forty thousand rubles I need."
11319 But when he came across a man of position his instinct immediately told
11320 him that this man could be useful, and without any premeditation Prince
11321 Vasili took the first opportunity to gain his confidence, flatter him,
11322 become intimate with him, and finally make his request.
11324 He had Pierre at hand in Moscow and procured for him an appointment as
11325 Gentleman of the Bedchamber, which at that time conferred the status of
11326 Councilor of State, and insisted on the young man accompanying him to
11327 Petersburg and staying at his house. With apparent absent-mindedness,
11328 yet with unhesitating assurance that he was doing the right thing,
11329 Prince Vasili did everything to get Pierre to marry his daughter. Had he
11330 thought out his plans beforehand he could not have been so natural and
11331 shown such unaffected familiarity in intercourse with everybody both
11332 above and below him in social standing. Something always drew him toward
11333 those richer and more powerful than himself and he had rare skill in
11334 seizing the most opportune moment for making use of people.
11336 Pierre, on unexpectedly becoming Count Bezukhov and a rich man, felt
11337 himself after his recent loneliness and freedom from cares so beset and
11338 preoccupied that only in bed was he able to be by himself. He had to
11339 sign papers, to present himself at government offices, the purpose of
11340 which was not clear to him, to question his chief steward, to visit his
11341 estate near Moscow, and to receive many people who formerly did not even
11342 wish to know of his existence but would now have been offended and
11343 grieved had he chosen not to see them. These different people--
11344 businessmen, relations, and acquaintances alike--were all disposed to
11345 treat the young heir in the most friendly and flattering manner: they
11346 were all evidently firmly convinced of Pierre's noble qualities. He was
11347 always hearing such words as: "With your remarkable kindness," or, "With
11348 your excellent heart," "You are yourself so honorable Count," or, "Were
11349 he as clever as you," and so on, till he began sincerely to believe in
11350 his own exceptional kindness and extraordinary intelligence, the more so
11351 as in the depth of his heart it had always seemed to him that he really
11352 was very kind and intelligent. Even people who had formerly been
11353 spiteful toward him and evidently unfriendly now became gentle and
11354 affectionate. The angry eldest princess, with the long waist and hair
11355 plastered down like a doll's, had come into Pierre's room after the
11356 funeral. With drooping eyes and frequent blushes she told him she was
11357 very sorry about their past misunderstandings and did not now feel she
11358 had a right to ask him for anything, except only for permission, after
11359 the blow she had received, to remain for a few weeks longer in the house
11360 she so loved and where she had sacrificed so much. She could not refrain
11361 from weeping at these words. Touched that this statuesque princess could
11362 so change, Pierre took her hand and begged her forgiveness, without
11363 knowing what for. From that day the eldest princess quite changed toward
11364 Pierre and began knitting a striped scarf for him.
11366 "Do this for my sake, mon cher; after all, she had to put up with a
11367 great deal from the deceased," said Prince Vasili to him, handing him a
11368 deed to sign for the princess' benefit.
11370 Prince Vasili had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to throw
11371 this bone--a bill for thirty thousand rubles--to the poor princess that
11372 it might not occur to her to speak of his share in the affair of the
11373 inlaid portfolio. Pierre signed the deed and after that the princess
11374 grew still kinder. The younger sisters also became affectionate to him,
11375 especially the youngest, the pretty one with the mole, who often made
11376 him feel confused by her smiles and her own confusion when meeting him.
11378 It seemed so natural to Pierre that everyone should like him, and it
11379 would have seemed so unnatural had anyone disliked him, that he could
11380 not but believe in the sincerity of those around him. Besides, he had no
11381 time to ask himself whether these people were sincere or not. He was
11382 always busy and always felt in a state of mild and cheerful
11383 intoxication. He felt as though he were the center of some important and
11384 general movement; that something was constantly expected of him, that if
11385 he did not do it he would grieve and disappoint many people, but if he
11386 did this and that, all would be well; and he did what was demanded of
11387 him, but still that happy result always remained in the future.
11389 More than anyone else, Prince Vasili took possession of Pierre's affairs
11390 and of Pierre himself in those early days. From the death of Count
11391 Bezukhov he did not let go his hold of the lad. He had the air of a man
11392 oppressed by business, weary and suffering, who yet would not, for
11393 pity's sake, leave this helpless youth who, after all, was the son of
11394 his old friend and the possessor of such enormous wealth, to the caprice
11395 of fate and the designs of rogues. During the few days he spent in
11396 Moscow after the death of Count Bezukhov, he would call Pierre, or go to
11397 him himself, and tell him what ought to be done in a tone of weariness
11398 and assurance, as if he were adding every time: "You know I am
11399 overwhelmed with business and it is purely out of charity that I trouble
11400 myself about you, and you also know quite well that what I propose is
11401 the only thing possible."
11403 "Well, my dear fellow, tomorrow we are off at last," said Prince Vasili
11404 one day, closing his eyes and fingering Pierre's elbow, speaking as if
11405 he were saying something which had long since been agreed upon and could
11406 not now be altered. "We start tomorrow and I'm giving you a place in my
11407 carriage. I am very glad. All our important business here is now
11408 settled, and I ought to have been off long ago. Here is something I have
11409 received from the chancellor. I asked him for you, and you have been
11410 entered in the diplomatic corps and made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber.
11411 The diplomatic career now lies open before you."
11413 Notwithstanding the tone of wearied assurance with which these words
11414 were pronounced, Pierre, who had so long been considering his career,
11415 wished to make some suggestion. But Prince Vasili interrupted him in the
11416 special deep cooing tone, precluding the possibility of interrupting his
11417 speech, which he used in extreme cases when special persuasion was
11420 "Mais, mon cher, I did this for my own sake, to satisfy my conscience,
11421 and there is nothing to thank me for. No one has ever complained yet of
11422 being too much loved; and besides, you are free, you could throw it up
11423 tomorrow. But you will see everything for yourself when you get to
11424 Petersburg. It is high time for you to get away from these terrible
11425 recollections." Prince Vasili sighed. "Yes, yes, my boy. And my valet
11426 can go in your carriage. Ah! I was nearly forgetting," he added. "You
11427 know, mon cher, your father and I had some accounts to settle, so I have
11428 received what was due from the Ryazan estate and will keep it; you won't
11429 require it. We'll go into the accounts later."
11431 By "what was due from the Ryazan estate" Prince Vasili meant several
11432 thousand rubles quitrent received from Pierre's peasants, which the
11433 prince had retained for himself.
11435 In Petersburg, as in Moscow, Pierre found the same atmosphere of
11436 gentleness and affection. He could not refuse the post, or rather the
11437 rank (for he did nothing), that Prince Vasili had procured for him, and
11438 acquaintances, invitations, and social occupations were so numerous
11439 that, even more than in Moscow, he felt a sense of bewilderment, bustle,
11440 and continual expectation of some good, always in front of him but never
11443 Of his former bachelor acquaintances many were no longer in Petersburg.
11444 The Guards had gone to the front; Dolokhov had been reduced to the
11445 ranks; Anatole was in the army somewhere in the provinces; Prince Andrew
11446 was abroad; so Pierre had not the opportunity to spend his nights as he
11447 used to like to spend them, or to open his mind by intimate talks with a
11448 friend older than himself and whom he respected. His whole time was
11449 taken up with dinners and balls and was spent chiefly at Prince Vasili's
11450 house in the company of the stout princess, his wife, and his beautiful
11453 Like the others, Anna Pavlovna Scherer showed Pierre the change of
11454 attitude toward him that had taken place in society.
11456 Formerly in Anna Pavlovna's presence, Pierre had always felt that what
11457 he was saying was out of place, tactless and unsuitable, that remarks
11458 which seemed to him clever while they formed in his mind became foolish
11459 as soon as he uttered them, while on the contrary Hippolyte's stupidest
11460 remarks came out clever and apt. Now everything Pierre said was
11461 charmant. Even if Anna Pavlovna did not say so, he could see that she
11462 wished to and only refrained out of regard for his modesty.
11464 In the beginning of the winter of 1805-6 Pierre received one of Anna
11465 Pavlovna's usual pink notes with an invitation to which was added: "You
11466 will find the beautiful Helene here, whom it is always delightful to
11469 When he read that sentence, Pierre felt for the first time that some
11470 link which other people recognized had grown up between himself and
11471 Helene, and that thought both alarmed him, as if some obligation were
11472 being imposed on him which he could not fulfill, and pleased him as an
11473 entertaining supposition.
11475 Anna Pavlovna's "At Home" was like the former one, only the novelty she
11476 offered her guests this time was not Mortemart, but a diplomatist fresh
11477 from Berlin with the very latest details of the Emperor Alexander's
11478 visit to Potsdam, and of how the two august friends had pledged
11479 themselves in an indissoluble alliance to uphold the cause of justice
11480 against the enemy of the human race. Anna Pavlovna received Pierre with
11481 a shade of melancholy, evidently relating to the young man's recent loss
11482 by the death of Count Bezukhov (everyone constantly considered it a duty
11483 to assure Pierre that he was greatly afflicted by the death of the
11484 father he had hardly known), and her melancholy was just like the august
11485 melancholy she showed at the mention of her most august Majesty the
11486 Empress Marya Fedorovna. Pierre felt flattered by this. Anna Pavlovna
11487 arranged the different groups in her drawing room with her habitual
11488 skill. The large group, in which were Prince Vasili and the generals,
11489 had the benefit of the diplomat. Another group was at the tea table.
11490 Pierre wished to join the former, but Anna Pavlovna--who was in the
11491 excited condition of a commander on a battlefield to whom thousands of
11492 new and brilliant ideas occur which there is hardly time to put in
11493 action--seeing Pierre, touched his sleeve with her finger, saying:
11495 "Wait a bit, I have something in view for you this evening." (She
11496 glanced at Helene and smiled at her.) "My dear Helene, be charitable to
11497 my poor aunt who adores you. Go and keep her company for ten minutes.
11498 And that it will not be too dull, here is the dear count who will not
11499 refuse to accompany you."
11501 The beauty went to the aunt, but Anna Pavlovna detained Pierre, looking
11502 as if she had to give some final necessary instructions.
11504 "Isn't she exquisite?" she said to Pierre, pointing to the stately
11505 beauty as she glided away. "And how she carries herself! For so young a
11506 girl, such tact, such masterly perfection of manner! It comes from her
11507 heart. Happy the man who wins her! With her the least worldly of men
11508 would occupy a most brilliant position in society. Don't you think so? I
11509 only wanted to know your opinion," and Anna Pavlovna let Pierre go.
11511 Pierre, in reply, sincerely agreed with her as to Helene's perfection of
11512 manner. If he ever thought of Helene, it was just of her beauty and her
11513 remarkable skill in appearing silently dignified in society.
11515 The old aunt received the two young people in her corner, but seemed
11516 desirous of hiding her adoration for Helene and inclined rather to show
11517 her fear of Anna Pavlovna. She looked at her niece, as if inquiring what
11518 she was to do with these people. On leaving them, Anna Pavlovna again
11519 touched Pierre's sleeve, saying: "I hope you won't say that it is dull
11520 in my house again," and she glanced at Helene.
11522 Helene smiled, with a look implying that she did not admit the
11523 possibility of anyone seeing her without being enchanted. The aunt
11524 coughed, swallowed, and said in French that she was very pleased to see
11525 Helene, then she turned to Pierre with the same words of welcome and the
11526 same look. In the middle of a dull and halting conversation, Helene
11527 turned to Pierre with the beautiful bright smile that she gave to
11528 everyone. Pierre was so used to that smile, and it had so little meaning
11529 for him, that he paid no attention to it. The aunt was just speaking of
11530 a collection of snuffboxes that had belonged to Pierre's father, Count
11531 Bezukhov, and showed them her own box. Princess Helene asked to see the
11532 portrait of the aunt's husband on the box lid.
11534 "That is probably the work of Vinesse," said Pierre, mentioning a
11535 celebrated miniaturist, and he leaned over the table to take the
11536 snuffbox while trying to hear what was being said at the other table.
11538 He half rose, meaning to go round, but the aunt handed him the snuffbox,
11539 passing it across Helene's back. Helene stooped forward to make room,
11540 and looked round with a smile. She was, as always at evening parties,
11541 wearing a dress such as was then fashionable, cut very low at front and
11542 back. Her bust, which had always seemed like marble to Pierre, was so
11543 close to him that his shortsighted eyes could not but perceive the
11544 living charm of her neck and shoulders, so near to his lips that he need
11545 only have bent his head a little to have touched them. He was conscious
11546 of the warmth of her body, the scent of perfume, and the creaking of her
11547 corset as she moved. He did not see her marble beauty forming a complete
11548 whole with her dress, but all the charm of her body only covered by her
11549 garments. And having once seen this he could not help being aware of it,
11550 just as we cannot renew an illusion we have once seen through.
11552 "So you have never noticed before how beautiful I am?" Helene seemed to
11553 say. "You had not noticed that I am a woman? Yes, I am a woman who may
11554 belong to anyone--to you too," said her glance. And at that moment
11555 Pierre felt that Helene not only could, but must, be his wife, and that
11556 it could not be otherwise.
11558 He knew this at that moment as surely as if he had been standing at the
11559 altar with her. How and when this would be he did not know, he did not
11560 even know if it would be a good thing (he even felt, he knew not why,
11561 that it would be a bad thing), but he knew it would happen.
11563 Pierre dropped his eyes, lifted them again, and wished once more to see
11564 her as a distant beauty far removed from him, as he had seen her every
11565 day until then, but he could no longer do it. He could not, any more
11566 than a man who has been looking at a tuft of steppe grass through the
11567 mist and taking it for a tree can again take it for a tree after he has
11568 once recognized it to be a tuft of grass. She was terribly close to him.
11569 She already had power over him, and between them there was no longer any
11570 barrier except the barrier of his own will.
11572 "Well, I will leave you in your little corner," came Anna Pavlovna's
11573 voice, "I see you are all right there."
11575 And Pierre, anxiously trying to remember whether he had done anything
11576 reprehensible, looked round with a blush. It seemed to him that everyone
11577 knew what had happened to him as he knew it himself.
11579 A little later when he went up to the large circle, Anna Pavlovna said
11580 to him: "I hear you are refitting your Petersburg house?"
11582 This was true. The architect had told him that it was necessary, and
11583 Pierre, without knowing why, was having his enormous Petersburg house
11586 "That's a good thing, but don't move from Prince Vasili's. It is good to
11587 have a friend like the prince," she said, smiling at Prince Vasili. "I
11588 know something about that. Don't I? And you are still so young. You need
11589 advice. Don't be angry with me for exercising an old woman's privilege."
11591 She paused, as women always do, expecting something after they have
11592 mentioned their age. "If you marry it will be a different thing," she
11593 continued, uniting them both in one glance. Pierre did not look at
11594 Helene nor she at him. But she was just as terribly close to him. He
11595 muttered something and colored.
11597 When he got home he could not sleep for a long time for thinking of what
11598 had happened. What had happened? Nothing. He had merely understood that
11599 the woman he had known as a child, of whom when her beauty was mentioned
11600 he had said absent-mindedly: "Yes, she's good looking," he had
11601 understood that this woman might belong to him.
11603 "But she's stupid. I have myself said she is stupid," he thought. "There
11604 is something nasty, something wrong, in the feeling she excites in me. I
11605 have been told that her brother Anatole was in love with her and she
11606 with him, that there was quite a scandal and that that's why he was sent
11607 away. Hippolyte is her brother... Prince Vasili is her father... It's
11608 bad...." he reflected, but while he was thinking this (the reflection
11609 was still incomplete), he caught himself smiling and was conscious that
11610 another line of thought had sprung up, and while thinking of her
11611 worthlessness he was also dreaming of how she would be his wife, how she
11612 would love him become quite different, and how all he had thought and
11613 heard of her might be false. And he again saw her not as the daughter of
11614 Prince Vasili, but visualized her whole body only veiled by its gray
11615 dress. "But no! Why did this thought never occur to me before?" and
11616 again he told himself that it was impossible, that there would be
11617 something unnatural, and as it seemed to him dishonorable, in this
11618 marriage. He recalled her former words and looks and the words and looks
11619 of those who had seen them together. He recalled Anna Pavlovna's words
11620 and looks when she spoke to him about his house, recalled thousands of
11621 such hints from Prince Vasili and others, and was seized by terror lest
11622 he had already, in some way, bound himself to do something that was
11623 evidently wrong and that he ought not to do. But at the very time he was
11624 expressing this conviction to himself, in another part of his mind her
11625 image rose in all its womanly beauty.
11632 In November, 1805, Prince Vasili had to go on a tour of inspection in
11633 four different provinces. He had arranged this for himself so as to
11634 visit his neglected estates at the same time and pick up his son Anatole
11635 where his regiment was stationed, and take him to visit Prince Nicholas
11636 Bolkonski in order to arrange a match for him with the daughter of that
11637 rich old man. But before leaving home and undertaking these new affairs,
11638 Prince Vasili had to settle matters with Pierre, who, it is true, had
11639 latterly spent whole days at home, that is, in Prince Vasili's house
11640 where he was staying, and had been absurd, excited, and foolish in
11641 Helene's presence (as a lover should be), but had not yet proposed to
11644 "This is all very fine, but things must be settled," said Prince Vasili
11645 to himself, with a sorrowful sigh, one morning, feeling that Pierre who
11646 was under such obligations to him ("But never mind that") was not
11647 behaving very well in this matter. "Youth, frivolity... well, God be
11648 with him," thought he, relishing his own goodness of heart, "but it must
11649 be brought to a head. The day after tomorrow will be Lelya's name day. I
11650 will invite two or three people, and if he does not understand what he
11651 ought to do then it will be my affair--yes, my affair. I am her father."
11653 Six weeks after Anna Pavlovna's "At Home" and after the sleepless night
11654 when he had decided that to marry Helene would be a calamity and that he
11655 ought to avoid her and go away, Pierre, despite that decision, had not
11656 left Prince Vasili's and felt with terror that in people's eyes he was
11657 every day more and more connected with her, that it was impossible for
11658 him to return to his former conception of her, that he could not break
11659 away from her, and that though it would be a terrible thing he would
11660 have to unite his fate with hers. He might perhaps have been able to
11661 free himself but that Prince Vasili (who had rarely before given
11662 receptions) now hardly let a day go by without having an evening party
11663 at which Pierre had to be present unless he wished to spoil the general
11664 pleasure and disappoint everyone's expectation. Prince Vasili, in the
11665 rare moments when he was at home, would take Pierre's hand in passing
11666 and draw it downwards, or absent-mindedly hold out his wrinkled, clean-
11667 shaven cheek for Pierre to kiss and would say: "Till tomorrow," or, "Be
11668 in to dinner or I shall not see you," or, "I am staying in for your
11669 sake," and so on. And though Prince Vasili, when he stayed in (as he
11670 said) for Pierre's sake, hardly exchanged a couple of words with him,
11671 Pierre felt unable to disappoint him. Every day he said to himself one
11672 and the same thing: "It is time I understood her and made up my mind
11673 what she really is. Was I mistaken before, or am I mistaken now? No, she
11674 is not stupid, she is an excellent girl," he sometimes said to himself
11675 "she never makes a mistake, never says anything stupid. She says little,
11676 but what she does say is always clear and simple, so she is not stupid.
11677 She never was abashed and is not abashed now, so she cannot be a bad
11678 woman!" He had often begun to make reflections or think aloud in her
11679 company, and she had always answered him either by a brief but
11680 appropriate remark--showing that it did not interest her--or by a silent
11681 look and smile which more palpably than anything else showed Pierre her
11682 superiority. She was right in regarding all arguments as nonsense in
11683 comparison with that smile.
11685 She always addressed him with a radiantly confiding smile meant for him
11686 alone, in which there was something more significant than in the general
11687 smile that usually brightened her face. Pierre knew that everyone was
11688 waiting for him to say a word and cross a certain line, and he knew that
11689 sooner or later he would step across it, but an incomprehensible terror
11690 seized him at the thought of that dreadful step. A thousand times during
11691 that month and a half while he felt himself drawn nearer and nearer to
11692 that dreadful abyss, Pierre said to himself: "What am I doing? I need
11693 resolution. Can it be that I have none?"
11695 He wished to take a decision, but felt with dismay that in this matter
11696 he lacked that strength of will which he had known in himself and really
11697 possessed. Pierre was one of those who are only strong when they feel
11698 themselves quite innocent, and since that day when he was overpowered by
11699 a feeling of desire while stooping over the snuffbox at Anna Pavlovna's,
11700 an unacknowledged sense of the guilt of that desire paralyzed his will.
11702 On Helene's name day, a small party of just their own people--as his
11703 wife said--met for supper at Prince Vasili's. All these friends and
11704 relations had been given to understand that the fate of the young girl
11705 would be decided that evening. The visitors were seated at supper.
11706 Princess Kuragina, a portly imposing woman who had once been handsome,
11707 was sitting at the head of the table. On either side of her sat the more
11708 important guests--an old general and his wife, and Anna Pavlovna
11709 Scherer. At the other end sat the younger and less important guests, and
11710 there too sat the members of the family, and Pierre and Helene, side by
11711 side. Prince Vasili was not having any supper: he went round the table
11712 in a merry mood, sitting down now by one, now by another, of the guests.
11713 To each of them he made some careless and agreeable remark except to
11714 Pierre and Helene, whose presence he seemed not to notice. He enlivened
11715 the whole party. The wax candles burned brightly, the silver and crystal
11716 gleamed, so did the ladies' toilets and the gold and silver of the men's
11717 epaulets; servants in scarlet liveries moved round the table, the
11718 clatter of plates, knives, and glasses mingled with the animated hum of
11719 several conversations. At one end of the table, the old chamberlain was
11720 heard assuring an old baroness that he loved her passionately, at which
11721 she laughed; at the other could be heard the story of the misfortunes of
11722 some Mary Viktorovna or other. At the center of the table, Prince Vasili
11723 attracted everybody's attention. With a facetious smile on his face, he
11724 was telling the ladies about last Wednesday's meeting of the Imperial
11725 Council, at which Sergey Kuzmich Vyazmitinov, the new military governor
11726 general of Petersburg, had received and read the then famous rescript of
11727 the Emperor Alexander from the army to Sergey Kuzmich, in which the
11728 Emperor said that he was receiving from all sides declarations of the
11729 people's loyalty, that the declaration from Petersburg gave him
11730 particular pleasure, and that he was proud to be at the head of such a
11731 nation and would endeavor to be worthy of it. This rescript began with
11732 the words: "Sergey Kuzmich, From all sides reports reach me," etc.
11734 "Well, and so he never got farther than: 'Sergey Kuzmich'?" asked one of
11737 "Exactly, not a hair's breadth farther," answered Prince Vasili,
11738 laughing, "'Sergey Kuzmich... From all sides... From all sides... Sergey
11739 Kuzmich...' Poor Vyazmitinov could not get any farther! He began the
11740 rescript again and again, but as soon as he uttered 'Sergey' he sobbed,
11741 'Kuz-mi-ch,' tears, and 'From all sides' was smothered in sobs and he
11742 could get no farther. And again his handkerchief, and again: 'Sergey
11743 Kuzmich, From all sides,'... and tears, till at last somebody else was
11746 "Kuzmich... From all sides... and then tears," someone repeated
11749 "Don't be unkind," cried Anna Pavlovna from her end of the table holding
11750 up a threatening finger. "He is such a worthy and excellent man, our
11751 dear Vyazmitinov...."
11753 Everybody laughed a great deal. At the head of the table, where the
11754 honored guests sat, everyone seemed to be in high spirits and under the
11755 influence of a variety of exciting sensations. Only Pierre and Helene
11756 sat silently side by side almost at the bottom of the table, a
11757 suppressed smile brightening both their faces, a smile that had nothing
11758 to do with Sergey Kuzmich--a smile of bashfulness at their own feelings.
11759 But much as all the rest laughed, talked, and joked, much as they
11760 enjoyed their Rhine wine, saute, and ices, and however they avoided
11761 looking at the young couple, and heedless and unobservant as they seemed
11762 of them, one could feel by the occasional glances they gave that the
11763 story about Sergey Kuzmich, the laughter, and the food were all a
11764 pretense, and that the whole attention of that company was directed to--
11765 Pierre and Helene. Prince Vasili mimicked the sobbing of Sergey Kuzmich
11766 and at the same time his eyes glanced toward his daughter, and while he
11767 laughed the expression on his face clearly said: "Yes... it's getting
11768 on, it will all be settled today." Anna Pavlovna threatened him on
11769 behalf of "our dear Vyazmitinov," and in her eyes, which, for an
11770 instant, glanced at Pierre, Prince Vasili read a congratulation on his
11771 future son-in-law and on his daughter's happiness. The old princess
11772 sighed sadly as she offered some wine to the old lady next to her and
11773 glanced angrily at her daughter, and her sigh seemed to say: "Yes,
11774 there's nothing left for you and me but to sip sweet wine, my dear, now
11775 that the time has come for these young ones to be thus boldly,
11776 provocatively happy." "And what nonsense all this is that I am saying!"
11777 thought a diplomatist, glancing at the happy faces of the lovers.
11778 "That's happiness!"
11780 Into the insignificant, trifling, and artificial interests uniting that
11781 society had entered the simple feeling of the attraction of a healthy
11782 and handsome young man and woman for one another. And this human feeling
11783 dominated everything else and soared above all their affected chatter.
11784 Jests fell flat, news was not interesting, and the animation was
11785 evidently forced. Not only the guests but even the footmen waiting at
11786 table seemed to feel this, and they forgot their duties as they looked
11787 at the beautiful Helene with her radiant face and at the red, broad, and
11788 happy though uneasy face of Pierre. It seemed as if the very light of
11789 the candles was focused on those two happy faces alone.
11791 Pierre felt that he was the center of it all, and this both pleased and
11792 embarrassed him. He was like a man entirely absorbed in some occupation.
11793 He did not see, hear, or understand anything clearly. Only now and then
11794 detached ideas and impressions from the world of reality shot
11795 unexpectedly through his mind.
11797 "So it is all finished!" he thought. "And how has it all happened? How
11798 quickly! Now I know that not because of her alone, nor of myself alone,
11799 but because of everyone, it must inevitably come about. They are all
11800 expecting it, they are so sure that it will happen that I cannot, I
11801 cannot, disappoint them. But how will it be? I do not know, but it will
11802 certainly happen!" thought Pierre, glancing at those dazzling shoulders
11805 Or he would suddenly feel ashamed of he knew not what. He felt it
11806 awkward to attract everyone's attention and to be considered a lucky man
11807 and, with his plain face, to be looked on as a sort of Paris possessed
11808 of a Helen. "But no doubt it always is and must be so!" he consoled
11809 himself. "And besides, what have I done to bring it about? How did it
11810 begin? I traveled from Moscow with Prince Vasili. Then there was
11811 nothing. So why should I not stay at his house? Then I played cards with
11812 her and picked up her reticule and drove out with her. How did it begin,
11813 when did it all come about?" And here he was sitting by her side as her
11814 betrothed, seeing, hearing, feeling her nearness, her breathing, her
11815 movements, her beauty. Then it would suddenly seem to him that it was
11816 not she but he was so unusually beautiful, and that that was why they
11817 all looked so at him, and flattered by this general admiration he would
11818 expand his chest, raise his head, and rejoice at his good fortune.
11819 Suddenly he heard a familiar voice repeating something to him a second
11820 time. But Pierre was so absorbed that he did not understand what was
11823 "I am asking you when you last heard from Bolkonski," repeated Prince
11824 Vasili a third time. "How absent-minded you are, my dear fellow."
11826 Prince Vasili smiled, and Pierre noticed that everyone was smiling at
11827 him and Helene. "Well, what of it, if you all know it?" thought Pierre.
11828 "What of it? It's the truth!" and he himself smiled his gentle childlike
11829 smile, and Helene smiled too.
11831 "When did you get the letter? Was it from Olmutz?" repeated Prince
11832 Vasili, who pretended to want to know this in order to settle a dispute.
11834 "How can one talk or think of such trifles?" thought Pierre.
11836 "Yes, from Olmutz," he answered, with a sigh.
11838 After supper Pierre with his partner followed the others into the
11839 drawing room. The guests began to disperse, some without taking leave of
11840 Helene. Some, as if unwilling to distract her from an important
11841 occupation, came up to her for a moment and made haste to go away,
11842 refusing to let her see them off. The diplomatist preserved a mournful
11843 silence as he left the drawing room. He pictured the vanity of his
11844 diplomatic career in comparison with Pierre's happiness. The old general
11845 grumbled at his wife when she asked how his leg was. "Oh, the old fool,"
11846 he thought. "That Princess Helene will be beautiful still when she's
11849 "I think I may congratulate you," whispered Anna Pavlovna to the old
11850 princess, kissing her soundly. "If I hadn't this headache I'd have
11853 The old princess did not reply, she was tormented by jealousy of her
11854 daughter's happiness.
11856 While the guests were taking their leave Pierre remained for a long time
11857 alone with Helene in the little drawing room where they were sitting. He
11858 had often before, during the last six weeks, remained alone with her,
11859 but had never spoken to her of love. Now he felt that it was inevitable,
11860 but he could not make up his mind to take the final step. He felt
11861 ashamed; he felt that he was occupying someone else's place here beside
11862 Helene. "This happiness is not for you," some inner voice whispered to
11863 him. "This happiness is for those who have not in them what there is in
11866 But, as he had to say something, he began by asking her whether she was
11867 satisfied with the party. She replied in her usual simple manner that
11868 this name day of hers had been one of the pleasantest she had ever had.
11870 Some of the nearest relatives had not yet left. They were sitting in the
11871 large drawing room. Prince Vasili came up to Pierre with languid
11872 footsteps. Pierre rose and said it was getting late. Prince Vasili gave
11873 him a look of stern inquiry, as though what Pierre had just said was so
11874 strange that one could not take it in. But then the expression of
11875 severity changed, and he drew Pierre's hand downwards, made him sit
11876 down, and smiled affectionately.
11878 "Well, Lelya?" he asked, turning instantly to his daughter and
11879 addressing her with the careless tone of habitual tenderness natural to
11880 parents who have petted their children from babyhood, but which Prince
11881 Vasili had only acquired by imitating other parents.
11883 And he again turned to Pierre.
11885 "Sergey Kuzmich--From all sides-" he said, unbuttoning the top button of
11888 Pierre smiled, but his smile showed that he knew it was not the story
11889 about Sergey Kuzmich that interested Prince Vasili just then, and Prince
11890 Vasili saw that Pierre knew this. He suddenly muttered something and
11891 went away. It seemed to Pierre that even the prince was disconcerted.
11892 The sight of the discomposure of that old man of the world touched
11893 Pierre: he looked at Helene and she too seemed disconcerted, and her
11894 look seemed to say: "Well, it is your own fault."
11896 "The step must be taken but I cannot, I cannot!" thought Pierre, and he
11897 again began speaking about indifferent matters, about Sergey Kuzmich,
11898 asking what the point of the story was as he had not heard it properly.
11899 Helene answered with a smile that she too had missed it.
11901 When Prince Vasili returned to the drawing room, the princess, his wife,
11902 was talking in low tones to the elderly lady about Pierre.
11904 "Of course, it is a very brilliant match, but happiness, my dear..."
11906 "Marriages are made in heaven," replied the elderly lady.
11908 Prince Vasili passed by, seeming not to hear the ladies, and sat down on
11909 a sofa in a far corner of the room. He closed his eyes and seemed to be
11910 dozing. His head sank forward and then he roused himself.
11912 "Aline," he said to his wife, "go and see what they are about."
11914 The princess went up to the door, passed by it with a dignified and
11915 indifferent air, and glanced into the little drawing room. Pierre and
11916 Helene still sat talking just as before.
11918 "Still the same," she said to her husband.
11920 Prince Vasili frowned, twisting his mouth, his cheeks quivered and his
11921 face assumed the coarse, unpleasant expression peculiar to him. Shaking
11922 himself, he rose, threw back his head, and with resolute steps went past
11923 the ladies into the little drawing room. With quick steps he went
11924 joyfully up to Pierre. His face was so unusually triumphant that Pierre
11925 rose in alarm on seeing it.
11927 "Thank God!" said Prince Vasili. "My wife has told me everything!" (He
11928 put one arm around Pierre and the other around his daughter.)--"My dear
11929 boy... Lelya... I am very pleased." (His voice trembled.) "I loved your
11930 father... and she will make you a good wife... God bless you!..."
11932 He embraced his daughter, and then again Pierre, and kissed him with his
11933 malodorous mouth. Tears actually moistened his cheeks.
11935 "Princess, come here!" he shouted.
11937 The old princess came in and also wept. The elderly lady was using her
11938 handkerchief too. Pierre was kissed, and he kissed the beautiful
11939 Helene's hand several times. After a while they were left alone again.
11941 "All this had to be and could not be otherwise," thought Pierre, "so it
11942 is useless to ask whether it is good or bad. It is good because it's
11943 definite and one is rid of the old tormenting doubt." Pierre held the
11944 hand of his betrothed in silence, looking at her beautiful bosom as it
11947 "Helene!" he said aloud and paused.
11949 "Something special is always said in such cases," he thought, but could
11950 not remember what it was that people say. He looked at her face. She
11951 drew nearer to him. Her face flushed.
11953 "Oh, take those off... those..." she said, pointing to his spectacles.
11955 Pierre took them off, and his eyes, besides the strange look eyes have
11956 from which spectacles have just been removed, had also a frightened and
11957 inquiring look. He was about to stoop over her hand and kiss it, but
11958 with a rapid, almost brutal movement of her head, she intercepted his
11959 lips and met them with her own. Her face struck Pierre, by its altered,
11960 unpleasantly excited expression.
11962 "It is too late now, it's done; besides I love her," thought Pierre.
11964 "Je vous aime!" * he said, remembering what has to be said at such
11965 moments: but his words sounded so weak that he felt ashamed of himself.
11970 Six weeks later he was married, and settled in Count Bezukhov's large,
11971 newly furnished Petersburg house, the happy possessor, as people said,
11972 of a wife who was a celebrated beauty and of millions of money.
11979 Old Prince Nicholas Bolkonski received a letter from Prince Vasili in
11980 November, 1805, announcing that he and his son would be paying him a
11981 visit. "I am starting on a journey of inspection, and of course I shall
11982 think nothing of an extra seventy miles to come and see you at the same
11983 time, my honored benefactor," wrote Prince Vasili. "My son Anatole is
11984 accompanying me on his way to the army, so I hope you will allow him
11985 personally to express the deep respect that, emulating his father, he
11988 "It seems that there will be no need to bring Mary out, suitors are
11989 coming to us of their own accord," incautiously remarked the little
11990 princess on hearing the news.
11992 Prince Nicholas frowned, but said nothing.
11994 A fortnight after the letter Prince Vasili's servants came one evening
11995 in advance of him, and he and his son arrived next day.
11997 Old Bolkonski had always had a poor opinion of Prince Vasili's
11998 character, but more so recently, since in the new reigns of Paul and
11999 Alexander Prince Vasili had risen to high position and honors. And now,
12000 from the hints contained in his letter and given by the little princess,
12001 he saw which way the wind was blowing, and his low opinion changed into
12002 a feeling of contemptuous ill will. He snorted whenever he mentioned
12003 him. On the day of Prince Vasili's arrival, Prince Bolkonski was
12004 particularly discontented and out of temper. Whether he was in a bad
12005 temper because Prince Vasili was coming, or whether his being in a bad
12006 temper made him specially annoyed at Prince Vasili's visit, he was in a
12007 bad temper, and in the morning Tikhon had already advised the architect
12008 not to go to the prince with his report.
12010 "Do you hear how he's walking?" said Tikhon, drawing the architect's
12011 attention to the sound of the prince's footsteps. "Stepping flat on his
12012 heels--we know what that means...."
12014 However, at nine o'clock the prince, in his velvet coat with a sable
12015 collar and cap, went out for his usual walk. It had snowed the day
12016 before and the path to the hothouse, along which the prince was in the
12017 habit of walking, had been swept: the marks of the broom were still
12018 visible in the snow and a shovel had been left sticking in one of the
12019 soft snowbanks that bordered both sides of the path. The prince went
12020 through the conservatories, the serfs' quarters, and the outbuildings,
12021 frowning and silent.
12023 "Can a sleigh pass?" he asked his overseer, a venerable man, resembling
12024 his master in manners and looks, who was accompanying him back to the
12027 "The snow is deep. I am having the avenue swept, your honor."
12029 The prince bowed his head and went up to the porch. "God be thanked,"
12030 thought the overseer, "the storm has blown over!"
12032 "It would have been hard to drive up, your honor," he added. "I heard,
12033 your honor, that a minister is coming to visit your honor."
12035 The prince turned round to the overseer and fixed his eyes on him,
12038 "What? A minister? What minister? Who gave orders?" he said in his
12039 shrill, harsh voice. "The road is not swept for the princess my
12040 daughter, but for a minister! For me, there are no ministers!"
12042 "Your honor, I thought..."
12044 "You thought!" shouted the prince, his words coming more and more
12045 rapidly and indistinctly. "You thought!... Rascals! Blackguards!... I'll
12046 teach you to think!" and lifting his stick he swung it and would have
12047 hit Alpatych, the overseer, had not the latter instinctively avoided the
12048 blow. "Thought... Blackguards..." shouted the prince rapidly.
12050 But although Alpatych, frightened at his own temerity in avoiding the
12051 stroke, came up to the prince, bowing his bald head resignedly before
12052 him, or perhaps for that very reason, the prince, though he continued to
12053 shout: "Blackguards!... Throw the snow back on the road!" did not lift
12054 his stick again but hurried into the house.
12056 Before dinner, Princess Mary and Mademoiselle Bourienne, who knew that
12057 the prince was in a bad humor, stood awaiting him; Mademoiselle
12058 Bourienne with a radiant face that said: "I know nothing, I am the same
12059 as usual," and Princess Mary pale, frightened, and with downcast eyes.
12060 What she found hardest to bear was to know that on such occasions she
12061 ought to behave like Mademoiselle Bourienne, but could not. She thought:
12062 "If I seem not to notice he will think that I do not sympathize with
12063 him; if I seem sad and out of spirits myself, he will say (as he has
12064 done before) that I'm in the dumps."
12066 The prince looked at his daughter's frightened face and snorted.
12068 "Fool... or dummy!" he muttered.
12070 "And the other one is not here. They've been telling tales," he thought-
12071 -referring to the little princess who was not in the dining room.
12073 "Where is the princess?" he asked. "Hiding?"
12075 "She is not very well," answered Mademoiselle Bourienne with a bright
12076 smile, "so she won't come down. It is natural in her state."
12078 "Hm! Hm!" muttered the prince, sitting down.
12080 His plate seemed to him not quite clean, and pointing to a spot he flung
12081 it away. Tikhon caught it and handed it to a footman. The little
12082 princess was not unwell, but had such an overpowering fear of the prince
12083 that, hearing he was in a bad humor, she had decided not to appear.
12085 "I am afraid for the baby," she said to Mademoiselle Bourienne: "Heaven
12086 knows what a fright might do."
12088 In general at Bald Hills the little princess lived in constant fear, and
12089 with a sense of antipathy to the old prince which she did not realize
12090 because the fear was so much the stronger feeling. The prince
12091 reciprocated this antipathy, but it was overpowered by his contempt for
12092 her. When the little princess had grown accustomed to life at Bald
12093 Hills, she took a special fancy to Mademoiselle Bourienne, spent whole
12094 days with her, asked her to sleep in her room, and often talked with her
12095 about the old prince and criticized him.
12097 "So we are to have visitors, mon prince?" remarked Mademoiselle
12098 Bourienne, unfolding her white napkin with her rosy fingers. "His
12099 Excellency Prince Vasili Kuragin and his son, I understand?" she said
12102 "Hm!--his excellency is a puppy.... I got him his appointment in the
12103 service," said the prince disdainfully. "Why his son is coming I don't
12104 understand. Perhaps Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary know. I don't
12105 want him." (He looked at his blushing daughter.) "Are you unwell today?
12106 Eh? Afraid of the 'minister' as that idiot Alpatych called him this
12111 Though Mademoiselle Bourienne had been so unsuccessful in her choice of
12112 a subject, she did not stop talking, but chattered about the
12113 conservatories and the beauty of a flower that had just opened, and
12114 after the soup the prince became more genial.
12116 After dinner, he went to see his daughter-in-law. The little princess
12117 was sitting at a small table, chattering with Masha, her maid. She grew
12118 pale on seeing her father-in-law.
12120 She was much altered. She was now plain rather than pretty. Her cheeks
12121 had sunk, her lip was drawn up, and her eyes drawn down.
12123 "Yes, I feel a kind of oppression," she said in reply to the prince's
12124 question as to how she felt.
12126 "Do you want anything?"
12128 "No, merci, mon pere."
12130 "Well, all right, all right."
12132 He left the room and went to the waiting room where Alpatych stood with
12135 "Has the snow been shoveled back?"
12137 "Yes, your excellency. Forgive me for heaven's sake... It was only my
12140 "All right, all right," interrupted the prince, and laughing his
12141 unnatural way, he stretched out his hand for Alpatych to kiss, and then
12142 proceeded to his study.
12144 Prince Vasili arrived that evening. He was met in the avenue by coachmen
12145 and footmen, who, with loud shouts, dragged his sleighs up to one of the
12146 lodges over the road purposely laden with snow.
12148 Prince Vasili and Anatole had separate rooms assigned to them.
12150 Anatole, having taken off his overcoat, sat with arms akimbo before a
12151 table on a corner of which he smilingly and absent-mindedly fixed his
12152 large and handsome eyes. He regarded his whole life as a continual round
12153 of amusement which someone for some reason had to provide for him. And
12154 he looked on this visit to a churlish old man and a rich and ugly
12155 heiress in the same way. All this might, he thought, turn out very well
12156 and amusingly. "And why not marry her if she really has so much money?
12157 That never does any harm," thought Anatole.
12159 He shaved and scented himself with the care and elegance which had
12160 become habitual to him and, his handsome head held high, entered his
12161 father's room with the good-humored and victorious air natural to him.
12162 Prince Vasili's two valets were busy dressing him, and he looked round
12163 with much animation and cheerfully nodded to his son as the latter
12164 entered, as if to say: "Yes, that's how I want you to look."
12166 "I say, Father, joking apart, is she very hideous?" Anatole asked, as if
12167 continuing a conversation the subject of which had often been mentioned
12168 during the journey.
12170 "Enough! What nonsense! Above all, try to be respectful and cautious
12171 with the old prince."
12173 "If he starts a row I'll go away," said Prince Anatole. "I can't bear
12174 those old men! Eh?"
12176 "Remember, for you everything depends on this."
12178 In the meantime, not only was it known in the maidservants' rooms that
12179 the minister and his son had arrived, but the appearance of both had
12180 been minutely described. Princess Mary was sitting alone in her room,
12181 vainly trying to master her agitation.
12183 "Why did they write, why did Lise tell me about it? It can never
12184 happen!" she said, looking at herself in the glass. "How shall I enter
12185 the drawing room? Even if I like him I can't now be myself with him."
12186 The mere thought of her father's look filled her with terror. The little
12187 princess and Mademoiselle Bourienne had already received from Masha, the
12188 lady's maid, the necessary report of how handsome the minister's son
12189 was, with his rosy cheeks and dark eyebrows, and with what difficulty
12190 the father had dragged his legs upstairs while the son had followed him
12191 like an eagle, three steps at a time. Having received this information,
12192 the little princess and Mademoiselle Bourienne, whose chattering voices
12193 had reached her from the corridor, went into Princess Mary's room.
12195 "You know they've come, Marie?" said the little princess, waddling in,
12196 and sinking heavily into an armchair.
12198 She was no longer in the loose gown she generally wore in the morning,
12199 but had on one of her best dresses. Her hair was carefully done and her
12200 face was animated, which, however, did not conceal its sunken and faded
12201 outlines. Dressed as she used to be in Petersburg society, it was still
12202 more noticeable how much plainer she had become. Some unobtrusive touch
12203 had been added to Mademoiselle Bourienne's toilet which rendered her
12204 fresh and pretty face yet more attractive.
12206 "What! Are you going to remain as you are, dear princess?" she began.
12207 "They'll be announcing that the gentlemen are in the drawing room and we
12208 shall have to go down, and you have not smartened yourself up at all!"
12210 The little princess got up, rang for the maid, and hurriedly and merrily
12211 began to devise and carry out a plan of how Princess Mary should be
12212 dressed. Princess Mary's self-esteem was wounded by the fact that the
12213 arrival of a suitor agitated her, and still more so by both her
12214 companions' not having the least conception that it could be otherwise.
12215 To tell them that she felt ashamed for herself and for them would be to
12216 betray her agitation, while to decline their offers to dress her would
12217 prolong their banter and insistence. She flushed, her beautiful eyes
12218 grew dim, red blotches came on her face, and it took on the unattractive
12219 martyrlike expression it so often wore, as she submitted herself to
12220 Mademoiselle Bourienne and Lise. Both these women quite sincerely tried
12221 to make her look pretty. She was so plain that neither of them could
12222 think of her as a rival, so they began dressing her with perfect
12223 sincerity, and with the naive and firm conviction women have that dress
12224 can make a face pretty.
12226 "No really, my dear, this dress is not pretty," said Lise, looking
12227 sideways at Princess Mary from a little distance. "You have a maroon
12228 dress, have it fetched. Really! You know the fate of your whole life may
12229 be at stake. But this one is too light, it's not becoming!"
12231 It was not the dress, but the face and whole figure of Princess Mary
12232 that was not pretty, but neither Mademoiselle Bourienne nor the little
12233 princess felt this; they still thought that if a blue ribbon were placed
12234 in the hair, the hair combed up, and the blue scarf arranged lower on
12235 the best maroon dress, and so on, all would be well. They forgot that
12236 the frightened face and the figure could not be altered, and that
12237 however they might change the setting and adornment of that face, it
12238 would still remain piteous and plain. After two or three changes to
12239 which Princess Mary meekly submitted, just as her hair had been arranged
12240 on the top of her head (a style that quite altered and spoiled her
12241 looks) and she had put on a maroon dress with a pale-blue scarf, the
12242 little princess walked twice round her, now adjusting a fold of the
12243 dress with her little hand, now arranging the scarf and looking at her
12244 with her head bent first on one side and then on the other.
12246 "No, it will not do," she said decidedly, clasping her hands. "No, Mary,
12247 really this dress does not suit you. I prefer you in your little gray
12248 everyday dress. Now please, do it for my sake. Katie," she said to the
12249 maid, "bring the princess her gray dress, and you'll see, Mademoiselle
12250 Bourienne, how I shall arrange it," she added, smiling with a foretaste
12251 of artistic pleasure.
12253 But when Katie brought the required dress, Princess Mary remained
12254 sitting motionless before the glass, looking at her face, and saw in the
12255 mirror her eyes full of tears and her mouth quivering, ready to burst
12258 "Come, dear princess," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, "just one more
12261 The little princess, taking the dress from the maid, came up to Princess
12264 "Well, now we'll arrange something quite simple and becoming," she said.
12266 The three voices, hers, Mademoiselle Bourienne's, and Katie's, who was
12267 laughing at something, mingled in a merry sound, like the chirping of
12270 "No, leave me alone," said Princess Mary.
12272 Her voice sounded so serious and so sad that the chirping of the birds
12273 was silenced at once. They looked at the beautiful, large, thoughtful
12274 eyes full of tears and of thoughts, gazing shiningly and imploringly at
12275 them, and understood that it was useless and even cruel to insist.
12277 "At least, change your coiffure," said the little princess. "Didn't I
12278 tell you," she went on, turning reproachfully to Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12279 "Mary's is a face which such a coiffure does not suit in the least. Not
12280 in the least! Please change it."
12282 "Leave me alone, please leave me alone! It is all quite the same to me,"
12283 answered a voice struggling with tears.
12285 Mademoiselle Bourienne and the little princess had to own to themselves
12286 that Princess Mary in this guise looked very plain, worse than usual,
12287 but it was too late. She was looking at them with an expression they
12288 both knew, an expression thoughtful and sad. This expression in Princess
12289 Mary did not frighten them (she never inspired fear in anyone), but they
12290 knew that when it appeared on her face, she became mute and was not to
12291 be shaken in her determination.
12293 "You will change it, won't you?" said Lise. And as Princess Mary gave no
12294 answer, she left the room.
12296 Princess Mary was left alone. She did not comply with Lise's request,
12297 she not only left her hair as it was, but did not even look in her
12298 glass. Letting her arms fall helplessly, she sat with downcast eyes and
12299 pondered. A husband, a man, a strong dominant and strangely attractive
12300 being rose in her imagination, and carried her into a totally different
12301 happy world of his own. She fancied a child, her own--such as she had
12302 seen the day before in the arms of her nurse's daughter--at her own
12303 breast, the husband standing by and gazing tenderly at her and the
12304 child. "But no, it is impossible, I am too ugly," she thought.
12306 "Please come to tea. The prince will be out in a moment," came the
12307 maid's voice at the door.
12309 She roused herself, and felt appalled at what she had been thinking, and
12310 before going down she went into the room where the icons hung and, her
12311 eyes fixed on the dark face of a large icon of the Saviour lit by a
12312 lamp, she stood before it with folded hands for a few moments. A painful
12313 doubt filled her soul. Could the joy of love, of earthly love for a man,
12314 be for her? In her thoughts of marriage Princess Mary dreamed of
12315 happiness and of children, but her strongest, most deeply hidden longing
12316 was for earthly love. The more she tried to hide this feeling from
12317 others and even from herself, the stronger it grew. "O God," she said,
12318 "how am I to stifle in my heart these temptations of the devil? How am I
12319 to renounce forever these vile fancies, so as peacefully to fulfill Thy
12320 will?" And scarcely had she put that question than God gave her the
12321 answer in her own heart. "Desire nothing for thyself, seek nothing, be
12322 not anxious or envious. Man's future and thy own fate must remain hidden
12323 from thee, but live so that thou mayest be ready for anything. If it be
12324 God's will to prove thee in the duties of marriage, be ready to fulfill
12325 His will." With this consoling thought (but yet with a hope for the
12326 fulfillment of her forbidden earthly longing) Princess Mary sighed, and
12327 having crossed herself went down, thinking neither of her gown and
12328 coiffure nor of how she would go in nor of what she would say. What
12329 could all that matter in comparison with the will of God, without Whose
12330 care not a hair of man's head can fall?
12337 When Princess Mary came down, Prince Vasili and his son were already in
12338 the drawing room, talking to the little princess and Mademoiselle
12339 Bourienne. When she entered with her heavy step, treading on her heels,
12340 the gentlemen and Mademoiselle Bourienne rose and the little princess,
12341 indicating her to the gentlemen, said: "Voila Marie!" Princess Mary saw
12342 them all and saw them in detail. She saw Prince Vasili's face, serious
12343 for an instant at the sight of her, but immediately smiling again, and
12344 the little princess curiously noting the impression "Marie" produced on
12345 the visitors. And she saw Mademoiselle Bourienne, with her ribbon and
12346 pretty face, and her unusually animated look which was fixed on him, but
12347 him she could not see, she only saw something large, brilliant, and
12348 handsome moving toward her as she entered the room. Prince Vasili
12349 approached first, and she kissed the bold forehead that bent over her
12350 hand and answered his question by saying that, on the contrary, she
12351 remembered him quite well. Then Anatole came up to her. She still could
12352 not see him. She only felt a soft hand taking hers firmly, and she
12353 touched with her lips a white forehead, over which was beautiful light-
12354 brown hair smelling of pomade. When she looked up at him she was struck
12355 by his beauty. Anatole stood with his right thumb under a button of his
12356 uniform, his chest expanded and his back drawn in, slightly swinging one
12357 foot, and, with his head a little bent, looked with beaming face at the
12358 princess without speaking and evidently not thinking about her at all.
12359 Anatole was not quick-witted, nor ready or eloquent in conversation, but
12360 he had the faculty, so invaluable in society, of composure and
12361 imperturbable self-possession. If a man lacking in self-confidence
12362 remains dumb on a first introduction and betrays a consciousness of the
12363 impropriety of such silence and an anxiety to find something to say, the
12364 effect is bad. But Anatole was dumb, swung his foot, and smilingly
12365 examined the princess' hair. It was evident that he could be silent in
12366 this way for a very long time. "If anyone finds this silence
12367 inconvenient, let him talk, but I don't want to," he seemed to say.
12368 Besides this, in his behavior to women Anatole had a manner which
12369 particularly inspires in them curiosity, awe, and even love--a
12370 supercilious consciousness of his own superiority. It was as if he said
12371 to them: "I know you, I know you, but why should I bother about you?
12372 You'd be only too glad, of course." Perhaps he did not really think this
12373 when he met women--even probably he did not, for in general he thought
12374 very little--but his looks and manner gave that impression. The princess
12375 felt this, and as if wishing to show him that she did not even dare
12376 expect to interest him, she turned to his father. The conversation was
12377 general and animated, thanks to Princess Lise's voice and little downy
12378 lip that lifted over her white teeth. She met Prince Vasili with that
12379 playful manner often employed by lively chatty people, and consisting in
12380 the assumption that between the person they so address and themselves
12381 there are some semi-private, long-established jokes and amusing
12382 reminiscences, though no such reminiscences really exist--just as none
12383 existed in this case. Prince Vasili readily adopted her tone and the
12384 little princess also drew Anatole, whom she hardly knew, into these
12385 amusing recollections of things that had never occurred. Mademoiselle
12386 Bourienne also shared them and even Princess Mary felt herself
12387 pleasantly made to share in these merry reminiscences.
12389 "Here at least we shall have the benefit of your company all to
12390 ourselves, dear prince," said the little princess (of course, in French)
12391 to Prince Vasili. "It's not as at Annette's * receptions where you
12392 always ran away; you remember cette chere Annette!"
12397 "Ah, but you won't talk politics to me like Annette!"
12399 "And our little tea table?"
12403 "Why is it you were never at Annette's?" the little princess asked
12404 Anatole. "Ah, I know, I know," she said with a sly glance, "your brother
12405 Hippolyte told me about your goings on. Oh!" and she shook her finger at
12406 him, "I have even heard of your doings in Paris!"
12408 "And didn't Hippolyte tell you?" asked Prince Vasili, turning to his son
12409 and seizing the little princess' arm as if she would have run away and
12410 he had just managed to catch her, "didn't he tell you how he himself was
12411 pining for the dear princess, and how she showed him the door? Oh, she
12412 is a pearl among women, Princess," he added, turning to Princess Mary.
12414 When Paris was mentioned, Mademoiselle Bourienne for her part seized the
12415 opportunity of joining in the general current of recollections.
12417 She took the liberty of inquiring whether it was long since Anatole had
12418 left Paris and how he had liked that city. Anatole answered the
12419 Frenchwoman very readily and, looking at her with a smile, talked to her
12420 about her native land. When he saw the pretty little Bourienne, Anatole
12421 came to the conclusion that he would not find Bald Hills dull either.
12422 "Not at all bad!" he thought, examining her, "not at all bad, that
12423 little companion! I hope she will bring her along with her when we're
12424 married, la petite est gentille." *
12427 * The little one is charming.
12429 The old prince dressed leisurely in his study, frowning and considering
12430 what he was to do. The coming of these visitors annoyed him. "What are
12431 Prince Vasili and that son of his to me? Prince Vasili is a shallow
12432 braggart and his son, no doubt, is a fine specimen," he grumbled to
12433 himself. What angered him was that the coming of these visitors revived
12434 in his mind an unsettled question he always tried to stifle, one about
12435 which he always deceived himself. The question was whether he could ever
12436 bring himself to part from his daughter and give her to a husband. The
12437 prince never directly asked himself that question, knowing beforehand
12438 that he would have to answer it justly, and justice clashed not only
12439 with his feelings but with the very possibility of life. Life without
12440 Princess Mary, little as he seemed to value her, was unthinkable to him.
12441 "And why should she marry?" he thought. "To be unhappy for certain.
12442 There's Lise, married to Andrew--a better husband one would think could
12443 hardly be found nowadays--but is she contented with her lot? And who
12444 would marry Marie for love? Plain and awkward! They'll take her for her
12445 connections and wealth. Are there no women living unmarried, and even
12446 the happier for it?" So thought Prince Bolkonski while dressing, and yet
12447 the question he was always putting off demanded an immediate answer.
12448 Prince Vasili had brought his son with the evident intention of
12449 proposing, and today or tomorrow he would probably ask for an answer.
12450 His birth and position in society were not bad. "Well, I've nothing
12451 against it," the prince said to himself, "but he must be worthy of her.
12452 And that is what we shall see."
12454 "That is what we shall see! That is what we shall see!" he added aloud.
12456 He entered the drawing room with his usual alert step, glancing rapidly
12457 round the company. He noticed the change in the little princess' dress,
12458 Mademoiselle Bourienne's ribbon, Princess Mary's unbecoming coiffure,
12459 Mademoiselle Bourienne's and Anatole's smiles, and the loneliness of his
12460 daughter amid the general conversation. "Got herself up like a fool!" he
12461 thought, looking irritably at her. "She is shameless, and he ignores
12464 He went straight up to Prince Vasili.
12466 "Well! How d'ye do? How d'ye do? Glad to see you!"
12468 "Friendship laughs at distance," began Prince Vasili in his usual rapid,
12469 self-confident, familiar tone. "Here is my second son; please love and
12472 Prince Bolkonski surveyed Anatole.
12474 "Fine young fellow! Fine young fellow!" he said. "Well, come and kiss
12475 me," and he offered his cheek.
12477 Anatole kissed the old man, and looked at him with curiosity and perfect
12478 composure, waiting for a display of the eccentricities his father had
12479 told him to expect.
12481 Prince Bolkonski sat down in his usual place in the corner of the sofa
12482 and, drawing up an armchair for Prince Vasili, pointed to it and began
12483 questioning him about political affairs and news. He seemed to listen
12484 attentively to what Prince Vasili said, but kept glancing at Princess
12487 "And so they are writing from Potsdam already?" he said, repeating
12488 Prince Vasili's last words. Then rising, he suddenly went up to his
12491 "Is it for visitors you've got yourself up like that, eh?" said he.
12492 "Fine, very fine! You have done up your hair in this new way for the
12493 visitors, and before the visitors I tell you that in future you are
12494 never to dare to change your way of dress without my consent."
12496 "It was my fault, mon pere," interceded the little princess, with a
12499 "You must do as you please," said Prince Bolkonski, bowing to his
12500 daughter-in-law, "but she need not make a fool of herself, she's plain
12503 And he sat down again, paying no more attention to his daughter, who was
12506 "On the contrary, that coiffure suits the princess very well," said
12509 "Now you, young prince, what's your name?" said Prince Bolkonski,
12510 turning to Anatole, "come here, let us talk and get acquainted."
12512 "Now the fun begins," thought Anatole, sitting down with a smile beside
12515 "Well, my dear boy, I hear you've been educated abroad, not taught to
12516 read and write by the deacon, like your father and me. Now tell me, my
12517 dear boy, are you serving in the Horse Guards?" asked the old man,
12518 scrutinizing Anatole closely and intently.
12520 "No, I have been transferred to the line," said Anatole, hardly able to
12521 restrain his laughter.
12523 "Ah! That's a good thing. So, my dear boy, you wish to serve the Tsar
12524 and the country? It is wartime. Such a fine fellow must serve. Well, are
12525 you off to the front?"
12527 "No, Prince, our regiment has gone to the front, but I am attached...
12528 what is it I am attached to, Papa?" said Anatole, turning to his father
12531 "A splendid soldier, splendid! 'What am I attached to!' Ha, ha, ha!"
12532 laughed Prince Bolkonski, and Anatole laughed still louder. Suddenly
12533 Prince Bolkonski frowned.
12535 "You may go," he said to Anatole.
12537 Anatole returned smiling to the ladies.
12539 "And so you've had him educated abroad, Prince Vasili, haven't you?"
12540 said the old prince to Prince Vasili.
12542 "I have done my best for him, and I can assure you the education there
12543 is much better than ours."
12545 "Yes, everything is different nowadays, everything is changed. The lad's
12546 a fine fellow, a fine fellow! Well, come with me now." He took Prince
12547 Vasili's arm and led him to his study. As soon as they were alone
12548 together, Prince Vasili announced his hopes and wishes to the old
12551 "Well, do you think I shall prevent her, that I can't part from her?"
12552 said the old prince angrily. "What an idea! I'm ready for it tomorrow!
12553 Only let me tell you, I want to know my son-in-law better. You know my
12554 principles--everything aboveboard? I will ask her tomorrow in your
12555 presence; if she is willing, then he can stay on. He can stay and I'll
12556 see." The old prince snorted. "Let her marry, it's all the same to me!"
12557 he screamed in the same piercing tone as when parting from his son.
12559 "I will tell you frankly," said Prince Vasili in the tone of a crafty
12560 man convinced of the futility of being cunning with so keen-sighted a
12561 companion. "You know, you see right through people. Anatole is no
12562 genius, but he is an honest, goodhearted lad; an excellent son or
12565 "All right, all right, we'll see!"
12567 As always happens when women lead lonely lives for any length of time
12568 without male society, on Anatole's appearance all the three women of
12569 Prince Bolkonski's household felt that their life had not been real till
12570 then. Their powers of reasoning, feeling, and observing immediately
12571 increased tenfold, and their life, which seemed to have been passed in
12572 darkness, was suddenly lit up by a new brightness, full of significance.
12574 Princess Mary grew quite unconscious of her face and coiffure. The
12575 handsome open face of the man who might perhaps be her husband absorbed
12576 all her attention. He seemed to her kind, brave, determined, manly, and
12577 magnanimous. She felt convinced of that. Thousands of dreams of a future
12578 family life continually rose in her imagination. She drove them away and
12579 tried to conceal them.
12581 "But am I not too cold with him?" thought the princess. "I try to be
12582 reserved because in the depth of my soul I feel too near to him already,
12583 but then he cannot know what I think of him and may imagine that I do
12586 And Princess Mary tried, but could not manage, to be cordial to her new
12587 guest. "Poor girl, she's devilish ugly!" thought Anatole.
12589 Mademoiselle Bourienne, also roused to great excitement by Anatole's
12590 arrival, thought in another way. Of course, she, a handsome young woman
12591 without any definite position, without relations or even a country, did
12592 not intend to devote her life to serving Prince Bolkonski, to reading
12593 aloud to him and being friends with Princess Mary. Mademoiselle
12594 Bourienne had long been waiting for a Russian prince who, able to
12595 appreciate at a glance her superiority to the plain, badly dressed,
12596 ungainly Russian princesses, would fall in love with her and carry her
12597 off; and here at last was a Russian prince. Mademoiselle Bourienne knew
12598 a story, heard from her aunt but finished in her own way, which she
12599 liked to repeat to herself. It was the story of a girl who had been
12600 seduced, and to whom her poor mother (sa pauvre mere) appeared, and
12601 reproached her for yielding to a man without being married. Mademoiselle
12602 Bourienne was often touched to tears as in imagination she told this
12603 story to him, her seducer. And now he, a real Russian prince, had
12604 appeared. He would carry her away and then sa pauvre mere would appear
12605 and he would marry her. So her future shaped itself in Mademoiselle
12606 Bourienne's head at the very time she was talking to Anatole about
12607 Paris. It was not calculation that guided her (she did not even for a
12608 moment consider what she should do), but all this had long been familiar
12609 to her, and now that Anatole had appeared it just grouped itself around
12610 him and she wished and tried to please him as much as possible.
12612 The little princess, like an old war horse that hears the trumpet,
12613 unconsciously and quite forgetting her condition, prepared for the
12614 familiar gallop of coquetry, without any ulterior motive or any
12615 struggle, but with naive and lighthearted gaiety.
12617 Although in female society Anatole usually assumed the role of a man
12618 tired of being run after by women, his vanity was flattered by the
12619 spectacle of his power over these three women. Besides that, he was
12620 beginning to feel for the pretty and provocative Mademoiselle Bourienne
12621 that passionate animal feeling which was apt to master him with great
12622 suddenness and prompt him to the coarsest and most reckless actions.
12624 After tea, the company went into the sitting room and Princess Mary was
12625 asked to play on the clavichord. Anatole, laughing and in high spirits,
12626 came and leaned on his elbows, facing her and beside Mademoiselle
12627 Bourienne. Princess Mary felt his look with a painfully joyous emotion.
12628 Her favorite sonata bore her into a most intimately poetic world and the
12629 look she felt upon her made that world still more poetic. But Anatole's
12630 expression, though his eyes were fixed on her, referred not to her but
12631 to the movements of Mademoiselle Bourienne's little foot, which he was
12632 then touching with his own under the clavichord. Mademoiselle Bourienne
12633 was also looking at Princess Mary, and in her lovely eyes there was a
12634 look of fearful joy and hope that was also new to the princess.
12636 "How she loves me!" thought Princess Mary. "How happy I am now, and how
12637 happy I may be with such a friend and such a husband! Husband? Can it be
12638 possible?" she thought, not daring to look at his face, but still
12639 feeling his eyes gazing at her.
12641 In the evening, after supper, when all were about to retire, Anatole
12642 kissed Princess Mary's hand. She did not know how she found the courage,
12643 but she looked straight into his handsome face as it came near to her
12644 shortsighted eyes. Turning from Princess Mary he went up and kissed
12645 Mademoiselle Bourienne's hand. (This was not etiquette, but then he did
12646 everything so simply and with such assurance!) Mademoiselle Bourienne
12647 flushed, and gave the princess a frightened look.
12649 "What delicacy!" thought the princess. "Is it possible that Amelie"
12650 (Mademoiselle Bourienne) "thinks I could be jealous of her, and not
12651 value her pure affection and devotion to me?" She went up to her and
12652 kissed her warmly. Anatole went up to kiss the little princess' hand.
12654 "No! No! No! When your father writes to tell me that you are behaving
12655 well I will give you my hand to kiss. Not till then!" she said. And
12656 smilingly raising a finger at him, she left the room.
12663 They all separated, but, except Anatole who fell asleep as soon as he
12664 got into bed, all kept awake a long time that night.
12666 "Is he really to be my husband, this stranger who is so kind--yes, kind,
12667 that is the chief thing," thought Princess Mary; and fear, which she had
12668 seldom experienced, came upon her. She feared to look round, it seemed
12669 to her that someone was there standing behind the screen in the dark
12670 corner. And this someone was he--the devil--and he was also this man
12671 with the white forehead, black eyebrows, and red lips.
12673 She rang for her maid and asked her to sleep in her room.
12675 Mademoiselle Bourienne walked up and down the conservatory for a long
12676 time that evening, vainly expecting someone, now smiling at someone, now
12677 working herself up to tears with the imaginary words of her pauvre mere
12678 rebuking her for her fall.
12680 The little princess grumbled to her maid that her bed was badly made.
12681 She could not lie either on her face or on her side. Every position was
12682 awkward and uncomfortable, and her burden oppressed her now more than
12683 ever because Anatole's presence had vividly recalled to her the time
12684 when she was not like that and when everything was light and gay. She
12685 sat in an armchair in her dressing jacket and nightcap and Katie, sleepy
12686 and disheveled, beat and turned the heavy feather bed for the third
12687 time, muttering to herself.
12689 "I told you it was all lumps and holes!" the little princess repeated.
12690 "I should be glad enough to fall asleep, so it's not my fault!" and her
12691 voice quivered like that of a child about to cry.
12693 The old prince did not sleep either. Tikhon, half asleep, heard him
12694 pacing angrily about and snorting. The old prince felt as though he had
12695 been insulted through his daughter. The insult was the more pointed
12696 because it concerned not himself but another, his daughter, whom he
12697 loved more than himself. He kept telling himself that he would consider
12698 the whole matter and decide what was right and how he should act, but
12699 instead of that he only excited himself more and more.
12701 "The first man that turns up--she forgets her father and everything
12702 else, runs upstairs and does up her hair and wags her tail and is unlike
12703 herself! Glad to throw her father over! And she knew I should notice it.
12704 Fr... fr... fr! And don't I see that that idiot had eyes only for
12705 Bourienne--I shall have to get rid of her. And how is it she has not
12706 pride enough to see it? If she has no pride for herself she might at
12707 least have some for my sake! She must be shown that the blockhead thinks
12708 nothing of her and looks only at Bourienne. No, she has no pride... but
12709 I'll let her see...."
12711 The old prince knew that if he told his daughter she was making a
12712 mistake and that Anatole meant to flirt with Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12713 Princess Mary's self-esteem would be wounded and his point (not to be
12714 parted from her) would be gained, so pacifying himself with this
12715 thought, he called Tikhon and began to undress.
12717 "What devil brought them here?" thought he, while Tikhon was putting the
12718 nightshirt over his dried-up old body and gray-haired chest. "I never
12719 invited them. They came to disturb my life--and there is not much of it
12722 "Devil take 'em!" he muttered, while his head was still covered by the
12725 Tikhon knew his master's habit of sometimes thinking aloud, and
12726 therefore met with unaltered looks the angrily inquisitive expression of
12727 the face that emerged from the shirt.
12729 "Gone to bed?" asked the prince.
12731 Tikhon, like all good valets, instinctively knew the direction of his
12732 master's thoughts. He guessed that the question referred to Prince
12733 Vasili and his son.
12735 "They have gone to bed and put out their lights, your excellency."
12737 "No good... no good..." said the prince rapidly, and thrusting his feet
12738 into his slippers and his arms into the sleeves of his dressing gown, he
12739 went to the couch on which he slept.
12741 Though no words had passed between Anatole and Mademoiselle Bourienne,
12742 they quite understood one another as to the first part of their romance,
12743 up to the appearance of the pauvre mere; they understood that they had
12744 much to say to one another in private and so they had been seeking an
12745 opportunity since morning to meet one another alone. When Princess Mary
12746 went to her father's room at the usual hour, Mademoiselle Bourienne and
12747 Anatole met in the conservatory.
12749 Princess Mary went to the door of the study with special trepidation. It
12750 seemed to her that not only did everybody know that her fate would be
12751 decided that day, but that they also knew what she thought about it. She
12752 read this in Tikhon's face and in that of Prince Vasili's valet, who
12753 made her a low bow when she met him in the corridor carrying hot water.
12755 The old prince was very affectionate and careful in his treatment of his
12756 daughter that morning. Princess Mary well knew this painstaking
12757 expression of her father's. His face wore that expression when his dry
12758 hands clenched with vexation at her not understanding a sum in
12759 arithmetic, when rising from his chair he would walk away from her,
12760 repeating in a low voice the same words several times over.
12762 He came to the point at once, treating her ceremoniously.
12764 "I have had a proposition made me concerning you," he said with an
12765 unnatural smile. "I expect you have guessed that Prince Vasili has not
12766 come and brought his pupil with him" (for some reason Prince Bolkonski
12767 referred to Anatole as a "pupil") "for the sake of my beautiful eyes.
12768 Last night a proposition was made me on your account and, as you know my
12769 principles, I refer it to you."
12771 "How am I to understand you, mon pere?" said the princess, growing pale
12774 "How understand me!" cried her father angrily. "Prince Vasili finds you
12775 to his taste as a daughter-in-law and makes a proposal to you on his
12776 pupil's behalf. That's how it's to be understood! 'How understand
12777 it'!... And I ask you!"
12779 "I do not know what you think, Father," whispered the princess.
12781 "I? I? What of me? Leave me out of the question. I'm not going to get
12782 married. What about you? That's what I want to know."
12784 The princess saw that her father regarded the matter with disapproval,
12785 but at that moment the thought occurred to her that her fate would be
12786 decided now or never. She lowered her eyes so as not to see the gaze
12787 under which she felt that she could not think, but would only be able to
12788 submit from habit, and she said: "I wish only to do your will, but if I
12789 had to express my own desire..." She had no time to finish. The old
12790 prince interrupted her.
12792 "That's admirable!" he shouted. "He will take you with your dowry and
12793 take Mademoiselle Bourienne into the bargain. She'll be the wife, while
12796 The prince stopped. He saw the effect these words had produced on his
12797 daughter. She lowered her head and was ready to burst into tears.
12799 "Now then, now then, I'm only joking!" he said. "Remember this,
12800 Princess, I hold to the principle that a maiden has a full right to
12801 choose. I give you freedom. Only remember that your life's happiness
12802 depends on your decision. Never mind me!"
12804 "But I do not know, Father!"
12806 "There's no need to talk! He receives his orders and will marry you or
12807 anybody; but you are free to choose.... Go to your room, think it over,
12808 and come back in an hour and tell me in his presence: yes or no. I know
12809 you will pray over it. Well, pray if you like, but you had better think
12810 it over. Go! Yes or no, yes or no, yes or no!" he still shouted when the
12811 princess, as if lost in a fog, had already staggered out of the study.
12813 Her fate was decided and happily decided. But what her father had said
12814 about Mademoiselle Bourienne was dreadful. It was untrue to be sure, but
12815 still it was terrible, and she could not help thinking of it. She was
12816 going straight on through the conservatory, neither seeing nor hearing
12817 anything, when suddenly the well-known whispering of Mademoiselle
12818 Bourienne aroused her. She raised her eyes, and two steps away saw
12819 Anatole embracing the Frenchwoman and whispering something to her. With
12820 a horrified expression on his handsome face, Anatole looked at Princess
12821 Mary, but did not at once take his arm from the waist of Mademoiselle
12822 Bourienne who had not yet seen her.
12824 "Who's that? Why? Wait a moment!" Anatole's face seemed to say. Princess
12825 Mary looked at them in silence. She could not understand it. At last
12826 Mademoiselle Bourienne gave a scream and ran away. Anatole bowed to
12827 Princess Mary with a gay smile, as if inviting her to join in a laugh at
12828 this strange incident, and then shrugging his shoulders went to the door
12829 that led to his own apartments.
12831 An hour later, Tikhon came to call Princess Mary to the old prince; he
12832 added that Prince Vasili was also there. When Tikhon came to her
12833 Princess Mary was sitting on the sofa in her room, holding the weeping
12834 Mademoiselle Bourienne in her arms and gently stroking her hair. The
12835 princess' beautiful eyes with all their former calm radiance were
12836 looking with tender affection and pity at Mademoiselle Bourienne's
12839 "No, Princess, I have lost your affection forever!" said Mademoiselle
12842 "Why? I love you more than ever," said Princess Mary, "and I will try to
12843 do all I can for your happiness."
12845 "But you despise me. You who are so pure can never understand being so
12846 carried away by passion. Oh, only my poor mother..."
12848 "I quite understand," answered Princess Mary, with a sad smile. "Calm
12849 yourself, my dear. I will go to my father," she said, and went out.
12851 Prince Vasili, with one leg thrown high over the other and a snuffbox in
12852 his hand, was sitting there with a smile of deep emotion on his face, as
12853 if stirred to his heart's core and himself regretting and laughing at
12854 his own sensibility, when Princess Mary entered. He hurriedly took a
12857 "Ah, my dear, my dear!" he began, rising and taking her by both hands.
12858 Then, sighing, he added: "My son's fate is in your hands. Decide, my
12859 dear, good, gentle Marie, whom I have always loved as a daughter!"
12861 He drew back and a real tear appeared in his eye.
12863 "Fr... fr..." snorted Prince Bolkonski. "The prince is making a
12864 proposition to you in his pupil's--I mean, his son's--name. Do you wish
12865 or not to be Prince Anatole Kuragin's wife? Reply: yes or no," he
12866 shouted, "and then I shall reserve the right to state my opinion also.
12867 Yes, my opinion, and only my opinion," added Prince Bolkonski, turning
12868 to Prince Vasili and answering his imploring look. "Yes, or no?"
12870 "My desire is never to leave you, Father, never to separate my life from
12871 yours. I don't wish to marry," she answered positively, glancing at
12872 Prince Vasili and at her father with her beautiful eyes.
12874 "Humbug! Nonsense! Humbug, humbug, humbug!" cried Prince Bolkonski,
12875 frowning and taking his daughter's hand; he did not kiss her, but only
12876 bending his forehead to hers just touched it, and pressed her hand so
12877 that she winced and uttered a cry.
12879 Prince Vasili rose.
12881 "My dear, I must tell you that this is a moment I shall never, never
12882 forget. But, my dear, will you not give us a little hope of touching
12883 this heart, so kind and generous? Say 'perhaps'... The future is so
12884 long. Say 'perhaps.'"
12886 "Prince, what I have said is all there is in my heart. I thank you for
12887 the honor, but I shall never be your son's wife."
12889 "Well, so that's finished, my dear fellow! I am very glad to have seen
12890 you. Very glad! Go back to your rooms, Princess. Go!" said the old
12891 prince. "Very, very glad to have seen you," repeated he, embracing
12894 "My vocation is a different one," thought Princess Mary. "My vocation is
12895 to be happy with another kind of happiness, the happiness of love and
12896 self-sacrifice. And cost what it may, I will arrange poor Amelie's
12897 happiness, she loves him so passionately, and so passionately repents. I
12898 will do all I can to arrange the match between them. If he is not rich I
12899 will give her the means; I will ask my father and Andrew. I shall be so
12900 happy when she is his wife. She is so unfortunate, a stranger, alone,
12901 helpless! And, oh God, how passionately she must love him if she could
12902 so far forget herself! Perhaps I might have done the same!..." thought
12910 It was long since the Rostovs had news of Nicholas. Not till midwinter
12911 was the count at last handed a letter addressed in his son's
12912 handwriting. On receiving it, he ran on tiptoe to his study in alarm and
12913 haste, trying to escape notice, closed the door, and began to read the
12916 Anna Mikhaylovna, who always knew everything that passed in the house,
12917 on hearing of the arrival of the letter went softly into the room and
12918 found the count with it in his hand, sobbing and laughing at the same
12921 Anna Mikhaylovna, though her circumstances had improved, was still
12922 living with the Rostovs.
12924 "My dear friend?" said she, in a tone of pathetic inquiry, prepared to
12925 sympathize in any way.
12927 The count sobbed yet more.
12929 "Nikolenka... a letter... wa... a... s... wounded... my darling boy...
12930 the countess... promoted to be an officer... thank God... How tell the
12933 Anna Mikhaylovna sat down beside him, with her own handkerchief wiped
12934 the tears from his eyes and from the letter, then having dried her own
12935 eyes she comforted the count, and decided that at dinner and till
12936 teatime she would prepare the countess, and after tea, with God's help,
12939 At dinner Anna Mikhaylovna talked the whole time about the war news and
12940 about Nikolenka, twice asked when the last letter had been received from
12941 him, though she knew that already, and remarked that they might very
12942 likely be getting a letter from him that day. Each time that these hints
12943 began to make the countess anxious and she glanced uneasily at the count
12944 and at Anna Mikhaylovna, the latter very adroitly turned the
12945 conversation to insignificant matters. Natasha, who, of the whole
12946 family, was the most gifted with a capacity to feel any shades of
12947 intonation, look, and expression, pricked up her ears from the beginning
12948 of the meal and was certain that there was some secret between her
12949 father and Anna Mikhaylovna, that it had something to do with her
12950 brother, and that Anna Mikhaylovna was preparing them for it. Bold as
12951 she was, Natasha, who knew how sensitive her mother was to anything
12952 relating to Nikolenka, did not venture to ask any questions at dinner,
12953 but she was too excited to eat anything and kept wriggling about on her
12954 chair regardless of her governess' remarks. After dinner, she rushed
12955 head long after Anna Mikhaylovna and, dashing at her, flung herself on
12956 her neck as soon as she overtook her in the sitting room.
12958 "Auntie, darling, do tell me what it is!"
12960 "Nothing, my dear."
12962 "No, dearest, sweet one, honey, I won't give up--I know you know
12965 Anna Mikhaylovna shook her head.
12967 "You are a little slyboots," she said.
12969 "A letter from Nikolenka! I'm sure of it!" exclaimed Natasha, reading
12970 confirmation in Anna Mikhaylovna's face.
12972 "But for God's sake, be careful, you know how it may affect your mamma."
12974 "I will, I will, only tell me! You won't? Then I will go and tell at
12977 Anna Mikhaylovna, in a few words, told her the contents of the letter,
12978 on condition that she should tell no one.
12980 "No, on my true word of honor," said Natasha, crossing herself, "I won't
12981 tell anyone!" and she ran off at once to Sonya.
12983 "Nikolenka... wounded... a letter," she announced in gleeful triumph.
12985 "Nicholas!" was all Sonya said, instantly turning white.
12987 Natasha, seeing the impression the news of her brother's wound produced
12988 on Sonya, felt for the first time the sorrowful side of the news.
12990 She rushed to Sonya, hugged her, and began to cry.
12992 "A little wound, but he has been made an officer; he is well now, he
12993 wrote himself," said she through her tears.
12995 "There now! It's true that all you women are crybabies," remarked Petya,
12996 pacing the room with large, resolute strides. "Now I'm very glad, very
12997 glad indeed, that my brother has distinguished himself so. You are all
12998 blubberers and understand nothing."
13000 Natasha smiled through her tears.
13002 "You haven't read the letter?" asked Sonya.
13004 "No, but she said that it was all over and that he's now an officer."
13006 "Thank God!" said Sonya, crossing herself. "But perhaps she deceived
13007 you. Let us go to Mamma."
13009 Petya paced the room in silence for a time.
13011 "If I'd been in Nikolenka's place I would have killed even more of those
13012 Frenchmen," he said. "What nasty brutes they are! I'd have killed so
13013 many that there'd have been a heap of them."
13015 "Hold your tongue, Petya, what a goose you are!"
13017 "I'm not a goose, but they are who cry about trifles," said Petya.
13019 "Do you remember him?" Natasha suddenly asked, after a moment's silence.
13023 "Do I remember Nicholas?"
13025 "No, Sonya, but do you remember so that you remember him perfectly,
13026 remember everything?" said Natasha, with an expressive gesture,
13027 evidently wishing to give her words a very definite meaning. "I remember
13028 Nikolenka too, I remember him well," she said. "But I don't remember
13029 Boris. I don't remember him a bit."
13031 "What! You don't remember Boris?" asked Sonya in surprise.
13033 "It's not that I don't remember--I know what he is like, but not as I
13034 remember Nikolenka. Him--I just shut my eyes and remember, but Boris...
13035 No!" (She shut her eyes.) "No! there's nothing at all."
13037 "Oh, Natasha!" said Sonya, looking ecstatically and earnestly at her
13038 friend as if she did not consider her worthy to hear what she meant to
13039 say and as if she were saying it to someone else, with whom joking was
13040 out of the question, "I am in love with your brother once for all and,
13041 whatever may happen to him or to me, shall never cease to love him as
13044 Natasha looked at Sonya with wondering and inquisitive eyes, and said
13045 nothing. She felt that Sonya was speaking the truth, that there was such
13046 love as Sonya was speaking of. But Natasha had not yet felt anything
13047 like it. She believed it could be, but did not understand it.
13049 "Shall you write to him?" she asked.
13051 Sonya became thoughtful. The question of how to write to Nicholas, and
13052 whether she ought to write, tormented her. Now that he was already an
13053 officer and a wounded hero, would it be right to remind him of herself
13054 and, as it might seem, of the obligations to her he had taken on
13057 "I don't know. I think if he writes, I will write too," she said,
13060 "And you won't feel ashamed to write to him?"
13066 "And I should be ashamed to write to Boris. I'm not going to."
13068 "Why should you be ashamed?"
13070 "Well, I don't know. It's awkward and would make me ashamed."
13072 "And I know why she'd be ashamed," said Petya, offended by Natasha's
13073 previous remark. "It's because she was in love with that fat one in
13074 spectacles" (that was how Petya described his namesake, the new Count
13075 Bezukhov) "and now she's in love with that singer" (he meant Natasha's
13076 Italian singing master), "that's why she's ashamed!"
13078 "Petya, you're a stupid!" said Natasha.
13080 "Not more stupid than you, madam," said the nine-year-old Petya, with
13081 the air of an old brigadier.
13083 The countess had been prepared by Anna Mikhaylovna's hints at dinner. On
13084 retiring to her own room, she sat in an armchair, her eyes fixed on a
13085 miniature portrait of her son on the lid of a snuffbox, while the tears
13086 kept coming into her eyes. Anna Mikhaylovna, with the letter, came on
13087 tiptoe to the countess' door and paused.
13089 "Don't come in," she said to the old count who was following her. "Come
13090 later." And she went in, closing the door behind her.
13092 The count put his ear to the keyhole and listened.
13094 At first he heard the sound of indifferent voices, then Anna
13095 Mikhaylovna's voice alone in a long speech, then a cry, then silence,
13096 then both voices together with glad intonations, and then footsteps.
13097 Anna Mikhaylovna opened the door. Her face wore the proud expression of
13098 a surgeon who has just performed a difficult operation and admits the
13099 public to appreciate his skill.
13101 "It is done!" she said to the count, pointing triumphantly to the
13102 countess, who sat holding in one hand the snuffbox with its portrait and
13103 in the other the letter, and pressing them alternately to her lips.
13105 When she saw the count, she stretched out her arms to him, embraced his
13106 bald head, over which she again looked at the letter and the portrait,
13107 and in order to press them again to her lips, she slightly pushed away
13108 the bald head. Vera, Natasha, Sonya, and Petya now entered the room, and
13109 the reading of the letter began. After a brief description of the
13110 campaign and the two battles in which he had taken part, and his
13111 promotion, Nicholas said that he kissed his father's and mother's hands
13112 asking for their blessing, and that he kissed Vera, Natasha, and Petya.
13113 Besides that, he sent greetings to Monsieur Schelling, Madame Schoss,
13114 and his old nurse, and asked them to kiss for him "dear Sonya, whom he
13115 loved and thought of just the same as ever." When she heard this Sonya
13116 blushed so that tears came into her eyes and, unable to bear the looks
13117 turned upon her, ran away into the dancing hall, whirled round it at
13118 full speed with her dress puffed out like a balloon, and, flushed and
13119 smiling, plumped down on the floor. The countess was crying.
13121 "Why are you crying, Mamma?" asked Vera. "From all he says one should be
13124 This was quite true, but the count, the countess, and Natasha looked at
13125 her reproachfully. "And who is it she takes after?" thought the
13128 Nicholas' letter was read over hundreds of times, and those who were
13129 considered worthy to hear it had to come to the countess, for she did
13130 not let it out of her hands. The tutors came, and the nurses, and
13131 Dmitri, and several acquaintances, and the countess reread the letter
13132 each time with fresh pleasure and each time discovered in it fresh
13133 proofs of Nikolenka's virtues. How strange, how extraordinary, how
13134 joyful it seemed, that her son, the scarcely perceptible motion of whose
13135 tiny limbs she had felt twenty years ago within her, that son about whom
13136 she used to have quarrels with the too indulgent count, that son who had
13137 first learned to say "pear" and then "granny," that this son should now
13138 be away in a foreign land amid strange surroundings, a manly warrior
13139 doing some kind of man's work of his own, without help or guidance. The
13140 universal experience of ages, showing that children do grow
13141 imperceptibly from the cradle to manhood, did not exist for the
13142 countess. Her son's growth toward manhood, at each of its stages, had
13143 seemed as extraordinary to her as if there had never existed the
13144 millions of human beings who grew up in the same way. As twenty years
13145 before, it seemed impossible that the little creature who lived
13146 somewhere under her heart would ever cry, suck her breast, and begin to
13147 speak, so now she could not believe that that little creature could be
13148 this strong, brave man, this model son and officer that, judging by this
13149 letter, he now was.
13151 "What a style! How charmingly he describes!" said she, reading the
13152 descriptive part of the letter. "And what a soul! Not a word about
13153 himself.... Not a word! About some Denisov or other, though he himself,
13154 I dare say, is braver than any of them. He says nothing about his
13155 sufferings. What a heart! How like him it is! And how he has remembered
13156 everybody! Not forgetting anyone. I always said when he was only so
13157 high--I always said...."
13159 For more than a week preparations were being made, rough drafts of
13160 letters to Nicholas from all the household were written and copied out,
13161 while under the supervision of the countess and the solicitude of the
13162 count, money and all things necessary for the uniform and equipment of
13163 the newly commissioned officer were collected. Anna Mikhaylovna,
13164 practical woman that she was, had even managed by favor with army
13165 authorities to secure advantageous means of communication for herself
13166 and her son. She had opportunities of sending her letters to the Grand
13167 Duke Constantine Pavlovich, who commanded the Guards. The Rostovs
13168 supposed that The Russian Guards, Abroad, was quite a definite address,
13169 and that if a letter reached the Grand Duke in command of the Guards
13170 there was no reason why it should not reach the Pavlograd regiment,
13171 which was presumably somewhere in the same neighborhood. And so it was
13172 decided to send the letters and money by the Grand Duke's courier to
13173 Boris and Boris was to forward them to Nicholas. The letters were from
13174 the old count, the countess, Petya, Vera, Natasha, and Sonya, and
13175 finally there were six thousand rubles for his outfit and various other
13176 things the old count sent to his son.
13183 On the twelfth of November, Kutuzov's active army, in camp before
13184 Olmutz, was preparing to be reviewed next day by the two Emperors--the
13185 Russian and the Austrian. The Guards, just arrived from Russia, spent
13186 the night ten miles from Olmutz and next morning were to come straight
13187 to the review, reaching the field at Olmutz by ten o'clock.
13189 That day Nicholas Rostov received a letter from Boris, telling him that
13190 the Ismaylov regiment was quartered for the night ten miles from Olmutz
13191 and that he wanted to see him as he had a letter and money for him.
13192 Rostov was particularly in need of money now that the troops, after
13193 their active service, were stationed near Olmutz and the camp swarmed
13194 with well-provisioned sutlers and Austrian Jews offering all sorts of
13195 tempting wares. The Pavlograds held feast after feast, celebrating
13196 awards they had received for the campaign, and made expeditions to
13197 Olmutz to visit a certain Caroline the Hungarian, who had recently
13198 opened a restaurant there with girls as waitresses. Rostov, who had just
13199 celebrated his promotion to a cornetcy and bought Denisov's horse,
13200 Bedouin, was in debt all round, to his comrades and the sutlers. On
13201 receiving Boris' letter he rode with a fellow officer to Olmutz, dined
13202 there, drank a bottle of wine, and then set off alone to the Guards'
13203 camp to find his old playmate. Rostov had not yet had time to get his
13204 uniform. He had on a shabby cadet jacket, decorated with a soldier's
13205 cross, equally shabby cadet's riding breeches lined with worn leather,
13206 and an officer's saber with a sword knot. The Don horse he was riding
13207 was one he had bought from a Cossack during the campaign, and he wore a
13208 crumpled hussar cap stuck jauntily back on one side of his head. As he
13209 rode up to the camp he thought how he would impress Boris and all his
13210 comrades of the Guards by his appearance--that of a fighting hussar who
13211 had been under fire.
13213 The Guards had made their whole march as if on a pleasure trip, parading
13214 their cleanliness and discipline. They had come by easy stages, their
13215 knapsacks conveyed on carts, and the Austrian authorities had provided
13216 excellent dinners for the officers at every halting place. The regiments
13217 had entered and left the town with their bands playing, and by the Grand
13218 Duke's orders the men had marched all the way in step (a practice on
13219 which the Guards prided themselves), the officers on foot and at their
13220 proper posts. Boris had been quartered, and had marched all the way,
13221 with Berg who was already in command of a company. Berg, who had
13222 obtained his captaincy during the campaign, had gained the confidence of
13223 his superiors by his promptitude and accuracy and had arranged his money
13224 matters very satisfactorily. Boris, during the campaign, had made the
13225 acquaintance of many persons who might prove useful to him, and by a
13226 letter of recommendation he had brought from Pierre had become
13227 acquainted with Prince Andrew Bolkonski, through whom he hoped to obtain
13228 a post on the commander-in-chief's staff. Berg and Boris, having rested
13229 after yesterday's march, were sitting, clean and neatly dressed, at a
13230 round table in the clean quarters allotted to them, playing chess. Berg
13231 held a smoking pipe between his knees. Boris, in the accurate way
13232 characteristic of him, was building a little pyramid of chessmen with
13233 his delicate white fingers while awaiting Berg's move, and watched his
13234 opponent's face, evidently thinking about the game as he always thought
13235 only of whatever he was engaged on.
13237 "Well, how are you going to get out of that?" he remarked.
13239 "We'll try to," replied Berg, touching a pawn and then removing his
13242 At that moment the door opened.
13244 "Here he is at last!" shouted Rostov. "And Berg too! Oh, you
13245 petisenfans, allay cushay dormir!" he exclaimed, imitating his Russian
13246 nurse's French, at which he and Boris used to laugh long ago.
13248 "Dear me, how you have changed!"
13250 Boris rose to meet Rostov, but in doing so did not omit to steady and
13251 replace some chessmen that were falling. He was about to embrace his
13252 friend, but Nicholas avoided him. With that peculiar feeling of youth,
13253 that dread of beaten tracks, and wish to express itself in a manner
13254 different from that of its elders which is often insincere, Nicholas
13255 wished to do something special on meeting his friend. He wanted to pinch
13256 him, push him, do anything but kiss him--a thing everybody did. But
13257 notwithstanding this, Boris embraced him in a quiet, friendly way and
13258 kissed him three times.
13260 They had not met for nearly half a year and, being at the age when young
13261 men take their first steps on life's road, each saw immense changes in
13262 the other, quite a new reflection of the society in which they had taken
13263 those first steps. Both had changed greatly since they last met and both
13264 were in a hurry to show the changes that had taken place in them.
13266 "Oh, you damned dandies! Clean and fresh as if you'd been to a fete, not
13267 like us sinners of the line," cried Rostov, with martial swagger and
13268 with baritone notes in his voice, new to Boris, pointing to his own mud-
13269 bespattered breeches. The German landlady, hearing Rostov's loud voice,
13270 popped her head in at the door.
13272 "Eh, is she pretty?" he asked with a wink.
13274 "Why do you shout so? You'll frighten them!" said Boris. "I did not
13275 expect you today," he added. "I only sent you the note yesterday by
13276 Bolkonski--an adjutant of Kutuzov's, who's a friend of mine. I did not
13277 think he would get it to you so quickly.... Well, how are you? Been
13278 under fire already?" asked Boris.
13280 Without answering, Rostov shook the soldier's Cross of St. George
13281 fastened to the cording of his uniform and, indicating a bandaged arm,
13282 glanced at Berg with a smile.
13284 "As you see," he said.
13286 "Indeed? Yes, yes!" said Boris, with a smile. "And we too have had a
13287 splendid march. You know, of course, that His Imperial Highness rode
13288 with our regiment all the time, so that we had every comfort and every
13289 advantage. What receptions we had in Poland! What dinners and balls! I
13290 can't tell you. And the Tsarevich was very gracious to all our
13293 And the two friends told each other of their doings, the one of his
13294 hussar revels and life in the fighting line, the other of the pleasures
13295 and advantages of service under members of the Imperial family.
13297 "Oh, you Guards!" said Rostov. "I say, send for some wine."
13299 Boris made a grimace.
13301 "If you really want it," said he.
13303 He went to his bed, drew a purse from under the clean pillow, and sent
13306 "Yes, and I have some money and a letter to give you," he added.
13308 Rostov took the letter and, throwing the money on the sofa, put both
13309 arms on the table and began to read. After reading a few lines, he
13310 glanced angrily at Berg, then, meeting his eyes, hid his face behind the
13313 "Well, they've sent you a tidy sum," said Berg, eying the heavy purse
13314 that sank into the sofa. "As for us, Count, we get along on our pay. I
13315 can tell you for myself..."
13317 "I say, Berg, my dear fellow," said Rostov, "when you get a letter from
13318 home and meet one of your own people whom you want to talk everything
13319 over with, and I happen to be there, I'll go at once, to be out of your
13320 way! Do go somewhere, anywhere... to the devil!" he exclaimed, and
13321 immediately seizing him by the shoulder and looking amiably into his
13322 face, evidently wishing to soften the rudeness of his words, he added,
13323 "Don't be hurt, my dear fellow; you know I speak from my heart as to an
13326 "Oh, don't mention it, Count! I quite understand," said Berg, getting up
13327 and speaking in a muffled and guttural voice.
13329 "Go across to our hosts: they invited you," added Boris.
13331 Berg put on the cleanest of coats, without a spot or speck of dust,
13332 stood before a looking glass and brushed the hair on his temples
13333 upwards, in the way affected by the Emperor Alexander, and, having
13334 assured himself from the way Rostov looked at it that his coat had been
13335 noticed, left the room with a pleasant smile.
13337 "Oh dear, what a beast I am!" muttered Rostov, as he read the letter.
13341 "Oh, what a pig I am, not to have written and to have given them such a
13342 fright! Oh, what a pig I am!" he repeated, flushing suddenly. "Well,
13343 have you sent Gabriel for some wine? All right let's have some!"
13345 In the letter from his parents was enclosed a letter of recommendation
13346 to Bagration which the old countess at Anna Mikhaylovna's advice had
13347 obtained through an acquaintance and sent to her son, asking him to take
13348 it to its destination and make use of it.
13350 "What nonsense! Much I need it!" said Rostov, throwing the letter under
13353 "Why have you thrown that away?" asked Boris.
13355 "It is some letter of recommendation... what the devil do I want it
13358 "Why 'What the devil'?" said Boris, picking it up and reading the
13359 address. "This letter would be of great use to you."
13361 "I want nothing, and I won't be anyone's adjutant."
13363 "Why not?" inquired Boris.
13365 "It's a lackey's job!"
13367 "You are still the same dreamer, I see," remarked Boris, shaking his
13370 "And you're still the same diplomatist! But that's not the point...
13371 Come, how are you?" asked Rostov.
13373 "Well, as you see. So far everything's all right, but I confess I should
13374 much like to be an adjutant and not remain at the front."
13378 "Because when once a man starts on military service, he should try to
13379 make as successful a career of it as possible."
13381 "Oh, that's it!" said Rostov, evidently thinking of something else.
13383 He looked intently and inquiringly into his friend's eyes, evidently
13384 trying in vain to find the answer to some question.
13386 Old Gabriel brought in the wine.
13388 "Shouldn't we now send for Berg?" asked Boris. "He would drink with you.
13391 "Well, send for him... and how do you get on with that German?" asked
13392 Rostov, with a contemptuous smile.
13394 "He is a very, very nice, honest, and pleasant fellow," answered Boris.
13396 Again Rostov looked intently into Boris' eyes and sighed. Berg returned,
13397 and over the bottle of wine conversation between the three officers
13398 became animated. The Guardsmen told Rostov of their march and how they
13399 had been made much of in Russia, Poland, and abroad. They spoke of the
13400 sayings and doings of their commander, the Grand Duke, and told stories
13401 of his kindness and irascibility. Berg, as usual, kept silent when the
13402 subject did not relate to himself, but in connection with the stories of
13403 the Grand Duke's quick temper he related with gusto how in Galicia he
13404 had managed to deal with the Grand Duke when the latter made a tour of
13405 the regiments and was annoyed at the irregularity of a movement. With a
13406 pleasant smile Berg related how the Grand Duke had ridden up to him in a
13407 violent passion, shouting: "Arnauts!" ("Arnauts" was the Tsarevich's
13408 favorite expression when he was in a rage) and called for the company
13411 "Would you believe it, Count, I was not at all alarmed, because I knew I
13412 was right. Without boasting, you know, I may say that I know the Army
13413 Orders by heart and know the Regulations as well as I do the Lord's
13414 Prayer. So, Count, there never is any negligence in my company, and so
13415 my conscience was at ease. I came forward...." (Berg stood up and showed
13416 how he presented himself, with his hand to his cap, and really it would
13417 have been difficult for a face to express greater respect and self-
13418 complacency than his did.) "Well, he stormed at me, as the saying is,
13419 stormed and stormed and stormed! It was not a matter of life but rather
13420 of death, as the saying is. 'Albanians!' and 'devils!' and 'To
13421 Siberia!'" said Berg with a sagacious smile. "I knew I was in the right
13422 so I kept silent; was not that best, Count?... 'Hey, are you dumb?' he
13423 shouted. Still I remained silent. And what do you think, Count? The next
13424 day it was not even mentioned in the Orders of the Day. That's what
13425 keeping one's head means. That's the way, Count," said Berg, lighting
13426 his pipe and emitting rings of smoke.
13428 "Yes, that was fine," said Rostov, smiling.
13430 But Boris noticed that he was preparing to make fun of Berg, and
13431 skillfully changed the subject. He asked him to tell them how and where
13432 he got his wound. This pleased Rostov and he began talking about it, and
13433 as he went on became more and more animated. He told them of his Schon
13434 Grabern affair, just as those who have taken part in a battle generally
13435 do describe it, that is, as they would like it to have been, as they
13436 have heard it described by others, and as sounds well, but not at all as
13437 it really was. Rostov was a truthful young man and would on no account
13438 have told a deliberate lie. He began his story meaning to tell
13439 everything just as it happened, but imperceptibly, involuntarily, and
13440 inevitably he lapsed into falsehood. If he had told the truth to his
13441 hearers--who like himself had often heard stories of attacks and had
13442 formed a definite idea of what an attack was and were expecting to hear
13443 just such a story--they would either not have believed him or, still
13444 worse, would have thought that Rostov was himself to blame since what
13445 generally happens to the narrators of cavalry attacks had not happened
13446 to him. He could not tell them simply that everyone went at a trot and
13447 that he fell off his horse and sprained his arm and then ran as hard as
13448 he could from a Frenchman into the wood. Besides, to tell everything as
13449 it really happened, it would have been necessary to make an effort of
13450 will to tell only what happened. It is very difficult to tell the truth,
13451 and young people are rarely capable of it. His hearers expected a story
13452 of how beside himself and all aflame with excitement, he had flown like
13453 a storm at the square, cut his way in, slashed right and left, how his
13454 saber had tasted flesh and he had fallen exhausted, and so on. And so he
13455 told them all that.
13457 In the middle of his story, just as he was saying: "You cannot imagine
13458 what a strange frenzy one experiences during an attack," Prince Andrew,
13459 whom Boris was expecting, entered the room. Prince Andrew, who liked to
13460 help young men, was flattered by being asked for his assistance and
13461 being well disposed toward Boris, who had managed to please him the day
13462 before, he wished to do what the young man wanted. Having been sent with
13463 papers from Kutuzov to the Tsarevich, he looked in on Boris, hoping to
13464 find him alone. When he came in and saw an hussar of the line recounting
13465 his military exploits (Prince Andrew could not endure that sort of man),
13466 he gave Boris a pleasant smile, frowned as with half-closed eyes he
13467 looked at Rostov, bowed slightly and wearily, and sat down languidly on
13468 the sofa: he felt it unpleasant to have dropped in on bad company.
13469 Rostov flushed up on noticing this, but he did not care, this was a mere
13470 stranger. Glancing, however, at Boris, he saw that he too seemed ashamed
13471 of the hussar of the line.
13473 In spite of Prince Andrew's disagreeable, ironical tone, in spite of the
13474 contempt with which Rostov, from his fighting army point of view,
13475 regarded all these little adjutants on the staff of whom the newcomer
13476 was evidently one, Rostov felt confused, blushed, and became silent.
13477 Boris inquired what news there might be on the staff, and what, without
13478 indiscretion, one might ask about our plans.
13480 "We shall probably advance," replied Bolkonski, evidently reluctant to
13481 say more in the presence of a stranger.
13483 Berg took the opportunity to ask, with great politeness, whether, as was
13484 rumored, the allowance of forage money to captains of companies would be
13485 doubled. To this Prince Andrew answered with a smile that he could give
13486 no opinion on such an important government order, and Berg laughed
13489 "As to your business," Prince Andrew continued, addressing Boris, "we
13490 will talk of it later" (and he looked round at Rostov). "Come to me
13491 after the review and we will do what is possible."
13493 And, having glanced round the room, Prince Andrew turned to Rostov,
13494 whose state of unconquerable childish embarrassment now changing to
13495 anger he did not condescend to notice, and said: "I think you were
13496 talking of the Schon Grabern affair? Were you there?"
13498 "I was there," said Rostov angrily, as if intending to insult the aide-
13501 Bolkonski noticed the hussar's state of mind, and it amused him. With a
13502 slightly contemptuous smile, he said: "Yes, there are many stories now
13503 told about that affair!"
13505 "Yes, stories!" repeated Rostov loudly, looking with eyes suddenly grown
13506 furious, now at Boris, now at Bolkonski. "Yes, many stories! But our
13507 stories are the stories of men who have been under the enemy's fire! Our
13508 stories have some weight, not like the stories of those fellows on the
13509 staff who get rewards without doing anything!"
13511 "Of whom you imagine me to be one?" said Prince Andrew, with a quiet and
13512 particularly amiable smile.
13514 A strange feeling of exasperation and yet of respect for this man's
13515 self-possession mingled at that moment in Rostov's soul.
13517 "I am not talking about you," he said, "I don't know you and, frankly, I
13518 don't want to. I am speaking of the staff in general."
13520 "And I will tell you this," Prince Andrew interrupted in a tone of quiet
13521 authority, "you wish to insult me, and I am ready to agree with you that
13522 it would be very easy to do so if you haven't sufficient self-respect,
13523 but admit that the time and place are very badly chosen. In a day or two
13524 we shall all have to take part in a greater and more serious duel, and
13525 besides, Drubetskoy, who says he is an old friend of yours, is not at
13526 all to blame that my face has the misfortune to displease you. However,"
13527 he added rising, "you know my name and where to find me, but don't
13528 forget that I do not regard either myself or you as having been at all
13529 insulted, and as a man older than you, my advice is to let the matter
13530 drop. Well then, on Friday after the review I shall expect you,
13531 Drubetskoy. Au revoir!" exclaimed Prince Andrew, and with a bow to them
13534 Only when Prince Andrew was gone did Rostov think of what he ought to
13535 have said. And he was still more angry at having omitted to say it. He
13536 ordered his horse at once and, coldly taking leave of Boris, rode home.
13537 Should he go to headquarters next day and challenge that affected
13538 adjutant, or really let the matter drop, was the question that worried
13539 him all the way. He thought angrily of the pleasure he would have at
13540 seeing the fright of that small and frail but proud man when covered by
13541 his pistol, and then he felt with surprise that of all the men he knew
13542 there was none he would so much like to have for a friend as that very
13543 adjutant whom he so hated.
13550 The day after Rostov had been to see Boris, a review was held of the
13551 Austrian and Russian troops, both those freshly arrived from Russia and
13552 those who had been campaigning under Kutuzov. The two Emperors, the
13553 Russian with his heir the Tsarevich, and the Austrian with the Archduke,
13554 inspected the allied army of eighty thousand men.
13556 From early morning the smart clean troops were on the move, forming up
13557 on the field before the fortress. Now thousands of feet and bayonets
13558 moved and halted at the officers' command, turned with banners flying,
13559 formed up at intervals, and wheeled round other similar masses of
13560 infantry in different uniforms; now was heard the rhythmic beat of hoofs
13561 and the jingling of showy cavalry in blue, red, and green braided
13562 uniforms, with smartly dressed bandsmen in front mounted on black, roan,
13563 or gray horses; then again, spreading out with the brazen clatter of the
13564 polished shining cannon that quivered on the gun carriages and with the
13565 smell of linstocks, came the artillery which crawled between the
13566 infantry and cavalry and took up its appointed position. Not only the
13567 generals in full parade uniforms, with their thin or thick waists drawn
13568 in to the utmost, their red necks squeezed into their stiff collars, and
13569 wearing scarves and all their decorations, not only the elegant, pomaded
13570 officers, but every soldier with his freshly washed and shaven face and
13571 his weapons clean and polished to the utmost, and every horse groomed
13572 till its coat shone like satin and every hair of its wetted mane lay
13573 smooth--felt that no small matter was happening, but an important and
13574 solemn affair. Every general and every soldier was conscious of his own
13575 insignificance, aware of being but a drop in that ocean of men, and yet
13576 at the same time was conscious of his strength as a part of that
13579 From early morning strenuous activities and efforts had begun and by ten
13580 o'clock all had been brought into due order. The ranks were drawn up on
13581 the vast field. The whole army was extended in three lines: the cavalry
13582 in front, behind it the artillery, and behind that again the infantry.
13584 A space like a street was left between each two lines of troops. The
13585 three parts of that army were sharply distinguished: Kutuzov's fighting
13586 army (with the Pavlograds on the right flank of the front); those
13587 recently arrived from Russia, both Guards and regiments of the line; and
13588 the Austrian troops. But they all stood in the same lines, under one
13589 command, and in a like order.
13591 Like wind over leaves ran an excited whisper: "They're coming! They're
13592 coming!" Alarmed voices were heard, and a stir of final preparation
13593 swept over all the troops.
13595 From the direction of Olmutz in front of them, a group was seen
13596 approaching. And at that moment, though the day was still, a light gust
13597 of wind blowing over the army slightly stirred the streamers on the
13598 lances and the unfolded standards fluttered against their staffs. It
13599 looked as if by that slight motion the army itself was expressing its
13600 joy at the approach of the Emperors. One voice was heard shouting: "Eyes
13601 front!" Then, like the crowing of cocks at sunrise, this was repeated by
13602 others from various sides and all became silent.
13604 In the deathlike stillness only the tramp of horses was heard. This was
13605 the Emperors' suites. The Emperors rode up to the flank, and the
13606 trumpets of the first cavalry regiment played the general march. It
13607 seemed as though not the trumpeters were playing, but as if the army
13608 itself, rejoicing at the Emperors' approach, had naturally burst into
13609 music. Amid these sounds, only the youthful kindly voice of the Emperor
13610 Alexander was clearly heard. He gave the words of greeting, and the
13611 first regiment roared "Hurrah!" so deafeningly, continuously, and
13612 joyfully that the men themselves were awed by their multitude and the
13613 immensity of the power they constituted.
13615 Rostov, standing in the front lines of Kutuzov's army which the Tsar
13616 approached first, experienced the same feeling as every other man in
13617 that army: a feeling of self-forgetfulness, a proud consciousness of
13618 might, and a passionate attraction to him who was the cause of this
13621 He felt that at a single word from that man all this vast mass (and he
13622 himself an insignificant atom in it) would go through fire and water,
13623 commit crime, die, or perform deeds of highest heroism, and so he could
13624 not but tremble and his heart stand still at the imminence of that word.
13626 "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" thundered from all sides, one regiment after
13627 another greeting the Tsar with the strains of the march, and then
13628 "Hurrah!"... Then the general march, and again "Hurrah! Hurrah!" growing
13629 ever stronger and fuller and merging into a deafening roar.
13631 Till the Tsar reached it, each regiment in its silence and immobility
13632 seemed like a lifeless body, but as soon as he came up it became alive,
13633 its thunder joining the roar of the whole line along which he had
13634 already passed. Through the terrible and deafening roar of those voices,
13635 amid the square masses of troops standing motionless as if turned to
13636 stone, hundreds of riders composing the suites moved carelessly but
13637 symmetrically and above all freely, and in front of them two men--the
13638 Emperors. Upon them the undivided, tensely passionate attention of that
13639 whole mass of men was concentrated.
13641 The handsome young Emperor Alexander, in the uniform of the Horse
13642 Guards, wearing a cocked hat with its peaks front and back, with his
13643 pleasant face and resonant though not loud voice, attracted everyone's
13646 Rostov was not far from the trumpeters, and with his keen sight had
13647 recognized the Tsar and watched his approach. When he was within twenty
13648 paces, and Nicholas could clearly distinguish every detail of his
13649 handsome, happy young face, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and
13650 ecstasy such as he had never before known. Every trait and every
13651 movement of the Tsar's seemed to him enchanting.
13653 Stopping in front of the Pavlograds, the Tsar said something in French
13654 to the Austrian Emperor and smiled.
13656 Seeing that smile, Rostov involuntarily smiled himself and felt a still
13657 stronger flow of love for his sovereign. He longed to show that love in
13658 some way and knowing that this was impossible was ready to cry. The Tsar
13659 called the colonel of the regiment and said a few words to him.
13661 "Oh God, what would happen to me if the Emperor spoke to me?" thought
13662 Rostov. "I should die of happiness!"
13664 The Tsar addressed the officers also: "I thank you all, gentlemen, I
13665 thank you with my whole heart." To Rostov every word sounded like a
13666 voice from heaven. How gladly would he have died at once for his Tsar!
13668 "You have earned the St. George's standards and will be worthy of them."
13670 "Oh, to die, to die for him," thought Rostov.
13672 The Tsar said something more which Rostov did not hear, and the
13673 soldiers, straining their lungs, shouted "Hurrah!"
13675 Rostov too, bending over his saddle, shouted "Hurrah!" with all his
13676 might, feeling that he would like to injure himself by that shout, if
13677 only to express his rapture fully.
13679 The Tsar stopped a few minutes in front of the hussars as if undecided.
13681 "How can the Emperor be undecided?" thought Rostov, but then even this
13682 indecision appeared to him majestic and enchanting, like everything else
13685 That hesitation lasted only an instant. The Tsar's foot, in the narrow
13686 pointed boot then fashionable, touched the groin of the bobtailed bay
13687 mare he rode, his hand in a white glove gathered up the reins, and he
13688 moved off accompanied by an irregularly swaying sea of aides-de-camp.
13689 Farther and farther he rode away, stopping at other regiments, till at
13690 last only his white plumes were visible to Rostov from amid the suites
13691 that surrounded the Emperors.
13693 Among the gentlemen of the suite, Rostov noticed Bolkonski, sitting his
13694 horse indolently and carelessly. Rostov recalled their quarrel of
13695 yesterday and the question presented itself whether he ought or ought
13696 not to challenge Bolkonski. "Of course not!" he now thought. "Is it
13697 worth thinking or speaking of it at such a moment? At a time of such
13698 love, such rapture, and such self-sacrifice, what do any of our quarrels
13699 and affronts matter? I love and forgive everybody now."
13701 When the Emperor had passed nearly all the regiments, the troops began a
13702 ceremonial march past him, and Rostov on Bedouin, recently purchased
13703 from Denisov, rode past too, at the rear of his squadron--that is, alone
13704 and in full view of the Emperor.
13706 Before he reached him, Rostov, who was a splendid horseman, spurred
13707 Bedouin twice and successfully put him to the showy trot in which the
13708 animal went when excited. Bending his foaming muzzle to his chest, his
13709 tail extended, Bedouin, as if also conscious of the Emperor's eye upon
13710 him, passed splendidly, lifting his feet with a high and graceful
13711 action, as if flying through the air without touching the ground.
13713 Rostov himself, his legs well back and his stomach drawn in and feeling
13714 himself one with his horse, rode past the Emperor with a frowning but
13715 blissful face "like a vewy devil," as Denisov expressed it.
13717 "Fine fellows, the Pavlograds!" remarked the Emperor.
13719 "My God, how happy I should be if he ordered me to leap into the fire
13720 this instant!" thought Rostov.
13722 When the review was over, the newly arrived officers, and also
13723 Kutuzov's, collected in groups and began to talk about the awards, about
13724 the Austrians and their uniforms, about their lines, about Bonaparte,
13725 and how badly the latter would fare now, especially if the Essen corps
13726 arrived and Prussia took our side.
13728 But the talk in every group was chiefly about the Emperor Alexander. His
13729 every word and movement was described with ecstasy.
13731 They all had but one wish: to advance as soon as possible against the
13732 enemy under the Emperor's command. Commanded by the Emperor himself they
13733 could not fail to vanquish anyone, be it whom it might: so thought
13734 Rostov and most of the officers after the review.
13736 All were then more confident of victory than the winning of two battles
13737 would have made them.
13744 The day after the review, Boris, in his best uniform and with his
13745 comrade Berg's best wishes for success, rode to Olmutz to see Bolkonski,
13746 wishing to profit by his friendliness and obtain for himself the best
13747 post he could--preferably that of adjutant to some important personage,
13748 a position in the army which seemed to him most attractive. "It is all
13749 very well for Rostov, whose father sends him ten thousand rubles at a
13750 time, to talk about not wishing to cringe to anybody and not be anyone's
13751 lackey, but I who have nothing but my brains have to make a career and
13752 must not miss opportunities, but must avail myself of them!" he
13755 He did not find Prince Andrew in Olmutz that day, but the appearance of
13756 the town where the headquarters and the diplomatic corps were stationed
13757 and the two Emperors were living with their suites, households, and
13758 courts only strengthened his desire to belong to that higher world.
13760 He knew no one, and despite his smart Guardsman's uniform, all these
13761 exalted personages passing in the streets in their elegant carriages
13762 with their plumes, ribbons, and medals, both courtiers and military men,
13763 seemed so immeasurably above him, an insignificant officer of the
13764 Guards, that they not only did not wish to, but simply could not, be
13765 aware of his existence. At the quarters of the commander-in-chief,
13766 Kutuzov, where he inquired for Bolkonski, all the adjutants and even the
13767 orderlies looked at him as if they wished to impress on him that a great
13768 many officers like him were always coming there and that everybody was
13769 heartily sick of them. In spite of this, or rather because of it, next
13770 day, November 15, after dinner he again went to Olmutz and, entering the
13771 house occupied by Kutuzov, asked for Bolkonski. Prince Andrew was in and
13772 Boris was shown into a large hall probably formerly used for dancing,
13773 but in which five beds now stood, and furniture of various kinds: a
13774 table, chairs, and a clavichord. One adjutant, nearest the door, was
13775 sitting at the table in a Persian dressing gown, writing. Another, the
13776 red, stout Nesvitski, lay on a bed with his arms under his head,
13777 laughing with an officer who had sat down beside him. A third was
13778 playing a Viennese waltz on the clavichord, while a fourth, lying on the
13779 clavichord, sang the tune. Bolkonski was not there. None of these
13780 gentlemen changed his position on seeing Boris. The one who was writing
13781 and whom Boris addressed turned round crossly and told him Bolkonski was
13782 on duty and that he should go through the door on the left into the
13783 reception room if he wished to see him. Boris thanked him and went to
13784 the reception room, where he found some ten officers and generals.
13786 When he entered, Prince Andrew, his eyes drooping contemptuously (with
13787 that peculiar expression of polite weariness which plainly says, "If it
13788 were not my duty I would not talk to you for a moment"), was listening
13789 to an old Russian general with decorations, who stood very erect, almost
13790 on tiptoe, with a soldier's obsequious expression on his purple face,
13791 reporting something.
13793 "Very well, then, be so good as to wait," said Prince Andrew to the
13794 general, in Russian, speaking with the French intonation he affected
13795 when he wished to speak contemptuously, and noticing Boris, Prince
13796 Andrew, paying no more heed to the general who ran after him imploring
13797 him to hear something more, nodded and turned to him with a cheerful
13800 At that moment Boris clearly realized what he had before surmised, that
13801 in the army, besides the subordination and discipline prescribed in the
13802 military code, which he and the others knew in the regiment, there was
13803 another, more important, subordination, which made this tight-laced,
13804 purple-faced general wait respectfully while Captain Prince Andrew, for
13805 his own pleasure, chose to chat with Lieutenant Drubetskoy. More than
13806 ever was Boris resolved to serve in future not according to the written
13807 code, but under this unwritten law. He felt now that merely by having
13808 been recommended to Prince Andrew he had already risen above the general
13809 who at the front had the power to annihilate him, a lieutenant of the
13810 Guards. Prince Andrew came up to him and took his hand.
13812 "I am very sorry you did not find me in yesterday. I was fussing about
13813 with Germans all day. We went with Weyrother to survey the dispositions.
13814 When Germans start being accurate, there's no end to it!"
13816 Boris smiled, as if he understood what Prince Andrew was alluding to as
13817 something generally known. But it was the first time he had heard
13818 Weyrother's name, or even the term "dispositions."
13820 "Well, my dear fellow, so you still want to be an adjutant? I have been
13821 thinking about you."
13823 "Yes, I was thinking"--for some reason Boris could not help blushing--
13824 "of asking the commander-in-chief. He has had a letter from Prince
13825 Kuragin about me. I only wanted to ask because I fear the Guards won't
13826 be in action," he added as if in apology.
13828 "All right, all right. We'll talk it over," replied Prince Andrew. "Only
13829 let me report this gentleman's business, and I shall be at your
13832 While Prince Andrew went to report about the purple-faced general, that
13833 gentleman--evidently not sharing Boris' conception of the advantages of
13834 the unwritten code of subordination--looked so fixedly at the
13835 presumptuous lieutenant who had prevented his finishing what he had to
13836 say to the adjutant that Boris felt uncomfortable. He turned away and
13837 waited impatiently for Prince Andrew's return from the commander-in-
13840 "You see, my dear fellow, I have been thinking about you," said Prince
13841 Andrew when they had gone into the large room where the clavichord was.
13842 "It's no use your going to the commander-in-chief. He would say a lot of
13843 pleasant things, ask you to dinner" ("That would not be bad as regards
13844 the unwritten code," thought Boris), "but nothing more would come of it.
13845 There will soon be a battalion of us aides-de-camp and adjutants! But
13846 this is what we'll do: I have a good friend, an adjutant general and an
13847 excellent fellow, Prince Dolgorukov; and though you may not know it, the
13848 fact is that now Kutuzov with his staff and all of us count for nothing.
13849 Everything is now centered round the Emperor. So we will go to
13850 Dolgorukov; I have to go there anyhow and I have already spoken to him
13851 about you. We shall see whether he cannot attach you to himself or find
13852 a place for you somewhere nearer the sun."
13854 Prince Andrew always became specially keen when he had to guide a young
13855 man and help him to worldly success. Under cover of obtaining help of
13856 this kind for another, which from pride he would never accept for
13857 himself, he kept in touch with the circle which confers success and
13858 which attracted him. He very readily took up Boris' cause and went with
13861 It was late in the evening when they entered the palace at Olmutz
13862 occupied by the Emperors and their retinues.
13864 That same day a council of war had been held in which all the members of
13865 the Hofkriegsrath and both Emperors took part. At that council, contrary
13866 to the views of the old generals Kutuzov and Prince Schwartzenberg, it
13867 had been decided to advance immediately and give battle to Bonaparte.
13868 The council of war was just over when Prince Andrew accompanied by Boris
13869 arrived at the palace to find Dolgorukov. Everyone at headquarters was
13870 still under the spell of the day's council, at which the party of the
13871 young had triumphed. The voices of those who counseled delay and advised
13872 waiting for something else before advancing had been so completely
13873 silenced and their arguments confuted by such conclusive evidence of the
13874 advantages of attacking that what had been discussed at the council--the
13875 coming battle and the victory that would certainly result from it--no
13876 longer seemed to be in the future but in the past. All the advantages
13877 were on our side. Our enormous forces, undoubtedly superior to
13878 Napoleon's, were concentrated in one place, the troops inspired by the
13879 Emperors' presence were eager for action. The strategic position where
13880 the operations would take place was familiar in all its details to the
13881 Austrian General Weyrother: a lucky accident had ordained that the
13882 Austrian army should maneuver the previous year on the very fields where
13883 the French had now to be fought; the adjacent locality was known and
13884 shown in every detail on the maps, and Bonaparte, evidently weakened,
13885 was undertaking nothing.
13887 Dolgorukov, one of the warmest advocates of an attack, had just returned
13888 from the council, tired and exhausted but eager and proud of the victory
13889 that had been gained. Prince Andrew introduced his protege, but Prince
13890 Dolgorukov politely and firmly pressing his hand said nothing to Boris
13891 and, evidently unable to suppress the thoughts which were uppermost in
13892 his mind at that moment, addressed Prince Andrew in French.
13894 "Ah, my dear fellow, what a battle we have gained! God grant that the
13895 one that will result from it will be as victorious! However, dear
13896 fellow," he said abruptly and eagerly, "I must confess to having been
13897 unjust to the Austrians and especially to Weyrother. What exactitude,
13898 what minuteness, what knowledge of the locality, what foresight for
13899 every eventuality, every possibility even to the smallest detail! No, my
13900 dear fellow, no conditions better than our present ones could have been
13901 devised. This combination of Austrian precision with Russian valor--what
13902 more could be wished for?"
13904 "So the attack is definitely resolved on?" asked Bolkonski.
13906 "And do you know, my dear fellow, it seems to me that Bonaparte has
13907 decidedly lost bearings, you know that a letter was received from him
13908 today for the Emperor." Dolgorukov smiled significantly.
13910 "Is that so? And what did he say?" inquired Bolkonski.
13912 "What can he say? Tra-di-ri-di-ra and so on... merely to gain time. I
13913 tell you he is in our hands, that's certain! But what was most amusing,"
13914 he continued, with a sudden, good-natured laugh, "was that we could not
13915 think how to address the reply! If not as 'Consul' and of course not as
13916 'Emperor,' it seemed to me it should be to 'General Bonaparte.'"
13918 "But between not recognizing him as Emperor and calling him General
13919 Bonaparte, there is a difference," remarked Bolkonski.
13921 "That's just it," interrupted Dolgorukov quickly, laughing. "You know
13922 Bilibin--he's a very clever fellow. He suggested addressing him as
13923 'Usurper and Enemy of Mankind.'"
13925 Dolgorukov laughed merrily.
13927 "Only that?" said Bolkonski.
13929 "All the same, it was Bilibin who found a suitable form for the address.
13930 He is a wise and clever fellow."
13934 "To the Head of the French Government... Au chef du gouvernement
13935 francais," said Dolgorukov, with grave satisfaction. "Good, wasn't it?"
13937 "Yes, but he will dislike it extremely," said Bolkonski.
13939 "Oh yes, very much! My brother knows him, he's dined with him--the
13940 present Emperor--more than once in Paris, and tells me he never met a
13941 more cunning or subtle diplomatist--you know, a combination of French
13942 adroitness and Italian play-acting! Do you know the tale about him and
13943 Count Markov? Count Markov was the only man who knew how to handle him.
13944 You know the story of the handkerchief? It is delightful!"
13946 And the talkative Dolgorukov, turning now to Boris, now to Prince
13947 Andrew, told how Bonaparte wishing to test Markov, our ambassador,
13948 purposely dropped a handkerchief in front of him and stood looking at
13949 Markov, probably expecting Markov to pick it up for him, and how Markov
13950 immediately dropped his own beside it and picked it up without touching
13953 "Delightful!" said Bolkonski. "But I have come to you, Prince, as a
13954 petitioner on behalf of this young man. You see..." but before Prince
13955 Andrew could finish, an aide-de-camp came in to summon Dolgorukov to the
13958 "Oh, what a nuisance," said Dolgorukov, getting up hurriedly and
13959 pressing the hands of Prince Andrew and Boris. "You know I should be
13960 very glad to do all in my power both for you and for this dear young
13961 man." Again he pressed the hand of the latter with an expression of
13962 good-natured, sincere, and animated levity. "But you see... another
13965 Boris was excited by the thought of being so close to the higher powers
13966 as he felt himself to be at that moment. He was conscious that here he
13967 was in contact with the springs that set in motion the enormous
13968 movements of the mass of which in his regiment he felt himself a tiny,
13969 obedient, and insignificant atom. They followed Prince Dolgorukov out
13970 into the corridor and met--coming out of the door of the Emperor's room
13971 by which Dolgorukov had entered--a short man in civilian clothes with a
13972 clever face and sharply projecting jaw which, without spoiling his face,
13973 gave him a peculiar vivacity and shiftiness of expression. This short
13974 man nodded to Dolgorukov as to an intimate friend and stared at Prince
13975 Andrew with cool intensity, walking straight toward him and evidently
13976 expecting him to bow or to step out of his way. Prince Andrew did
13977 neither: a look of animosity appeared on his face and the other turned
13978 away and went down the side of the corridor.
13980 "Who was that?" asked Boris.
13982 "He is one of the most remarkable, but to me most unpleasant of men--the
13983 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Adam Czartoryski.... It is such men
13984 as he who decide the fate of nations," added Bolkonski with a sigh he
13985 could not suppress, as they passed out of the palace.
13987 Next day, the army began its campaign, and up to the very battle of
13988 Austerlitz, Boris was unable to see either Prince Andrew or Dolgorukov
13989 again and remained for a while with the Ismaylov regiment.
13996 At dawn on the sixteenth of November, Denisov's squadron, in which
13997 Nicholas Rostov served and which was in Prince Bagration's detachment,
13998 moved from the place where it had spent the night, advancing into action
13999 as arranged, and after going behind other columns for about two thirds
14000 of a mile was stopped on the highroad. Rostov saw the Cossacks and then
14001 the first and second squadrons of hussars and infantry battalions and
14002 artillery pass by and go forward and then Generals Bagration and
14003 Dolgorukov ride past with their adjutants. All the fear before action
14004 which he had experienced as previously, all the inner struggle to
14005 conquer that fear, all his dreams of distinguishing himself as a true
14006 hussar in this battle, had been wasted. Their squadron remained in
14007 reserve and Nicholas Rostov spent that day in a dull and wretched mood.
14008 At nine in the morning, he heard firing in front and shouts of hurrah,
14009 and saw wounded being brought back (there were not many of them), and at
14010 last he saw how a whole detachment of French cavalry was brought in,
14011 convoyed by a sotnya of Cossacks. Evidently the affair was over and,
14012 though not big, had been a successful engagement. The men and officers
14013 returning spoke of a brilliant victory, of the occupation of the town of
14014 Wischau and the capture of a whole French squadron. The day was bright
14015 and sunny after a sharp night frost, and the cheerful glitter of that
14016 autumn day was in keeping with the news of victory which was conveyed,
14017 not only by the tales of those who had taken part in it, but also by the
14018 joyful expression on the faces of soldiers, officers, generals, and
14019 adjutants, as they passed Rostov going or coming. And Nicholas, who had
14020 vainly suffered all the dread that precedes a battle and had spent that
14021 happy day in inactivity, was all the more depressed.
14023 "Come here, Wostov. Let's dwink to dwown our gwief!" shouted Denisov,
14024 who had settled down by the roadside with a flask and some food.
14026 The officers gathered round Denisov's canteen, eating and talking.
14028 "There! They are bringing another!" cried one of the officers,
14029 indicating a captive French dragoon who was being brought in on foot by
14032 One of them was leading by the bridle a fine large French horse he had
14033 taken from the prisoner.
14035 "Sell us that horse!" Denisov called out to the Cossacks.
14037 "If you like, your honor!"
14039 The officers got up and stood round the Cossacks and their prisoner. The
14040 French dragoon was a young Alsatian who spoke French with a German
14041 accent. He was breathless with agitation, his face was red, and when he
14042 heard some French spoken he at once began speaking to the officers,
14043 addressing first one, then another. He said he would not have been
14044 taken, it was not his fault but the corporal's who had sent him to seize
14045 some horsecloths, though he had told him the Russians were there. And at
14046 every word he added: "But don't hurt my little horse!" and stroked the
14047 animal. It was plain that he did not quite grasp where he was. Now he
14048 excused himself for having been taken prisoner and now, imagining
14049 himself before his own officers, insisted on his soldierly discipline
14050 and zeal in the service. He brought with him into our rearguard all the
14051 freshness of atmosphere of the French army, which was so alien to us.
14053 The Cossacks sold the horse for two gold pieces, and Rostov, being the
14054 richest of the officers now that he had received his money, bought it.
14056 "But don't hurt my little horse!" said the Alsatian good-naturedly to
14057 Rostov when the animal was handed over to the hussar.
14059 Rostov smilingly reassured the dragoon and gave him money.
14061 "Alley! Alley!" said the Cossack, touching the prisoner's arm to make
14064 "The Emperor! The Emperor!" was suddenly heard among the hussars.
14066 All began to run and bustle, and Rostov saw coming up the road behind
14067 him several riders with white plumes in their hats. In a moment everyone
14068 was in his place, waiting.
14070 Rostov did not know or remember how he ran to his place and mounted.
14071 Instantly his regret at not having been in action and his dejected mood
14072 amid people of whom he was weary had gone, instantly every thought of
14073 himself had vanished. He was filled with happiness at his nearness to
14074 the Emperor. He felt that this nearness by itself made up to him for the
14075 day he had lost. He was happy as a lover when the longed-for moment of
14076 meeting arrives. Not daring to look round and without looking round, he
14077 was ecstatically conscious of his approach. He felt it not only from the
14078 sound of the hoofs of the approaching cavalcade, but because as he drew
14079 near everything grew brighter, more joyful, more significant, and more
14080 festive around him. Nearer and nearer to Rostov came that sun shedding
14081 beams of mild and majestic light around, and already he felt himself
14082 enveloped in those beams, he heard his voice, that kindly, calm, and
14083 majestic voice that was yet so simple! And as if in accord with Rostov's
14084 feeling, there was a deathly stillness amid which was heard the
14087 "The Pavlograd hussars?" he inquired.
14089 "The reserves, sire!" replied a voice, a very human one compared to that
14090 which had said: "The Pavlograd hussars?"
14092 The Emperor drew level with Rostov and halted. Alexander's face was even
14093 more beautiful than it had been three days before at the review. It
14094 shone with such gaiety and youth, such innocent youth, that it suggested
14095 the liveliness of a fourteen-year-old boy, and yet it was the face of
14096 the majestic Emperor. Casually, while surveying the squadron, the
14097 Emperor's eyes met Rostov's and rested on them for not more than two
14098 seconds. Whether or no the Emperor understood what was going on in
14099 Rostov's soul (it seemed to Rostov that he understood everything), at
14100 any rate his light-blue eyes gazed for about two seconds into Rostov's
14101 face. A gentle, mild light poured from them. Then all at once he raised
14102 his eyebrows, abruptly touched his horse with his left foot, and
14105 The younger Emperor could not restrain his wish to be present at the
14106 battle and, in spite of the remonstrances of his courtiers, at twelve
14107 o'clock left the third column with which he had been and galloped toward
14108 the vanguard. Before he came up with the hussars, several adjutants met
14109 him with news of the successful result of the action.
14111 This battle, which consisted in the capture of a French squadron, was
14112 represented as a brilliant victory over the French, and so the Emperor
14113 and the whole army, especially while the smoke hung over the
14114 battlefield, believed that the French had been defeated and were
14115 retreating against their will. A few minutes after the Emperor had
14116 passed, the Pavlograd division was ordered to advance. In Wischau
14117 itself, a petty German town, Rostov saw the Emperor again. In the market
14118 place, where there had been some rather heavy firing before the
14119 Emperor's arrival, lay several killed and wounded soldiers whom there
14120 had not been time to move. The Emperor, surrounded by his suite of
14121 officers and courtiers, was riding a bobtailed chestnut mare, a
14122 different one from that which he had ridden at the review, and bending
14123 to one side he gracefully held a gold lorgnette to his eyes and looked
14124 at a soldier who lay prone, with blood on his uncovered head. The
14125 wounded soldier was so dirty, coarse, and revolting that his proximity
14126 to the Emperor shocked Rostov. Rostov saw how the Emperor's rather round
14127 shoulders shuddered as if a cold shiver had run down them, how his left
14128 foot began convulsively tapping the horse's side with the spur, and how
14129 the well-trained horse looked round unconcerned and did not stir. An
14130 adjutant, dismounting, lifted the soldier under the arms to place him on
14131 a stretcher that had been brought. The soldier groaned.
14133 "Gently, gently! Can't you do it more gently?" said the Emperor
14134 apparently suffering more than the dying soldier, and he rode away.
14136 Rostov saw tears filling the Emperor's eyes and heard him, as he was
14137 riding away, say to Czartoryski: "What a terrible thing war is: what a
14138 terrible thing! Quelle terrible chose que la guerre!"
14140 The troops of the vanguard were stationed before Wischau, within sight
14141 of the enemy's lines, which all day long had yielded ground to us at the
14142 least firing. The Emperor's gratitude was announced to the vanguard,
14143 rewards were promised, and the men received a double ration of vodka.
14144 The campfires crackled and the soldiers' songs resounded even more
14145 merrily than on the previous night. Denisov celebrated his promotion to
14146 the rank of major, and Rostov, who had already drunk enough, at the end
14147 of the feast proposed the Emperor's health. "Not 'our Sovereign, the
14148 Emperor,' as they say at official dinners," said he, "but the health of
14149 our Sovereign, that good, enchanting, and great man! Let us drink to his
14150 health and to the certain defeat of the French!"
14152 "If we fought before," he said, "not letting the French pass, as at
14153 Schon Grabern, what shall we not do now when he is at the front? We will
14154 all die for him gladly! Is it not so, gentlemen? Perhaps I am not saying
14155 it right, I have drunk a good deal--but that is how I feel, and so do
14156 you too! To the health of Alexander the First! Hurrah!"
14158 "Hurrah!" rang the enthusiastic voices of the officers.
14160 And the old cavalry captain, Kirsten, shouted enthusiastically and no
14161 less sincerely than the twenty-year-old Rostov.
14163 When the officers had emptied and smashed their glasses, Kirsten filled
14164 others and, in shirt sleeves and breeches, went glass in hand to the
14165 soldiers' bonfires and with his long gray mustache, his white chest
14166 showing under his open shirt, he stood in a majestic pose in the light
14167 of the campfire, waving his uplifted arm.
14169 "Lads! here's to our Sovereign, the Emperor, and victory over our
14170 enemies! Hurrah!" he exclaimed in his dashing, old, hussar's baritone.
14172 The hussars crowded round and responded heartily with loud shouts.
14174 Late that night, when all had separated, Denisov with his short hand
14175 patted his favorite, Rostov, on the shoulder.
14177 "As there's no one to fall in love with on campaign, he's fallen in love
14178 with the Tsar," he said.
14180 "Denisov, don't make fun of it!" cried Rostov. "It is such a lofty,
14181 beautiful feeling, such a..."
14183 "I believe it, I believe it, fwiend, and I share and appwove..."
14185 "No, you don't understand!"
14187 And Rostov got up and went wandering among the campfires, dreaming of
14188 what happiness it would be to die--not in saving the Emperor's life (he
14189 did not even dare to dream of that), but simply to die before his eyes.
14190 He really was in love with the Tsar and the glory of the Russian arms
14191 and the hope of future triumph. And he was not the only man to
14192 experience that feeling during those memorable days preceding the battle
14193 of Austerlitz: nine tenths of the men in the Russian army were then in
14194 love, though less ecstatically, with their Tsar and the glory of the
14202 The next day the Emperor stopped at Wischau, and Villier, his physician,
14203 was repeatedly summoned to see him. At headquarters and among the troops
14204 near by the news spread that the Emperor was unwell. He ate nothing and
14205 had slept badly that night, those around him reported. The cause of this
14206 indisposition was the strong impression made on his sensitive mind by
14207 the sight of the killed and wounded.
14209 At daybreak on the seventeenth, a French officer who had come with a
14210 flag of truce, demanding an audience with the Russian Emperor, was
14211 brought into Wischau from our outposts. This officer was Savary. The
14212 Emperor had only just fallen asleep and so Savary had to wait. At midday
14213 he was admitted to the Emperor, and an hour later he rode off with
14214 Prince Dolgorukov to the advanced post of the French army.
14216 It was rumored that Savary had been sent to propose to Alexander a
14217 meeting with Napoleon. To the joy and pride of the whole army, a
14218 personal interview was refused, and instead of the Sovereign, Prince
14219 Dolgorukov, the victor at Wischau, was sent with Savary to negotiate
14220 with Napoleon if, contrary to expectations, these negotiations were
14221 actuated by a real desire for peace.
14223 Toward evening Dolgorukov came back, went straight to the Tsar, and
14224 remained alone with him for a long time.
14226 On the eighteenth and nineteenth of November, the army advanced two
14227 days' march and the enemy's outposts after a brief interchange of shots
14228 retreated. In the highest army circles from midday on the nineteenth, a
14229 great, excitedly bustling activity began which lasted till the morning
14230 of the twentieth, when the memorable battle of Austerlitz was fought.
14232 Till midday on the nineteenth, the activity--the eager talk, running to
14233 and fro, and dispatching of adjutants--was confined to the Emperor's
14234 headquarters. But on the afternoon of that day, this activity reached
14235 Kutuzov's headquarters and the staffs of the commanders of columns. By
14236 evening, the adjutants had spread it to all ends and parts of the army,
14237 and in the night from the nineteenth to the twentieth, the whole eighty
14238 thousand allied troops rose from their bivouacs to the hum of voices,
14239 and the army swayed and started in one enormous mass six miles long.
14241 The concentrated activity which had begun at the Emperor's headquarters
14242 in the morning and had started the whole movement that followed was like
14243 the first movement of the main wheel of a large tower clock. One wheel
14244 slowly moved, another was set in motion, and a third, and wheels began
14245 to revolve faster and faster, levers and cogwheels to work, chimes to
14246 play, figures to pop out, and the hands to advance with regular motion
14247 as a result of all that activity.
14249 Just as in the mechanism of a clock, so in the mechanism of the military
14250 machine, an impulse once given leads to the final result; and just as
14251 indifferently quiescent till the moment when motion is transmitted to
14252 them are the parts of the mechanism which the impulse has not yet
14253 reached. Wheels creak on their axles as the cogs engage one another and
14254 the revolving pulleys whirr with the rapidity of their movement, but a
14255 neighboring wheel is as quiet and motionless as though it were prepared
14256 to remain so for a hundred years; but the moment comes when the lever
14257 catches it and obeying the impulse that wheel begins to creak and joins
14258 in the common motion the result and aim of which are beyond its ken.
14260 Just as in a clock, the result of the complicated motion of innumerable
14261 wheels and pulleys is merely a slow and regular movement of the hands
14262 which show the time, so the result of all the complicated human
14263 activities of 160,000 Russians and French--all their passions, desires,
14264 remorse, humiliations, sufferings, outbursts of pride, fear, and
14265 enthusiasm--was only the loss of the battle of Austerlitz, the so-called
14266 battle of the three Emperors--that is to say, a slow movement of the
14267 hand on the dial of human history.
14269 Prince Andrew was on duty that day and in constant attendance on the
14270 commander-in-chief.
14272 At six in the evening, Kutuzov went to the Emperor's headquarters and
14273 after staying but a short time with the Tsar went to see the grand
14274 marshal of the court, Count Tolstoy.
14276 Bolkonski took the opportunity to go in to get some details of the
14277 coming action from Dolgorukov. He felt that Kutuzov was upset and
14278 dissatisfied about something and that at headquarters they were
14279 dissatisfied with him, and also that at the Emperor's headquarters
14280 everyone adopted toward him the tone of men who know something others do
14281 not know: he therefore wished to speak to Dolgorukov.
14283 "Well, how d'you do, my dear fellow?" said Dolgorukov, who was sitting
14284 at tea with Bilibin. "The fete is for tomorrow. How is your old fellow?
14287 "I won't say he is out of sorts, but I fancy he would like to be heard."
14289 "But they heard him at the council of war and will hear him when he
14290 talks sense, but to temporize and wait for something now when Bonaparte
14291 fears nothing so much as a general battle is impossible."
14293 "Yes, you have seen him?" said Prince Andrew. "Well, what is Bonaparte
14294 like? How did he impress you?"
14296 "Yes, I saw him, and am convinced that he fears nothing so much as a
14297 general engagement," repeated Dolgorukov, evidently prizing this general
14298 conclusion which he had arrived at from his interview with Napoleon. "If
14299 he weren't afraid of a battle why did he ask for that interview? Why
14300 negotiate, and above all why retreat, when to retreat is so contrary to
14301 his method of conducting war? Believe me, he is afraid, afraid of a
14302 general battle. His hour has come! Mark my words!"
14304 "But tell me, what is he like, eh?" said Prince Andrew again.
14306 "He is a man in a gray overcoat, very anxious that I should call him
14307 'Your Majesty,' but who, to his chagrin, got no title from me! That's
14308 the sort of man he is, and nothing more," replied Dolgorukov, looking
14309 round at Bilibin with a smile.
14311 "Despite my great respect for old Kutuzov," he continued, "we should be
14312 a nice set of fellows if we were to wait about and so give him a chance
14313 to escape, or to trick us, now that we certainly have him in our hands!
14314 No, we mustn't forget Suvorov and his rule--not to put yourself in a
14315 position to be attacked, but yourself to attack. Believe me in war the
14316 energy of young men often shows the way better than all the experience
14317 of old Cunctators."
14319 "But in what position are we going to attack him? I have been at the
14320 outposts today and it is impossible to say where his chief forces are
14321 situated," said Prince Andrew.
14323 He wished to explain to Dolgorukov a plan of attack he had himself
14326 "Oh, that is all the same," Dolgorukov said quickly, and getting up he
14327 spread a map on the table. "All eventualities have been foreseen. If he
14328 is standing before Brunn..."
14330 And Prince Dolgorukov rapidly but indistinctly explained Weyrother's
14331 plan of a flanking movement.
14333 Prince Andrew began to reply and to state his own plan, which might have
14334 been as good as Weyrother's, but for the disadvantage that Weyrother's
14335 had already been approved. As soon as Prince Andrew began to demonstrate
14336 the defects of the latter and the merits of his own plan, Prince
14337 Dolgorukov ceased to listen to him and gazed absent-mindedly not at the
14338 map, but at Prince Andrew's face.
14340 "There will be a council of war at Kutuzov's tonight, though; you can
14341 say all this there," remarked Dolgorukov.
14343 "I will do so," said Prince Andrew, moving away from the map.
14345 "Whatever are you bothering about, gentlemen?" said Bilibin, who, till
14346 then, had listened with an amused smile to their conversation and now
14347 was evidently ready with a joke. "Whether tomorrow brings victory or
14348 defeat, the glory of our Russian arms is secure. Except your Kutuzov,
14349 there is not a single Russian in command of a column! The commanders
14350 are: Herr General Wimpfen, le Comte de Langeron, le Prince de
14351 Lichtenstein, le Prince, de Hohenlohe, and finally Prishprish, and so on
14352 like all those Polish names."
14354 "Be quiet, backbiter!" said Dolgorukov. "It is not true; there are now
14355 two Russians, Miloradovich, and Dokhturov, and there would be a third,
14356 Count Arakcheev, if his nerves were not too weak."
14358 "However, I think General Kutuzov has come out," said Prince Andrew. "I
14359 wish you good luck and success, gentlemen!" he added and went out after
14360 shaking hands with Dolgorukov and Bilibin.
14362 On the way home, Prince Andrew could not refrain from asking Kutuzov,
14363 who was sitting silently beside him, what he thought of tomorrow's
14366 Kutuzov looked sternly at his adjutant and, after a pause, replied: "I
14367 think the battle will be lost, and so I told Count Tolstoy and asked him
14368 to tell the Emperor. What do you think he replied? 'But, my dear
14369 general, I am engaged with rice and cutlets, look after military matters
14370 yourself!' Yes... That was the answer I got!"
14377 Shortly after nine o'clock that evening, Weyrother drove with his plans
14378 to Kutuzov's quarters where the council of war was to be held. All the
14379 commanders of columns were summoned to the commander-in-chief's and with
14380 the exception of Prince Bagration, who declined to come, were all there
14381 at the appointed time.
14383 Weyrother, who was in full control of the proposed battle, by his
14384 eagerness and briskness presented a marked contrast to the dissatisfied
14385 and drowsy Kutuzov, who reluctantly played the part of chairman and
14386 president of the council of war. Weyrother evidently felt himself to be
14387 at the head of a movement that had already become unrestrainable. He was
14388 like a horse running downhill harnessed to a heavy cart. Whether he was
14389 pulling it or being pushed by it he did not know, but rushed along at
14390 headlong speed with no time to consider what this movement might lead
14391 to. Weyrother had been twice that evening to the enemy's picket line to
14392 reconnoiter personally, and twice to the Emperors, Russian and Austrian,
14393 to report and explain, and to his headquarters where he had dictated the
14394 dispositions in German, and now, much exhausted, he arrived at
14397 He was evidently so busy that he even forgot to be polite to the
14398 commander in chief. He interrupted him, talked rapidly and indistinctly,
14399 without looking at the man he was addressing, and did not reply to
14400 questions put to him. He was bespattered with mud and had a pitiful,
14401 weary, and distracted air, though at the same time he was haughty and
14404 Kutuzov was occupying a nobleman's castle of modest dimensions near
14405 Ostralitz. In the large drawing room which had become the commander in
14406 chief's office were gathered Kutuzov himself, Weyrother, and the members
14407 of the council of war. They were drinking tea, and only awaited Prince
14408 Bagration to begin the council. At last Bagration's orderly came with
14409 the news that the prince could not attend. Prince Andrew came in to
14410 inform the commander-in-chief of this and, availing himself of
14411 permission previously given him by Kutuzov to be present at the council,
14412 he remained in the room.
14414 "Since Prince Bagration is not coming, we may begin," said Weyrother,
14415 hurriedly rising from his seat and going up to the table on which an
14416 enormous map of the environs of Brunn was spread out.
14418 Kutuzov, with his uniform unbuttoned so that his fat neck bulged over
14419 his collar as if escaping, was sitting almost asleep in a low chair,
14420 with his podgy old hands resting symmetrically on its arms. At the sound
14421 of Weyrother's voice, he opened his one eye with an effort.
14423 "Yes, yes, if you please! It is already late," said he, and nodding his
14424 head he let it droop and again closed his eye.
14426 If at first the members of the council thought that Kutuzov was
14427 pretending to sleep, the sounds his nose emitted during the reading that
14428 followed proved that the commander-in-chief at that moment was absorbed
14429 by a far more serious matter than a desire to show his contempt for the
14430 dispositions or anything else--he was engaged in satisfying the
14431 irresistible human need for sleep. He really was asleep. Weyrother, with
14432 the gesture of a man too busy to lose a moment, glanced at Kutuzov and,
14433 having convinced himself that he was asleep, took up a paper and in a
14434 loud, monotonous voice began to read out the dispositions for the
14435 impending battle, under a heading which he also read out:
14437 "Dispositions for an attack on the enemy position behind Kobelnitz and
14438 Sokolnitz, November 30, 1805."
14440 The dispositions were very complicated and difficult. They began as
14443 "As the enemy's left wing rests on wooded hills and his right extends
14444 along Kobelnitz and Sokolnitz behind the ponds that are there, while we,
14445 on the other hand, with our left wing by far outflank his right, it is
14446 advantageous to attack the enemy's latter wing especially if we occupy
14447 the villages of Sokolnitz and Kobelnitz, whereby we can both fall on his
14448 flank and pursue him over the plain between Schlappanitz and the
14449 Thuerassa forest, avoiding the defiles of Schlappanitz and Bellowitz
14450 which cover the enemy's front. For this object it is necessary that...
14451 The first column marches... The second column marches... The third
14452 column marches..." and so on, read Weyrother.
14454 The generals seemed to listen reluctantly to the difficult dispositions.
14455 The tall, fair-haired General Buxhowden stood, leaning his back against
14456 the wall, his eyes fixed on a burning candle, and seemed not to listen
14457 or even to wish to be thought to listen. Exactly opposite Weyrother,
14458 with his glistening wide-open eyes fixed upon him and his mustache
14459 twisted upwards, sat the ruddy Miloradovich in a military pose, his
14460 elbows turned outwards, his hands on his knees, and his shoulders
14461 raised. He remained stubbornly silent, gazing at Weyrother's face, and
14462 only turned away his eyes when the Austrian chief of staff finished
14463 reading. Then Miloradovich looked round significantly at the other
14464 generals. But one could not tell from that significant look whether he
14465 agreed or disagreed and was satisfied or not with the arrangements. Next
14466 to Weyrother sat Count Langeron who, with a subtle smile that never left
14467 his typically southern French face during the whole time of the reading,
14468 gazed at his delicate fingers which rapidly twirled by its corners a
14469 gold snuffbox on which was a portrait. In the middle of one of the
14470 longest sentences, he stopped the rotary motion of the snuffbox, raised
14471 his head, and with inimical politeness lurking in the corners of his
14472 thin lips interrupted Weyrother, wishing to say something. But the
14473 Austrian general, continuing to read, frowned angrily and jerked his
14474 elbows, as if to say: "You can tell me your views later, but now be so
14475 good as to look at the map and listen." Langeron lifted his eyes with an
14476 expression of perplexity, turned round to Miloradovich as if seeking an
14477 explanation, but meeting the latter's impressive but meaningless gaze
14478 drooped his eyes sadly and again took to twirling his snuffbox.
14480 "A geography lesson!" he muttered as if to himself, but loud enough to
14483 Przebyszewski, with respectful but dignified politeness, held his hand
14484 to his ear toward Weyrother, with the air of a man absorbed in
14485 attention. Dohkturov, a little man, sat opposite Weyrother, with an
14486 assiduous and modest mien, and stooping over the outspread map
14487 conscientiously studied the dispositions and the unfamiliar locality. He
14488 asked Weyrother several times to repeat words he had not clearly heard
14489 and the difficult names of villages. Weyrother complied and Dohkturov
14492 When the reading which lasted more than an hour was over, Langeron again
14493 brought his snuffbox to rest and, without looking at Weyrother or at
14494 anyone in particular, began to say how difficult it was to carry out
14495 such a plan in which the enemy's position was assumed to be known,
14496 whereas it was perhaps not known, since the enemy was in movement.
14497 Langeron's objections were valid but it was obvious that their chief aim
14498 was to show General Weyrother--who had read his dispositions with as
14499 much self-confidence as if he were addressing school children--that he
14500 had to do, not with fools, but with men who could teach him something in
14503 When the monotonous sound of Weyrother's voice ceased, Kutuzov opened
14504 his eye as a miller wakes up when the soporific drone of the mill wheel
14505 is interrupted. He listened to what Langeron said, as if remarking, "So
14506 you are still at that silly business!" quickly closed his eye again, and
14507 let his head sink still lower.
14509 Langeron, trying as virulently as possible to sting Weyrother's vanity
14510 as author of the military plan, argued that Bonaparte might easily
14511 attack instead of being attacked, and so render the whole of this plan
14512 perfectly worthless. Weyrother met all objections with a firm and
14513 contemptuous smile, evidently prepared beforehand to meet all objections
14514 be they what they might.
14516 "If he could attack us, he would have done so today," said he.
14518 "So you think he is powerless?" said Langeron.
14520 "He has forty thousand men at most," replied Weyrother, with the smile
14521 of a doctor to whom an old wife wishes to explain the treatment of a
14524 "In that case he is inviting his doom by awaiting our attack," said
14525 Langeron, with a subtly ironical smile, again glancing round for support
14526 to Miloradovich who was near him.
14528 But Miloradovich was at that moment evidently thinking of anything
14529 rather than of what the generals were disputing about.
14531 "Ma foi!" said he, "tomorrow we shall see all that on the battlefield."
14533 Weyrother again gave that smile which seemed to say that to him it was
14534 strange and ridiculous to meet objections from Russian generals and to
14535 have to prove to them what he had not merely convinced himself of, but
14536 had also convinced the sovereign Emperors of.
14538 "The enemy has quenched his fires and a continual noise is heard from
14539 his camp," said he. "What does that mean? Either he is retreating, which
14540 is the only thing we need fear, or he is changing his position." (He
14541 smiled ironically.) "But even if he also took up a position in the
14542 Thuerassa, he merely saves us a great deal of trouble and all our
14543 arrangements to the minutest detail remain the same."
14545 "How is that?..." began Prince Andrew, who had for long been waiting an
14546 opportunity to express his doubts.
14548 Kutuzov here woke up, coughed heavily, and looked round at the generals.
14550 "Gentlemen, the dispositions for tomorrow--or rather for today, for it
14551 is past midnight--cannot now be altered," said he. "You have heard them,
14552 and we shall all do our duty. But before a battle, there is nothing more
14553 important..." he paused, "than to have a good sleep."
14555 He moved as if to rise. The generals bowed and retired. It was past
14556 midnight. Prince Andrew went out.
14558 The council of war, at which Prince Andrew had not been able to express
14559 his opinion as he had hoped to, left on him a vague and uneasy
14560 impression. Whether Dolgorukov and Weyrother, or Kutuzov, Langeron, and
14561 the others who did not approve of the plan of attack, were right--he did
14562 not know. "But was it really not possible for Kutuzov to state his views
14563 plainly to the Emperor? Is it possible that on account of court and
14564 personal considerations tens of thousands of lives, and my life, my
14565 life," he thought, "must be risked?"
14567 "Yes, it is very likely that I shall be killed tomorrow," he thought.
14568 And suddenly, at this thought of death, a whole series of most distant,
14569 most intimate, memories rose in his imagination: he remembered his last
14570 parting from his father and his wife; he remembered the days when he
14571 first loved her. He thought of her pregnancy and felt sorry for her and
14572 for himself, and in a nervously emotional and softened mood he went out
14573 of the hut in which he was billeted with Nesvitski and began to walk up
14574 and down before it.
14576 The night was foggy and through the fog the moonlight gleamed
14577 mysteriously. "Yes, tomorrow, tomorrow!" he thought. "Tomorrow
14578 everything may be over for me! All these memories will be no more, none
14579 of them will have any meaning for me. Tomorrow perhaps, even certainly,
14580 I have a presentiment that for the first time I shall have to show all I
14581 can do." And his fancy pictured the battle, its loss, the concentration
14582 of fighting at one point, and the hesitation of all the commanders. And
14583 then that happy moment, that Toulon for which he had so long waited,
14584 presents itself to him at last. He firmly and clearly expresses his
14585 opinion to Kutuzov, to Weyrother, and to the Emperors. All are struck by
14586 the justness of his views, but no one undertakes to carry them out, so
14587 he takes a regiment, a division-stipulates that no one is to interfere
14588 with his arrangements--leads his division to the decisive point, and
14589 gains the victory alone. "But death and suffering?" suggested another
14590 voice. Prince Andrew, however, did not answer that voice and went on
14591 dreaming of his triumphs. The dispositions for the next battle are
14592 planned by him alone. Nominally he is only an adjutant on Kutuzov's
14593 staff, but he does everything alone. The next battle is won by him
14594 alone. Kutuzov is removed and he is appointed... "Well and then?" asked
14595 the other voice. "If before that you are not ten times wounded, killed,
14596 or betrayed, well... what then?..." "Well then," Prince Andrew answered
14597 himself, "I don't know what will happen and don't want to know, and
14598 can't, but if I want this--want glory, want to be known to men, want to
14599 be loved by them, it is not my fault that I want it and want nothing but
14600 that and live only for that. Yes, for that alone! I shall never tell
14601 anyone, but, oh God! what am I to do if I love nothing but fame and
14602 men's esteem? Death, wounds, the loss of family--I fear nothing. And
14603 precious and dear as many persons are to me--father, sister, wife--those
14604 dearest to me--yet dreadful and unnatural as it seems, I would give them
14605 all at once for a moment of glory, of triumph over men, of love from men
14606 I don't know and never shall know, for the love of these men here," he
14607 thought, as he listened to voices in Kutuzov's courtyard. The voices
14608 were those of the orderlies who were packing up; one voice, probably a
14609 coachman's, was teasing Kutuzov's old cook whom Prince Andrew knew, and
14610 who was called Tit. He was saying, "Tit, I say, Tit!"
14612 "Well?" returned the old man.
14614 "Go, Tit, thresh a bit!" said the wag.
14616 "Oh, go to the devil!" called out a voice, drowned by the laughter of
14617 the orderlies and servants.
14619 "All the same, I love and value nothing but triumph over them all, I
14620 value this mystic power and glory that is floating here above me in this
14628 That same night, Rostov was with a platoon on skirmishing duty in front
14629 of Bagration's detachment. His hussars were placed along the line in
14630 couples and he himself rode along the line trying to master the
14631 sleepiness that kept coming over him. An enormous space, with our army's
14632 campfires dimly glowing in the fog, could be seen behind him; in front
14633 of him was misty darkness. Rostov could see nothing, peer as he would
14634 into that foggy distance: now something gleamed gray, now there was
14635 something black, now little lights seemed to glimmer where the enemy
14636 ought to be, now he fancied it was only something in his own eyes. His
14637 eyes kept closing, and in his fancy appeared--now the Emperor, now
14638 Denisov, and now Moscow memories--and he again hurriedly opened his eyes
14639 and saw close before him the head and ears of the horse he was riding,
14640 and sometimes, when he came within six paces of them, the black figures
14641 of hussars, but in the distance was still the same misty darkness. "Why
14642 not?... It might easily happen," thought Rostov, "that the Emperor will
14643 meet me and give me an order as he would to any other officer; he'll
14644 say: 'Go and find out what's there.' There are many stories of his
14645 getting to know an officer in just such a chance way and attaching him
14646 to himself! What if he gave me a place near him? Oh, how I would guard
14647 him, how I would tell him the truth, how I would unmask his deceivers!"
14648 And in order to realize vividly his love devotion to the sovereign,
14649 Rostov pictured to himself an enemy or a deceitful German, whom he would
14650 not only kill with pleasure but whom he would slap in the face before
14651 the Emperor. Suddenly a distant shout aroused him. He started and opened
14654 "Where am I? Oh yes, in the skirmishing line... pass and watchword--
14655 shaft, Olmutz. What a nuisance that our squadron will be in reserve
14656 tomorrow," he thought. "I'll ask leave to go to the front, this may be
14657 my only chance of seeing the Emperor. It won't be long now before I am
14658 off duty. I'll take another turn and when I get back I'll go to the
14659 general and ask him." He readjusted himself in the saddle and touched up
14660 his horse to ride once more round his hussars. It seemed to him that it
14661 was getting lighter. To the left he saw a sloping descent lit up, and
14662 facing it a black knoll that seemed as steep as a wall. On this knoll
14663 there was a white patch that Rostov could not at all make out: was it a
14664 glade in the wood lit up by the moon, or some unmelted snow, or some
14665 white houses? He even thought something moved on that white spot. "I
14666 expect it's snow... that spot... a spot--une tache," he thought. "There
14667 now... it's not a tache... Natasha... sister, black eyes... Na...
14668 tasha... (Won't she be surprised when I tell her how I've seen the
14669 Emperor?) Natasha... take my sabretache..."--"Keep to the right, your
14670 honor, there are bushes here," came the voice of an hussar, past whom
14671 Rostov was riding in the act of falling asleep. Rostov lifted his head
14672 that had sunk almost to his horse's mane and pulled up beside the
14673 hussar. He was succumbing to irresistible, youthful, childish
14674 drowsiness. "But what was I thinking? I mustn't forget. How shall I
14675 speak to the Emperor? No, that's not it--that's tomorrow. Oh yes!
14676 Natasha... sabretache... saber them... Whom? The hussars... Ah, the
14677 hussars with mustaches. Along the Tverskaya Street rode the hussar with
14678 mustaches... I thought about him too, just opposite Guryev's house...
14679 Old Guryev.... Oh, but Denisov's a fine fellow. But that's all nonsense.
14680 The chief thing is that the Emperor is here. How he looked at me and
14681 wished to say something, but dared not.... No, it was I who dared not.
14682 But that's nonsense, the chief thing is not to forget the important
14683 thing I was thinking of. Yes, Na-tasha, sabretache, oh, yes, yes! That's
14684 right!" And his head once more sank to his horse's neck. All at once it
14685 seemed to him that he was being fired at. "What? What? What?... Cut them
14686 down! What?..." said Rostov, waking up. At the moment he opened his eyes
14687 he heard in front of him, where the enemy was, the long-drawn shouts of
14688 thousands of voices. His horse and the horse of the hussar near him
14689 pricked their ears at these shouts. Over there, where the shouting came
14690 from, a fire flared up and went out again, then another, and all along
14691 the French line on the hill fires flared up and the shouting grew louder
14692 and louder. Rostov could hear the sound of French words but could not
14693 distinguish them. The din of many voices was too great; all he could
14694 hear was: "ahahah!" and "rrrr!"
14696 "What's that? What do you make of it?" said Rostov to the hussar beside
14697 him. "That must be the enemy's camp!"
14699 The hussar did not reply.
14701 "Why, don't you hear it?" Rostov asked again, after waiting for a reply.
14703 "Who can tell, your honor?" replied the hussar reluctantly.
14705 "From the direction, it must be the enemy," repeated Rostov.
14707 "It may be he or it may be nothing," muttered the hussar. "It's dark...
14708 Steady!" he cried to his fidgeting horse.
14710 Rostov's horse was also getting restive: it pawed the frozen ground,
14711 pricking its ears at the noise and looking at the lights. The shouting
14712 grew still louder and merged into a general roar that only an army of
14713 several thousand men could produce. The lights spread farther and
14714 farther, probably along the line of the French camp. Rostov no longer
14715 wanted to sleep. The gay triumphant shouting of the enemy army had a
14716 stimulating effect on him. "Vive l'Empereur! L'Empereur!" he now heard
14719 "They can't be far off, probably just beyond the stream," he said to the
14722 The hussar only sighed without replying and coughed angrily. The sound
14723 of horse's hoofs approaching at a trot along the line of hussars was
14724 heard, and out of the foggy darkness the figure of a sergeant of hussars
14725 suddenly appeared, looming huge as an elephant.
14727 "Your honor, the generals!" said the sergeant, riding up to Rostov.
14729 Rostov, still looking round toward the fires and the shouts, rode with
14730 the sergeant to meet some mounted men who were riding along the line.
14731 One was on a white horse. Prince Bagration and Prince Dolgorukov with
14732 their adjutants had come to witness the curious phenomenon of the lights
14733 and shouts in the enemy's camp. Rostov rode up to Bagration, reported to
14734 him, and then joined the adjutants listening to what the generals were
14737 "Believe me," said Prince Dolgorukov, addressing Bagration, "it is
14738 nothing but a trick! He has retreated and ordered the rearguard to
14739 kindle fires and make a noise to deceive us."
14741 "Hardly," said Bagration. "I saw them this evening on that knoll; if
14742 they had retreated they would have withdrawn from that too.... Officer!"
14743 said Bagration to Rostov, "are the enemy's skirmishers still there?"
14745 "They were there this evening, but now I don't know, your excellency.
14746 Shall I go with some of my hussars to see?" replied Rostov.
14748 Bagration stopped and, before replying, tried to see Rostov's face in
14751 "Well, go and see," he said, after a pause.
14755 Rostov spurred his horse, called to Sergeant Fedchenko and two other
14756 hussars, told them to follow him, and trotted downhill in the direction
14757 from which the shouting came. He felt both frightened and pleased to be
14758 riding alone with three hussars into that mysterious and dangerous misty
14759 distance where no one had been before him. Bagration called to him from
14760 the hill not to go beyond the stream, but Rostov pretended not to hear
14761 him and did not stop but rode on and on, continually mistaking bushes
14762 for trees and gullies for men and continually discovering his mistakes.
14763 Having descended the hill at a trot, he no longer saw either our own or
14764 the enemy's fires, but heard the shouting of the French more loudly and
14765 distinctly. In the valley he saw before him something like a river, but
14766 when he reached it he found it was a road. Having come out onto the road
14767 he reined in his horse, hesitating whether to ride along it or cross it
14768 and ride over the black field up the hillside. To keep to the road which
14769 gleamed white in the mist would have been safer because it would be
14770 easier to see people coming along it. "Follow me!" said he, crossed the
14771 road, and began riding up the hill at a gallop toward the point where
14772 the French pickets had been standing that evening.
14774 "Your honor, there he is!" cried one of the hussars behind him. And
14775 before Rostov had time to make out what the black thing was that had
14776 suddenly appeared in the fog, there was a flash, followed by a report,
14777 and a bullet whizzing high up in the mist with a plaintive sound passed
14778 out of hearing. Another musket missed fire but flashed in the pan.
14779 Rostov turned his horse and galloped back. Four more reports followed at
14780 intervals, and the bullets passed somewhere in the fog singing in
14781 different tones. Rostov reined in his horse, whose spirits had risen,
14782 like his own, at the firing, and went back at a footpace. "Well, some
14783 more! Some more!" a merry voice was saying in his soul. But no more
14786 Only when approaching Bagration did Rostov let his horse gallop again,
14787 and with his hand at the salute rode up to the general.
14789 Dolgorukov was still insisting that the French had retreated and had
14790 only lit fires to deceive us.
14792 "What does that prove?" he was saying as Rostov rode up. "They might
14793 retreat and leave the pickets."
14795 "It's plain that they have not all gone yet, Prince," said Bagration.
14796 "Wait till tomorrow morning, we'll find out everything tomorrow."
14798 "The picket is still on the hill, your excellency, just where it was in
14799 the evening," reported Rostov, stooping forward with his hand at the
14800 salute and unable to repress the smile of delight induced by his ride
14801 and especially by the sound of the bullets.
14803 "Very good, very good," said Bagration. "Thank you, officer."
14805 "Your excellency," said Rostov, "may I ask a favor?"
14809 "Tomorrow our squadron is to be in reserve. May I ask to be attached to
14810 the first squadron?"
14812 "What's your name?"
14816 "Oh, very well, you may stay in attendance on me."
14818 "Count Ilya Rostov's son?" asked Dolgorukov.
14820 But Rostov did not reply.
14822 "Then I may reckon on it, your excellency?"
14824 "I will give the order."
14826 "Tomorrow very likely I may be sent with some message to the Emperor,"
14831 The fires and shouting in the enemy's army were occasioned by the fact
14832 that while Napoleon's proclamation was being read to the troops the
14833 Emperor himself rode round his bivouacs. The soldiers, on seeing him,
14834 lit wisps of straw and ran after him, shouting, "Vive l'Empereur!"
14835 Napoleon's proclamation was as follows:
14837 Soldiers! The Russian army is advancing against you to avenge the
14838 Austrian army of Ulm. They are the same battalions you broke at
14839 Hollabrunn and have pursued ever since to this place. The position we
14840 occupy is a strong one, and while they are marching to go round me on
14841 the right they will expose a flank to me. Soldiers! I will myself direct
14842 your battalions. I will keep out of fire if you with your habitual valor
14843 carry disorder and confusion into the enemy's ranks, but should victory
14844 be in doubt, even for a moment, you will see your Emperor exposing
14845 himself to the first blows of the enemy, for there must be no doubt of
14846 victory, especially on this day when what is at stake is the honor of
14847 the French infantry, so necessary to the honor of our nation.
14849 Do not break your ranks on the plea of removing the wounded! Let every
14850 man be fully imbued with the thought that we must defeat these hirelings
14851 of England, inspired by such hatred of our nation! This victory will
14852 conclude our campaign and we can return to winter quarters, where fresh
14853 French troops who are being raised in France will join us, and the peace
14854 I shall conclude will be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself.
14863 At five in the morning it was still quite dark. The troops of the
14864 center, the reserves, and Bagration's right flank had not yet moved, but
14865 on the left flank the columns of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, which
14866 were to be the first to descend the heights to attack the French right
14867 flank and drive it into the Bohemian mountains according to plan, were
14868 already up and astir. The smoke of the campfires, into which they were
14869 throwing everything superfluous, made the eyes smart. It was cold and
14870 dark. The officers were hurriedly drinking tea and breakfasting, the
14871 soldiers, munching biscuit and beating a tattoo with their feet to warm
14872 themselves, gathering round the fires throwing into the flames the
14873 remains of sheds, chairs, tables, wheels, tubs, and everything that they
14874 did not want or could not carry away with them. Austrian column guides
14875 were moving in and out among the Russian troops and served as heralds of
14876 the advance. As soon as an Austrian officer showed himself near a
14877 commanding officer's quarters, the regiment began to move: the soldiers
14878 ran from the fires, thrust their pipes into their boots, their bags into
14879 the carts, got their muskets ready, and formed rank. The officers
14880 buttoned up their coats, buckled on their swords and pouches, and moved
14881 along the ranks shouting. The train drivers and orderlies harnessed and
14882 packed the wagons and tied on the loads. The adjutants and battalion and
14883 regimental commanders mounted, crossed themselves, gave final
14884 instructions, orders, and commissions to the baggage men who remained
14885 behind, and the monotonous tramp of thousands of feet resounded. The
14886 column moved forward without knowing where and unable, from the masses
14887 around them, the smoke and the increasing fog, to see either the place
14888 they were leaving or that to which they were going.
14890 A soldier on the march is hemmed in and borne along by his regiment as
14891 much as a sailor is by his ship. However far he has walked, whatever
14892 strange, unknown, and dangerous places he reaches, just as a sailor is
14893 always surrounded by the same decks, masts, and rigging of his ship, so
14894 the soldier always has around him the same comrades, the same ranks, the
14895 same sergeant major Ivan Mitrich, the same company dog Jack, and the
14896 same commanders. The sailor rarely cares to know the latitude in which
14897 his ship is sailing, but on the day of battle--heaven knows how and
14898 whence--a stern note of which all are conscious sounds in the moral
14899 atmosphere of an army, announcing the approach of something decisive and
14900 solemn, and awakening in the men an unusual curiosity. On the day of
14901 battle the soldiers excitedly try to get beyond the interests of their
14902 regiment, they listen intently, look about, and eagerly ask concerning
14903 what is going on around them.
14905 The fog had grown so dense that though it was growing light they could
14906 not see ten paces ahead. Bushes looked like gigantic trees and level
14907 ground like cliffs and slopes. Anywhere, on any side, one might
14908 encounter an enemy invisible ten paces off. But the columns advanced for
14909 a long time, always in the same fog, descending and ascending hills,
14910 avoiding gardens and enclosures, going over new and unknown ground, and
14911 nowhere encountering the enemy. On the contrary, the soldiers became
14912 aware that in front, behind, and on all sides, other Russian columns
14913 were moving in the same direction. Every soldier felt glad to know that
14914 to the unknown place where he was going, many more of our men were going
14917 "There now, the Kurskies have also gone past," was being said in the
14920 "It's wonderful what a lot of our troops have gathered, lads! Last night
14921 I looked at the campfires and there was no end of them. A regular
14924 Though none of the column commanders rode up to the ranks or talked to
14925 the men (the commanders, as we saw at the council of war, were out of
14926 humor and dissatisfied with the affair, and so did not exert themselves
14927 to cheer the men but merely carried out the orders), yet the troops
14928 marched gaily, as they always do when going into action, especially to
14929 an attack. But when they had marched for about an hour in the dense fog,
14930 the greater part of the men had to halt and an unpleasant consciousness
14931 of some dislocation and blunder spread through the ranks. How such a
14932 consciousness is communicated is very difficult to define, but it
14933 certainly is communicated very surely, and flows rapidly, imperceptibly,
14934 and irrepressibly, as water does in a creek. Had the Russian army been
14935 alone without any allies, it might perhaps have been a long time before
14936 this consciousness of mismanagement became a general conviction, but as
14937 it was, the disorder was readily and naturally attributed to the stupid
14938 Germans, and everyone was convinced that a dangerous muddle had been
14939 occasioned by the sausage eaters.
14941 "Why have we stopped? Is the way blocked? Or have we already come up
14942 against the French?"
14944 "No, one can't hear them. They'd be firing if we had."
14946 "They were in a hurry enough to start us, and now here we stand in the
14947 middle of a field without rhyme or reason. It's all those damned
14948 Germans' muddling! What stupid devils!"
14950 "Yes, I'd send them on in front, but no fear, they're crowding up
14951 behind. And now here we stand hungry."
14953 "I say, shall we soon be clear? They say the cavalry are blocking the
14954 way," said an officer.
14956 "Ah, those damned Germans! They don't know their own country!" said
14959 "What division are you?" shouted an adjutant, riding up.
14963 "Then why are you here? You should have gone on long ago, now you won't
14964 get there till evening."
14966 "What stupid orders! They don't themselves know what they are doing!"
14967 said the officer and rode off.
14969 Then a general rode past shouting something angrily, not in Russian.
14971 "Tafa-lafa! But what he's jabbering no one can make out," said a
14972 soldier, mimicking the general who had ridden away. "I'd shoot them, the
14975 "We were ordered to be at the place before nine, but we haven't got
14976 halfway. Fine orders!" was being repeated on different sides.
14978 And the feeling of energy with which the troops had started began to
14979 turn into vexation and anger at the stupid arrangements and at the
14982 The cause of the confusion was that while the Austrian cavalry was
14983 moving toward our left flank, the higher command found that our center
14984 was too far separated from our right flank and the cavalry were all
14985 ordered to turn back to the right. Several thousand cavalry crossed in
14986 front of the infantry, who had to wait.
14988 At the front an altercation occurred between an Austrian guide and a
14989 Russian general. The general shouted a demand that the cavalry should be
14990 halted, the Austrian argued that not he, but the higher command, was to
14991 blame. The troops meanwhile stood growing listless and dispirited. After
14992 an hour's delay they at last moved on, descending the hill. The fog that
14993 was dispersing on the hill lay still more densely below, where they were
14994 descending. In front in the fog a shot was heard and then another, at
14995 first irregularly at varying intervals--trata... tat--and then more and
14996 more regularly and rapidly, and the action at the Goldbach Stream began.
14998 Not expecting to come on the enemy down by the stream, and having
14999 stumbled on him in the fog, hearing no encouraging word from their
15000 commanders, and with a consciousness of being too late spreading through
15001 the ranks, and above all being unable to see anything in front or around
15002 them in the thick fog, the Russians exchanged shots with the enemy
15003 lazily and advanced and again halted, receiving no timely orders from
15004 the officers or adjutants who wandered about in the fog in those unknown
15005 surroundings unable to find their own regiments. In this way the action
15006 began for the first, second, and third columns, which had gone down into
15007 the valley. The fourth column, with which Kutuzov was, stood on the
15010 Below, where the fight was beginning, there was still thick fog; on the
15011 higher ground it was clearing, but nothing could be seen of what was
15012 going on in front. Whether all the enemy forces were, as we supposed,
15013 six miles away, or whether they were near by in that sea of mist, no one
15014 knew till after eight o'clock.
15016 It was nine o'clock in the morning. The fog lay unbroken like a sea down
15017 below, but higher up at the village of Schlappanitz where Napoleon stood
15018 with his marshals around him, it was quite light. Above him was a clear
15019 blue sky, and the sun's vast orb quivered like a huge hollow, crimson
15020 float on the surface of that milky sea of mist. The whole French army,
15021 and even Napoleon himself with his staff, were not on the far side of
15022 the streams and hollows of Sokolnitz and Schlappanitz beyond which we
15023 intended to take up our position and begin the action, but were on this
15024 side, so close to our own forces that Napoleon with the naked eye could
15025 distinguish a mounted man from one on foot. Napoleon, in the blue cloak
15026 which he had worn on his Italian campaign, sat on his small gray Arab
15027 horse a little in front of his marshals. He gazed silently at the hills
15028 which seemed to rise out of the sea of mist and on which the Russian
15029 troops were moving in the distance, and he listened to the sounds of
15030 firing in the valley. Not a single muscle of his face--which in those
15031 days was still thin--moved. His gleaming eyes were fixed intently on one
15032 spot. His predictions were being justified. Part of the Russian force
15033 had already descended into the valley toward the ponds and lakes and
15034 part were leaving these Pratzen Heights which he intended to attack and
15035 regarded as the key to the position. He saw over the mist that in a
15036 hollow between two hills near the village of Pratzen, the Russian
15037 columns, their bayonets glittering, were moving continuously in one
15038 direction toward the valley and disappearing one after another into the
15039 mist. From information he had received the evening before, from the
15040 sound of wheels and footsteps heard by the outposts during the night, by
15041 the disorderly movement of the Russian columns, and from all
15042 indications, he saw clearly that the allies believed him to be far away
15043 in front of them, and that the columns moving near Pratzen constituted
15044 the center of the Russian army, and that that center was already
15045 sufficiently weakened to be successfully attacked. But still he did not
15046 begin the engagement.
15048 Today was a great day for him--the anniversary of his coronation. Before
15049 dawn he had slept for a few hours, and refreshed, vigorous, and in good
15050 spirits, he mounted his horse and rode out into the field in that happy
15051 mood in which everything seems possible and everything succeeds. He sat
15052 motionless, looking at the heights visible above the mist, and his cold
15053 face wore that special look of confident, self-complacent happiness that
15054 one sees on the face of a boy happily in love. The marshals stood behind
15055 him not venturing to distract his attention. He looked now at the
15056 Pratzen Heights, now at the sun floating up out of the mist.
15058 When the sun had entirely emerged from the fog, and fields and mist were
15059 aglow with dazzling light--as if he had only awaited this to begin the
15060 action--he drew the glove from his shapely white hand, made a sign with
15061 it to the marshals, and ordered the action to begin. The marshals,
15062 accompanied by adjutants, galloped off in different directions, and a
15063 few minutes later the chief forces of the French army moved rapidly
15064 toward those Pratzen Heights which were being more and more denuded by
15065 Russian troops moving down the valley to their left.
15072 At eight o'clock Kutuzov rode to Pratzen at the head of the fourth
15073 column, Miloradovich's, the one that was to take the place of
15074 Przebyszewski's and Langeron's columns which had already gone down into
15075 the valley. He greeted the men of the foremost regiment and gave them
15076 the order to march, thereby indicating that he intended to lead that
15077 column himself. When he had reached the village of Pratzen he halted.
15078 Prince Andrew was behind, among the immense number forming the
15079 commander-in-chief's suite. He was in a state of suppressed excitement
15080 and irritation, though controlledly calm as a man is at the approach of
15081 a long-awaited moment. He was firmly convinced that this was the day of
15082 his Toulon, or his bridge of Arcola. How it would come about he did not
15083 know, but he felt sure it would do so. The locality and the position of
15084 our troops were known to him as far as they could be known to anyone in
15085 our army. His own strategic plan, which obviously could not now be
15086 carried out, was forgotten. Now, entering into Weyrother's plan, Prince
15087 Andrew considered possible contingencies and formed new projects such as
15088 might call for his rapidity of perception and decision.
15090 To the left down below in the mist, the musketry fire of unseen forces
15091 could be heard. It was there Prince Andrew thought the fight would
15092 concentrate. "There we shall encounter difficulties, and there," thought
15093 he, "I shall be sent with a brigade or division, and there, standard in
15094 hand, I shall go forward and break whatever is in front of me."
15096 He could not look calmly at the standards of the passing battalions.
15097 Seeing them he kept thinking, "That may be the very standard with which
15098 I shall lead the army."
15100 In the morning all that was left of the night mist on the heights was a
15101 hoar frost now turning to dew, but in the valleys it still lay like a
15102 milk-white sea. Nothing was visible in the valley to the left into which
15103 our troops had descended and from whence came the sounds of firing.
15104 Above the heights was the dark clear sky, and to the right the vast orb
15105 of the sun. In front, far off on the farther shore of that sea of mist,
15106 some wooded hills were discernible, and it was there the enemy probably
15107 was, for something could be descried. On the right the Guards were
15108 entering the misty region with a sound of hoofs and wheels and now and
15109 then a gleam of bayonets; to the left beyond the village similar masses
15110 of cavalry came up and disappeared in the sea of mist. In front and
15111 behind moved infantry. The commander-in-chief was standing at the end of
15112 the village letting the troops pass by him. That morning Kutuzov seemed
15113 worn and irritable. The infantry passing before him came to a halt
15114 without any command being given, apparently obstructed by something in
15117 "Do order them to form into battalion columns and go round the village!"
15118 he said angrily to a general who had ridden up. "Don't you understand,
15119 your excellency, my dear sir, that you must not defile through narrow
15120 village streets when we are marching against the enemy?"
15122 "I intended to re-form them beyond the village, your excellency,"
15123 answered the general.
15125 Kutuzov laughed bitterly.
15127 "You'll make a fine thing of it, deploying in sight of the enemy! Very
15130 "The enemy is still far away, your excellency. According to the
15133 "The dispositions!" exclaimed Kutuzov bitterly. "Who told you that?...
15134 Kindly do as you are ordered."
15138 "My dear fellow," Nesvitski whispered to Prince Andrew, "the old man is
15139 as surly as a dog."
15141 An Austrian officer in a white uniform with green plumes in his hat
15142 galloped up to Kutuzov and asked in the Emperor's name had the fourth
15143 column advanced into action.
15145 Kutuzov turned round without answering and his eye happened to fall upon
15146 Prince Andrew, who was beside him. Seeing him, Kutuzov's malevolent and
15147 caustic expression softened, as if admitting that what was being done
15148 was not his adjutant's fault, and still not answering the Austrian
15149 adjutant, he addressed Bolkonski.
15151 "Go, my dear fellow, and see whether the third division has passed the
15152 village. Tell it to stop and await my orders."
15154 Hardly had Prince Andrew started than he stopped him.
15156 "And ask whether sharpshooters have been posted," he added. "What are
15157 they doing? What are they doing?" he murmured to himself, still not
15158 replying to the Austrian.
15160 Prince Andrew galloped off to execute the order.
15162 Overtaking the battalions that continued to advance, he stopped the
15163 third division and convinced himself that there really were no
15164 sharpshooters in front of our columns. The colonel at the head of the
15165 regiment was much surprised at the commander-in-chief's order to throw
15166 out skirmishers. He had felt perfectly sure that there were other troops
15167 in front of him and that the enemy must be at least six miles away.
15168 There was really nothing to be seen in front except a barren descent
15169 hidden by dense mist. Having given orders in the commander-in-chief's
15170 name to rectify this omission, Prince Andrew galloped back. Kutuzov
15171 still in the same place, his stout body resting heavily in the saddle
15172 with the lassitude of age, sat yawning wearily with closed eyes. The
15173 troops were no longer moving, but stood with the butts of their muskets
15176 "All right, all right!" he said to Prince Andrew, and turned to a
15177 general who, watch in hand, was saying it was time they started as all
15178 the left-flank columns had already descended.
15180 "Plenty of time, your excellency," muttered Kutuzov in the midst of a
15181 yawn. "Plenty of time," he repeated.
15183 Just then at a distance behind Kutuzov was heard the sound of regiments
15184 saluting, and this sound rapidly came nearer along the whole extended
15185 line of the advancing Russian columns. Evidently the person they were
15186 greeting was riding quickly. When the soldiers of the regiment in front
15187 of which Kutuzov was standing began to shout, he rode a little to one
15188 side and looked round with a frown. Along the road from Pratzen galloped
15189 what looked like a squadron of horsemen in various uniforms. Two of them
15190 rode side by side in front, at full gallop. One in a black uniform with
15191 white plumes in his hat rode a bobtailed chestnut horse, the other who
15192 was in a white uniform rode a black one. These were the two Emperors
15193 followed by their suites. Kutuzov, affecting the manners of an old
15194 soldier at the front, gave the command "Attention!" and rode up to the
15195 Emperors with a salute. His whole appearance and manner were suddenly
15196 transformed. He put on the air of a subordinate who obeys without
15197 reasoning. With an affectation of respect which evidently struck
15198 Alexander unpleasantly, he rode up and saluted.
15200 This unpleasant impression merely flitted over the young and happy face
15201 of the Emperor like a cloud of haze across a clear sky and vanished.
15202 After his illness he looked rather thinner that day than on the field of
15203 Olmutz where Bolkonski had seen him for the first time abroad, but there
15204 was still the same bewitching combination of majesty and mildness in his
15205 fine gray eyes, and on his delicate lips the same capacity for varying
15206 expression and the same prevalent appearance of goodhearted innocent
15209 At the Olmutz review he had seemed more majestic; here he seemed
15210 brighter and more energetic. He was slightly flushed after galloping two
15211 miles, and reining in his horse he sighed restfully and looked round at
15212 the faces of his suite, young and animated as his own. Czartoryski,
15213 Novosiltsev, Prince Volkonsky, Strogonov, and the others, all richly
15214 dressed gay young men on splendid, well-groomed, fresh, only slightly
15215 heated horses, exchanging remarks and smiling, had stopped behind the
15216 Emperor. The Emperor Francis, a rosy, long faced young man, sat very
15217 erect on his handsome black horse, looking about him in a leisurely and
15218 preoccupied manner. He beckoned to one of his white adjutants and asked
15219 some question--"Most likely he is asking at what o'clock they started,"
15220 thought Prince Andrew, watching his old acquaintance with a smile he
15221 could not repress as he recalled his reception at Brunn. In the
15222 Emperors' suite were the picked young orderly officers of the Guard and
15223 line regiments, Russian and Austrian. Among them were grooms leading the
15224 Tsar's beautiful relay horses covered with embroidered cloths.
15226 As when a window is opened a whiff of fresh air from the fields enters a
15227 stuffy room, so a whiff of youthfulness, energy, and confidence of
15228 success reached Kutuzov's cheerless staff with the galloping advent of
15229 all these brilliant young men.
15231 "Why aren't you beginning, Michael Ilarionovich?" said the Emperor
15232 Alexander hurriedly to Kutuzov, glancing courteously at the same time at
15233 the Emperor Francis.
15235 "I am waiting, Your Majesty," answered Kutuzov, bending forward
15238 The Emperor, frowning slightly, bent his ear forward as if he had not
15241 "Waiting, Your Majesty," repeated Kutuzov. (Prince Andrew noted that
15242 Kutuzov's upper lip twitched unnaturally as he said the word "waiting.")
15243 "Not all the columns have formed up yet, Your Majesty."
15245 The Tsar heard but obviously did not like the reply; he shrugged his
15246 rather round shoulders and glanced at Novosiltsev who was near him, as
15247 if complaining of Kutuzov.
15249 "You know, Michael Ilarionovich, we are not on the Empress' Field where
15250 a parade does not begin till all the troops are assembled," said the
15251 Tsar with another glance at the Emperor Francis, as if inviting him if
15252 not to join in at least to listen to what he was saying. But the Emperor
15253 Francis continued to look about him and did not listen.
15255 "That is just why I do not begin, sire," said Kutuzov in a resounding
15256 voice, apparently to preclude the possibility of not being heard, and
15257 again something in his face twitched--"That is just why I do not begin,
15258 sire, because we are not on parade and not on the Empress' Field," said
15259 clearly and distinctly.
15261 In the Emperor's suite all exchanged rapid looks that expressed
15262 dissatisfaction and reproach. "Old though he may be, he should not, he
15263 certainly should not, speak like that," their glances seemed to say.
15265 The Tsar looked intently and observantly into Kutuzov's eye waiting to
15266 hear whether he would say anything more. But Kutuzov, with respectfully
15267 bowed head, seemed also to be waiting. The silence lasted for about a
15270 "However, if you command it, Your Majesty," said Kutuzov, lifting his
15271 head and again assuming his former tone of a dull, unreasoning, but
15272 submissive general.
15274 He touched his horse and having called Miloradovich, the commander of
15275 the column, gave him the order to advance.
15277 The troops again began to move, and two battalions of the Novgorod and
15278 one of the Apsheron regiment went forward past the Emperor.
15280 As this Apsheron battalion marched by, the red-faced Miloradovich,
15281 without his greatcoat, with his Orders on his breast and an enormous
15282 tuft of plumes in his cocked hat worn on one side with its corners front
15283 and back, galloped strenuously forward, and with a dashing salute reined
15284 in his horse before the Emperor.
15286 "God be with you, general!" said the Emperor.
15288 "Ma foi, sire, nous ferons ce qui sera dans notre possibilite, sire," *
15289 he answered gaily, raising nevertheless ironic smiles among the
15290 gentlemen of the Tsar's suite by his poor French.
15293 * "Indeed, Sire, we shall do everything it is possible to do, Sire."
15295 Miloradovich wheeled his horse sharply and stationed himself a little
15296 behind the Emperor. The Apsheron men, excited by the Tsar's presence,
15297 passed in step before the Emperors and their suites at a bold, brisk
15300 "Lads!" shouted Miloradovich in a loud, self-confident, and cheery
15301 voice, obviously so elated by the sound of firing, by the prospect of
15302 battle, and by the sight of the gallant Apsherons, his comrades in
15303 Suvorov's time, now passing so gallantly before the Emperors, that he
15304 forgot the sovereigns' presence. "Lads, it's not the first village
15305 you've had to take," cried he.
15307 "Glad to do our best!" shouted the soldiers.
15309 The Emperor's horse started at the sudden cry. This horse that had
15310 carried the sovereign at reviews in Russia bore him also here on the
15311 field of Austerlitz, enduring the heedless blows of his left foot and
15312 pricking its ears at the sound of shots just as it had done on the
15313 Empress' Field, not understanding the significance of the firing, nor of
15314 the nearness of the Emperor Francis' black cob, nor of all that was
15315 being said, thought, and felt that day by its rider.
15317 The Emperor turned with a smile to one of his followers and made a
15318 remark to him, pointing to the gallant Apsherons.
15325 Kutuzov accompanied by his adjutants rode at a walking pace behind the
15328 When he had gone less than half a mile in the rear of the column he
15329 stopped at a solitary, deserted house that had probably once been an
15330 inn, where two roads parted. Both of them led downhill and troops were
15331 marching along both.
15333 The fog had begun to clear and enemy troops were already dimly visible
15334 about a mile and a half off on the opposite heights. Down below, on the
15335 left, the firing became more distinct. Kutuzov had stopped and was
15336 speaking to an Austrian general. Prince Andrew, who was a little behind
15337 looking at them, turned to an adjutant to ask him for a field glass.
15339 "Look, look!" said this adjutant, looking not at the troops in the
15340 distance, but down the hill before him. "It's the French!"
15342 The two generals and the adjutant took hold of the field glass, trying
15343 to snatch it from one another. The expression on all their faces
15344 suddenly changed to one of horror. The French were supposed to be a mile
15345 and a half away, but had suddenly and unexpectedly appeared just in
15348 "It's the enemy?... No!... Yes, see it is!... for certain.... But how is
15349 that?" said different voices.
15351 With the naked eye Prince Andrew saw below them to the right, not more
15352 than five hundred paces from where Kutuzov was standing, a dense French
15353 column coming up to meet the Apsherons.
15355 "Here it is! The decisive moment has arrived. My turn has come," thought
15356 Prince Andrew, and striking his horse he rode up to Kutuzov.
15358 "The Apsherons must be stopped, your excellency," cried he. But at that
15359 very instant a cloud of smoke spread all round, firing was heard quite
15360 close at hand, and a voice of naive terror barely two steps from Prince
15361 Andrew shouted, "Brothers! All's lost!" And at this as if at a command,
15362 everyone began to run.
15364 Confused and ever-increasing crowds were running back to where five
15365 minutes before the troops had passed the Emperors. Not only would it
15366 have been difficult to stop that crowd, it was even impossible not to be
15367 carried back with it oneself. Bolkonski only tried not to lose touch
15368 with it, and looked around bewildered and unable to grasp what was
15369 happening in front of him. Nesvitski with an angry face, red and unlike
15370 himself, was shouting to Kutuzov that if he did not ride away at once he
15371 would certainly be taken prisoner. Kutuzov remained in the same place
15372 and without answering drew out a handkerchief. Blood was flowing from
15373 his cheek. Prince Andrew forced his way to him.
15375 "You are wounded?" he asked, hardly able to master the trembling of his
15378 "The wound is not here, it is there!" said Kutuzov, pressing the
15379 handkerchief to his wounded cheek and pointing to the fleeing soldiers.
15380 "Stop them!" he shouted, and at the same moment, probably realizing that
15381 it was impossible to stop them, spurred his horse and rode to the right.
15383 A fresh wave of the flying mob caught him and bore him back with it.
15385 The troops were running in such a dense mass that once surrounded by
15386 them it was difficult to get out again. One was shouting, "Get on! Why
15387 are you hindering us?" Another in the same place turned round and fired
15388 in the air; a third was striking the horse Kutuzov himself rode. Having
15389 by a great effort got away to the left from that flood of men, Kutuzov,
15390 with his suite diminished by more than half, rode toward a sound of
15391 artillery fire near by. Having forced his way out of the crowd of
15392 fugitives, Prince Andrew, trying to keep near Kutuzov, saw on the slope
15393 of the hill amid the smoke a Russian battery that was still firing and
15394 Frenchmen running toward it. Higher up stood some Russian infantry,
15395 neither moving forward to protect the battery nor backward with the
15396 fleeing crowd. A mounted general separated himself from the infantry and
15397 approached Kutuzov. Of Kutuzov's suite only four remained. They were all
15398 pale and exchanged looks in silence.
15400 "Stop those wretches!" gasped Kutuzov to the regimental commander,
15401 pointing to the flying soldiers; but at that instant, as if to punish
15402 him for those words, bullets flew hissing across the regiment and across
15403 Kutuzov's suite like a flock of little birds.
15405 The French had attacked the battery and, seeing Kutuzov, were firing at
15406 him. After this volley the regimental commander clutched at his leg;
15407 several soldiers fell, and a second lieutenant who was holding the flag
15408 let it fall from his hands. It swayed and fell, but caught on the
15409 muskets of the nearest soldiers. The soldiers started firing without
15412 "Oh! Oh! Oh!" groaned Kutuzov despairingly and looked around....
15413 "Bolkonski!" he whispered, his voice trembling from a consciousness of
15414 the feebleness of age, "Bolkonski!" he whispered, pointing to the
15415 disordered battalion and at the enemy, "what's that?"
15417 But before he had finished speaking, Prince Andrew, feeling tears of
15418 shame and anger choking him, had already leapt from his horse and run to
15421 "Forward, lads!" he shouted in a voice piercing as a child's.
15423 "Here it is!" thought he, seizing the staff of the standard and hearing
15424 with pleasure the whistle of bullets evidently aimed at him. Several
15427 "Hurrah!" shouted Prince Andrew, and, scarcely able to hold up the heavy
15428 standard, he ran forward with full confidence that the whole battalion
15431 And really he only ran a few steps alone. One soldier moved and then
15432 another and soon the whole battalion ran forward shouting "Hurrah!" and
15433 overtook him. A sergeant of the battalion ran up and took the flag that
15434 was swaying from its weight in Prince Andrew's hands, but he was
15435 immediately killed. Prince Andrew again seized the standard and,
15436 dragging it by the staff, ran on with the battalion. In front he saw our
15437 artillerymen, some of whom were fighting, while others, having abandoned
15438 their guns, were running toward him. He also saw French infantry
15439 soldiers who were seizing the artillery horses and turning the guns
15440 round. Prince Andrew and the battalion were already within twenty paces
15441 of the cannon. He heard the whistle of bullets above him unceasingly and
15442 to right and left of him soldiers continually groaned and dropped. But
15443 he did not look at them: he looked only at what was going on in front of
15444 him--at the battery. He now saw clearly the figure of a red-haired
15445 gunner with his shako knocked awry, pulling one end of a mop while a
15446 French soldier tugged at the other. He could distinctly see the
15447 distraught yet angry expression on the faces of these two men, who
15448 evidently did not realize what they were doing.
15450 "What are they about?" thought Prince Andrew as he gazed at them. "Why
15451 doesn't the red-haired gunner run away as he is unarmed? Why doesn't the
15452 Frenchman stab him? He will not get away before the Frenchman remembers
15453 his bayonet and stabs him...."
15455 And really another French soldier, trailing his musket, ran up to the
15456 struggling men, and the fate of the red-haired gunner, who had
15457 triumphantly secured the mop and still did not realize what awaited him,
15458 was about to be decided. But Prince Andrew did not see how it ended. It
15459 seemed to him as though one of the soldiers near him hit him on the head
15460 with the full swing of a bludgeon. It hurt a little, but the worst of it
15461 was that the pain distracted him and prevented his seeing what he had
15464 "What's this? Am I falling? My legs are giving way," thought he, and
15465 fell on his back. He opened his eyes, hoping to see how the struggle of
15466 the Frenchmen with the gunners ended, whether the red-haired gunner had
15467 been killed or not and whether the cannon had been captured or saved.
15468 But he saw nothing. Above him there was now nothing but the sky--the
15469 lofty sky, not clear yet still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds
15470 gliding slowly across it. "How quiet, peaceful, and solemn; not at all
15471 as I ran," thought Prince Andrew--"not as we ran, shouting and fighting,
15472 not at all as the gunner and the Frenchman with frightened and angry
15473 faces struggled for the mop: how differently do those clouds glide
15474 across that lofty infinite sky! How was it I did not see that lofty sky
15475 before? And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity,
15476 all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but
15477 that. But even it does not exist, there is nothing but quiet and peace.
15485 On our right flank commanded by Bagration, at nine o'clock the battle
15486 had not yet begun. Not wishing to agree to Dolgorukov's demand to
15487 commence the action, and wishing to avert responsibility from himself,
15488 Prince Bagration proposed to Dolgorukov to send to inquire of the
15489 commander-in-chief. Bagration knew that as the distance between the two
15490 flanks was more than six miles, even if the messenger were not killed
15491 (which he very likely would be), and found the commander-in-chief (which
15492 would be very difficult), he would not be able to get back before
15495 Bagration cast his large, expressionless, sleepy eyes round his suite,
15496 and the boyish face Rostov, breathless with excitement and hope, was the
15497 first to catch his eye. He sent him.
15499 "And if I should meet His Majesty before I meet the commander-in-chief,
15500 your excellency?" said Rostov, with his hand to his cap.
15502 "You can give the message to His Majesty," said Dolgorukov, hurriedly
15503 interrupting Bagration.
15505 On being relieved from picket duty Rostov had managed to get a few
15506 hours' sleep before morning and felt cheerful, bold, and resolute, with
15507 elasticity of movement, faith in his good fortune, and generally in that
15508 state of mind which makes everything seem possible, pleasant, and easy.
15510 All his wishes were being fulfilled that morning: there was to be a
15511 general engagement in which he was taking part, more than that, he was
15512 orderly to the bravest general, and still more, he was going with a
15513 message to Kutuzov, perhaps even to the sovereign himself. The morning
15514 was bright, he had a good horse under him, and his heart was full of joy
15515 and happiness. On receiving the order he gave his horse the rein and
15516 galloped along the line. At first he rode along the line of Bagration's
15517 troops, which had not yet advanced into action but were standing
15518 motionless; then he came to the region occupied by Uvarov's cavalry and
15519 here he noticed a stir and signs of preparation for battle; having
15520 passed Uvarov's cavalry he clearly heard the sound of cannon and
15521 musketry ahead of him. The firing grew louder and louder.
15523 In the fresh morning air were now heard, not two or three musket shots
15524 at irregular intervals as before, followed by one or two cannon shots,
15525 but a roll of volleys of musketry from the slopes of the hill before
15526 Pratzen, interrupted by such frequent reports of cannon that sometimes
15527 several of them were not separated from one another but merged into a
15530 He could see puffs of musketry smoke that seemed to chase one another
15531 down the hillsides, and clouds of cannon smoke rolling, spreading, and
15532 mingling with one another. He could also, by the gleam of bayonets
15533 visible through the smoke, make out moving masses of infantry and narrow
15534 lines of artillery with green caissons.
15536 Rostov stopped his horse for a moment on a hillock to see what was going
15537 on, but strain his attention as he would he could not understand or make
15538 out anything of what was happening: there in the smoke men of some sort
15539 were moving about, in front and behind moved lines of troops; but why,
15540 whither, and who they were, it was impossible to make out. These sights
15541 and sounds had no depressing or intimidating effect on him; on the
15542 contrary, they stimulated his energy and determination.
15544 "Go on! Go on! Give it them!" he mentally exclaimed at these sounds, and
15545 again proceeded to gallop along the line, penetrating farther and
15546 farther into the region where the army was already in action.
15548 "How it will be there I don't know, but all will be well!" thought
15551 After passing some Austrian troops he noticed that the next part of the
15552 line (the Guards) was already in action.
15554 "So much the better! I shall see it close," he thought.
15556 He was riding almost along the front line. A handful of men came
15557 galloping toward him. They were our uhlans who with disordered ranks
15558 were returning from the attack. Rostov got out of their way,
15559 involuntarily noticed that one of them was bleeding, and galloped on.
15561 "That is no business of mine," he thought. He had not ridden many
15562 hundred yards after that before he saw to his left, across the whole
15563 width of the field, an enormous mass of cavalry in brilliant white
15564 uniforms, mounted on black horses, trotting straight toward him and
15565 across his path. Rostov put his horse to full gallop to get out of the
15566 way of these men, and he would have got clear had they continued at the
15567 same speed, but they kept increasing their pace, so that some of the
15568 horses were already galloping. Rostov heard the thud of their hoofs and
15569 the jingle of their weapons and saw their horses, their figures, and
15570 even their faces, more and more distinctly. They were our Horse Guards,
15571 advancing to attack the French cavalry that was coming to meet them.
15573 The Horse Guards were galloping, but still holding in their horses.
15574 Rostov could already see their faces and heard the command: "Charge!"
15575 shouted by an officer who was urging his thoroughbred to full speed.
15576 Rostov, fearing to be crushed or swept into the attack on the French,
15577 galloped along the front as hard as his horse could go, but still was
15578 not in time to avoid them.
15580 The last of the Horse Guards, a huge pockmarked fellow, frowned angrily
15581 on seeing Rostov before him, with whom he would inevitably collide. This
15582 Guardsman would certainly have bowled Rostov and his Bedouin over
15583 (Rostov felt himself quite tiny and weak compared to these gigantic men
15584 and horses) had it not occurred to Rostov to flourish his whip before
15585 the eyes of the Guardsman's horse. The heavy black horse, sixteen hands
15586 high, shied, throwing back its ears; but the pockmarked Guardsman drove
15587 his huge spurs in violently, and the horse, flourishing its tail and
15588 extending its neck, galloped on yet faster. Hardly had the Horse Guards
15589 passed Rostov before he heard them shout, "Hurrah!" and looking back saw
15590 that their foremost ranks were mixed up with some foreign cavalry with
15591 red epaulets, probably French. He could see nothing more, for
15592 immediately afterwards cannon began firing from somewhere and smoke
15593 enveloped everything.
15595 At that moment, as the Horse Guards, having passed him, disappeared in
15596 the smoke, Rostov hesitated whether to gallop after them or to go where
15597 he was sent. This was the brilliant charge of the Horse Guards that
15598 amazed the French themselves. Rostov was horrified to hear later that of
15599 all that mass of huge and handsome men, of all those brilliant, rich
15600 youths, officers and cadets, who had galloped past him on their
15601 thousand-ruble horses, only eighteen were left after the charge.
15603 "Why should I envy them? My chance is not lost, and maybe I shall see
15604 the Emperor immediately!" thought Rostov and galloped on.
15606 When he came level with the Foot Guards he noticed that about them and
15607 around them cannon balls were flying, of which he was aware not so much
15608 because he heard their sound as because he saw uneasiness on the
15609 soldiers' faces and unnatural warlike solemnity on those of the
15612 Passing behind one of the lines of a regiment of Foot Guards he heard a
15613 voice calling him by name.
15617 "What?" he answered, not recognizing Boris.
15619 "I say, we've been in the front line! Our regiment attacked!" said Boris
15620 with the happy smile seen on the faces of young men who have been under
15621 fire for the first time.
15625 "Have you?" he said. "Well, how did it go?"
15627 "We drove them back!" said Boris with animation, growing talkative. "Can
15628 you imagine it?" and he began describing how the Guards, having taken up
15629 their position and seeing troops before them, thought they were
15630 Austrians, and all at once discovered from the cannon balls discharged
15631 by those troops that they were themselves in the front line and had
15632 unexpectedly to go into action. Rostov without hearing Boris to the end
15635 "Where are you off to?" asked Boris.
15637 "With a message to His Majesty."
15639 "There he is!" said Boris, thinking Rostov had said "His Highness," and
15640 pointing to the Grand Duke who with his high shoulders and frowning
15641 brows stood a hundred paces away from them in his helmet and Horse
15642 Guards' jacket, shouting something to a pale, white uniformed Austrian
15645 "But that's the Grand Duke, and I want the commander-in-chief or the
15646 Emperor," said Rostov, and was about to spur his horse.
15648 "Count! Count!" shouted Berg who ran up from the other side as eager as
15649 Boris. "Count! I am wounded in my right hand" (and he showed his
15650 bleeding hand with a handkerchief tied round it) "and I remained at the
15651 front. I held my sword in my left hand, Count. All our family--the von
15652 Bergs--have been knights!"
15654 He said something more, but Rostov did not wait to hear it and rode
15657 Having passed the Guards and traversed an empty space, Rostov, to avoid
15658 again getting in front of the first line as he had done when the Horse
15659 Guards charged, followed the line of reserves, going far round the place
15660 where the hottest musket fire and cannonade were heard. Suddenly he
15661 heard musket fire quite close in front of him and behind our troops,
15662 where he could never have expected the enemy to be.
15664 "What can it be?" he thought. "The enemy in the rear of our army?
15665 Impossible!" And suddenly he was seized by a panic of fear for himself
15666 and for the issue of the whole battle. "But be that what it may," he
15667 reflected, "there is no riding round it now. I must look for the
15668 commander in chief here, and if all is lost it is for me to perish with
15671 The foreboding of evil that had suddenly come over Rostov was more and
15672 more confirmed the farther he rode into the region behind the village of
15673 Pratzen, which was full of troops of all kinds.
15675 "What does it mean? What is it? Whom are they firing at? Who is firing?"
15676 Rostov kept asking as he came up to Russian and Austrian soldiers
15677 running in confused crowds across his path.
15679 "The devil knows! They've killed everybody! It's all up now!" he was
15680 told in Russian, German, and Czech by the crowd of fugitives who
15681 understood what was happening as little as he did.
15683 "Kill the Germans!" shouted one.
15685 "May the devil take them--the traitors!"
15687 "Zum Henker diese Russen!" * muttered a German.
15690 * "Hang these Russians!"
15692 Several wounded men passed along the road, and words of abuse, screams,
15693 and groans mingled in a general hubbub, then the firing died down.
15694 Rostov learned later that Russian and Austrian soldiers had been firing
15697 "My God! What does it all mean?" thought he. "And here, where at any
15698 moment the Emperor may see them.... But no, these must be only a handful
15699 of scoundrels. It will soon be over, it can't be that, it can't be! Only
15700 to get past them quicker, quicker!"
15702 The idea of defeat and flight could not enter Rostov's head. Though he
15703 saw French cannon and French troops on the Pratzen Heights just where he
15704 had been ordered to look for the commander-in-chief, he could not, did
15705 not wish to, believe that.
15712 Rostov had been ordered to look for Kutuzov and the Emperor near the
15713 village of Pratzen. But neither they nor a single commanding officer
15714 were there, only disorganized crowds of troops of various kinds. He
15715 urged on his already weary horse to get quickly past these crowds, but
15716 the farther he went the more disorganized they were. The highroad on
15717 which he had come out was thronged with caleches, carriages of all
15718 sorts, and Russian and Austrian soldiers of all arms, some wounded and
15719 some not. This whole mass droned and jostled in confusion under the
15720 dismal influence of cannon balls flying from the French batteries
15721 stationed on the Pratzen Heights.
15723 "Where is the Emperor? Where is Kutuzov?" Rostov kept asking everyone he
15724 could stop, but got no answer from anyone.
15726 At last seizing a soldier by his collar he forced him to answer.
15728 "Eh, brother! They've all bolted long ago!" said the soldier, laughing
15729 for some reason and shaking himself free.
15731 Having left that soldier who was evidently drunk, Rostov stopped the
15732 horse of a batman or groom of some important personage and began to
15733 question him. The man announced that the Tsar had been driven in a
15734 carriage at full speed about an hour before along that very road and
15735 that he was dangerously wounded.
15737 "It can't be!" said Rostov. "It must have been someone else."
15739 "I saw him myself," replied the man with a self-confident smile of
15740 derision. "I ought to know the Emperor by now, after the times I've seen
15741 him in Petersburg. I saw him just as I see you.... There he sat in the
15742 carriage as pale as anything. How they made the four black horses fly!
15743 Gracious me, they did rattle past! It's time I knew the Imperial horses
15744 and Ilya Ivanych. I don't think Ilya drives anyone except the Tsar!"
15746 Rostov let go of the horse and was about to ride on, when a wounded
15747 officer passing by addressed him:
15749 "Who is it you want?" he asked. "The commander-in-chief? He was killed
15750 by a cannon ball--struck in the breast before our regiment."
15752 "Not killed--wounded!" another officer corrected him.
15754 "Who? Kutuzov?" asked Rostov.
15756 "Not Kutuzov, but what's his name--well, never mind... there are not
15757 many left alive. Go that way, to that village, all the commanders are
15758 there," said the officer, pointing to the village of Hosjeradek, and he
15761 Rostov rode on at a footpace not knowing why or to whom he was now
15762 going. The Emperor was wounded, the battle lost. It was impossible to
15763 doubt it now. Rostov rode in the direction pointed out to him, in which
15764 he saw turrets and a church. What need to hurry? What was he now to say
15765 to the Tsar or to Kutuzov, even if they were alive and unwounded?
15767 "Take this road, your honor, that way you will be killed at once!" a
15768 soldier shouted to him. "They'd kill you there!"
15770 "Oh, what are you talking about?" said another. "Where is he to go? That
15773 Rostov considered, and then went in the direction where they said he
15776 "It's all the same now. If the Emperor is wounded, am I to try to save
15777 myself?" he thought. He rode on to the region where the greatest number
15778 of men had perished in fleeing from Pratzen. The French had not yet
15779 occupied that region, and the Russians--the uninjured and slightly
15780 wounded--had left it long ago. All about the field, like heaps of manure
15781 on well-kept plowland, lay from ten to fifteen dead and wounded to each
15782 couple of acres. The wounded crept together in twos and threes and one
15783 could hear their distressing screams and groans, sometimes feigned--or
15784 so it seemed to Rostov. He put his horse to a trot to avoid seeing all
15785 these suffering men, and he felt afraid--afraid not for his life, but
15786 for the courage he needed and which he knew would not stand the sight of
15787 these unfortunates.
15789 The French, who had ceased firing at this field strewn with dead and
15790 wounded where there was no one left to fire at, on seeing an adjutant
15791 riding over it trained a gun on him and fired several shots. The
15792 sensation of those terrible whistling sounds and of the corpses around
15793 him merged in Rostov's mind into a single feeling of terror and pity for
15794 himself. He remembered his mother's last letter. "What would she feel,"
15795 thought he, "if she saw me here now on this field with the cannon aimed
15798 In the village of Hosjeradek there were Russian troops retiring from the
15799 field of battle, who though still in some confusion were less
15800 disordered. The French cannon did not reach there and the musketry fire
15801 sounded far away. Here everyone clearly saw and said that the battle was
15802 lost. No one whom Rostov asked could tell him where the Emperor or
15803 Kutuzov was. Some said the report that the Emperor was wounded was
15804 correct, others that it was not, and explained the false rumor that had
15805 spread by the fact that the Emperor's carriage had really galloped from
15806 the field of battle with the pale and terrified Ober-Hofmarschal Count
15807 Tolstoy, who had ridden out to the battlefield with others in the
15808 Emperor's suite. One officer told Rostov that he had seen someone from
15809 headquarters behind the village to the left, and thither Rostov rode,
15810 not hoping to find anyone but merely to ease his conscience. When he had
15811 ridden about two miles and had passed the last of the Russian troops, he
15812 saw, near a kitchen garden with a ditch round it, two men on horseback
15813 facing the ditch. One with a white plume in his hat seemed familiar to
15814 Rostov; the other on a beautiful chestnut horse (which Rostov fancied he
15815 had seen before) rode up to the ditch, struck his horse with his spurs,
15816 and giving it the rein leaped lightly over. Only a little earth crumbled
15817 from the bank under the horse's hind hoofs. Turning the horse sharply,
15818 he again jumped the ditch, and deferentially addressed the horseman with
15819 the white plumes, evidently suggesting that he should do the same. The
15820 rider, whose figure seemed familiar to Rostov and involuntarily riveted
15821 his attention, made a gesture of refusal with his head and hand and by
15822 that gesture Rostov instantly recognized his lamented and adored
15825 "But it can't be he, alone in the midst of this empty field!" thought
15826 Rostov. At that moment Alexander turned his head and Rostov saw the
15827 beloved features that were so deeply engraved on his memory. The Emperor
15828 was pale, his cheeks sunken and his eyes hollow, but the charm, the
15829 mildness of his features, was all the greater. Rostov was happy in the
15830 assurance that the rumors about the Emperor being wounded were false. He
15831 was happy to be seeing him. He knew that he might and even ought to go
15832 straight to him and give the message Dolgorukov had ordered him to
15835 But as a youth in love trembles, is unnerved, and dares not utter the
15836 thoughts he has dreamed of for nights, but looks around for help or a
15837 chance of delay and flight when the longed-for moment comes and he is
15838 alone with her, so Rostov, now that he had attained what he had longed
15839 for more than anything else in the world, did not know how to approach
15840 the Emperor, and a thousand reasons occurred to him why it would be
15841 inconvenient, unseemly, and impossible to do so.
15843 "What! It is as if I were glad of a chance to take advantage of his
15844 being alone and despondent! A strange face may seem unpleasant or
15845 painful to him at this moment of sorrow; besides, what can I say to him
15846 now, when my heart fails me and my mouth feels dry at the mere sight of
15847 him?" Not one of the innumerable speeches addressed to the Emperor that
15848 he had composed in his imagination could he now recall. Those speeches
15849 were intended for quite other conditions, they were for the most part to
15850 be spoken at a moment of victory and triumph, generally when he was
15851 dying of wounds and the sovereign had thanked him for heroic deeds, and
15852 while dying he expressed the love his actions had proved.
15854 "Besides how can I ask the Emperor for his instructions for the right
15855 flank now that it is nearly four o'clock and the battle is lost? No,
15856 certainly I must not approach him, I must not intrude on his
15857 reflections. Better die a thousand times than risk receiving an unkind
15858 look or bad opinion from him," Rostov decided; and sorrowfully and with
15859 a heart full despair he rode away, continually looking back at the Tsar,
15860 who still remained in the same attitude of indecision.
15862 While Rostov was thus arguing with himself and riding sadly away,
15863 Captain von Toll chanced to ride to the same spot, and seeing the
15864 Emperor at once rode up to him, offered his services, and assisted him
15865 to cross the ditch on foot. The Emperor, wishing to rest and feeling
15866 unwell, sat down under an apple tree and von Toll remained beside him.
15867 Rostov from a distance saw with envy and remorse how von Toll spoke long
15868 and warmly to the Emperor and how the Emperor, evidently weeping,
15869 covered his eyes with his hand and pressed von Toll's hand.
15871 "And I might have been in his place!" thought Rostov, and hardly
15872 restraining his tears of pity for the Emperor, he rode on in utter
15873 despair, not knowing where to or why he was now riding.
15875 His despair was all the greater from feeling that his own weakness was
15876 the cause of his grief.
15878 He might... not only might but should, have gone up to the sovereign. It
15879 was a unique chance to show his devotion to the Emperor and he had not
15880 made use of it.... "What have I done?" thought he. And he turned round
15881 and galloped back to the place where he had seen the Emperor, but there
15882 was no one beyond the ditch now. Only some carts and carriages were
15883 passing by. From one of the drivers he learned that Kutuzov's staff were
15884 not far off, in the village the vehicles were going to. Rostov followed
15885 them. In front of him walked Kutuzov's groom leading horses in
15886 horsecloths. Then came a cart, and behind that walked an old, bandy-
15887 legged domestic serf in a peaked cap and sheepskin coat.
15889 "Tit! I say, Tit!" said the groom.
15891 "What?" answered the old man absent-mindedly.
15893 "Go, Tit! Thresh a bit!"
15895 "Oh, you fool!" said the old man, spitting angrily. Some time passed in
15896 silence, and then the same joke was repeated.
15898 Before five in the evening the battle had been lost at all points. More
15899 than a hundred cannon were already in the hands of the French.
15901 Przebyszewski and his corps had laid down their arms. Other columns
15902 after losing half their men were retreating in disorderly confused
15905 The remains of Langeron's and Dokhturov's mingled forces were crowding
15906 around the dams and banks of the ponds near the village of Augesd.
15908 After five o'clock it was only at the Augesd Dam that a hot cannonade
15909 (delivered by the French alone) was still to be heard from numerous
15910 batteries ranged on the slopes of the Pratzen Heights, directed at our
15913 In the rearguard, Dokhturov and others rallying some battalions kept up
15914 a musketry fire at the French cavalry that was pursuing our troops. It
15915 was growing dusk. On the narrow Augesd Dam where for so many years the
15916 old miller had been accustomed to sit in his tasseled cap peacefully
15917 angling, while his grandson, with shirt sleeves rolled up, handled the
15918 floundering silvery fish in the watering can, on that dam over which for
15919 so many years Moravians in shaggy caps and blue jackets had peacefully
15920 driven their two-horse carts loaded with wheat and had returned dusty
15921 with flour whitening their carts--on that narrow dam amid the wagons and
15922 the cannon, under the horses' hoofs and between the wagon wheels, men
15923 disfigured by fear of death now crowded together, crushing one another,
15924 dying, stepping over the dying and killing one another, only to move on
15925 a few steps and be killed themselves in the same way.
15927 Every ten seconds a cannon ball flew compressing the air around, or a
15928 shell burst in the midst of that dense throng, killing some and
15929 splashing with blood those near them.
15931 Dolokhov--now an officer--wounded in the arm, and on foot, with the
15932 regimental commander on horseback and some ten men of his company,
15933 represented all that was left of that whole regiment. Impelled by the
15934 crowd, they had got wedged in at the approach to the dam and, jammed in
15935 on all sides, had stopped because a horse in front had fallen under a
15936 cannon and the crowd were dragging it out. A cannon ball killed someone
15937 behind them, another fell in front and splashed Dolokhov with blood. The
15938 crowd, pushing forward desperately, squeezed together, moved a few
15939 steps, and again stopped.
15941 "Move on a hundred yards and we are certainly saved, remain here another
15942 two minutes and it is certain death," thought each one.
15944 Dolokhov who was in the midst of the crowd forced his way to the edge of
15945 the dam, throwing two soldiers off their feet, and ran onto the slippery
15946 ice that covered the millpool.
15948 "Turn this way!" he shouted, jumping over the ice which creaked under
15949 him; "turn this way!" he shouted to those with the gun. "It bears!..."
15951 The ice bore him but it swayed and creaked, and it was plain that it
15952 would give way not only under a cannon or a crowd, but very soon even
15953 under his weight alone. The men looked at him and pressed to the bank,
15954 hesitating to step onto the ice. The general on horseback at the
15955 entrance to the dam raised his hand and opened his mouth to address
15956 Dolokhov. Suddenly a cannon ball hissed so low above the crowd that
15957 everyone ducked. It flopped into something moist, and the general fell
15958 from his horse in a pool of blood. Nobody gave him a look or thought of
15961 "Get onto the ice, over the ice! Go on! Turn! Don't you hear? Go on!"
15962 innumerable voices suddenly shouted after the ball had struck the
15963 general, the men themselves not knowing what, or why, they were
15966 One of the hindmost guns that was going onto the dam turned off onto the
15967 ice. Crowds of soldiers from the dam began running onto the frozen pond.
15968 The ice gave way under one of the foremost soldiers, and one leg slipped
15969 into the water. He tried to right himself but fell in up to his waist.
15970 The nearest soldiers shrank back, the gun driver stopped his horse, but
15971 from behind still came the shouts: "Onto the ice, why do you stop? Go
15972 on! Go on!" And cries of horror were heard in the crowd. The soldiers
15973 near the gun waved their arms and beat the horses to make them turn and
15974 move on. The horses moved off the bank. The ice, that had held under
15975 those on foot, collapsed in a great mass, and some forty men who were on
15976 it dashed, some forward and some back, drowning one another.
15978 Still the cannon balls continued regularly to whistle and flop onto the
15979 ice and into the water and oftenest of all among the crowd that covered
15980 the dam, the pond, and the bank.
15987 On the Pratzen Heights, where he had fallen with the flagstaff in his
15988 hand, lay Prince Andrew Bolkonski bleeding profusely and unconsciously
15989 uttering a gentle, piteous, and childlike moan.
15991 Toward evening he ceased moaning and became quite still. He did not know
15992 how long his unconsciousness lasted. Suddenly he again felt that he was
15993 alive and suffering from a burning, lacerating pain in his head.
15995 "Where is it, that lofty sky that I did not know till now, but saw
15996 today?" was his first thought. "And I did not know this suffering
15997 either," he thought. "Yes, I did not know anything, anything at all till
15998 now. But where am I?"
16000 He listened and heard the sound of approaching horses, and voices
16001 speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him again was the same lofty
16002 sky with clouds that had risen and were floating still higher, and
16003 between them gleamed blue infinity. He did not turn his head and did not
16004 see those who, judging by the sound of hoofs and voices, had ridden up
16005 and stopped near him.
16007 It was Napoleon accompanied by two aides-de-camp. Bonaparte riding over
16008 the battlefield had given final orders to strengthen the batteries
16009 firing at the Augesd Dam and was looking at the killed and wounded left
16012 "Fine men!" remarked Napoleon, looking at a dead Russian grenadier, who,
16013 with his face buried in the ground and a blackened nape, lay on his
16014 stomach with an already stiffened arm flung wide.
16016 "The ammunition for the guns in position is exhausted, Your Majesty,"
16017 said an adjutant who had come from the batteries that were firing at
16020 "Have some brought from the reserve," said Napoleon, and having gone on
16021 a few steps he stopped before Prince Andrew, who lay on his back with
16022 the flagstaff that had been dropped beside him. (The flag had already
16023 been taken by the French as a trophy.)
16025 "That's a fine death!" said Napoleon as he gazed at Bolkonski.
16027 Prince Andrew understood that this was said of him and that it was
16028 Napoleon who said it. He heard the speaker addressed as Sire. But he
16029 heard the words as he might have heard the buzzing of a fly. Not only
16030 did they not interest him, but he took no notice of them and at once
16031 forgot them. His head was burning, he felt himself bleeding to death,
16032 and he saw above him the remote, lofty, and everlasting sky. He knew it
16033 was Napoleon--his hero--but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a
16034 small, insignificant creature compared with what was passing now between
16035 himself and that lofty infinite sky with the clouds flying over it. At
16036 that moment it meant nothing to him who might be standing over him, or
16037 what was said of him; he was only glad that people were standing near
16038 him and only wished that they would help him and bring him back to life,
16039 which seemed to him so beautiful now that he had today learned to
16040 understand it so differently. He collected all his strength, to stir and
16041 utter a sound. He feebly moved his leg and uttered a weak, sickly groan
16042 which aroused his own pity.
16044 "Ah! He is alive," said Napoleon. "Lift this young man up and carry him
16045 to the dressing station."
16047 Having said this, Napoleon rode on to meet Marshal Lannes, who, hat in
16048 hand, rode up smiling to the Emperor to congratulate him on the victory.
16050 Prince Andrew remembered nothing more: he lost consciousness from the
16051 terrible pain of being lifted onto the stretcher, the jolting while
16052 being moved, and the probing of his wound at the dressing station. He
16053 did not regain consciousness till late in the day, when with other
16054 wounded and captured Russian officers he was carried to the hospital.
16055 During this transfer he felt a little stronger and was able to look
16056 about him and even speak.
16058 The first words he heard on coming to his senses were those of a French
16059 convoy officer, who said rapidly: "We must halt here: the Emperor will
16060 pass here immediately; it will please him to see these gentlemen
16063 "There are so many prisoners today, nearly the whole Russian army, that
16064 he is probably tired of them," said another officer.
16066 "All the same! They say this one is the commander of all the Emperor
16067 Alexander's Guards," said the first one, indicating a Russian officer in
16068 the white uniform of the Horse Guards.
16070 Bolkonski recognized Prince Repnin whom he had met in Petersburg
16071 society. Beside him stood a lad of nineteen, also a wounded officer of
16074 Bonaparte, having come up at a gallop, stopped his horse.
16076 "Which is the senior?" he asked, on seeing the prisoners.
16078 They named the colonel, Prince Repnin.
16080 "You are the commander of the Emperor Alexander's regiment of Horse
16081 Guards?" asked Napoleon.
16083 "I commanded a squadron," replied Repnin.
16085 "Your regiment fulfilled its duty honorably," said Napoleon.
16087 "The praise of a great commander is a soldier's highest reward," said
16090 "I bestow it with pleasure," said Napoleon. "And who is that young man
16093 Prince Repnin named Lieutenant Sukhtelen.
16095 After looking at him Napoleon smiled.
16097 "He's very young to come to meddle with us."
16099 "Youth is no hindrance to courage," muttered Sukhtelen in a failing
16102 "A splendid reply!" said Napoleon. "Young man, you will go far!"
16104 Prince Andrew, who had also been brought forward before the Emperor's
16105 eyes to complete the show of prisoners, could not fail to attract his
16106 attention. Napoleon apparently remembered seeing him on the battlefield
16107 and, addressing him, again used the epithet "young man" that was
16108 connected in his memory with Prince Andrew.
16110 "Well, and you, young man," said he. "How do you feel, mon brave?"
16112 Though five minutes before, Prince Andrew had been able to say a few
16113 words to the soldiers who were carrying him, now with his eyes fixed
16114 straight on Napoleon, he was silent.... So insignificant at that moment
16115 seemed to him all the interests that engrossed Napoleon, so mean did his
16116 hero himself with his paltry vanity and joy in victory appear, compared
16117 to the lofty, equitable, and kindly sky which he had seen and
16118 understood, that he could not answer him.
16120 Everything seemed so futile and insignificant in comparison with the
16121 stern and solemn train of thought that weakness from loss of blood,
16122 suffering, and the nearness of death aroused in him. Looking into
16123 Napoleon's eyes Prince Andrew thought of the insignificance of
16124 greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand, and
16125 the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one
16126 alive could understand or explain.
16128 The Emperor without waiting for an answer turned away and said to one of
16129 the officers as he went: "Have these gentlemen attended to and taken to
16130 my bivouac; let my doctor, Larrey, examine their wounds. Au revoir,
16131 Prince Repnin!" and he spurred his horse and galloped away.
16133 His face shone with self-satisfaction and pleasure.
16135 The soldiers who had carried Prince Andrew had noticed and taken the
16136 little gold icon Princess Mary had hung round her brother's neck, but
16137 seeing the favor the Emperor showed the prisoners, they now hastened to
16138 return the holy image.
16140 Prince Andrew did not see how and by whom it was replaced, but the
16141 little icon with its thin gold chain suddenly appeared upon his chest
16142 outside his uniform.
16144 "It would be good," thought Prince Andrew, glancing at the icon his
16145 sister had hung round his neck with such emotion and reverence, "it
16146 would be good if everything were as clear and simple as it seems to
16147 Mary. How good it would be to know where to seek for help in this life,
16148 and what to expect after it beyond the grave! How happy and calm I
16149 should be if I could now say: 'Lord, have mercy on me!'... But to whom
16150 should I say that? Either to a Power indefinable, incomprehensible,
16151 which I not only cannot address but which I cannot even express in
16152 words--the Great All or Nothing-" said he to himself, "or to that God
16153 who has been sewn into this amulet by Mary! There is nothing certain,
16154 nothing at all except the unimportance of everything I understand, and
16155 the greatness of something incomprehensible but all-important."
16157 The stretchers moved on. At every jolt he again felt unendurable pain;
16158 his feverishness increased and he grew delirious. Visions of his father,
16159 wife, sister, and future son, and the tenderness he had felt the night
16160 before the battle, the figure of the insignificant little Napoleon, and
16161 above all this the lofty sky, formed the chief subjects of his delirious
16164 The quiet home life and peaceful happiness of Bald Hills presented
16165 itself to him. He was already enjoying that happiness when that little
16166 Napoleon had suddenly appeared with his unsympathizing look of
16167 shortsighted delight at the misery of others, and doubts and torments
16168 had followed, and only the heavens promised peace. Toward morning all
16169 these dreams melted and merged into the chaos and darkness of
16170 unconciousness and oblivion which in the opinion of Napoleon's doctor,
16171 Larrey, was much more likely to end in death than in convalescence.
16173 "He is a nervous, bilious subject," said Larrey, "and will not recover."
16175 And Prince Andrew, with others fatally wounded, was left to the care of
16176 the inhabitants of the district.
16185 Early in the year 1806 Nicholas Rostov returned home on leave. Denisov
16186 was going home to Voronezh and Rostov persuaded him to travel with him
16187 as far as Moscow and to stay with him there. Meeting a comrade at the
16188 last post station but one before Moscow, Denisov had drunk three bottles
16189 of wine with him and, despite the jolting ruts across the snow-covered
16190 road, did not once wake up on the way to Moscow, but lay at the bottom
16191 of the sleigh beside Rostov, who grew more and more impatient the nearer
16192 they got to Moscow.
16194 "How much longer? How much longer? Oh, these insufferable streets,
16195 shops, bakers' signboards, street lamps, and sleighs!" thought Rostov,
16196 when their leave permits had been passed at the town gate and they had
16199 "Denisov! We're here! He's asleep," he added, leaning forward with his
16200 whole body as if in that position he hoped to hasten the speed of the
16203 Denisov gave no answer.
16205 "There's the corner at the crossroads, where the cabman, Zakhar, has his
16206 stand, and there's Zakhar himself and still the same horse! And here's
16207 the little shop where we used to buy gingerbread! Can't you hurry up?
16210 "Which house is it?" asked the driver.
16212 "Why, that one, right at the end, the big one. Don't you see? That's our
16213 house," said Rostov. "Of course, it's our house! Denisov, Denisov! We're
16216 Denisov raised his head, coughed, and made no answer.
16218 "Dmitri," said Rostov to his valet on the box, "those lights are in our
16219 house, aren't they?"
16221 "Yes, sir, and there's a light in your father's study."
16223 "Then they've not gone to bed yet? What do you think? Mind now, don't
16224 forget to put out my new coat," added Rostov, fingering his new
16225 mustache. "Now then, get on," he shouted to the driver. "Do wake up,
16226 Vaska!" he went on, turning to Denisov, whose head was again nodding.
16227 "Come, get on! You shall have three rubles for vodka--get on!" Rostov
16228 shouted, when the sleigh was only three houses from his door. It seemed
16229 to him the horses were not moving at all. At last the sleigh bore to the
16230 right, drew up at an entrance, and Rostov saw overhead the old familiar
16231 cornice with a bit of plaster broken off, the porch, and the post by the
16232 side of the pavement. He sprang out before the sleigh stopped, and ran
16233 into the hall. The house stood cold and silent, as if quite regardless
16234 of who had come to it. There was no one in the hall. "Oh God! Is
16235 everyone all right?" he thought, stopping for a moment with a sinking
16236 heart, and then immediately starting to run along the hall and up the
16237 warped steps of the familiar staircase. The well-known old door handle,
16238 which always angered the countess when it was not properly cleaned,
16239 turned as loosely as ever. A solitary tallow candle burned in the
16242 Old Michael was asleep on the chest. Prokofy, the footman, who was so
16243 strong that he could lift the back of the carriage from behind, sat
16244 plaiting slippers out of cloth selvedges. He looked up at the opening
16245 door and his expression of sleepy indifference suddenly changed to one
16246 of delighted amazement.
16248 "Gracious heavens! The young count!" he cried, recognizing his young
16249 master. "Can it be? My treasure!" and Prokofy, trembling with
16250 excitement, rushed toward the drawing-room door, probably in order to
16251 announce him, but, changing his mind, came back and stooped to kiss the
16252 young man's shoulder.
16254 "All well?" asked Rostov, drawing away his arm.
16256 "Yes, God be thanked! Yes! They've just finished supper. Let me have a
16257 look at you, your excellency."
16259 "Is everything quite all right?"
16261 "The Lord be thanked, yes!"
16263 Rostov, who had completely forgotten Denisov, not wishing anyone to
16264 forestall him, threw off his fur coat and ran on tiptoe through the
16265 large dark ballroom. All was the same: there were the same old card
16266 tables and the same chandelier with a cover over it; but someone had
16267 already seen the young master, and, before he had reached the drawing
16268 room, something flew out from a side door like a tornado and began
16269 hugging and kissing him. Another and yet another creature of the same
16270 kind sprang from a second door and a third; more hugging, more kissing,
16271 more outcries, and tears of joy. He could not distinguish which was
16272 Papa, which Natasha, and which Petya. Everyone shouted, talked, and
16273 kissed him at the same time. Only his mother was not there, he noticed
16276 "And I did not know... Nicholas... My darling!..."
16278 "Here he is... our own... Kolya, * dear fellow... How he has changed!...
16279 Where are the candles?... Tea!..."
16286 "Dearest... and me!"
16288 Sonya, Natasha, Petya, Anna Mikhaylovna, Vera, and the old count were
16289 all hugging him, and the serfs, men and maids, flocked into the room,
16290 exclaiming and oh-ing and ah-ing.
16292 Petya, clinging to his legs, kept shouting, "And me too!"
16294 Natasha, after she had pulled him down toward her and covered his face
16295 with kisses, holding him tight by the skirt of his coat, sprang away and
16296 pranced up and down in one place like a goat and shrieked piercingly.
16298 All around were loving eyes glistening with tears of joy, and all around
16299 were lips seeking a kiss.
16301 Sonya too, all rosy red, clung to his arm and, radiant with bliss,
16302 looked eagerly toward his eyes, waiting for the look for which she
16303 longed. Sonya now was sixteen and she was very pretty, especially at
16304 this moment of happy, rapturous excitement. She gazed at him, not taking
16305 her eyes off him, and smiling and holding her breath. He gave her a
16306 grateful look, but was still expectant and looking for someone. The old
16307 countess had not yet come. But now steps were heard at the door, steps
16308 so rapid that they could hardly be his mother's.
16310 Yet it was she, dressed in a new gown which he did not know, made since
16311 he had left. All the others let him go, and he ran to her. When they
16312 met, she fell on his breast, sobbing. She could not lift her face, but
16313 only pressed it to the cold braiding of his hussar's jacket. Denisov,
16314 who had come into the room unnoticed by anyone, stood there and wiped
16315 his eyes at the sight.
16317 "Vasili Denisov, your son's friend," he said, introducing himself to the
16318 count, who was looking inquiringly at him.
16320 "You are most welcome! I know, I know," said the count, kissing and
16321 embracing Denisov. "Nicholas wrote us... Natasha, Vera, look! Here is
16324 The same happy, rapturous faces turned to the shaggy figure of Denisov.
16326 "Darling Denisov!" screamed Natasha, beside herself with rapture,
16327 springing to him, putting her arms round him, and kissing him. This
16328 escapade made everybody feel confused. Denisov blushed too, but smiled
16329 and, taking Natasha's hand, kissed it.
16331 Denisov was shown to the room prepared for him, and the Rostovs all
16332 gathered round Nicholas in the sitting room.
16334 The old countess, not letting go of his hand and kissing it every
16335 moment, sat beside him: the rest, crowding round him, watched every
16336 movement, word, or look of his, never taking their blissfully adoring
16337 eyes off him. His brother and sisters struggled for the places nearest
16338 to him and disputed with one another who should bring him his tea,
16339 handkerchief, and pipe.
16341 Rostov was very happy in the love they showed him; but the first moment
16342 of meeting had been so beatific that his present joy seemed
16343 insufficient, and he kept expecting something more, more and yet more.
16345 Next morning, after the fatigues of their journey, the travelers slept
16348 In the room next their bedroom there was a confusion of sabers,
16349 satchels, sabretaches, open portmanteaus, and dirty boots. Two freshly
16350 cleaned pairs with spurs had just been placed by the wall. The servants
16351 were bringing in jugs and basins, hot water for shaving, and their well-
16352 brushed clothes. There was a masculine odor and a smell of tobacco.
16354 "Hallo, Gwiska--my pipe!" came Vasili Denisov's husky voice. "Wostov,
16357 Rostov, rubbing his eyes that seemed glued together, raised his
16358 disheveled head from the hot pillow.
16362 "Late! It's nearly ten o'clock," answered Natasha's voice. A rustle of
16363 starched petticoats and the whispering and laughter of girls' voices
16364 came from the adjoining room. The door was opened a crack and there was
16365 a glimpse of something blue, of ribbons, black hair, and merry faces. It
16366 was Natasha, Sonya, and Petya, who had come to see whether they were
16369 "Nicholas! Get up!" Natasha's voice was again heard at the door.
16373 Meanwhile, Petya, having found and seized the sabers in the outer room,
16374 with the delight boys feel at the sight of a military elder brother, and
16375 forgetting that it was unbecoming for the girls to see men undressed,
16376 opened the bedroom door.
16378 "Is this your saber?" he shouted.
16380 The girls sprang aside. Denisov hid his hairy legs under the blanket,
16381 looking with a scared face at his comrade for help. The door, having let
16382 Petya in, closed again. A sound of laughter came from behind it.
16384 "Nicholas! Come out in your dressing gown!" said Natasha's voice.
16386 "Is this your saber?" asked Petya. "Or is it yours?" he said, addressing
16387 the black-mustached Denisov with servile deference.
16389 Rostov hurriedly put something on his feet, drew on his dressing gown,
16390 and went out. Natasha had put on one spurred boot and was just getting
16391 her foot into the other. Sonya, when he came in, was twirling round and
16392 was about to expand her dresses into a balloon and sit down. They were
16393 dressed alike, in new pale-blue frocks, and were both fresh, rosy, and
16394 bright. Sonya ran away, but Natasha, taking her brother's arm, led him
16395 into the sitting room, where they began talking. They hardly gave one
16396 another time to ask questions and give replies concerning a thousand
16397 little matters which could not interest anyone but themselves. Natasha
16398 laughed at every word he said or that she said herself, not because what
16399 they were saying was amusing, but because she felt happy and was unable
16400 to control her joy which expressed itself by laughter.
16402 "Oh, how nice, how splendid!" she said to everything.
16404 Rostov felt that, under the influence of the warm rays of love, that
16405 childlike smile which had not once appeared on his face since he left
16406 home now for the first time after eighteen months again brightened his
16409 "No, but listen," she said, "now you are quite a man, aren't you? I'm
16410 awfully glad you're my brother." She touched his mustache. "I want to
16411 know what you men are like. Are you the same as we? No?"
16413 "Why did Sonya run away?" asked Rostov.
16415 "Ah, yes! That's a whole long story! How are you going to speak to her--
16418 "As may happen," said Rostov.
16420 "No, call her you, please! I'll tell you all about it some other time.
16421 No, I'll tell you now. You know Sonya's my dearest friend. Such a friend
16422 that I burned my arm for her sake. Look here!"
16424 She pulled up her muslin sleeve and showed him a red scar on her long,
16425 slender, delicate arm, high above the elbow on that part that is covered
16426 even by a ball dress.
16428 "I burned this to prove my love for her. I just heated a ruler in the
16429 fire and pressed it there!"
16431 Sitting on the sofa with the little cushions on its arms, in what used
16432 to be his old schoolroom, and looking into Natasha's wildly bright eyes,
16433 Rostov re-entered that world of home and childhood which had no meaning
16434 for anyone else, but gave him some of the best joys of his life; and the
16435 burning of an arm with a ruler as a proof of love did not seem to him
16436 senseless, he understood and was not surprised at it.
16438 "Well, and is that all?" he asked.
16440 "We are such friends, such friends! All that ruler business was just
16441 nonsense, but we are friends forever. She, if she loves anyone, does it
16442 for life, but I don't understand that, I forget quickly."
16446 "Well, she loves me and you like that."
16448 Natasha suddenly flushed.
16450 "Why, you remember before you went away?... Well, she says you are to
16451 forget all that.... She says: 'I shall love him always, but let him be
16452 free.' Isn't that lovely and noble! Yes, very noble? Isn't it?" asked
16453 Natasha, so seriously and excitedly that it was evident that what she
16454 was now saying she had talked of before, with tears.
16456 Rostov became thoughtful.
16458 "I never go back on my word," he said. "Besides, Sonya is so charming
16459 that only a fool would renounce such happiness."
16461 "No, no!" cried Natasha, "she and I have already talked it over. We knew
16462 you'd say so. But it won't do, because you see, if you say that--if you
16463 consider yourself bound by your promise--it will seem as if she had not
16464 meant it seriously. It makes it as if you were marrying her because you
16465 must, and that wouldn't do at all."
16467 Rostov saw that it had been well considered by them. Sonya had already
16468 struck him by her beauty on the preceding day. Today, when he had caught
16469 a glimpse of her, she seemed still more lovely. She was a charming girl
16470 of sixteen, evidently passionately in love with him (he did not doubt
16471 that for an instant). Why should he not love her now, and even marry
16472 her, Rostov thought, but just now there were so many other pleasures and
16473 interests before him! "Yes, they have taken a wise decision," he
16474 thought, "I must remain free."
16476 "Well then, that's excellent," said he. "We'll talk it over later on.
16477 Oh, how glad I am to have you!"
16479 "Well, and are you still true to Boris?" he continued.
16481 "Oh, what nonsense!" cried Natasha, laughing. "I don't think about him
16482 or anyone else, and I don't want anything of the kind."
16484 "Dear me! Then what are you up to now?"
16486 "Now?" repeated Natasha, and a happy smile lit up her face. "Have you
16491 "Not seen Duport--the famous dancer? Well then, you won't understand.
16492 That's what I'm up to."
16494 Curving her arms, Natasha held out her skirts as dancers do, ran back a
16495 few steps, turned, cut a caper, brought her little feet sharply
16496 together, and made some steps on the very tips of her toes.
16498 "See, I'm standing! See!" she said, but could not maintain herself on
16499 her toes any longer. "So that's what I'm up to! I'll never marry anyone,
16500 but will be a dancer. Only don't tell anyone."
16502 Rostov laughed so loud and merrily that Denisov, in his bedroom, felt
16503 envious and Natasha could not help joining in.
16505 "No, but don't you think it's nice?" she kept repeating.
16507 "Nice! And so you no longer wish to marry Boris?"
16509 Natasha flared up. "I don't want to marry anyone. And I'll tell him so
16512 "Dear me!" said Rostov.
16514 "But that's all rubbish," Natasha chattered on. "And is Denisov nice?"
16519 "Oh, well then, good-by: go and dress. Is he very terrible, Denisov?"
16521 "Why terrible?" asked Nicholas. "No, Vaska is a splendid fellow."
16523 "You call him Vaska? That's funny! And is he very nice?"
16527 "Well then, be quick. We'll all have breakfast together."
16529 And Natasha rose and went out of the room on tiptoe, like a ballet
16530 dancer, but smiling as only happy girls of fifteen can smile. When
16531 Rostov met Sonya in the drawing room, he reddened. He did not know how
16532 to behave with her. The evening before, in the first happy moment of
16533 meeting, they had kissed each other, but today they felt it could not be
16534 done; he felt that everybody, including his mother and sisters, was
16535 looking inquiringly at him and watching to see how he would behave with
16536 her. He kissed her hand and addressed her not as thou but as you--Sonya.
16537 But their eyes met and said thou, and exchanged tender kisses. Her looks
16538 asked him to forgive her for having dared, by Natasha's intermediacy, to
16539 remind him of his promise, and then thanked him for his love. His looks
16540 thanked her for offering him his freedom and told her that one way or
16541 another he would never cease to love her, for that would be impossible.
16543 "How strange it is," said Vera, selecting a moment when all were silent,
16544 "that Sonya and Nicholas now say you to one another and meet like
16547 Vera's remark was correct, as her remarks always were, but, like most of
16548 her observations, it made everyone feel uncomfortable, not only Sonya,
16549 Nicholas, and Natasha, but even the old countess, who--dreading this
16550 love affair which might hinder Nicholas from making a brilliant match--
16551 blushed like a girl.
16553 Denisov, to Rostov's surprise, appeared in the drawing room with pomaded
16554 hair, perfumed, and in a new uniform, looking just as smart as he made
16555 himself when going into battle, and he was more amiable to the ladies
16556 and gentlemen than Rostov had ever expected to see him.
16563 On his return to Moscow from the army, Nicholas Rostov was welcomed by
16564 his home circle as the best of sons, a hero, and their darling
16565 Nikolenka; by his relations as a charming, attractive, and polite young
16566 man; by his acquaintances as a handsome lieutenant of hussars, a good
16567 dancer, and one of the best matches in the city.
16569 The Rostovs knew everybody in Moscow. The old count had money enough
16570 that year, as all his estates had been remortgaged, and so Nicholas,
16571 acquiring a trotter of his own, very stylish riding breeches of the
16572 latest cut, such as no one else yet had in Moscow, and boots of the
16573 latest fashion, with extremely pointed toes and small silver spurs,
16574 passed his time very gaily. After a short period of adapting himself to
16575 the old conditions of life, Nicholas found it very pleasant to be at
16576 home again. He felt that he had grown up and matured very much. His
16577 despair at failing in a Scripture examination, his borrowing money from
16578 Gavril to pay a sleigh driver, his kissing Sonya on the sly--he now
16579 recalled all this as childishness he had left immeasurably behind. Now
16580 he was a lieutenant of hussars, in a jacket laced with silver, and
16581 wearing the Cross of St. George, awarded to soldiers for bravery in
16582 action, and in the company of well-known, elderly, and respected racing
16583 men was training a trotter of his own for a race. He knew a lady on one
16584 of the boulevards whom he visited of an evening. He led the mazurka at
16585 the Arkharovs' ball, talked about the war with Field Marshal Kamenski,
16586 visited the English Club, and was on intimate terms with a colonel of
16587 forty to whom Denisov had introduced him.
16589 His passion for the Emperor had cooled somewhat in Moscow. But still, as
16590 he did not see him and had no opportunity of seeing him, he often spoke
16591 about him and about his love for him, letting it be understood that he
16592 had not told all and that there was something in his feelings for the
16593 Emperor not everyone could understand, and with his whole soul he shared
16594 the adoration then common in Moscow for the Emperor, who was spoken of
16595 as the "angel incarnate."
16597 During Rostov's short stay in Moscow, before rejoining the army, he did
16598 not draw closer to Sonya, but rather drifted away from her. She was very
16599 pretty and sweet, and evidently deeply in love with him, but he was at
16600 the period of youth when there seems so much to do that there is no time
16601 for that sort of thing and a young man fears to bind himself and prizes
16602 his freedom which he needs for so many other things. When he thought of
16603 Sonya, during this stay in Moscow, he said to himself, "Ah, there will
16604 be, and there are, many more such girls somewhere whom I do not yet
16605 know. There will be time enough to think about love when I want to, but
16606 now I have no time." Besides, it seemed to him that the society of women
16607 was rather derogatory to his manhood. He went to balls and into ladies'
16608 society with an affectation of doing so against his will. The races, the
16609 English Club, sprees with Denisov, and visits to a certain house--that
16610 was another matter and quite the thing for a dashing young hussar!
16612 At the beginning of March, old Count Ilya Rostov was very busy arranging
16613 a dinner in honor of Prince Bagration at the English Club.
16615 The count walked up and down the hall in his dressing gown, giving
16616 orders to the club steward and to the famous Feoktist, the club's head
16617 cook, about asparagus, fresh cucumbers, strawberries, veal, and fish for
16618 this dinner. The count had been a member and on the committee of the
16619 club from the day it was founded. To him the club entrusted the
16620 arrangement of the festival in honor of Bagration, for few men knew so
16621 well how to arrange a feast on an open-handed, hospitable scale, and
16622 still fewer men would be so well able and willing to make up out of
16623 their own resources what might be needed for the success of the fete.
16624 The club cook and the steward listened to the count's orders with
16625 pleased faces, for they knew that under no other management could they
16626 so easily extract a good profit for themselves from a dinner costing
16627 several thousand rubles.
16629 "Well then, mind and have cocks' comb in the turtle soup, you know!"
16631 "Shall we have three cold dishes then?" asked the cook.
16633 The count considered.
16635 "We can't have less--yes, three... the mayonnaise, that's one," said he,
16636 bending down a finger.
16638 "Then am I to order those large sterlets?" asked the steward.
16640 "Yes, it can't be helped if they won't take less. Ah, dear me! I was
16641 forgetting. We must have another entree. Ah, goodness gracious!" he
16642 clutched at his head. "Who is going to get me the flowers? Dmitri! Eh,
16643 Dmitri! Gallop off to our Moscow estate," he said to the factotum who
16644 appeared at his call. "Hurry off and tell Maksim, the gardener, to set
16645 the serfs to work. Say that everything out of the hothouses must be
16646 brought here well wrapped up in felt. I must have two hundred pots here
16649 Having given several more orders, he was about to go to his "little
16650 countess" to have a rest, but remembering something else of importance,
16651 he returned again, called back the cook and the club steward, and again
16652 began giving orders. A light footstep and the clinking of spurs were
16653 heard at the door, and the young count, handsome, rosy, with a dark
16654 little mustache, evidently rested and made sleeker by his easy life in
16655 Moscow, entered the room.
16657 "Ah, my boy, my head's in a whirl!" said the old man with a smile, as if
16658 he felt a little confused before his son. "Now, if you would only help a
16659 bit! I must have singers too. I shall have my own orchestra, but
16660 shouldn't we get the gypsy singers as well? You military men like that
16663 "Really, Papa, I believe Prince Bagration worried himself less before
16664 the battle of Schon Grabern than you do now," said his son with a smile.
16666 The old count pretended to be angry.
16668 "Yes, you talk, but try it yourself!"
16670 And the count turned to the cook, who, with a shrewd and respectful
16671 expression, looked observantly and sympathetically at the father and
16674 "What have the young people come to nowadays, eh, Feoktist?" said he.
16675 "Laughing at us old fellows!"
16677 "That's so, your excellency, all they have to do is to eat a good
16678 dinner, but providing it and serving it all up, that's not their
16681 "That's it, that's it!" exclaimed the count, and gaily seizing his son
16682 by both hands, he cried, "Now I've got you, so take the sleigh and pair
16683 at once, and go to Bezukhov's, and tell him 'Count Ilya has sent you to
16684 ask for strawberries and fresh pineapples.' We can't get them from
16685 anyone else. He's not there himself, so you'll have to go in and ask the
16686 princesses; and from there go on to the Rasgulyay--the coachman Ipatka
16687 knows--and look up the gypsy Ilyushka, the one who danced at Count
16688 Orlov's, you remember, in a white Cossack coat, and bring him along to
16691 "And am I to bring the gypsy girls along with him?" asked Nicholas,
16692 laughing. "Dear, dear!..."
16694 At that moment, with noiseless footsteps and with the businesslike,
16695 preoccupied, yet meekly Christian look which never left her face, Anna
16696 Mikhaylovna entered the hall. Though she came upon the count in his
16697 dressing gown every day, he invariably became confused and begged her to
16698 excuse his costume.
16700 "No matter at all, my dear count," she said, meekly closing her eyes.
16701 "But I'll go to Bezukhov's myself. Pierre has arrived, and now we shall
16702 get anything we want from his hothouses. I have to see him in any case.
16703 He has forwarded me a letter from Boris. Thank God, Boris is now on the
16706 The count was delighted at Anna Mikhaylovna's taking upon herself one of
16707 his commissions and ordered the small closed carriage for her.
16709 "Tell Bezukhov to come. I'll put his name down. Is his wife with him?"
16712 Anna Mikhaylovna turned up her eyes, and profound sadness was depicted
16715 "Ah, my dear friend, he is very unfortunate," she said. "If what we hear
16716 is true, it is dreadful. How little we dreamed of such a thing when we
16717 were rejoicing at his happiness! And such a lofty angelic soul as young
16718 Bezukhov! Yes, I pity him from my heart, and shall try to give him what
16719 consolation I can."
16721 "Wh-what is the matter?" asked both the young and old Rostov.
16723 Anna Mikhaylovna sighed deeply.
16725 "Dolokhov, Mary Ivanovna's son," she said in a mysterious whisper, "has
16726 compromised her completely, they say. Pierre took him up, invited him to
16727 his house in Petersburg, and now... she has come here and that daredevil
16728 after her!" said Anna Mikhaylovna, wishing to show her sympathy for
16729 Pierre, but by involuntary intonations and a half smile betraying her
16730 sympathy for the "daredevil," as she called Dolokhov. "They say Pierre
16731 is quite broken by his misfortune."
16733 "Dear, dear! But still tell him to come to the club--it will all blow
16734 over. It will be a tremendous banquet."
16736 Next day, the third of March, soon after one o'clock, two hundred and
16737 fifty members of the English Club and fifty guests were awaiting the
16738 guest of honor and hero of the Austrian campaign, Prince Bagration, to
16741 On the first arrival of the news of the battle of Austerlitz, Moscow had
16742 been bewildered. At that time, the Russians were so used to victories
16743 that on receiving news of the defeat some would simply not believe it,
16744 while others sought some extraordinary explanation of so strange an
16745 event. In the English Club, where all who were distinguished, important,
16746 and well informed foregathered when the news began to arrive in
16747 December, nothing was said about the war and the last battle, as though
16748 all were in a conspiracy of silence. The men who set the tone in
16749 conversation--Count Rostopchin, Prince Yuri Dolgorukov, Valuev, Count
16750 Markov, and Prince Vyazemski--did not show themselves at the club, but
16751 met in private houses in intimate circles, and the Moscovites who took
16752 their opinions from others--Ilya Rostov among them--remained for a while
16753 without any definite opinion on the subject of the war and without
16754 leaders. The Moscovites felt that something was wrong and that to
16755 discuss the bad news was difficult, and so it was best to be silent. But
16756 after a while, just as a jury comes out of its room, the bigwigs who
16757 guided the club's opinion reappeared, and everybody began speaking
16758 clearly and definitely. Reasons were found for the incredible, unheard-
16759 of, and impossible event of a Russian defeat, everything became clear,
16760 and in all corners of Moscow the same things began to be said. These
16761 reasons were the treachery of the Austrians, a defective commissariat,
16762 the treachery of the Pole Przebyszewski and of the Frenchman Langeron,
16763 Kutuzov's incapacity, and (it was whispered) the youth and inexperience
16764 of the sovereign, who had trusted worthless and insignificant people.
16765 But the army, the Russian army, everyone declared, was extraordinary and
16766 had achieved miracles of valor. The soldiers, officers, and generals
16767 were heroes. But the hero of heroes was Prince Bagration, distinguished
16768 by his Schon Grabern affair and by the retreat from Austerlitz, where he
16769 alone had withdrawn his column unbroken and had all day beaten back an
16770 enemy force twice as numerous as his own. What also conduced to
16771 Bagration's being selected as Moscow's hero was the fact that he had no
16772 connections in the city and was a stranger there. In his person, honor
16773 was shown to a simple fighting Russian soldier without connections and
16774 intrigues, and to one who was associated by memories of the Italian
16775 campaign with the name of Suvorov. Moreover, paying such honor to
16776 Bagration was the best way of expressing disapproval and dislike of
16779 "Had there been no Bagration, it would have been necessary to invent
16780 him," said the wit Shinshin, parodying the words of Voltaire. Kutuzov no
16781 one spoke of, except some who abused him in whispers, calling him a
16782 court weathercock and an old satyr.
16784 All Moscow repeated Prince Dolgorukov's saying: "If you go on modeling
16785 and modeling you must get smeared with clay," suggesting consolation for
16786 our defeat by the memory of former victories; and the words of
16787 Rostopchin, that French soldiers have to be incited to battle by
16788 highfalutin words, and Germans by logical arguments to show them that it
16789 is more dangerous to run away than to advance, but that Russian soldiers
16790 only need to be restrained and held back! On all sides, new and fresh
16791 anecdotes were heard of individual examples of heroism shown by our
16792 officers and men at Austerlitz. One had saved a standard, another had
16793 killed five Frenchmen, a third had loaded five cannon singlehanded. Berg
16794 was mentioned, by those who did not know him, as having, when wounded in
16795 the right hand, taken his sword in the left, and gone forward. Of
16796 Bolkonski, nothing was said, and only those who knew him intimately
16797 regretted that he had died so young, leaving a pregnant wife with his
16805 On that third of March, all the rooms in the English Club were filled
16806 with a hum of conversation, like the hum of bees swarming in springtime.
16807 The members and guests of the club wandered hither and thither, sat,
16808 stood, met, and separated, some in uniform and some in evening dress,
16809 and a few here and there with powdered hair and in Russian kaftans.
16810 Powdered footmen, in livery with buckled shoes and smart stockings,
16811 stood at every door anxiously noting visitors' every movement in order
16812 to offer their services. Most of those present were elderly, respected
16813 men with broad, self-confident faces, fat fingers, and resolute gestures
16814 and voices. This class of guests and members sat in certain habitual
16815 places and met in certain habitual groups. A minority of those present
16816 were casual guests--chiefly young men, among whom were Denisov, Rostov,
16817 and Dolokhov--who was now again an officer in the Semenov regiment. The
16818 faces of these young people, especially those who were military men,
16819 bore that expression of condescending respect for their elders which
16820 seems to say to the older generation, "We are prepared to respect and
16821 honor you, but all the same remember that the future belongs to us."
16823 Nesvitski was there as an old member of the club. Pierre, who at his
16824 wife's command had let his hair grow and abandoned his spectacles, went
16825 about the rooms fashionably dressed but looking sad and dull. Here, as
16826 elsewhere, he was surrounded by an atmosphere of subservience to his
16827 wealth, and being in the habit of lording it over these people, he
16828 treated them with absent-minded contempt.
16830 By his age he should have belonged to the younger men, but by his wealth
16831 and connections he belonged to the groups of old and honored guests, and
16832 so he went from one group to another. Some of the most important old men
16833 were the center of groups which even strangers approached respectfully
16834 to hear the voices of well-known men. The largest circles formed round
16835 Count Rostopchin, Valuev, and Naryshkin. Rostopchin was describing how
16836 the Russians had been overwhelmed by flying Austrians and had had to
16837 force their way through them with bayonets.
16839 Valuev was confidentially telling that Uvarov had been sent from
16840 Petersburg to ascertain what Moscow was thinking about Austerlitz.
16842 In the third circle, Naryshkin was speaking of the meeting of the
16843 Austrian Council of War at which Suvorov crowed like a cock in reply to
16844 the nonsense talked by the Austrian generals. Shinshin, standing close
16845 by, tried to make a joke, saying that Kutuzov had evidently failed to
16846 learn from Suvorov even so simple a thing as the art of crowing like a
16847 cock, but the elder members glanced severely at the wit, making him feel
16848 that in that place and on that day, it was improper to speak so of
16851 Count Ilya Rostov, hurried and preoccupied, went about in his soft boots
16852 between the dining and drawing rooms, hastily greeting the important and
16853 unimportant, all of whom he knew, as if they were all equals, while his
16854 eyes occasionally sought out his fine well-set-up young son, resting on
16855 him and winking joyfully at him. Young Rostov stood at a window with
16856 Dolokhov, whose acquaintance he had lately made and highly valued. The
16857 old count came up to them and pressed Dolokhov's hand.
16859 "Please come and visit us... you know my brave boy... been together out
16860 there... both playing the hero... Ah, Vasili Ignatovich... How d'ye do,
16861 old fellow?" he said, turning to an old man who was passing, but before
16862 he had finished his greeting there was a general stir, and a footman who
16863 had run in announced, with a frightened face: "He's arrived!"
16865 Bells rang, the stewards rushed forward, and--like rye shaken together
16866 in a shovel--the guests who had been scattered about in different rooms
16867 came together and crowded in the large drawing room by the door of the
16870 Bagration appeared in the doorway of the anteroom without hat or sword,
16871 which, in accord with the club custom, he had given up to the hall
16872 porter. He had no lambskin cap on his head, nor had he a loaded whip
16873 over his shoulder, as when Rostov had seen him on the eve of the battle
16874 of Austerlitz, but wore a tight new uniform with Russian and foreign
16875 Orders, and the Star of St. George on his left breast. Evidently just
16876 before coming to the dinner he had had his hair and whiskers trimmed,
16877 which changed his appearance for the worse. There was something naively
16878 festive in his air, which, in conjunction with his firm and virile
16879 features, gave him a rather comical expression. Bekleshev and Theodore
16880 Uvarov, who had arrived with him, paused at the doorway to allow him, as
16881 the guest of honor, to enter first. Bagration was embarrassed, not
16882 wishing to avail himself of their courtesy, and this caused some delay
16883 at the doors, but after all he did at last enter first. He walked shyly
16884 and awkwardly over the parquet floor of the reception room, not knowing
16885 what to do with his hands; he was more accustomed to walk over a plowed
16886 field under fire, as he had done at the head of the Kursk regiment at
16887 Schon Grabern--and he would have found that easier. The committeemen met
16888 him at the first door and, expressing their delight at seeing such a
16889 highly honored guest, took possession of him as it were, without waiting
16890 for his reply, surrounded him, and led him to the drawing room. It was
16891 at first impossible to enter the drawing-room door for the crowd of
16892 members and guests jostling one another and trying to get a good look at
16893 Bagration over each other's shoulders, as if he were some rare animal.
16894 Count Ilya Rostov, laughing and repeating the words, "Make way, dear
16895 boy! Make way, make way!" pushed through the crowd more energetically
16896 than anyone, led the guests into the drawing room, and seated them on
16897 the center sofa. The bigwigs, the most respected members of the club,
16898 beset the new arrivals. Count Ilya, again thrusting his way through the
16899 crowd, went out of the drawing room and reappeared a minute later with
16900 another committeeman, carrying a large silver salver which he presented
16901 to Prince Bagration. On the salver lay some verses composed and printed
16902 in the hero's honor. Bagration, on seeing the salver, glanced around in
16903 dismay, as though seeking help. But all eyes demanded that he should
16904 submit. Feeling himself in their power, he resolutely took the salver
16905 with both hands and looked sternly and reproachfully at the count who
16906 had presented it to him. Someone obligingly took the dish from Bagration
16907 (or he would, it seemed, have held it till evening and have gone in to
16908 dinner with it) and drew his attention to the verses.
16910 "Well, I will read them, then!" Bagration seemed to say, and, fixing his
16911 weary eyes on the paper, began to read them with a fixed and serious
16912 expression. But the author himself took the verses and began reading
16913 them aloud. Bagration bowed his head and listened:
16916 Bring glory then to Alexander's reign And on the throne our Titus
16917 shield. A dreaded foe be thou, kindhearted as a man, A Rhipheus at home,
16918 a Caesar in the field! E'en fortunate Napoleon Knows by experience, now,
16919 Bagration, And dare not Herculean Russians trouble...
16921 But before he had finished reading, a stentorian major-domo announced
16922 that dinner was ready! The door opened, and from the dining room came
16923 the resounding strains of the polonaise:
16926 Conquest's joyful thunder waken, Triumph, valiant Russians, now!...
16928 and Count Rostov, glancing angrily at the author who went on reading his
16929 verses, bowed to Bagration. Everyone rose, feeling that dinner was more
16930 important than verses, and Bagration, again preceding all the rest, went
16931 in to dinner. He was seated in the place of honor between two
16932 Alexanders--Bekleshev and Naryshkin--which was a significant allusion to
16933 the name of the sovereign. Three hundred persons took their seats in the
16934 dining room, according to their rank and importance: the more important
16935 nearer to the honored guest, as naturally as water flows deepest where
16936 the land lies lowest.
16938 Just before dinner, Count Ilya Rostov presented his son to Bagration,
16939 who recognized him and said a few words to him, disjointed and awkward,
16940 as were all the words he spoke that day, and Count Ilya looked joyfully
16941 and proudly around while Bagration spoke to his son.
16943 Nicholas Rostov, with Denisov and his new acquaintance, Dolokhov, sat
16944 almost at the middle of the table. Facing them sat Pierre, beside Prince
16945 Nesvitski. Count Ilya Rostov with the other members of the committee sat
16946 facing Bagration and, as the very personification of Moscow hospitality,
16947 did the honors to the prince.
16949 His efforts had not been in vain. The dinner, both the Lenten and the
16950 other fare, was splendid, yet he could not feel quite at ease till the
16951 end of the meal. He winked at the butler, whispered directions to the
16952 footmen, and awaited each expected dish with some anxiety. Everything
16953 was excellent. With the second course, a gigantic sterlet (at sight of
16954 which Ilya Rostov blushed with self-conscious pleasure), the footmen
16955 began popping corks and filling the champagne glasses. After the fish,
16956 which made a certain sensation, the count exchanged glances with the
16957 other committeemen. "There will be many toasts, it's time to begin," he
16958 whispered, and taking up his glass, he rose. All were silent, waiting
16959 for what he would say.
16961 "To the health of our Sovereign, the Emperor!" he cried, and at the same
16962 moment his kindly eyes grew moist with tears of joy and enthusiasm. The
16963 band immediately struck up "Conquest's joyful thunder waken..." All rose
16964 and cried "Hurrah!" Bagration also rose and shouted "Hurrah!" in exactly
16965 the same voice in which he had shouted it on the field at Schon Grabern.
16966 Young Rostov's ecstatic voice could be heard above the three hundred
16967 others. He nearly wept. "To the health of our Sovereign, the Emperor!"
16968 he roared, "Hurrah!" and emptying his glass at one gulp he dashed it to
16969 the floor. Many followed his example, and the loud shouting continued
16970 for a long time. When the voices subsided, the footmen cleared away the
16971 broken glass and everybody sat down again, smiling at the noise they had
16972 made and exchanging remarks. The old count rose once more, glanced at a
16973 note lying beside his plate, and proposed a toast, "To the health of the
16974 hero of our last campaign, Prince Peter Ivanovich Bagration!" and again
16975 his blue eyes grew moist. "Hurrah!" cried the three hundred voices
16976 again, but instead of the band a choir began singing a cantata composed
16977 by Paul Ivanovich Kutuzov:
16980 Russians! O'er all barriers on! Courage conquest guarantees; Have we not
16981 Bagration? He brings foe men to their knees,... etc.
16983 As soon as the singing was over, another and another toast was proposed
16984 and Count Ilya Rostov became more and more moved, more glass was
16985 smashed, and the shouting grew louder. They drank to Bekleshev,
16986 Naryshkin, Uvarov, Dolgorukov, Apraksin, Valuev, to the committee, to
16987 all the club members and to all the club guests, and finally to Count
16988 Ilya Rostov separately, as the organizer of the banquet. At that toast,
16989 the count took out his handkerchief and, covering his face, wept
16997 Pierre sat opposite Dolokhov and Nicholas Rostov. As usual, he ate and
16998 drank much, and eagerly. But those who knew him intimately noticed that
16999 some great change had come over him that day. He was silent all through
17000 dinner and looked about, blinking and scowling, or, with fixed eyes and
17001 a look of complete absent-mindedness, kept rubbing the bridge of his
17002 nose. His face was depressed and gloomy. He seemed to see and hear
17003 nothing of what was going on around him and to be absorbed by some
17004 depressing and unsolved problem.
17006 The unsolved problem that tormented him was caused by hints given by the
17007 princess, his cousin, at Moscow, concerning Dolokhov's intimacy with his
17008 wife, and by an anonymous letter he had received that morning, which in
17009 the mean jocular way common to anonymous letters said that he saw badly
17010 through his spectacles, but that his wife's connection with Dolokhov was
17011 a secret to no one but himself. Pierre absolutely disbelieved both the
17012 princess' hints and the letter, but he feared now to look at Dolokhov,
17013 who was sitting opposite him. Every time he chanced to meet Dolokhov's
17014 handsome insolent eyes, Pierre felt something terrible and monstrous
17015 rising in his soul and turned quickly away. Involuntarily recalling his
17016 wife's past and her relations with Dolokhov, Pierre saw clearly that
17017 what was said in the letter might be true, or might at least seem to be
17018 true had it not referred to his wife. He involuntarily remembered how
17019 Dolokhov, who had fully recovered his former position after the
17020 campaign, had returned to Petersburg and come to him. Availing himself
17021 of his friendly relations with Pierre as a boon companion, Dolokhov had
17022 come straight to his house, and Pierre had put him up and lent him
17023 money. Pierre recalled how Helene had smilingly expressed disapproval of
17024 Dolokhov's living at their house, and how cynically Dolokhov had praised
17025 his wife's beauty to him and from that time till they came to Moscow had
17026 not left them for a day.
17028 "Yes, he is very handsome," thought Pierre, "and I know him. It would be
17029 particularly pleasant to him to dishonor my name and ridicule me, just
17030 because I have exerted myself on his behalf, befriended him, and helped
17031 him. I know and understand what a spice that would add to the pleasure
17032 of deceiving me, if it really were true. Yes, if it were true, but I do
17033 not believe it. I have no right to, and can't, believe it." He
17034 remembered the expression Dolokhov's face assumed in his moments of
17035 cruelty, as when tying the policeman to the bear and dropping them into
17036 the water, or when he challenged a man to a duel without any reason, or
17037 shot a post-boy's horse with a pistol. That expression was often on
17038 Dolokhov's face when looking at him. "Yes, he is a bully," thought
17039 Pierre, "to kill a man means nothing to him. It must seem to him that
17040 everyone is afraid of him, and that must please him. He must think that
17041 I, too, am afraid of him--and in fact I am afraid of him," he thought,
17042 and again he felt something terrible and monstrous rising in his soul.
17043 Dolokhov, Denisov, and Rostov were now sitting opposite Pierre and
17044 seemed very gay. Rostov was talking merrily to his two friends, one of
17045 whom was a dashing hussar and the other a notorious duelist and rake,
17046 and every now and then he glanced ironically at Pierre, whose
17047 preoccupied, absent-minded, and massive figure was a very noticeable one
17048 at the dinner. Rostov looked inimically at Pierre, first because Pierre
17049 appeared to his hussar eyes as a rich civilian, the husband of a beauty,
17050 and in a word--an old woman; and secondly because Pierre in his
17051 preoccupation and absent-mindedness had not recognized Rostov and had
17052 not responded to his greeting. When the Emperor's health was drunk,
17053 Pierre, lost in thought, did not rise or lift his glass.
17055 "What are you about?" shouted Rostov, looking at him in an ecstasy of
17056 exasperation. "Don't you hear it's His Majesty the Emperor's health?"
17058 Pierre sighed, rose submissively, emptied his glass, and, waiting till
17059 all were seated again, turned with his kindly smile to Rostov.
17061 "Why, I didn't recognize you!" he said. But Rostov was otherwise
17062 engaged; he was shouting "Hurrah!"
17064 "Why don't you renew the acquaintance?" said Dolokhov to Rostov.
17066 "Confound him, he's a fool!" said Rostov.
17068 "One should make up to the husbands of pretty women," said Denisov.
17070 Pierre did not catch what they were saying, but knew they were talking
17071 about him. He reddened and turned away.
17073 "Well, now to the health of handsome women!" said Dolokhov, and with a
17074 serious expression, but with a smile lurking at the corners of his
17075 mouth, he turned with his glass to Pierre.
17077 "Here's to the health of lovely women, Peterkin--and their lovers!" he
17080 Pierre, with downcast eyes, drank out of his glass without looking at
17081 Dolokhov or answering him. The footman, who was distributing leaflets
17082 with Kutuzov's cantata, laid one before Pierre as one of the principal
17083 guests. He was just going to take it when Dolokhov, leaning across,
17084 snatched it from his hand and began reading it. Pierre looked at
17085 Dolokhov and his eyes dropped, the something terrible and monstrous that
17086 had tormented him all dinnertime rose and took possession of him. He
17087 leaned his whole massive body across the table.
17089 "How dare you take it?" he shouted.
17091 Hearing that cry and seeing to whom it was addressed, Nesvitski and the
17092 neighbor on his right quickly turned in alarm to Bezukhov.
17094 "Don't! Don't! What are you about?" whispered their frightened voices.
17096 Dolokhov looked at Pierre with clear, mirthful, cruel eyes, and that
17097 smile of his which seemed to say, "Ah! This is what I like!"
17099 "You shan't have it!" he said distinctly.
17101 Pale, with quivering lips, Pierre snatched the copy.
17103 "You...! you... scoundrel! I challenge you!" he ejaculated, and, pushing
17104 back his chair, he rose from the table.
17106 At the very instant he did this and uttered those words, Pierre felt
17107 that the question of his wife's guilt which had been tormenting him the
17108 whole day was finally and indubitably answered in the affirmative. He
17109 hated her and was forever sundered from her. Despite Denisov's request
17110 that he would take no part in the matter, Rostov agreed to be Dolokhov's
17111 second, and after dinner he discussed the arrangements for the duel with
17112 Nesvitski, Bezukhov's second. Pierre went home, but Rostov with Dolokhov
17113 and Denisov stayed on at the club till late, listening to the gypsies
17116 "Well then, till tomorrow at Sokolniki," said Dolokhov, as he took leave
17117 of Rostov in the club porch.
17119 "And do you feel quite calm?" Rostov asked.
17123 "Well, you see, I'll tell you the whole secret of dueling in two words.
17124 If you are going to fight a duel, and you make a will and write
17125 affectionate letters to your parents, and if you think you may be
17126 killed, you are a fool and are lost for certain. But go with the firm
17127 intention of killing your man as quickly and surely as possible, and
17128 then all will be right, as our bear huntsman at Kostroma used to tell
17129 me. 'Everyone fears a bear,' he says, 'but when you see one your fear's
17130 all gone, and your only thought is not to let him get away!' And that's
17131 how it is with me. A demain, mon cher." *
17134 * Till tomorrow, my dear fellow.
17136 Next day, at eight in the morning, Pierre and Nesvitski drove to the
17137 Sokolniki forest and found Dolokhov, Denisov, and Rostov already there.
17138 Pierre had the air of a man preoccupied with considerations which had no
17139 connection with the matter in hand. His haggard face was yellow. He had
17140 evidently not slept that night. He looked about distractedly and screwed
17141 up his eyes as if dazzled by the sun. He was entirely absorbed by two
17142 considerations: his wife's guilt, of which after his sleepless night he
17143 had not the slightest doubt, and the guiltlessness of Dolokhov, who had
17144 no reason to preserve the honor of a man who was nothing to him.... "I
17145 should perhaps have done the same thing in his place," thought Pierre.
17146 "It's even certain that I should have done the same, then why this duel,
17147 this murder? Either I shall kill him, or he will hit me in the head, or
17148 elbow, or knee. Can't I go away from here, run away, bury myself
17149 somewhere?" passed through his mind. But just at moments when such
17150 thoughts occurred to him, he would ask in a particularly calm and
17151 absent-minded way, which inspired the respect of the onlookers, "Will it
17152 be long? Are things ready?"
17154 When all was ready, the sabers stuck in the snow to mark the barriers,
17155 and the pistols loaded, Nesvitski went up to Pierre.
17157 "I should not be doing my duty, Count," he said in timid tones, "and
17158 should not justify your confidence and the honor you have done me in
17159 choosing me for your second, if at this grave, this very grave, moment I
17160 did not tell you the whole truth. I think there is no sufficient ground
17161 for this affair, or for blood to be shed over it.... You were not right,
17162 not quite in the right, you were impetuous..."
17164 "Oh yes, it is horribly stupid," said Pierre.
17166 "Then allow me to express your regrets, and I am sure your opponent will
17167 accept them," said Nesvitski (who like the others concerned in the
17168 affair, and like everyone in similar cases, did not yet believe that the
17169 affair had come to an actual duel). "You know, Count, it is much more
17170 honorable to admit one's mistake than to let matters become irreparable.
17171 There was no insult on either side. Allow me to convey...."
17173 "No! What is there to talk about?" said Pierre. "It's all the same....
17174 Is everything ready?" he added. "Only tell me where to go and where to
17175 shoot," he said with an unnaturally gentle smile.
17177 He took the pistol in his hand and began asking about the working of the
17178 trigger, as he had not before held a pistol in his hand--a fact that he
17179 did not wish to confess.
17181 "Oh yes, like that, I know, I only forgot," said he.
17183 "No apologies, none whatever," said Dolokhov to Denisov (who on his side
17184 had been attempting a reconciliation), and he also went up to the
17187 The spot chosen for the duel was some eighty paces from the road, where
17188 the sleighs had been left, in a small clearing in the pine forest
17189 covered with melting snow, the frost having begun to break up during the
17190 last few days. The antagonists stood forty paces apart at the farther
17191 edge of the clearing. The seconds, measuring the paces, left tracks in
17192 the deep wet snow between the place where they had been standing and
17193 Nesvitski's and Dolokhov's sabers, which were stuck into the ground ten
17194 paces apart to mark the barrier. It was thawing and misty; at forty
17195 paces' distance nothing could be seen. For three minutes all had been
17196 ready, but they still delayed and all were silent.
17203 "Well begin!" said Dolokhov.
17205 "All right," said Pierre, still smiling in the same way. A feeling of
17206 dread was in the air. It was evident that the affair so lightly begun
17207 could no longer be averted but was taking its course independently of
17210 Denisov first went to the barrier and announced: "As the adve'sawies
17211 have wefused a weconciliation, please pwoceed. Take your pistols, and at
17212 the word thwee begin to advance.
17214 "O-ne! T-wo! Thwee!" he shouted angrily and stepped aside.
17216 The combatants advanced along the trodden tracks, nearer and nearer to
17217 one another, beginning to see one another through the mist. They had the
17218 right to fire when they liked as they approached the barrier. Dolokhov
17219 walked slowly without raising his pistol, looking intently with his
17220 bright, sparkling blue eyes into his antagonist's face. His mouth wore
17221 its usual semblance of a smile.
17223 "So I can fire when I like!" said Pierre, and at the word "three," he
17224 went quickly forward, missing the trodden path and stepping into the
17225 deep snow. He held the pistol in his right hand at arm's length,
17226 apparently afraid of shooting himself with it. His left hand he held
17227 carefully back, because he wished to support his right hand with it and
17228 knew he must not do so. Having advanced six paces and strayed off the
17229 track into the snow, Pierre looked down at his feet, then quickly
17230 glanced at Dolokhov and, bending his finger as he had been shown, fired.
17231 Not at all expecting so loud a report, Pierre shuddered at the sound and
17232 then, smiling at his own sensations, stood still. The smoke, rendered
17233 denser by the mist, prevented him from seeing anything for an instant,
17234 but there was no second report as he had expected. He only heard
17235 Dolokhov's hurried steps, and his figure came in view through the smoke.
17236 He was pressing one hand to his left side, while the other clutched his
17237 drooping pistol. His face was pale. Rostov ran toward him and said
17240 "No-o-o!" muttered Dolokhov through his teeth, "no, it's not over." And
17241 after stumbling a few staggering steps right up to the saber, he sank on
17242 the snow beside it. His left hand was bloody; he wiped it on his coat
17243 and supported himself with it. His frowning face was pallid and
17246 "Plea..." began Dolokhov, but could not at first pronounce the word.
17248 "Please," he uttered with an effort.
17250 Pierre, hardly restraining his sobs, began running toward Dolokhov and
17251 was about to cross the space between the barriers, when Dolokhov cried:
17253 "To your barrier!" and Pierre, grasping what was meant, stopped by his
17254 saber. Only ten paces divided them. Dolokhov lowered his head to the
17255 snow, greedily bit at it, again raised his head, adjusted himself, drew
17256 in his legs and sat up, seeking a firm center of gravity. He sucked and
17257 swallowed the cold snow, his lips quivered but his eyes, still smiling,
17258 glittered with effort and exasperation as he mustered his remaining
17259 strength. He raised his pistol and aimed.
17261 "Sideways! Cover yourself with your pistol!" ejaculated Nesvitski.
17263 "Cover yourself!" even Denisov cried to his adversary.
17265 Pierre, with a gentle smile of pity and remorse, his arms and legs
17266 helplessly spread out, stood with his broad chest directly facing
17267 Dolokhov looked sorrowfully at him. Denisov, Rostov, and Nesvitski
17268 closed their eyes. At the same instant they heard a report and
17269 Dolokhov's angry cry.
17271 "Missed!" shouted Dolokhov, and he lay helplessly, face downwards on the
17274 Pierre clutched his temples, and turning round went into the forest,
17275 trampling through the deep snow, and muttering incoherent words:
17277 "Folly... folly! Death... lies..." he repeated, puckering his face.
17279 Nesvitski stopped him and took him home.
17281 Rostov and Denisov drove away with the wounded Dolokhov.
17283 The latter lay silent in the sleigh with closed eyes and did not answer
17284 a word to the questions addressed to him. But on entering Moscow he
17285 suddenly came to and, lifting his head with an effort, took Rostov, who
17286 was sitting beside him, by the hand. Rostov was struck by the totally
17287 altered and unexpectedly rapturous and tender expression on Dolokhov's
17290 "Well? How do you feel?" he asked.
17292 "Bad! But it's not that, my friend-" said Dolokhov with a gasping voice.
17293 "Where are we? In Moscow, I know. I don't matter, but I have killed her,
17294 killed... She won't get over it! She won't survive...."
17296 "Who?" asked Rostov.
17298 "My mother! My mother, my angel, my adored angel mother," and Dolokhov
17299 pressed Rostov's hand and burst into tears.
17301 When he had become a little quieter, he explained to Rostov that he was
17302 living with his mother, who, if she saw him dying, would not survive it.
17303 He implored Rostov to go on and prepare her.
17305 Rostov went on ahead to do what was asked, and to his great surprise
17306 learned that Dolokhov the brawler, Dolokhov the bully, lived in Moscow
17307 with an old mother and a hunchback sister, and was the most affectionate
17308 of sons and brothers.
17315 Pierre had of late rarely seen his wife alone. Both in Petersburg and in
17316 Moscow their house was always full of visitors. The night after the duel
17317 he did not go to his bedroom but, as he often did, remained in his
17318 father's room, that huge room in which Count Bezukhov had died.
17320 He lay down on the sofa meaning to fall asleep and forget all that had
17321 happened to him, but could not do so. Such a storm of feelings,
17322 thoughts, and memories suddenly arose within him that he could not fall
17323 asleep, nor even remain in one place, but had to jump up and pace the
17324 room with rapid steps. Now he seemed to see her in the early days of
17325 their marriage, with bare shoulders and a languid, passionate look on
17326 her face, and then immediately he saw beside her Dolokhov's handsome,
17327 insolent, hard, and mocking face as he had seen it at the banquet, and
17328 then that same face pale, quivering, and suffering, as it had been when
17329 he reeled and sank on the snow.
17331 "What has happened?" he asked himself. "I have killed her lover, yes,
17332 killed my wife's lover. Yes, that was it! And why? How did I come to do
17333 it?"--"Because you married her," answered an inner voice.
17335 "But in what was I to blame?" he asked. "In marrying her without loving
17336 her; in deceiving yourself and her." And he vividly recalled that moment
17337 after supper at Prince Vasili's, when he spoke those words he had found
17338 so difficult to utter: "I love you." "It all comes from that! Even then
17339 I felt it," he thought. "I felt then that it was not so, that I had no
17340 right to do it. And so it turns out."
17342 He remembered his honeymoon and blushed at the recollection.
17343 Particularly vivid, humiliating, and shameful was the recollection of
17344 how one day soon after his marriage he came out of the bedroom into his
17345 study a little before noon in his silk dressing gown and found his head
17346 steward there, who, bowing respectfully, looked into his face and at his
17347 dressing gown and smiled slightly, as if expressing respectful
17348 understanding of his employer's happiness.
17350 "But how often I have felt proud of her, proud of her majestic beauty
17351 and social tact," thought he; "been proud of my house, in which she
17352 received all Petersburg, proud of her unapproachability and beauty. So
17353 this is what I was proud of! I then thought that I did not understand
17354 her. How often when considering her character I have told myself that I
17355 was to blame for not understanding her, for not understanding that
17356 constant composure and complacency and lack of all interests or desires,
17357 and the whole secret lies in the terrible truth that she is a depraved
17358 woman. Now I have spoken that terrible word to myself all has become
17361 "Anatole used to come to borrow money from her and used to kiss her
17362 naked shoulders. She did not give him the money, but let herself be
17363 kissed. Her father in jest tried to rouse her jealousy, and she replied
17364 with a calm smile that she was not so stupid as to be jealous: 'Let him
17365 do what he pleases,' she used to say of me. One day I asked her if she
17366 felt any symptoms of pregnancy. She laughed contemptuously and said she
17367 was not a fool to want to have children, and that she was not going to
17368 have any children by me."
17370 Then he recalled the coarseness and bluntness of her thoughts and the
17371 vulgarity of the expressions that were natural to her, though she had
17372 been brought up in the most aristocratic circles.
17374 "I'm not such a fool.... Just you try it on.... Allez-vous promener," *
17375 she used to say. Often seeing the success she had with young and old men
17376 and women Pierre could not understand why he did not love her.
17379 * "You clear out of this."
17381 "Yes, I never loved her," said he to himself; "I knew she was a depraved
17382 woman," he repeated, "but dared not admit it to myself. And now there's
17383 Dolokhov sitting in the snow with a forced smile and perhaps dying,
17384 while meeting my remorse with some forced bravado!"
17386 Pierre was one of those people who, in spite of an appearance of what is
17387 called weak character, do not seek a confidant in their troubles. He
17388 digested his sufferings alone.
17390 "It is all, all her fault," he said to himself; "but what of that? Why
17391 did I bind myself to her? Why did I say 'Je vous aime' * to her, which
17392 was a lie, and worse than a lie? I am guilty and must endure... what? A
17393 slur on my name? A misfortune for life? Oh, that's nonsense," he
17394 thought. "The slur on my name and honor--that's all apart from myself."
17399 "Louis XVI was executed because they said he was dishonorable and a
17400 criminal," came into Pierre's head, "and from their point of view they
17401 were right, as were those too who canonized him and died a martyr's
17402 death for his sake. Then Robespierre was beheaded for being a despot.
17403 Who is right and who is wrong? No one! But if you are alive--live:
17404 tomorrow you'll die as I might have died an hour ago. And is it worth
17405 tormenting oneself, when one has only a moment of life in comparison
17408 But at the moment when he imagined himself calmed by such reflections,
17409 she suddenly came into his mind as she was at the moments when he had
17410 most strongly expressed his insincere love for her, and he felt the
17411 blood rush to his heart and had again to get up and move about and break
17412 and tear whatever came to his hand. "Why did I tell her that 'Je vous
17413 aime'?" he kept repeating to himself. And when he had said it for the
17414 tenth time, Moliere's words: "Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette
17415 galere?"* occurred to him, and he began to laugh at himself.
17418 * "But what the devil was he doing in that galley?"
17420 In the night he called his valet and told him to pack up to go to
17421 Petersburg. He could not imagine how he could speak to her now. He
17422 resolved to go away next day and leave a letter informing her of his
17423 intention to part from her forever.
17425 Next morning when the valet came into the room with his coffee, Pierre
17426 was lying asleep on the ottoman with an open book in his hand.
17428 He woke up and looked round for a while with a startled expression,
17429 unable to realize where he was.
17431 "The countess told me to inquire whether your excellency was at home,"
17434 But before Pierre could decide what answer he would send, the countess
17435 herself in a white satin dressing gown embroidered with silver and with
17436 simply dressed hair (two immense plaits twice round her lovely head like
17437 a coronet) entered the room, calm and majestic, except that there was a
17438 wrathful wrinkle on her rather prominent marble brow. With her
17439 imperturbable calm she did not begin to speak in front of the valet. She
17440 knew of the duel and had come to speak about it. She waited till the
17441 valet had set down the coffee things and left the room. Pierre looked at
17442 her timidly over his spectacles, and like a hare surrounded by hounds
17443 who lays back her ears and continues to crouch motionless before her
17444 enemies, he tried to continue reading. But feeling this to be senseless
17445 and impossible, he again glanced timidly at her. She did not sit down
17446 but looked at him with a contemptuous smile, waiting for the valet to
17449 "Well, what's this now? What have you been up to now, I should like to
17450 know?" she asked sternly.
17452 "I? What have I...?" stammered Pierre.
17454 "So it seems you're a hero, eh? Come now, what was this duel about? What
17455 is it meant to prove? What? I ask you."
17457 Pierre turned over heavily on the ottoman and opened his mouth, but
17460 "If you won't answer, I'll tell you..." Helene went on. "You believe
17461 everything you're told. You were told..." Helene laughed, "that Dolokhov
17462 was my lover," she said in French with her coarse plainness of speech,
17463 uttering the word amant as casually as any other word, "and you believed
17464 it! Well, what have you proved? What does this duel prove? That you're a
17465 fool, que vous etes un sot, but everybody knew that. What will be the
17466 result? That I shall be the laughingstock of all Moscow, that everyone
17467 will say that you, drunk and not knowing what you were about, challenged
17468 a man you are jealous of without cause." Helene raised her voice and
17469 became more and more excited, "A man who's a better man than you in
17472 "Hm... Hm...!" growled Pierre, frowning without looking at her, and not
17475 "And how could you believe he was my lover? Why? Because I like his
17476 company? If you were cleverer and more agreeable, I should prefer
17479 "Don't speak to me... I beg you," muttered Pierre hoarsely.
17481 "Why shouldn't I speak? I can speak as I like, and I tell you plainly
17482 that there are not many wives with husbands such as you who would not
17483 have taken lovers (des amants), but I have not done so," said she.
17485 Pierre wished to say something, looked at her with eyes whose strange
17486 expression she did not understand, and lay down again. He was suffering
17487 physically at that moment, there was a weight on his chest and he could
17488 not breathe. He knew that he must do something to put an end to this
17489 suffering, but what he wanted to do was too terrible.
17491 "We had better separate," he muttered in a broken voice.
17493 "Separate? Very well, but only if you give me a fortune," said Helene.
17494 "Separate! That's a thing to frighten me with!"
17496 Pierre leaped up from the sofa and rushed staggering toward her.
17498 "I'll kill you!" he shouted, and seizing the marble top of a table with
17499 a strength he had never before felt, he made a step toward her
17500 brandishing the slab.
17502 Helene's face became terrible, she shrieked and sprang aside. His
17503 father's nature showed itself in Pierre. He felt the fascination and
17504 delight of frenzy. He flung down the slab, broke it, and swooping down
17505 on her with outstretched hands shouted, "Get out!" in such a terrible
17506 voice that the whole house heard it with horror. God knows what he would
17507 have done at that moment had Helene not fled from the room.
17509 A week later Pierre gave his wife full power to control all his estates
17510 in Great Russia, which formed the larger part of his property, and left
17511 for Petersburg alone.
17518 Two months had elapsed since the news of the battle of Austerlitz and
17519 the loss of Prince Andrew had reached Bald Hills, and in spite of the
17520 letters sent through the embassy and all the searches made, his body had
17521 not been found nor was he on the list of prisoners. What was worst of
17522 all for his relations was the fact that there was still a possibility of
17523 his having been picked up on the battlefield by the people of the place
17524 and that he might now be lying, recovering or dying, alone among
17525 strangers and unable to send news of himself. The gazettes from which
17526 the old prince first heard of the defeat at Austerlitz stated, as usual
17527 very briefly and vaguely, that after brilliant engagements the Russians
17528 had had to retreat and had made their withdrawal in perfect order. The
17529 old prince understood from this official report that our army had been
17530 defeated. A week after the gazette report of the battle of Austerlitz
17531 came a letter from Kutuzov informing the prince of the fate that had
17534 "Your son," wrote Kutuzov, "fell before my eyes, a standard in his hand
17535 and at the head of a regiment--he fell as a hero, worthy of his father
17536 and his fatherland. To the great regret of myself and of the whole army
17537 it is still uncertain whether he is alive or not. I comfort myself and
17538 you with the hope that your son is alive, for otherwise he would have
17539 been mentioned among the officers found on the field of battle, a list
17540 of whom has been sent me under flag of truce."
17542 After receiving this news late in the evening, when he was alone in his
17543 study, the old prince went for his walk as usual next morning, but he
17544 was silent with his steward, the gardener, and the architect, and though
17545 he looked very grim he said nothing to anyone.
17547 When Princess Mary went to him at the usual hour he was working at his
17548 lathe and, as usual, did not look round at her.
17550 "Ah, Princess Mary!" he said suddenly in an unnatural voice, throwing
17551 down his chisel. (The wheel continued to revolve by its own impetus, and
17552 Princess Mary long remembered the dying creak of that wheel, which
17553 merged in her memory with what followed.)
17555 She approached him, saw his face, and something gave way within her. Her
17556 eyes grew dim. By the expression of her father's face, not sad, not
17557 crushed, but angry and working unnaturally, she saw that hanging over
17558 her and about to crush her was some terrible misfortune, the worst in
17559 life, one she had not yet experienced, irreparable and incomprehensible-
17560 -the death of one she loved.
17562 "Father! Andrew!"--said the ungraceful, awkward princess with such an
17563 indescribable charm of sorrow and self-forgetfulness that her father
17564 could not bear her look but turned away with a sob.
17566 "Bad news! He's not among the prisoners nor among the killed! Kutuzov
17567 writes..." and he screamed as piercingly as if he wished to drive the
17568 princess away by that scream... "Killed!"
17570 The princess did not fall down or faint. She was already pale, but on
17571 hearing these words her face changed and something brightened in her
17572 beautiful, radiant eyes. It was as if joy--a supreme joy apart from the
17573 joys and sorrows of this world--overflowed the great grief within her.
17574 She forgot all fear of her father, went up to him, took his hand, and
17575 drawing him down put her arm round his thin, scraggy neck.
17577 "Father," she said, "do not turn away from me, let us weep together."
17579 "Scoundrels! Blackguards!" shrieked the old man, turning his face away
17580 from her. "Destroying the army, destroying the men! And why? Go, go and
17583 The princess sank helplessly into an armchair beside her father and
17584 wept. She saw her brother now as he had been at the moment when he took
17585 leave of her and of Lise, his look tender yet proud. She saw him tender
17586 and amused as he was when he put on the little icon. "Did he believe?
17587 Had he repented of his unbelief? Was he now there? There in the realms
17588 of eternal peace and blessedness?" she thought.
17590 "Father, tell me how it happened," she asked through her tears.
17592 "Go! Go! Killed in battle, where the best of Russian men and Russia's
17593 glory were led to destruction. Go, Princess Mary. Go and tell Lise. I
17596 When Princess Mary returned from her father, the little princess sat
17597 working and looked up with that curious expression of inner, happy calm
17598 peculiar to pregnant women. It was evident that her eyes did not see
17599 Princess Mary but were looking within... into herself... at something
17600 joyful and mysterious taking place within her.
17602 "Mary," she said, moving away from the embroidery frame and lying back,
17603 "give me your hand." She took her sister-in-law's hand and held it below
17606 Her eyes were smiling expectantly, her downy lip rose and remained
17607 lifted in childlike happiness.
17609 Princess Mary knelt down before her and hid her face in the folds of her
17610 sister-in-law's dress.
17612 "There, there! Do you feel it? I feel so strange. And do you know, Mary,
17613 I am going to love him very much," said Lise, looking with bright and
17614 happy eyes at her sister-in-law.
17616 Princess Mary could not lift her head, she was weeping.
17618 "What is the matter, Mary?"
17620 "Nothing... only I feel sad... sad about Andrew," she said, wiping away
17621 her tears on her sister-in-law's knee.
17623 Several times in the course of the morning Princess Mary began trying to
17624 prepare her sister-in-law, and every time began to cry. Unobservant as
17625 was the little princess, these tears, the cause of which she did not
17626 understand, agitated her. She said nothing but looked about uneasily as
17627 if in search of something. Before dinner the old prince, of whom she was
17628 always afraid, came into her room with a peculiarly restless and malign
17629 expression and went out again without saying a word. She looked at
17630 Princess Mary, then sat thinking for a while with that expression of
17631 attention to something within her that is only seen in pregnant women,
17632 and suddenly began to cry.
17634 "Has anything come from Andrew?" she asked.
17636 "No, you know it's too soon for news. But my father is anxious and I
17639 "So there's nothing?"
17641 "Nothing," answered Princess Mary, looking firmly with her radiant eyes
17642 at her sister-in-law.
17644 She had determined not to tell her and persuaded her father to hide the
17645 terrible news from her till after her confinement, which was expected
17646 within a few days. Princess Mary and the old prince each bore and hid
17647 their grief in their own way. The old prince would not cherish any hope:
17648 he made up his mind that Prince Andrew had been killed, and though he
17649 sent an official to Austria to seek for traces of his son, he ordered a
17650 monument from Moscow which he intended to erect in his own garden to his
17651 memory, and he told everybody that his son had been killed. He tried not
17652 to change his former way of life, but his strength failed him. He walked
17653 less, ate less, slept less, and became weaker every day. Princess Mary
17654 hoped. She prayed for her brother as living and was always awaiting news
17662 "Dearest," said the little princess after breakfast on the morning of
17663 the nineteenth March, and her downy little lip rose from old habit, but
17664 as sorrow was manifest in every smile, the sound of every word, and even
17665 every footstep in that house since the terrible news had come, so now
17666 the smile of the little princess--influenced by the general mood though
17667 without knowing its cause--was such as to remind one still more of the
17670 "Dearest, I'm afraid this morning's fruschtique *--as Foka the cook
17671 calls it--has disagreed with me."
17674 * Fruhstuck: breakfast.
17676 "What is the matter with you, my darling? You look pale. Oh, you are
17677 very pale!" said Princess Mary in alarm, running with her soft,
17678 ponderous steps up to her sister-in-law.
17680 "Your excellency, should not Mary Bogdanovna be sent for?" said one of
17681 the maids who was present. (Mary Bogdanovna was a midwife from the
17682 neighboring town, who had been at Bald Hills for the last fortnight.)
17684 "Oh yes," assented Princess Mary, "perhaps that's it. I'll go. Courage,
17685 my angel." She kissed Lise and was about to leave the room.
17687 "Oh, no, no!" And besides the pallor and the physical suffering on the
17688 little princess' face, an expression of childish fear of inevitable pain
17691 "No, it's only indigestion?... Say it's only indigestion, say so, Mary!
17692 Say..." And the little princess began to cry capriciously like a
17693 suffering child and to wring her little hands even with some
17694 affectation. Princess Mary ran out of the room to fetch Mary Bogdanovna.
17696 "Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Oh!" she heard as she left the room.
17698 The midwife was already on her way to meet her, rubbing her small, plump
17699 white hands with an air of calm importance.
17701 "Mary Bogdanovna, I think it's beginning!" said Princess Mary looking at
17702 the midwife with wide-open eyes of alarm.
17704 "Well, the Lord be thanked, Princess," said Mary Bogdanovna, not
17705 hastening her steps. "You young ladies should not know anything about
17708 "But how is it the doctor from Moscow is not here yet?" said the
17709 princess. (In accordance with Lise's and Prince Andrew's wishes they had
17710 sent in good time to Moscow for a doctor and were expecting him at any
17713 "No matter, Princess, don't be alarmed," said Mary Bogdanovna. "We'll
17714 manage very well without a doctor."
17716 Five minutes later Princess Mary from her room heard something heavy
17717 being carried by. She looked out. The men servants were carrying the
17718 large leather sofa from Prince Andrew's study into the bedroom. On their
17719 faces was a quiet and solemn look.
17721 Princess Mary sat alone in her room listening to the sounds in the
17722 house, now and then opening her door when someone passed and watching
17723 what was going on in the passage. Some women passing with quiet steps in
17724 and out of the bedroom glanced at the princess and turned away. She did
17725 not venture to ask any questions, and shut the door again, now sitting
17726 down in her easy chair, now taking her prayer book, now kneeling before
17727 the icon stand. To her surprise and distress she found that her prayers
17728 did not calm her excitement. Suddenly her door opened softly and her old
17729 nurse, Praskovya Savishna, who hardly ever came to that room as the old
17730 prince had forbidden it, appeared on the threshold with a shawl round
17733 "I've come to sit with you a bit, Masha," said the nurse, "and here I've
17734 brought the prince's wedding candles to light before his saint, my
17735 angel," she said with a sigh.
17737 "Oh, nurse, I'm so glad!"
17739 "God is merciful, birdie."
17741 The nurse lit the gilt candles before the icons and sat down by the door
17742 with her knitting. Princess Mary took a book and began reading. Only
17743 when footsteps or voices were heard did they look at one another, the
17744 princess anxious and inquiring, the nurse encouraging. Everyone in the
17745 house was dominated by the same feeling that Princess Mary experienced
17746 as she sat in her room. But owing to the superstition that the fewer the
17747 people who know of it the less a woman in travail suffers, everyone
17748 tried to pretend not to know; no one spoke of it, but apart from the
17749 ordinary staid and respectful good manners habitual in the prince's
17750 household, a common anxiety, a softening of the heart, and a
17751 consciousness that something great and mysterious was being accomplished
17752 at that moment made itself felt.
17754 There was no laughter in the maids' large hall. In the men servants'
17755 hall all sat waiting, silently and alert. In the outlying serfs'
17756 quarters torches and candles were burning and no one slept. The old
17757 prince, stepping on his heels, paced up and down his study and sent
17758 Tikhon to ask Mary Bogdanovna what news.--"Say only that 'the prince
17759 told me to ask,' and come and tell me her answer."
17761 "Inform the prince that labor has begun," said Mary Bogdanovna, giving
17762 the messenger a significant look.
17764 Tikhon went and told the prince.
17766 "Very good!" said the prince closing the door behind him, and Tikhon did
17767 not hear the slightest sound from the study after that.
17769 After a while he re-entered it as if to snuff the candles, and, seeing
17770 the prince was lying on the sofa, looked at him, noticed his perturbed
17771 face, shook his head, and going up to him silently kissed him on the
17772 shoulder and left the room without snuffing the candles or saying why he
17773 had entered. The most solemn mystery in the world continued its course.
17774 Evening passed, night came, and the feeling of suspense and softening of
17775 heart in the presence of the unfathomable did not lessen but increased.
17778 It was one of those March nights when winter seems to wish to resume its
17779 sway and scatters its last snows and storms with desperate fury. A relay
17780 of horses had been sent up the highroad to meet the German doctor from
17781 Moscow who was expected every moment, and men on horseback with lanterns
17782 were sent to the crossroads to guide him over the country road with its
17783 hollows and snow-covered pools of water.
17785 Princess Mary had long since put aside her book: she sat silent, her
17786 luminous eyes fixed on her nurse's wrinkled face (every line of which
17787 she knew so well), on the lock of gray hair that escaped from under the
17788 kerchief, and the loose skin that hung under her chin.
17790 Nurse Savishna, knitting in hand, was telling in low tones, scarcely
17791 hearing or understanding her own words, what she had told hundreds of
17792 times before: how the late princess had given birth to Princess Mary in
17793 Kishenev with only a Moldavian peasant woman to help instead of a
17796 "God is merciful, doctors are never needed," she said.
17798 Suddenly a gust of wind beat violently against the casement of the
17799 window, from which the double frame had been removed (by order of the
17800 prince, one window frame was removed in each room as soon as the larks
17801 returned), and, forcing open a loosely closed latch, set the damask
17802 curtain flapping and blew out the candle with its chill, snowy draft.
17803 Princess Mary shuddered; her nurse, putting down the stocking she was
17804 knitting, went to the window and leaning out tried to catch the open
17805 casement. The cold wind flapped the ends of her kerchief and her loose
17806 locks of gray hair.
17808 "Princess, my dear, there's someone driving up the avenue!" she said,
17809 holding the casement and not closing it. "With lanterns. Most likely the
17812 "Oh, my God! thank God!" said Princess Mary. "I must go and meet him, he
17813 does not know Russian."
17815 Princess Mary threw a shawl over her head and ran to meet the newcomer.
17816 As she was crossing the anteroom she saw through the window a carriage
17817 with lanterns, standing at the entrance. She went out on the stairs. On
17818 a banister post stood a tallow candle which guttered in the draft. On
17819 the landing below, Philip, the footman, stood looking scared and holding
17820 another candle. Still lower, beyond the turn of the staircase, one could
17821 hear the footstep of someone in thick felt boots, and a voice that
17822 seemed familiar to Princess Mary was saying something.
17824 "Thank God!" said the voice. "And Father?"
17826 "Gone to bed," replied the voice of Demyan the house steward, who was
17829 Then the voice said something more, Demyan replied, and the steps in the
17830 felt boots approached the unseen bend of the staircase more rapidly.
17832 "It's Andrew!" thought Princess Mary. "No it can't be, that would be too
17833 extraordinary," and at the very moment she thought this, the face and
17834 figure of Prince Andrew, in a fur cloak the deep collar of which covered
17835 with snow, appeared on the landing where the footman stood with the
17836 candle. Yes, it was he, pale, thin, with a changed and strangely
17837 softened but agitated expression on his face. He came up the stairs and
17838 embraced his sister.
17840 "You did not get my letter?" he asked, and not waiting for a reply--
17841 which he would not have received, for the princess was unable to speak--
17842 he turned back, rapidly mounted the stairs again with the doctor who had
17843 entered the hall after him (they had met at the last post station), and
17844 again embraced his sister.
17846 "What a strange fate, Masha darling!" And having taken off his cloak and
17847 felt boots, he went to the little princess' apartment.
17854 The little princess lay supported by pillows, with a white cap on her
17855 head (the pains had just left her). Strands of her black hair lay round
17856 her inflamed and perspiring cheeks, her charming rosy mouth with its
17857 downy lip was open and she was smiling joyfully. Prince Andrew entered
17858 and paused facing her at the foot of the sofa on which she was lying.
17859 Her glittering eyes, filled with childlike fear and excitement, rested
17860 on him without changing their expression. "I love you all and have done
17861 no harm to anyone; why must I suffer so? Help me!" her look seemed to
17862 say. She saw her husband, but did not realize the significance of his
17863 appearance before her now. Prince Andrew went round the sofa and kissed
17866 "My darling!" he said--a word he had never used to her before. "God is
17869 She looked at him inquiringly and with childlike reproach.
17871 "I expected help from you and I get none, none from you either!" said
17872 her eyes. She was not surprised at his having come; she did not realize
17873 that he had come. His coming had nothing to do with her sufferings or
17874 with their relief. The pangs began again and Mary Bogdanovna advised
17875 Prince Andrew to leave the room.
17877 The doctor entered. Prince Andrew went out and, meeting Princess Mary,
17878 again joined her. They began talking in whispers, but their talk broke
17879 off at every moment. They waited and listened.
17881 "Go, dear," said Princess Mary.
17883 Prince Andrew went again to his wife and sat waiting in the room next to
17884 hers. A woman came from the bedroom with a frightened face and became
17885 confused when she saw Prince Andrew. He covered his face with his hands
17886 and remained so for some minutes. Piteous, helpless, animal moans came
17887 through the door. Prince Andrew got up, went to the door, and tried to
17888 open it. Someone was holding it shut.
17890 "You can't come in! You can't!" said a terrified voice from within.
17892 He began pacing the room. The screaming ceased, and a few more seconds
17893 went by. Then suddenly a terrible shriek--it could not be hers, she
17894 could not scream like that--came from the bedroom. Prince Andrew ran to
17895 the door; the scream ceased and he heard the wail of an infant.
17897 "What have they taken a baby in there for?" thought Prince Andrew in the
17898 first second. "A baby? What baby...? Why is there a baby there? Or is
17901 Then suddenly he realized the joyful significance of that wail; tears
17902 choked him, and leaning his elbows on the window sill be began to cry,
17903 sobbing like a child. The door opened. The doctor with his shirt sleeves
17904 tucked up, without a coat, pale and with a trembling jaw, came out of
17905 the room. Prince Andrew turned to him, but the doctor gave him a
17906 bewildered look and passed by without a word. A woman rushed out and
17907 seeing Prince Andrew stopped, hesitating on the threshold. He went into
17908 his wife's room. She was lying dead, in the same position he had seen
17909 her in five minutes before and, despite the fixed eyes and the pallor of
17910 the cheeks, the same expression was on her charming childlike face with
17911 its upper lip covered with tiny black hair.
17913 "I love you all, and have done no harm to anyone; and what have you done
17914 to me?"--said her charming, pathetic, dead face.
17916 In a corner of the room something red and tiny gave a grunt and squealed
17917 in Mary Bogdanovna's trembling white hands.
17919 Two hours later Prince Andrew, stepping softly, went into his father's
17920 room. The old man already knew everything. He was standing close to the
17921 door and as soon as it opened his rough old arms closed like a vise
17922 round his son's neck, and without a word he began to sob like a child.
17924 Three days later the little princess was buried, and Prince Andrew went
17925 up the steps to where the coffin stood, to give her the farewell kiss.
17926 And there in the coffin was the same face, though with closed eyes. "Ah,
17927 what have you done to me?" it still seemed to say, and Prince Andrew
17928 felt that something gave way in his soul and that he was guilty of a sin
17929 he could neither remedy nor forget. He could not weep. The old man too
17930 came up and kissed the waxen little hands that lay quietly crossed one
17931 on the other on her breast, and to him, too, her face seemed to say:
17932 "Ah, what have you done to me, and why?" And at the sight the old man
17933 turned angrily away.
17935 Another five days passed, and then the young Prince Nicholas Andreevich
17936 was baptized. The wet nurse supported the coverlet with her chin, while
17937 the priest with a goose feather anointed the boy's little red and
17938 wrinkled soles and palms.
17940 His grandfather, who was his godfather, trembling and afraid of dropping
17941 him, carried the infant round the battered tin font and handed him over
17942 to the godmother, Princess Mary. Prince Andrew sat in another room,
17943 faint with fear lest the baby should be drowned in the font, and awaited
17944 the termination of the ceremony. He looked up joyfully at the baby when
17945 the nurse brought it to him and nodded approval when she told him that
17946 the wax with the baby's hair had not sunk in the font but had floated.
17953 Rostov's share in Dolokhov's duel with Bezukhov was hushed up by the
17954 efforts of the old count, and instead of being degraded to the ranks as
17955 he expected he was appointed an adjutant to the governor general of
17956 Moscow. As a result he could not go to the country with the rest of the
17957 family, but was kept all summer in Moscow by his new duties. Dolokhov
17958 recovered, and Rostov became very friendly with him during his
17959 convalescence. Dolokhov lay ill at his mother's who loved him
17960 passionately and tenderly, and old Mary Ivanovna, who had grown fond of
17961 Rostov for his friendship to her Fedya, often talked to him about her
17964 "Yes, Count," she would say, "he is too noble and pure-souled for our
17965 present, depraved world. No one now loves virtue; it seems like a
17966 reproach to everyone. Now tell me, Count, was it right, was it
17967 honorable, of Bezukhov? And Fedya, with his noble spirit, loved him and
17968 even now never says a word against him. Those pranks in Petersburg when
17969 they played some tricks on a policeman, didn't they do it together? And
17970 there! Bezukhov got off scotfree, while Fedya had to bear the whole
17971 burden on his shoulders. Fancy what he had to go through! It's true he
17972 has been reinstated, but how could they fail to do that? I think there
17973 were not many such gallant sons of the fatherland out there as he. And
17974 now--this duel! Have these people no feeling, or honor? Knowing him to
17975 be an only son, to challenge him and shoot so straight! It's well God
17976 had mercy on us. And what was it for? Who doesn't have intrigues
17977 nowadays? Why, if he was so jealous, as I see things he should have
17978 shown it sooner, but he lets it go on for months. And then to call him
17979 out, reckoning on Fedya not fighting because he owed him money! What
17980 baseness! What meanness! I know you understand Fedya, my dear count;
17981 that, believe me, is why I am so fond of you. Few people do understand
17982 him. He is such a lofty, heavenly soul!"
17984 Dolokhov himself during his convalescence spoke to Rostov in a way no
17985 one would have expected of him.
17987 "I know people consider me a bad man!" he said. "Let them! I don't care
17988 a straw about anyone but those I love; but those I love, I love so that
17989 I would give my life for them, and the others I'd throttle if they stood
17990 in my way. I have an adored, a priceless mother, and two or three
17991 friends--you among them--and as for the rest I only care about them in
17992 so far as they are harmful or useful. And most of them are harmful,
17993 especially the women. Yes, dear boy," he continued, "I have met loving,
17994 noble, high-minded men, but I have not yet met any women--countesses or
17995 cooks--who were not venal. I have not yet met that divine purity and
17996 devotion I look for in women. If I found such a one I'd give my life for
17997 her! But those!..." and he made a gesture of contempt. "And believe me,
17998 if I still value my life it is only because I still hope to meet such a
17999 divine creature, who will regenerate, purify, and elevate me. But you
18000 don't understand it."
18002 "Oh, yes, I quite understand," answered Rostov, who was under his new
18003 friend's influence.
18005 In the autumn the Rostovs returned to Moscow. Early in the winter
18006 Denisov also came back and stayed with them. The first half of the
18007 winter of 1806, which Nicholas Rostov spent in Moscow, was one of the
18008 happiest, merriest times for him and the whole family. Nicholas brought
18009 many young men to his parents' house. Vera was a handsome girl of
18010 twenty; Sonya a girl of sixteen with all the charm of an opening flower;
18011 Natasha, half grown up and half child, was now childishly amusing, now
18012 girlishly enchanting.
18014 At that time in the Rostovs' house there prevailed an amorous atmosphere
18015 characteristic of homes where there are very young and very charming
18016 girls. Every young man who came to the house--seeing those
18017 impressionable, smiling young faces (smiling probably at their own
18018 happiness), feeling the eager bustle around him, and hearing the fitful
18019 bursts of song and music and the inconsequent but friendly prattle of
18020 young girls ready for anything and full of hope--experienced the same
18021 feeling; sharing with the young folk of the Rostovs' household a
18022 readiness to fall in love and an expectation of happiness.
18024 Among the young men introduced by Rostov one of the first was Dolokhov,
18025 whom everyone in the house liked except Natasha. She almost quarreled
18026 with her brother about him. She insisted that he was a bad man, and that
18027 in the duel with Bezukhov, Pierre was right and Dolokhov wrong, and
18028 further that he was disagreeable and unnatural.
18030 "There's nothing for me to understand," she cried out with resolute
18031 self-will, "he is wicked and heartless. There now, I like your Denisov
18032 though he is a rake and all that, still I like him; so you see I do
18033 understand. I don't know how to put it... with this one everything is
18034 calculated, and I don't like that. But Denisov..."
18036 "Oh, Denisov is quite different," replied Nicholas, implying that even
18037 Denisov was nothing compared to Dolokhov--"you must understand what a
18038 soul there is in Dolokhov, you should see him with his mother. What a
18041 "Well, I don't know about that, but I am uncomfortable with him. And do
18042 you know he has fallen in love with Sonya?"
18046 "I'm certain of it; you'll see."
18048 Natasha's prediction proved true. Dolokhov, who did not usually care for
18049 the society of ladies, began to come often to the house, and the
18050 question for whose sake he came (though no one spoke of it) was soon
18051 settled. He came because of Sonya. And Sonya, though she would never
18052 have dared to say so, knew it and blushed scarlet every time Dolokhov
18055 Dolokhov often dined at the Rostovs', never missed a performance at
18056 which they were present, and went to Iogel's balls for young people
18057 which the Rostovs always attended. He was pointedly attentive to Sonya
18058 and looked at her in such a way that not only could she not bear his
18059 glances without coloring, but even the old countess and Natasha blushed
18060 when they saw his looks.
18062 It was evident that this strange, strong man was under the irresistible
18063 influence of the dark, graceful girl who loved another.
18065 Rostov noticed something new in Dolokhov's relations with Sonya, but he
18066 did not explain to himself what these new relations were. "They're
18067 always in love with someone," he thought of Sonya and Natasha. But he
18068 was not as much at ease with Sonya and Dolokhov as before and was less
18069 frequently at home.
18071 In the autumn of 1806 everybody had again begun talking of the war with
18072 Napoleon with even greater warmth than the year before. Orders were
18073 given to raise recruits, ten men in every thousand for the regular army,
18074 and besides this, nine men in every thousand for the militia. Everywhere
18075 Bonaparte was anathematized and in Moscow nothing but the coming war was
18076 talked of. For the Rostov family the whole interest of these
18077 preparations for war lay in the fact that Nicholas would not hear of
18078 remaining in Moscow, and only awaited the termination of Denisov's
18079 furlough after Christmas to return with him to their regiment. His
18080 approaching departure did not prevent his amusing himself, but rather
18081 gave zest to his pleasures. He spent the greater part of his time away
18082 from home, at dinners, parties, and balls.
18089 On the third day after Christmas Nicholas dined at home, a thing he had
18090 rarely done of late. It was a grand farewell dinner, as he and Denisov
18091 were leaving to join their regiment after Epiphany. About twenty people
18092 were present, including Dolokhov and Denisov.
18094 Never had love been so much in the air, and never had the amorous
18095 atmosphere made itself so strongly felt in the Rostovs' house as at this
18096 holiday time. "Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That
18097 is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing
18098 we are interested in here," said the spirit of the place.
18100 Nicholas, having as usual exhausted two pairs of horses, without
18101 visiting all the places he meant to go to and where he had been invited,
18102 returned home just before dinner. As soon as he entered he noticed and
18103 felt the tension of the amorous air in the house, and also noticed a
18104 curious embarrassment among some of those present. Sonya, Dolokhov, and
18105 the old countess were especially disturbed, and to a lesser degree
18106 Natasha. Nicholas understood that something must have happened between
18107 Sonya and Dolokhov before dinner, and with the kindly sensitiveness
18108 natural to him was very gentle and wary with them both at dinner. On
18109 that same evening there was to be one of the balls that Iogel (the
18110 dancing master) gave for his pupils during the holidays.
18112 "Nicholas, will you come to Iogel's? Please do!" said Natasha. "He asked
18113 you, and Vasili Dmitrich * is also going."
18118 "Where would I not go at the countess' command!" said Denisov, who at
18119 the Rostovs' had jocularly assumed the role of Natasha's knight. "I'm
18120 even weady to dance the pas de chale."
18122 "If I have time," answered Nicholas. "But I promised the Arkharovs; they
18125 "And you?" he asked Dolokhov, but as soon as he had asked the question
18126 he noticed that it should not have been put.
18128 "Perhaps," coldly and angrily replied Dolokhov, glancing at Sonya, and,
18129 scowling, he gave Nicholas just such a look as he had given Pierre at
18132 "There is something up," thought Nicholas, and he was further confirmed
18133 in this conclusion by the fact that Dolokhov left immediately after
18134 dinner. He called Natasha and asked her what was the matter.
18136 "And I was looking for you," said Natasha running out to him. "I told
18137 you, but you would not believe it," she said triumphantly. "He has
18138 proposed to Sonya!"
18140 Little as Nicholas had occupied himself with Sonya of late, something
18141 seemed to give way within him at this news. Dolokhov was a suitable and
18142 in some respects a brilliant match for the dowerless, orphan girl. From
18143 the point of view of the old countess and of society it was out of the
18144 question for her to refuse him. And therefore Nicholas' first feeling on
18145 hearing the news was one of anger with Sonya.... He tried to say,
18146 "That's capital; of course she'll forget her childish promises and
18147 accept the offer," but before he had time to say it Natasha began again.
18149 "And fancy! she refused him quite definitely!" adding, after a pause,
18150 "she told him she loved another."
18152 "Yes, my Sonya could not have done otherwise!" thought Nicholas.
18154 "Much as Mamma pressed her, she refused, and I know she won't change
18155 once she has said..."
18157 "And Mamma pressed her!" said Nicholas reproachfully.
18159 "Yes," said Natasha. "Do you know, Nicholas--don't be angry--but I know
18160 you will not marry her. I know, heaven knows how, but I know for certain
18161 that you won't marry her."
18163 "Now you don't know that at all!" said Nicholas. "But I must talk to
18164 her. What a darling Sonya is!" he added with a smile.
18166 "Ah, she is indeed a darling! I'll send her to you."
18168 And Natasha kissed her brother and ran away.
18170 A minute later Sonya came in with a frightened, guilty, and scared look.
18171 Nicholas went up to her and kissed her hand. This was the first time
18172 since his return that they had talked alone and about their love.
18174 "Sophie," he began, timidly at first and then more and more boldly, "if
18175 you wish to refuse one who is not only a brilliant and advantageous
18176 match but a splendid, noble fellow... he is my friend..."
18178 Sonya interrupted him.
18180 "I have already refused," she said hurriedly.
18182 "If you are refusing for my sake, I am afraid that I..."
18184 Sonya again interrupted. She gave him an imploring, frightened look.
18186 "Nicholas, don't tell me that!" she said.
18188 "No, but I must. It may be arrogant of me, but still it is best to say
18189 it. If you refuse him on my account, I must tell you the whole truth. I
18190 love you, and I think I love you more than anyone else...."
18192 "That is enough for me," said Sonya, blushing.
18194 "No, but I have been in love a thousand times and shall fall in love
18195 again, though for no one have I such a feeling of friendship,
18196 confidence, and love as I have for you. Then I am young. Mamma does not
18197 wish it. In a word, I make no promise. And I beg you to consider
18198 Dolokhov's offer," he said, articulating his friend's name with
18201 "Don't say that to me! I want nothing. I love you as a brother and
18202 always shall, and I want nothing more."
18204 "You are an angel: I am not worthy of you, but I am afraid of misleading
18207 And Nicholas again kissed her hand.
18214 Iogel's were the most enjoyable balls in Moscow. So said the mothers as
18215 they watched their young people executing their newly learned steps, and
18216 so said the youths and maidens themselves as they danced till they were
18217 ready to drop, and so said the grown-up young men and women who came to
18218 these balls with an air of condescension and found them most enjoyable.
18219 That year two marriages had come of these balls. The two pretty young
18220 Princesses Gorchakov met suitors there and were married and so further
18221 increased the fame of these dances. What distinguished them from others
18222 was the absence of host or hostess and the presence of the good-natured
18223 Iogel, flying about like a feather and bowing according to the rules of
18224 his art, as he collected the tickets from all his visitors. There was
18225 the fact that only those came who wished to dance and amuse themselves
18226 as girls of thirteen and fourteen do who are wearing long dresses for
18227 the first time. With scarcely any exceptions they all were, or seemed to
18228 be, pretty--so rapturous were their smiles and so sparkling their eyes.
18229 Sometimes the best of the pupils, of whom Natasha, who was exceptionally
18230 graceful, was first, even danced the pas de chale, but at this last ball
18231 only the ecossaise, the anglaise, and the mazurka, which was just coming
18232 into fashion, were danced. Iogel had taken a ballroom in Bezukhov's
18233 house, and the ball, as everyone said, was a great success. There were
18234 many pretty girls and the Rostov girls were among the prettiest. They
18235 were both particularly happy and gay. That evening, proud of Dolokhov's
18236 proposal, her refusal, and her explanation with Nicholas, Sonya twirled
18237 about before she left home so that the maid could hardly get her hair
18238 plaited, and she was transparently radiant with impulsive joy.
18240 Natasha no less proud of her first long dress and of being at a real
18241 ball was even happier. They were both dressed in white muslin with pink
18244 Natasha fell in love the very moment she entered the ballroom. She was
18245 not in love with anyone in particular, but with everyone. Whatever
18246 person she happened to look at she was in love with for that moment.
18248 "Oh, how delightful it is!" she kept saying, running up to Sonya.
18250 Nicholas and Denisov were walking up and down, looking with kindly
18251 patronage at the dancers.
18253 "How sweet she is--she will be a weal beauty!" said Denisov.
18257 "Countess Natasha," answered Denisov.
18259 "And how she dances! What gwace!" he said again after a pause.
18261 "Who are you talking about?"
18263 "About your sister," ejaculated Denisov testily.
18267 "My dear count, you were one of my best pupils--you must dance," said
18268 little Iogel coming up to Nicholas. "Look how many charming young
18269 ladies-" He turned with the same request to Denisov who was also a
18270 former pupil of his.
18272 "No, my dear fellow, I'll be a wallflower," said Denisov. "Don't you
18273 wecollect what bad use I made of your lessons?"
18276 "Oh no!" said Iogel, hastening to reassure him. "You were only
18277 inattentive, but you had talent--oh yes, you had talent!"
18279 The band struck up the newly introduced mazurka. Nicholas could not
18280 refuse Iogel and asked Sonya to dance. Denisov sat down by the old
18281 ladies and, leaning on his saber and beating time with his foot, told
18282 them something funny and kept them amused, while he watched the young
18283 people dancing, Iogel with Natasha, his pride and his best pupil, were
18284 the first couple. Noiselessly, skillfully stepping with his little feet
18285 in low shoes, Iogel flew first across the hall with Natasha, who, though
18286 shy, went on carefully executing her steps. Denisov did not take his
18287 eyes off her and beat time with his saber in a way that clearly
18288 indicated that if he was not dancing it was because he would not and not
18289 because he could not. In the middle of a figure he beckoned to Rostov
18292 "This is not at all the thing," he said. "What sort of Polish mazuwka is
18293 this? But she does dance splendidly."
18295 Knowing that Denisov had a reputation even in Poland for the masterly
18296 way in which he danced the mazurka, Nicholas ran up to Natasha:
18298 "Go and choose Denisov. He is a real dancer, a wonder!" he said.
18300 When it came to Natasha's turn to choose a partner, she rose and,
18301 tripping rapidly across in her little shoes trimmed with bows, ran
18302 timidly to the corner where Denisov sat. She saw that everybody was
18303 looking at her and waiting. Nicholas saw that Denisov was refusing
18304 though he smiled delightedly. He ran up to them.
18306 "Please, Vasili Dmitrich," Natasha was saying, "do come!"
18308 "Oh no, let me off, Countess," Denisov replied.
18310 "Now then, Vaska," said Nicholas.
18312 "They coax me as if I were Vaska the cat!" said Denisov jokingly.
18314 "I'll sing for you a whole evening," said Natasha.
18316 "Oh, the faiwy! She can do anything with me!" said Denisov, and he
18317 unhooked his saber. He came out from behind the chairs, clasped his
18318 partner's hand firmly, threw back his head, and advanced his foot,
18319 waiting for the beat. Only on horse back and in the mazurka was
18320 Denisov's short stature not noticeable and he looked the fine fellow he
18321 felt himself to be. At the right beat of the music he looked sideways at
18322 his partner with a merry and triumphant air, suddenly stamped with one
18323 foot, bounded from the floor like a ball, and flew round the room taking
18324 his partner with him. He glided silently on one foot half across the
18325 room, and seeming not to notice the chairs was dashing straight at them,
18326 when suddenly, clinking his spurs and spreading out his legs, he stopped
18327 short on his heels, stood so a second, stamped on the spot clanking his
18328 spurs, whirled rapidly round, and, striking his left heel against his
18329 right, flew round again in a circle. Natasha guessed what he meant to
18330 do, and abandoning herself to him followed his lead hardly knowing how.
18331 First he spun her round, holding her now with his left, now with his
18332 right hand, then falling on one knee he twirled her round him, and again
18333 jumping up, dashed so impetuously forward that it seemed as if he would
18334 rush through the whole suite of rooms without drawing breath, and then
18335 he suddenly stopped and performed some new and unexpected steps. When at
18336 last, smartly whirling his partner round in front of her chair, he drew
18337 up with a click of his spurs and bowed to her, Natasha did not even make
18338 him a curtsy. She fixed her eyes on him in amazement, smiling as if she
18339 did not recognize him.
18341 "What does this mean?" she brought out.
18343 Although Iogel did not acknowledge this to be the real mazurka, everyone
18344 was delighted with Denisov's skill, he was asked again and again as a
18345 partner, and the old men began smilingly to talk about Poland and the
18346 good old days. Denisov, flushed after the mazurka and mopping himself
18347 with his handkerchief, sat down by Natasha and did not leave her for the
18348 rest of the evening.
18355 For two days after that Rostov did not see Dolokhov at his own or at
18356 Dolokhov's home: on the third day he received a note from him:
18358 As I do not intend to be at your house again for reasons you know of,
18359 and am going to rejoin my regiment, I am giving a farewell supper
18360 tonight to my friends--come to the English Hotel.
18362 About ten o'clock Rostov went to the English Hotel straight from the
18363 theater, where he had been with his family and Denisov. He was at once
18364 shown to the best room, which Dolokhov had taken for that evening. Some
18365 twenty men were gathered round a table at which Dolokhov sat between two
18366 candles. On the table was a pile of gold and paper money, and he was
18367 keeping the bank. Rostov had not seen him since his proposal and Sonya's
18368 refusal and felt uncomfortable at the thought of how they would meet.
18370 Dolokhov's clear, cold glance met Rostov as soon as he entered the door,
18371 as though he had long expected him.
18373 "It's a long time since we met," he said. "Thanks for coming. I'll just
18374 finish dealing, and then Ilyushka will come with his chorus."
18376 "I called once or twice at your house," said Rostov, reddening.
18378 Dolokhov made no reply.
18380 "You may punt," he said.
18382 Rostov recalled at that moment a strange conversation he had once had
18383 with Dolokhov. "None but fools trust to luck in play," Dolokhov had then
18386 "Or are you afraid to play with me?" Dolokhov now asked as if guessing
18389 Beneath his smile Rostov saw in him the mood he had shown at the club
18390 dinner and at other times, when as if tired of everyday life he had felt
18391 a need to escape from it by some strange, and usually cruel, action.
18393 Rostov felt ill at ease. He tried, but failed, to find some joke with
18394 which to reply to Dolokhov's words. But before he had thought of
18395 anything, Dolokhov, looking straight in his face, said slowly and
18396 deliberately so that everyone could hear:
18398 "Do you remember we had a talk about cards... 'He's a fool who trusts to
18399 luck, one should make certain,' and I want to try."
18401 "To try his luck or the certainty?" Rostov asked himself.
18403 "Well, you'd better not play," Dolokhov added, and springing a new pack
18404 of cards said: "Bank, gentlemen!"
18406 Moving the money forward he prepared to deal. Rostov sat down by his
18407 side and at first did not play. Dolokhov kept glancing at him.
18409 "Why don't you play?" he asked.
18411 And strange to say Nicholas felt that he could not help taking up a
18412 card, putting a small stake on it, and beginning to play.
18414 "I have no money with me," he said.
18418 Rostov staked five rubles on a card and lost, staked again, and again
18419 lost. Dolokhov "killed," that is, beat, ten cards of Rostov's running.
18421 "Gentlemen," said Dolokhov after he had dealt for some time. "Please
18422 place your money on the cards or I may get muddled in the reckoning."
18424 One of the players said he hoped he might be trusted.
18426 "Yes, you might, but I am afraid of getting the accounts mixed. So I ask
18427 you to put the money on your cards," replied Dolokhov. "Don't stint
18428 yourself, we'll settle afterwards," he added, turning to Rostov.
18430 The game continued; a waiter kept handing round champagne.
18432 All Rostov's cards were beaten and he had eight hundred rubles scored up
18433 against him. He wrote "800 rubles" on a card, but while the waiter
18434 filled his glass he changed his mind and altered it to his usual stake
18437 "Leave it," said Dolokhov, though he did not seem to be even looking at
18438 Rostov, "you'll win it back all the sooner. I lose to the others but win
18439 from you. Or are you afraid of me?" he asked again.
18441 Rostov submitted. He let the eight hundred remain and laid down a seven
18442 of hearts with a torn corner, which he had picked up from the floor. He
18443 well remembered that seven afterwards. He laid down the seven of hearts,
18444 on which with a broken bit of chalk he had written "800 rubles" in clear
18445 upright figures; he emptied the glass of warm champagne that was handed
18446 him, smiled at Dolokhov's words, and with a sinking heart, waiting for a
18447 seven to turn up, gazed at Dolokhov's hands which held the pack. Much
18448 depended on Rostov's winning or losing on that seven of hearts. On the
18449 previous Sunday the old count had given his son two thousand rubles, and
18450 though he always disliked speaking of money difficulties had told
18451 Nicholas that this was all he could let him have till May, and asked him
18452 to be more economical this time. Nicholas had replied that it would be
18453 more than enough for him and that he gave his word of honor not to take
18454 anything more till the spring. Now only twelve hundred rubles was left
18455 of that money, so that this seven of hearts meant for him not only the
18456 loss of sixteen hundred rubles, but the necessity of going back on his
18457 word. With a sinking heart he watched Dolokhov's hands and thought, "Now
18458 then, make haste and let me have this card and I'll take my cap and
18459 drive home to supper with Denisov, Natasha, and Sonya, and will
18460 certainly never touch a card again." At that moment his home life, jokes
18461 with Petya, talks with Sonya, duets with Natasha, piquet with his
18462 father, and even his comfortable bed in the house on the Povarskaya rose
18463 before him with such vividness, clearness, and charm that it seemed as
18464 if it were all a lost and unappreciated bliss, long past. He could not
18465 conceive that a stupid chance, letting the seven be dealt to the right
18466 rather than to the left, might deprive him of all this happiness, newly
18467 appreciated and newly illumined, and plunge him into the depths of
18468 unknown and undefined misery. That could not be, yet he awaited with a
18469 sinking heart the movement of Dolokhov's hands. Those broad, reddish
18470 hands, with hairy wrists visible from under the shirt cuffs, laid down
18471 the pack and took up a glass and a pipe that were handed him.
18473 "So you are not afraid to play with me?" repeated Dolokhov, and as if
18474 about to tell a good story he put down the cards, leaned back in his
18475 chair, and began deliberately with a smile:
18477 "Yes, gentlemen, I've been told there's a rumor going about Moscow that
18478 I'm a sharper, so I advise you to be careful."
18480 "Come now, deal!" exclaimed Rostov.
18482 "Oh, those Moscow gossips!" said Dolokhov, and he took up the cards with
18485 "Aah!" Rostov almost screamed lifting both hands to his head. The seven
18486 he needed was lying uppermost, the first card in the pack. He had lost
18487 more than he could pay.
18489 "Still, don't ruin yourself!" said Dolokhov with a side glance at Rostov
18490 as he continued to deal.
18497 An hour and a half later most of the players were but little interested
18500 The whole interest was concentrated on Rostov. Instead of sixteen
18501 hundred rubles he had a long column of figures scored against him, which
18502 he had reckoned up to ten thousand, but that now, as he vaguely
18503 supposed, must have risen to fifteen thousand. In reality it already
18504 exceeded twenty thousand rubles. Dolokhov was no longer listening to
18505 stories or telling them, but followed every movement of Rostov's hands
18506 and occasionally ran his eyes over the score against him. He had decided
18507 to play until that score reached forty-three thousand. He had fixed on
18508 that number because forty-three was the sum of his and Sonya's joint
18509 ages. Rostov, leaning his head on both hands, sat at the table which was
18510 scrawled over with figures, wet with spilled wine, and littered with
18511 cards. One tormenting impression did not leave him: that those broad-
18512 boned reddish hands with hairy wrists visible from under the shirt
18513 sleeves, those hands which he loved and hated, held him in their power.
18515 "Six hundred rubles, ace, a corner, a nine... winning it back's
18516 impossible... Oh, how pleasant it was at home!... The knave, double or
18517 quits... it can't be!... And why is he doing this to me?" Rostov
18518 pondered. Sometimes he staked a large sum, but Dolokhov refused to
18519 accept it and fixed the stake himself. Nicholas submitted to him, and at
18520 one moment prayed to God as he had done on the battlefield at the bridge
18521 over the Enns, and then guessed that the card that came first to hand
18522 from the crumpled heap under the table would save him, now counted the
18523 cords on his coat and took a card with that number and tried staking the
18524 total of his losses on it, then he looked round for aid from the other
18525 players, or peered at the now cold face of Dolokhov and tried to read
18526 what was passing in his mind.
18528 "He knows of course what this loss means to me. He can't want my ruin.
18529 Wasn't he my friend? Wasn't I fond of him? But it's not his fault.
18530 What's he to do if he has such luck?... And it's not my fault either,"
18531 he thought to himself, "I have done nothing wrong. Have I killed anyone,
18532 or insulted or wished harm to anyone? Why such a terrible misfortune?
18533 And when did it begin? Such a little while ago I came to this table with
18534 the thought of winning a hundred rubles to buy that casket for Mamma's
18535 name day and then going home. I was so happy, so free, so lighthearted!
18536 And I did not realize how happy I was! When did that end and when did
18537 this new, terrible state of things begin? What marked the change? I sat
18538 all the time in this same place at this table, chose and placed cards,
18539 and watched those broad-boned agile hands in the same way. When did it
18540 happen and what has happened? I am well and strong and still the same
18541 and in the same place. No, it can't be! Surely it will all end in
18544 He was flushed and bathed in perspiration, though the room was not hot.
18545 His face was terrible and piteous to see, especially from its helpless
18546 efforts to seem calm.
18548 The score against him reached the fateful sum of forty-three thousand.
18549 Rostov had just prepared a card, by bending the corner of which he meant
18550 to double the three thousand just put down to his score, when Dolokhov,
18551 slamming down the pack of cards, put it aside and began rapidly adding
18552 up the total of Rostov's debt, breaking the chalk as he marked the
18553 figures in his clear, bold hand.
18555 "Supper, it's time for supper! And here are the gypsies!"
18557 Some swarthy men and women were really entering from the cold outside
18558 and saying something in their gypsy accents. Nicholas understood that it
18559 was all over; but he said in an indifferent tone:
18561 "Well, won't you go on? I had a splendid card all ready," as if it were
18562 the fun of the game which interested him most.
18564 "It's all up! I'm lost!" thought he. "Now a bullet through my brain--
18565 that's all that's left me!" And at the same time he said in a cheerful
18568 "Come now, just this one more little card!"
18570 "All right!" said Dolokhov, having finished the addition. "All right!
18571 Twenty-one rubles," he said, pointing to the figure twenty-one by which
18572 the total exceeded the round sum of forty-three thousand; and taking up
18573 a pack he prepared to deal. Rostov submissively unbent the corner of his
18574 card and, instead of the six thousand he had intended, carefully wrote
18577 "It's all the same to me," he said. "I only want to see whether you will
18578 let me win this ten, or beat it."
18580 Dolokhov began to deal seriously. Oh, how Rostov detested at that moment
18581 those hands with their short reddish fingers and hairy wrists, which
18582 held him in their power.... The ten fell to him.
18584 "You owe forty-three thousand, Count," said Dolokhov, and stretching
18585 himself he rose from the table. "One does get tired sitting so long," he
18588 "Yes, I'm tired too," said Rostov.
18590 Dolokhov cut him short, as if to remind him that it was not for him to
18593 "When am I to receive the money, Count?"
18595 Rostov, flushing, drew Dolokhov into the next room.
18597 "I cannot pay it all immediately. Will you take an I.O.U.?" he said.
18599 "I say, Rostov," said Dolokhov clearly, smiling and looking Nicholas
18600 straight in the eyes, "you know the saying, 'Lucky in love, unlucky at
18601 cards.' Your cousin is in love with you, I know."
18603 "Oh, it's terrible to feel oneself so in this man's power," thought
18604 Rostov. He knew what a shock he would inflict on his father and mother
18605 by the news of this loss, he knew what a relief it would be to escape it
18606 all, and felt that Dolokhov knew that he could save him from all this
18607 shame and sorrow, but wanted now to play with him as a cat does with a
18610 "Your cousin..." Dolokhov started to say, but Nicholas interrupted him.
18612 "My cousin has nothing to do with this and it's not necessary to mention
18613 her!" he exclaimed fiercely.
18615 "Then when am I to have it?"
18617 "Tomorrow," replied Rostov and left the room.
18624 To say "tomorrow" and keep up a dignified tone was not difficult, but to
18625 go home alone, see his sisters, brother, mother, and father, confess and
18626 ask for money he had no right to after giving his word of honor, was
18629 At home, they had not yet gone to bed. The young people, after returning
18630 from the theater, had had supper and were grouped round the clavichord.
18631 As soon as Nicholas entered, he was enfolded in that poetic atmosphere
18632 of love which pervaded the Rostov household that winter and, now after
18633 Dolokhov's proposal and Iogel's ball, seemed to have grown thicker round
18634 Sonya and Natasha as the air does before a thunderstorm. Sonya and
18635 Natasha, in the light-blue dresses they had worn at the theater, looking
18636 pretty and conscious of it, were standing by the clavichord, happy and
18637 smiling. Vera was playing chess with Shinshin in the drawing room. The
18638 old countess, waiting for the return of her husband and son, sat playing
18639 patience with the old gentlewoman who lived in their house. Denisov,
18640 with sparkling eyes and ruffled hair, sat at the clavichord striking
18641 chords with his short fingers, his legs thrown back and his eyes rolling
18642 as he sang, with his small, husky, but true voice, some verses called
18643 "Enchantress," which he had composed, and to which he was trying to fit
18647 Enchantress, say, to my forsaken lyre What magic power is this recalls
18648 me still? What spark has set my inmost soul on fire, What is this bliss
18649 that makes my fingers thrill?
18651 He was singing in passionate tones, gazing with his sparkling black-
18652 agate eyes at the frightened and happy Natasha.
18654 "Splendid! Excellent!" exclaimed Natasha. "Another verse," she said,
18655 without noticing Nicholas.
18657 "Everything's still the same with them," thought Nicholas, glancing into
18658 the drawing room, where he saw Vera and his mother with the old lady.
18660 "Ah, and here's Nicholas!" cried Natasha, running up to him.
18662 "Is Papa at home?" he asked.
18664 "I am so glad you've come!" said Natasha, without answering him. "We are
18665 enjoying ourselves! Vasili Dmitrich is staying a day longer for my sake!
18668 "No, Papa is not back yet," said Sonya.
18670 "Nicholas, have you come? Come here, dear!" called the old countess from
18673 Nicholas went to her, kissed her hand, and sitting down silently at her
18674 table began to watch her hands arranging the cards. From the dancing
18675 room, they still heard the laughter and merry voices trying to persuade
18678 "All wight! All wight!" shouted Denisov. "It's no good making excuses
18679 now! It's your turn to sing the ba'cawolla--I entweat you!"
18681 The countess glanced at her silent son.
18683 "What is the matter?" she asked.
18685 "Oh, nothing," said he, as if weary of being continually asked the same
18686 question. "Will Papa be back soon?"
18690 "Everything's the same with them. They know nothing about it! Where am I
18691 to go?" thought Nicholas, and went again into the dancing room where the
18694 Sonya was sitting at the clavichord, playing the prelude to Denisov's
18695 favorite barcarolle. Natasha was preparing to sing. Denisov was looking
18696 at her with enraptured eyes.
18698 Nicholas began pacing up and down the room.
18700 "Why do they want to make her sing? How can she sing? There's nothing to
18701 be happy about!" thought he.
18703 Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
18705 "My God, I'm a ruined and dishonored man! A bullet through my brain is
18706 the only thing left me--not singing!" his thoughts ran on. "Go away? But
18707 where to? It's one--let them sing!"
18709 He continued to pace the room, looking gloomily at Denisov and the girls
18710 and avoiding their eyes.
18712 "Nikolenka, what is the matter?" Sonya's eyes fixed on him seemed to
18713 ask. She noticed at once that something had happened to him.
18715 Nicholas turned away from her. Natasha too, with her quick instinct, had
18716 instantly noticed her brother's condition. But, though she noticed it,
18717 she was herself in such high spirits at that moment, so far from sorrow,
18718 sadness, or self-reproach, that she purposely deceived herself as young
18719 people often do. "No, I am too happy now to spoil my enjoyment by
18720 sympathy with anyone's sorrow," she felt, and she said to herself: "No,
18721 I must be mistaken, he must be feeling happy, just as I am."
18723 "Now, Sonya!" she said, going to the very middle of the room, where she
18724 considered the resonance was best.
18726 Having lifted her head and let her arms droop lifelessly, as ballet
18727 dancers do, Natasha, rising energetically from her heels to her toes,
18728 stepped to the middle of the room and stood still.
18730 "Yes, that's me!" she seemed to say, answering the rapt gaze with which
18731 Denisov followed her.
18733 "And what is she so pleased about?" thought Nicholas, looking at his
18734 sister. "Why isn't she dull and ashamed?"
18736 Natasha took the first note, her throat swelled, her chest rose, her
18737 eyes became serious. At that moment she was oblivious of her
18738 surroundings, and from her smiling lips flowed sounds which anyone may
18739 produce at the same intervals and hold for the same time, but which
18740 leave you cold a thousand times and the thousand and first time thrill
18741 you and make you weep.
18743 Natasha, that winter, had for the first time begun to sing seriously,
18744 mainly because Denisov so delighted in her singing. She no longer sang
18745 as a child, there was no longer in her singing that comical, childish,
18746 painstaking effect that had been in it before; but she did not yet sing
18747 well, as all the connoisseurs who heard her said: "It is not trained,
18748 but it is a beautiful voice that must be trained." Only they generally
18749 said this some time after she had finished singing. While that untrained
18750 voice, with its incorrect breathing and labored transitions, was
18751 sounding, even the connoisseurs said nothing, but only delighted in it
18752 and wished to hear it again. In her voice there was a virginal
18753 freshness, an unconsciousness of her own powers, and an as yet untrained
18754 velvety softness, which so mingled with her lack of art in singing that
18755 it seemed as if nothing in that voice could be altered without spoiling
18758 "What is this?" thought Nicholas, listening to her with widely opened
18759 eyes. "What has happened to her? How she is singing today!" And suddenly
18760 the whole world centered for him on anticipation of the next note, the
18761 next phrase, and everything in the world was divided into three beats:
18762 "Oh mio crudele affetto."... One, two, three... one, two, three...
18763 One... "Oh mio crudele affetto."... One, two, three... One. "Oh, this
18764 senseless life of ours!" thought Nicholas. "All this misery, and money,
18765 and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor--it's all nonsense... but this is
18766 real.... Now then, Natasha, now then, dearest! Now then, darling! How
18767 will she take that si? She's taken it! Thank God!" And without noticing
18768 that he was singing, to strengthen the si he sung a second, a third
18769 below the high note. "Ah, God! How fine! Did I really take it? How
18770 fortunate!" he thought.
18772 Oh, how that chord vibrated, and how moved was something that was finest
18773 in Rostov's soul! And this something was apart from everything else in
18774 the world and above everything in the world. "What were losses, and
18775 Dolokhov, and words of honor?... All nonsense! One might kill and rob
18776 and yet be happy..."
18783 It was long since Rostov had felt such enjoyment from music as he did
18784 that day. But no sooner had Natasha finished her barcarolle than reality
18785 again presented itself. He got up without saying a word and went
18786 downstairs to his own room. A quarter of an hour later the old count
18787 came in from his club, cheerful and contented. Nicholas, hearing him
18788 drive up, went to meet him.
18790 "Well--had a good time?" said the old count, smiling gaily and proudly
18793 Nicholas tried to say "Yes," but could not: and he nearly burst into
18794 sobs. The count was lighting his pipe and did not notice his son's
18797 "Ah, it can't be avoided!" thought Nicholas, for the first and last
18798 time. And suddenly, in the most casual tone, which made him feel ashamed
18799 of himself, he said, as if merely asking his father to let him have the
18800 carriage to drive to town:
18802 "Papa, I have come on a matter of business. I was nearly forgetting. I
18805 "Dear me!" said his father, who was in a specially good humor. "I told
18806 you it would not be enough. How much?"
18808 "Very much," said Nicholas flushing, and with a stupid careless smile,
18809 for which he was long unable to forgive himself, "I have lost a little,
18810 I mean a good deal, a great deal--forty three thousand."
18812 "What! To whom?... Nonsense!" cried the count, suddenly reddening with
18813 an apoplectic flush over neck and nape as old people do.
18815 "I promised to pay tomorrow," said Nicholas.
18817 "Well!..." said the old count, spreading out his arms and sinking
18818 helplessly on the sofa.
18820 "It can't be helped It happens to everyone!" said the son, with a bold,
18821 free, and easy tone, while in his soul he regarded himself as a
18822 worthless scoundrel whose whole life could not atone for his crime. He
18823 longed to kiss his father's hands and kneel to beg his forgiveness, but
18824 said, in a careless and even rude voice, that it happens to everyone!
18826 The old count cast down his eyes on hearing his son's words and began
18827 bustlingly searching for something.
18829 "Yes, yes," he muttered, "it will be difficult, I fear, difficult to
18830 raise... happens to everybody! Yes, who has not done it?"
18832 And with a furtive glance at his son's face, the count went out of the
18833 room.... Nicholas had been prepared for resistance, but had not at all
18836 "Papa! Pa-pa!" he called after him, sobbing, "forgive me!" And seizing
18837 his father's hand, he pressed it to his lips and burst into tears.
18839 While father and son were having their explanation, the mother and
18840 daughter were having one not less important. Natasha came running to her
18841 mother, quite excited.
18843 "Mamma!... Mamma!... He has made me..."
18847 "Made, made me an offer, Mamma! Mamma!" she exclaimed.
18849 The countess did not believe her ears. Denisov had proposed. To whom? To
18850 this chit of a girl, Natasha, who not so long ago was playing with dolls
18851 and who was still having lessons.
18853 "Don't, Natasha! What nonsense!" she said, hoping it was a joke.
18855 "Nonsense, indeed! I am telling you the fact," said Natasha indignantly.
18856 "I come to ask you what to do, and you call it 'nonsense!'"
18858 The countess shrugged her shoulders.
18860 "If it is true that Monsieur Denisov has made you a proposal, tell him
18861 he is a fool, that's all!"
18863 "No, he's not a fool!" replied Natasha indignantly and seriously.
18865 "Well then, what do you want? You're all in love nowadays. Well, if you
18866 are in love, marry him!" said the countess, with a laugh of annoyance.
18867 "Good luck to you!"
18869 "No, Mamma, I'm not in love with him, I suppose I'm not in love with
18872 "Well then, tell him so."
18874 "Mamma, are you cross? Don't be cross, dear! Is it my fault?"
18876 "No, but what is it, my dear? Do you want me to go and tell him?" said
18877 the countess smiling.
18879 "No, I will do it myself, only tell me what to say. It's all very well
18880 for you," said Natasha, with a responsive smile. "You should have seen
18881 how he said it! I know he did not mean to say it, but it came out
18884 "Well, all the same, you must refuse him."
18886 "No, I mustn't. I am so sorry for him! He's so nice."
18888 "Well then, accept his offer. It's high time for you to be married,"
18889 answered the countess sharply and sarcastically.
18891 "No, Mamma, but I'm so sorry for him. I don't know how I'm to say it."
18893 "And there's nothing for you to say. I shall speak to him myself," said
18894 the countess, indignant that they should have dared to treat this little
18895 Natasha as grown up.
18897 "No, not on any account! I will tell him myself, and you'll listen at
18898 the door," and Natasha ran across the drawing room to the dancing hall,
18899 where Denisov was sitting on the same chair by the clavichord with his
18902 He jumped up at the sound of her light step.
18904 "Nataly," he said, moving with rapid steps toward her, "decide my fate.
18905 It is in your hands."
18907 "Vasili Dmitrich, I'm so sorry for you!... No, but you are so nice...
18908 but it won't do...not that... but as a friend, I shall always love you."
18910 Denisov bent over her hand and she heard strange sounds she did not
18911 understand. She kissed his rough curly black head. At this instant, they
18912 heard the quick rustle of the countess' dress. She came up to them.
18914 "Vasili Dmitrich, I thank you for the honor," she said, with an
18915 embarrassed voice, though it sounded severe to Denisov--"but my daughter
18916 is so young, and I thought that, as my son's friend, you would have
18917 addressed yourself first to me. In that case you would not have obliged
18918 me to give this refusal."
18920 "Countess..." said Denisov, with downcast eyes and a guilty face. He
18921 tried to say more, but faltered.
18923 Natasha could not remain calm, seeing him in such a plight. She began to
18926 "Countess, I have done w'ong," Denisov went on in an unsteady voice,
18927 "but believe me, I so adore your daughter and all your family that I
18928 would give my life twice over..." He looked at the countess, and seeing
18929 her severe face said: "Well, good-by, Countess," and kissing her hand,
18930 he left the room with quick resolute strides, without looking at
18933 Next day Rostov saw Denisov off. He did not wish to stay another day in
18934 Moscow. All Denisov's Moscow friends gave him a farewell entertainment
18935 at the gypsies', with the result that he had no recollection of how he
18936 was put in the sleigh or of the first three stages of his journey.
18938 After Denisov's departure, Rostov spent another fortnight in Moscow,
18939 without going out of the house, waiting for the money his father could
18940 not at once raise, and he spent most of his time in the girls' room.
18942 Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than ever. It was as if she
18943 wanted to show him that his losses were an achievement that made her
18944 love him all the more, but Nicholas now considered himself unworthy of
18947 He filled the girls' albums with verses and music, and having at last
18948 sent Dolokhov the whole forty-three thousand rubles and received his
18949 receipt, he left at the end of November, without taking leave of any of
18950 his acquaintances, to overtake his regiment which was already in Poland.
18952 BOOK FIVE: 1806 - 07
18959 After his interview with his wife Pierre left for Petersburg. At the
18960 Torzhok post station, either there were no horses or the postmaster
18961 would not supply them. Pierre was obliged to wait. Without undressing,
18962 he lay down on the leather sofa in front of a round table, put his big
18963 feet in their overboots on the table, and began to reflect.
18965 "Will you have the portmanteaus brought in? And a bed got ready, and
18966 tea?" asked his valet.
18968 Pierre gave no answer, for he neither heard nor saw anything. He had
18969 begun to think of the last station and was still pondering on the same
18970 question--one so important that he took no notice of what went on around
18971 him. Not only was he indifferent as to whether he got to Petersburg
18972 earlier or later, or whether he secured accommodation at this station,
18973 but compared to the thoughts that now occupied him it was a matter of
18974 indifference whether he remained there for a few hours or for the rest
18977 The postmaster, his wife, the valet, and a peasant woman selling Torzhok
18978 embroidery came into the room offering their services. Without changing
18979 his careless attitude, Pierre looked at them over his spectacles unable
18980 to understand what they wanted or how they could go on living without
18981 having solved the problems that so absorbed him. He had been engrossed
18982 by the same thoughts ever since the day he returned from Sokolniki after
18983 the duel and had spent that first agonizing, sleepless night. But now,
18984 in the solitude of the journey, they seized him with special force. No
18985 matter what he thought about, he always returned to these same questions
18986 which he could not solve and yet could not cease to ask himself. It was
18987 as if the thread of the chief screw which held his life together were
18988 stripped, so that the screw could not get in or out, but went on turning
18989 uselessly in the same place.
18991 The postmaster came in and began obsequiously to beg his excellency to
18992 wait only two hours, when, come what might, he would let his excellency
18993 have the courier horses. It was plain that he was lying and only wanted
18994 to get more money from the traveler.
18996 "Is this good or bad?" Pierre asked himself. "It is good for me, bad for
18997 another traveler, and for himself it's unavoidable, because he needs
18998 money for food; the man said an officer had once given him a thrashing
18999 for letting a private traveler have the courier horses. But the officer
19000 thrashed him because he had to get on as quickly as possible. And I,"
19001 continued Pierre, "shot Dolokhov because I considered myself injured,
19002 and Louis XVI was executed because they considered him a criminal, and a
19003 year later they executed those who executed him--also for some reason.
19004 What is bad? What is good? What should one love and what hate? What does
19005 one live for? And what am I? What is life, and what is death? What power
19008 There was no answer to any of these questions, except one, and that not
19009 a logical answer and not at all a reply to them. The answer was: "You'll
19010 die and all will end. You'll die and know all, or cease asking." But
19011 dying was also dreadful.
19013 The Torzhok peddler woman, in a whining voice, went on offering her
19014 wares, especially a pair of goatskin slippers. "I have hundreds of
19015 rubles I don't know what to do with, and she stands in her tattered
19016 cloak looking timidly at me," he thought. "And what does she want the
19017 money for? As if that money could add a hair's breadth to happiness or
19018 peace of mind. Can anything in the world make her or me less a prey to
19019 evil and death?--death which ends all and must come today or tomorrow--
19020 at any rate, in an instant as compared with eternity." And again he
19021 twisted the screw with the stripped thread, and again it turned
19022 uselessly in the same place.
19024 His servant handed him a half-cut novel, in the form of letters, by
19025 Madame de Souza. He began reading about the sufferings and virtuous
19026 struggles of a certain Emilie de Mansfeld. "And why did she resist her
19027 seducer when she loved him?" he thought. "God could not have put into
19028 her heart an impulse that was against His will. My wife--as she once
19029 was--did not struggle, and perhaps she was right. Nothing has been found
19030 out, nothing discovered," Pierre again said to himself. "All we can know
19031 is that we know nothing. And that's the height of human wisdom."
19033 Everything within and around him seemed confused, senseless, and
19034 repellent. Yet in this very repugnance to all his circumstances Pierre
19035 found a kind of tantalizing satisfaction.
19037 "I make bold to ask your excellency to move a little for this
19038 gentleman," said the postmaster, entering the room followed by another
19039 traveler, also detained for lack of horses.
19041 The newcomer was a short, large-boned, yellow-faced, wrinkled old man,
19042 with gray bushy eyebrows overhanging bright eyes of an indefinite
19045 Pierre took his feet off the table, stood up, and lay down on a bed that
19046 had been got ready for him, glancing now and then at the newcomer, who,
19047 with a gloomy and tired face, was wearily taking off his wraps with the
19048 aid of his servant, and not looking at Pierre. With a pair of felt boots
19049 on his thin bony legs, and keeping on a worn, nankeen-covered, sheepskin
19050 coat, the traveler sat down on the sofa, leaned back his big head with
19051 its broad temples and close-cropped hair, and looked at Bezukhov. The
19052 stern, shrewd, and penetrating expression of that look struck Pierre. He
19053 felt a wish to speak to the stranger, but by the time he had made up his
19054 mind to ask him a question about the roads, the traveler had closed his
19055 eyes. His shriveled old hands were folded and on the finger of one of
19056 them Pierre noticed a large cast iron ring with a seal representing a
19057 death's head. The stranger sat without stirring, either resting or, as
19058 it seemed to Pierre, sunk in profound and calm meditation. His servant
19059 was also a yellow, wrinkled old man, without beard or mustache,
19060 evidently not because he was shaven but because they had never grown.
19061 This active old servant was unpacking the traveler's canteen and
19062 preparing tea. He brought in a boiling samovar. When everything was
19063 ready, the stranger opened his eyes, moved to the table, filled a
19064 tumbler with tea for himself and one for the beardless old man to whom
19065 he passed it. Pierre began to feel a sense of uneasiness, and the need,
19066 even the inevitability, of entering into conversation with this
19069 The servant brought back his tumbler turned upside down, * with an
19070 unfinished bit of nibbled sugar, and asked if anything more would be
19074 * To indicate he did not want more tea.
19076 "No. Give me the book," said the stranger.
19078 The servant handed him a book which Pierre took to be a devotional work,
19079 and the traveler became absorbed in it. Pierre looked at him. All at
19080 once the stranger closed the book, putting in a marker, and again,
19081 leaning with his arms on the back of the sofa, sat in his former
19082 position with his eyes shut. Pierre looked at him and had not time to
19083 turn away when the old man, opening his eyes, fixed his steady and
19084 severe gaze straight on Pierre's face.
19086 Pierre felt confused and wished to avoid that look, but the bright old
19087 eyes attracted him irresistibly.
19094 "I have the pleasure of addressing Count Bezukhov, if I am not
19095 mistaken," said the stranger in a deliberate and loud voice.
19097 Pierre looked silently and inquiringly at him over his spectacles.
19099 "I have heard of you, my dear sir," continued the stranger, "and of your
19100 misfortune." He seemed to emphasize the last word, as if to say--"Yes,
19101 misfortune! Call it what you please, I know that what happened to you in
19102 Moscow was a misfortune."--"I regret it very much, my dear sir."
19104 Pierre flushed and, hurriedly putting his legs down from the bed, bent
19105 forward toward the old man with a forced and timid smile.
19107 "I have not referred to this out of curiosity, my dear sir, but for
19110 He paused, his gaze still on Pierre, and moved aside on the sofa by way
19111 of inviting the other to take a seat beside him. Pierre felt reluctant
19112 to enter into conversation with this old man, but, submitting to him
19113 involuntarily, came up and sat down beside him.
19115 "You are unhappy, my dear sir," the stranger continued. "You are young
19116 and I am old. I should like to help you as far as lies in my power."
19118 "Oh, yes!" said Pierre, with a forced smile. "I am very grateful to you.
19119 Where are you traveling from?"
19121 The stranger's face was not genial, it was even cold and severe, but in
19122 spite of this, both the face and words of his new acquaintance were
19123 irresistibly attractive to Pierre.
19125 "But if for reason you don't feel inclined to talk to me," said the old
19126 man, "say so, my dear sir." And he suddenly smiled, in an unexpected and
19127 tenderly paternal way.
19129 "Oh no, not at all! On the contrary, I am very glad to make your
19130 acquaintance," said Pierre. And again, glancing at the stranger's hands,
19131 he looked more closely at the ring, with its skull--a masonic sign.
19133 "Allow me to ask," he said, "are you a Mason?"
19135 "Yes, I belong to the Brotherhood of the Freemasons," said the stranger,
19136 looking deeper and deeper into Pierre's eyes. "And in their name and my
19137 own I hold out a brotherly hand to you."
19139 "I am afraid," said Pierre, smiling, and wavering between the confidence
19140 the personality of the Freemason inspired in him and his own habit of
19141 ridiculing the masonic beliefs--"I am afraid I am very far from
19142 understanding--how am I to put it?--I am afraid my way of looking at the
19143 world is so opposed to yours that we shall not understand one another."
19145 "I know your outlook," said the Mason, "and the view of life you
19146 mention, and which you think is the result of your own mental efforts,
19147 is the one held by the majority of people, and is the invariable fruit
19148 of pride, indolence, and ignorance. Forgive me, my dear sir, but if I
19149 had not known it I should not have addressed you. Your view of life is a
19150 regrettable delusion."
19152 "Just as I may suppose you to be deluded," said Pierre, with a faint
19155 "I should never dare to say that I know the truth," said the Mason,
19156 whose words struck Pierre more and more by their precision and firmness.
19157 "No one can attain to truth by himself. Only by laying stone on stone
19158 with the cooperation of all, by the millions of generations from our
19159 forefather Adam to our own times, is that temple reared which is to be a
19160 worthy dwelling place of the Great God," he added, and closed his eyes.
19162 "I ought to tell you that I do not believe... do not believe in God,"
19163 said Pierre, regretfully and with an effort, feeling it essential to
19164 speak the whole truth.
19166 The Mason looked intently at Pierre and smiled as a rich man with
19167 millions in hand might smile at a poor fellow who told him that he, poor
19168 man, had not the five rubles that would make him happy.
19170 "Yes, you do not know Him, my dear sir," said the Mason. "You cannot
19171 know Him. You do not know Him and that is why you are unhappy."
19173 "Yes, yes, I am unhappy," assented Pierre. "But what am I to do?"
19175 "You know Him not, my dear sir, and so you are very unhappy. You do not
19176 know Him, but He is here, He is in me, He is in my words, He is in thee,
19177 and even in those blasphemous words thou hast just uttered!" pronounced
19178 the Mason in a stern and tremulous voice.
19180 He paused and sighed, evidently trying to calm himself.
19182 "If He were not," he said quietly, "you and I would not be speaking of
19183 Him, my dear sir. Of what, of whom, are we speaking? Whom hast thou
19184 denied?" he suddenly asked with exulting austerity and authority in his
19185 voice. "Who invented Him, if He did not exist? Whence came thy
19186 conception of the existence of such an incomprehensible Being? didst
19187 thou, and why did the whole world, conceive the idea of the existence of
19188 such an incomprehensible Being, a Being all-powerful, eternal, and
19189 infinite in all His attributes?..."
19191 He stopped and remained silent for a long time.
19193 Pierre could not and did not wish to break this silence.
19195 "He exists, but to understand Him is hard," the Mason began again,
19196 looking not at Pierre but straight before him, and turning the leaves of
19197 his book with his old hands which from excitement he could not keep
19198 still. "If it were a man whose existence thou didst doubt I could bring
19199 him to thee, could take him by the hand and show him to thee. But how
19200 can I, an insignificant mortal, show His omnipotence, His infinity, and
19201 all His mercy to one who is blind, or who shuts his eyes that he may not
19202 see or understand Him and may not see or understand his own vileness and
19203 sinfulness?" He paused again. "Who art thou? Thou dreamest that thou art
19204 wise because thou couldst utter those blasphemous words," he went on,
19205 with a somber and scornful smile. "And thou art more foolish and
19206 unreasonable than a little child, who, playing with the parts of a
19207 skillfully made watch, dares to say that, as he does not understand its
19208 use, he does not believe in the master who made it. To know Him is
19209 hard.... For ages, from our forefather Adam to our own day, we labor to
19210 attain that knowledge and are still infinitely far from our aim; but in
19211 our lack of understanding we see only our weakness and His
19214 Pierre listened with swelling heart, gazing into the Mason's face with
19215 shining eyes, not interrupting or questioning him, but believing with
19216 his whole soul what the stranger said. Whether he accepted the wise
19217 reasoning contained in the Mason's words, or believed as a child
19218 believes, in the speaker's tone of conviction and earnestness, or the
19219 tremor of the speaker's voice--which sometimes almost broke--or those
19220 brilliant aged eyes grown old in this conviction, or the calm firmness
19221 and certainty of his vocation, which radiated from his whole being (and
19222 which struck Pierre especially by contrast with his own dejection and
19223 hopelessness)--at any rate, Pierre longed with his whole soul to believe
19224 and he did believe, and felt a joyful sense of comfort, regeneration,
19225 and return to life.
19227 "He is not to be apprehended by reason, but by life," said the Mason.
19229 "I do not understand," said Pierre, feeling with dismay doubts
19230 reawakening. He was afraid of any want of clearness, any weakness, in
19231 the Mason's arguments; he dreaded not to be able to believe in him. "I
19232 don't understand," he said, "how it is that the mind of man cannot
19233 attain the knowledge of which you speak."
19235 The Mason smiled with his gentle fatherly smile.
19237 "The highest wisdom and truth are like the purest liquid we may wish to
19238 imbibe," he said. "Can I receive that pure liquid into an impure vessel
19239 and judge of its purity? Only by the inner purification of myself can I
19240 retain in some degree of purity the liquid I receive."
19242 "Yes, yes, that is so," said Pierre joyfully.
19244 "The highest wisdom is not founded on reason alone, not on those worldly
19245 sciences of physics, history, chemistry, and the like, into which
19246 intellectual knowledge is divided. The highest wisdom is one. The
19247 highest wisdom has but one science--the science of the whole--the
19248 science explaining the whole creation and man's place in it. To receive
19249 that science it is necessary to purify and renew one's inner self, and
19250 so before one can know, it is necessary to believe and to perfect one's
19251 self. And to attain this end, we have the light called conscience that
19252 God has implanted in our souls."
19254 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
19256 "Look then at thy inner self with the eyes of the spirit, and ask
19257 thyself whether thou art content with thyself. What hast thou attained
19258 relying on reason only? What art thou? You are young, you are rich, you
19259 are clever, you are well educated. And what have you done with all these
19260 good gifts? Are you content with yourself and with your life?"
19262 "No, I hate my life," Pierre muttered, wincing.
19264 "Thou hatest it. Then change it, purify thyself; and as thou art
19265 purified, thou wilt gain wisdom. Look at your life, my dear sir. How
19266 have you spent it? In riotous orgies and debauchery, receiving
19267 everything from society and giving nothing in return. You have become
19268 the possessor of wealth. How have you used it? What have you done for
19269 your neighbor? Have you ever thought of your tens of thousands of
19270 slaves? Have you helped them physically and morally? No! You have
19271 profited by their toil to lead a profligate life. That is what you have
19272 done. Have you chosen a post in which you might be of service to your
19273 neighbor? No! You have spent your life in idleness. Then you married, my
19274 dear sir--took on yourself responsibility for the guidance of a young
19275 woman; and what have you done? You have not helped her to find the way
19276 of truth, my dear sir, but have thrust her into an abyss of deceit and
19277 misery. A man offended you and you shot him, and you say you do not know
19278 God and hate your life. There is nothing strange in that, my dear sir!"
19280 After these words, the Mason, as if tired by his long discourse, again
19281 leaned his arms on the back of the sofa and closed his eyes. Pierre
19282 looked at that aged, stern, motionless, almost lifeless face and moved
19283 his lips without uttering a sound. He wished to say, "Yes, a vile, idle,
19284 vicious life!" but dared not break the silence.
19286 The Mason cleared his throat huskily, as old men do, and called his
19289 "How about the horses?" he asked, without looking at Pierre.
19291 "The exchange horses have just come," answered the servant. "Will you
19294 "No, tell them to harness."
19296 "Can he really be going away leaving me alone without having told me
19297 all, and without promising to help me?" thought Pierre, rising with
19298 downcast head; and he began to pace the room, glancing occasionally at
19299 the Mason. "Yes, I never thought of it, but I have led a contemptible
19300 and profligate life, though I did not like it and did not want to,"
19301 thought Pierre. "But this man knows the truth and, if he wished to,
19302 could disclose it to me."
19304 Pierre wished to say this to the Mason, but did not dare to. The
19305 traveler, having packed his things with his practiced hands, began
19306 fastening his coat. When he had finished, he turned to Bezukhov, and
19307 said in a tone of indifferent politeness:
19309 "Where are you going to now, my dear sir?"
19311 "I?... I'm going to Petersburg," answered Pierre, in a childlike,
19312 hesitating voice. "I thank you. I agree with all you have said. But do
19313 not suppose me to be so bad. With my whole soul I wish to be what you
19314 would have me be, but I have never had help from anyone.... But it is I,
19315 above all, who am to blame for everything. Help me, teach me, and
19318 Pierre could not go on. He gulped and turned away.
19320 The Mason remained silent for a long time, evidently considering.
19322 "Help comes from God alone," he said, "but such measure of help as our
19323 Order can bestow it will render you, my dear sir. You are going to
19324 Petersburg. Hand this to Count Willarski" (he took out his notebook and
19325 wrote a few words on a large sheet of paper folded in four). "Allow me
19326 to give you a piece of advice. When you reach the capital, first of all
19327 devote some time to solitude and self-examination and do not resume your
19328 former way of life. And now I wish you a good journey, my dear sir," he
19329 added, seeing that his servant had entered... "and success."
19331 The traveler was Joseph Alexeevich Bazdeev, as Pierre saw from the
19332 postmaster's book. Bazdeev had been one of the best-known Freemasons and
19333 Martinists, even in Novikov's time. For a long while after he had gone,
19334 Pierre did not go to bed or order horses but paced up and down the room,
19335 pondering over his vicious past, and with a rapturous sense of beginning
19336 anew pictured to himself the blissful, irreproachable, virtuous future
19337 that seemed to him so easy. It seemed to him that he had been vicious
19338 only because he had somehow forgotten how good it is to be virtuous. Not
19339 a trace of his former doubts remained in his soul. He firmly believed in
19340 the possibility of the brotherhood of men united in the aim of
19341 supporting one another in the path of virtue, and that is how
19342 Freemasonry presented itself to him.
19349 On reaching Petersburg Pierre did not let anyone know of his arrival, he
19350 went nowhere and spent whole days in reading Thomas a Kempis, whose book
19351 had been sent him by someone unknown. One thing he continually realized
19352 as he read that book: the joy, hitherto unknown to him, of believing in
19353 the possibility of attaining perfection, and in the possibility of
19354 active brotherly love among men, which Joseph Alexeevich had revealed to
19355 him. A week after his arrival, the young Polish count, Willarski, whom
19356 Pierre had known slightly in Petersburg society, came into his room one
19357 evening in the official and ceremonious manner in which Dolokhov's
19358 second had called on him, and, having closed the door behind him and
19359 satisfied himself that there was nobody else in the room, addressed
19362 "I have come to you with a message and an offer, Count," he said without
19363 sitting down. "A person of very high standing in our Brotherhood has
19364 made application for you to be received into our Order before the usual
19365 term and has proposed to me to be your sponsor. I consider it a sacred
19366 duty to fulfill that person's wishes. Do you wish to enter the
19367 Brotherhood of Freemasons under my sponsorship?"
19369 The cold, austere tone of this man, whom he had almost always before met
19370 at balls, amiably smiling in the society of the most brilliant women,
19373 "Yes, I do wish it," said he.
19375 Willarski bowed his head.
19377 "One more question, Count," he said, "which I beg you to answer in all
19378 sincerity--not as a future Mason but as an honest man: have you
19379 renounced your former convictions--do you believe in God?"
19383 "Yes... yes, I believe in God," he said.
19385 "In that case..." began Willarski, but Pierre interrupted him.
19387 "Yes, I do believe in God," he repeated.
19389 "In that case we can go," said Willarski. "My carriage is at your
19392 Willarski was silent throughout the drive. To Pierre's inquiries as to
19393 what he must do and how he should answer, Willarski only replied that
19394 brothers more worthy than he would test him and that Pierre had only to
19397 Having entered the courtyard of a large house where the Lodge had its
19398 headquarters, and having ascended a dark staircase, they entered a small
19399 well-lit anteroom where they took off their cloaks without the aid of a
19400 servant. From there they passed into another room. A man in strange
19401 attire appeared at the door. Willarski, stepping toward him, said
19402 something to him in French in an undertone and then went up to a small
19403 wardrobe in which Pierre noticed garments such as he had never seen
19404 before. Having taken a kerchief from the cupboard, Willarski bound
19405 Pierre's eyes with it and tied it in a knot behind, catching some hairs
19406 painfully in the knot. Then he drew his face down, kissed him, and
19407 taking him by the hand led him forward. The hairs tied in the knot hurt
19408 Pierre and there were lines of pain on his face and a shamefaced smile.
19409 His huge figure, with arms hanging down and with a puckered, though
19410 smiling face, moved after Willarski with uncertain, timid steps.
19412 Having led him about ten paces, Willarski stopped.
19414 "Whatever happens to you," he said, "you must bear it all manfully if
19415 you have firmly resolved to join our Brotherhood." (Pierre nodded
19416 affirmatively.) "When you hear a knock at the door, you will uncover
19417 your eyes," added Willarski. "I wish you courage and success," and,
19418 pressing Pierre's hand, he went out.
19420 Left alone, Pierre went on smiling in the same way. Once or twice he
19421 shrugged his shoulders and raised his hand to the kerchief, as if
19422 wishing to take it off, but let it drop again. The five minutes spent
19423 with his eyes bandaged seemed to him an hour. His arms felt numb, his
19424 legs almost gave way, it seemed to him that he was tired out. He
19425 experienced a variety of most complex sensations. He felt afraid of what
19426 would happen to him and still more afraid of showing his fear. He felt
19427 curious to know what was going to happen and what would be revealed to
19428 him; but most of all, he felt joyful that the moment had come when he
19429 would at last start on that path of regeneration and on the actively
19430 virtuous life of which he had been dreaming since he met Joseph
19431 Alexeevich. Loud knocks were heard at the door. Pierre took the bandage
19432 off his eyes and glanced around him. The room was in black darkness,
19433 only a small lamp was burning inside something white. Pierre went nearer
19434 and saw that the lamp stood on a black table on which lay an open book.
19435 The book was the Gospel, and the white thing with the lamp inside was a
19436 human skull with its cavities and teeth. After reading the first words
19437 of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
19438 God," Pierre went round the table and saw a large open box filled with
19439 something. It was a coffin with bones inside. He was not at all
19440 surprised by what he saw. Hoping to enter on an entirely new life quite
19441 unlike the old one, he expected everything to be unusual, even more
19442 unusual than what he was seeing. A skull, a coffin, the Gospel--it
19443 seemed to him that he had expected all this and even more. Trying to
19444 stimulate his emotions he looked around. "God, death, love, the
19445 brotherhood of man," he kept saying to himself, associating these words
19446 with vague yet joyful ideas. The door opened and someone came in.
19448 By the dim light, to which Pierre had already become accustomed, he saw
19449 a rather a short man. Having evidently come from the light into the
19450 darkness, the man paused, then moved with cautious steps toward the
19451 table and placed on it his small leather-gloved hands.
19453 This short man had on a white leather apron which covered his chest and
19454 part of his legs; he had on a kind of necklace above which rose a high
19455 white ruffle, outlining his rather long face which was lit up from
19458 "For what have you come hither?" asked the newcomer, turning in Pierre's
19459 direction at a slight rustle made by the latter. "Why have you, who do
19460 not believe in the truth of the light and who have not seen the light,
19461 come here? What do you seek from us? Wisdom, virtue, enlightenment?"
19463 At the moment the door opened and the stranger came in, Pierre felt a
19464 sense of awe and veneration such as he had experienced in his boyhood at
19465 confession; he felt himself in the presence of one socially a complete
19466 stranger, yet nearer to him through the brotherhood of man. With bated
19467 breath and beating heart he moved toward the Rhetor (by which name the
19468 brother who prepared a seeker for entrance into the Brotherhood was
19469 known). Drawing nearer, he recognized in the Rhetor a man he knew,
19470 Smolyaninov, and it mortified him to think that the newcomer was an
19471 acquaintance--he wished him simply a brother and a virtuous instructor.
19472 For a long time he could not utter a word, so that the Rhetor had to
19473 repeat his question.
19475 "Yes... I... I... desire regeneration," Pierre uttered with difficulty.
19477 "Very well," said Smolyaninov, and went on at once: "Have you any idea
19478 of the means by which our holy Order will help you to reach your aim?"
19479 said he quietly and quickly.
19481 "I... hope... for guidance... help... in regeneration," said Pierre,
19482 with a trembling voice and some difficulty in utterance due to his
19483 excitement and to being unaccustomed to speak of abstract matters in
19486 "What is your conception of Freemasonry?"
19488 "I imagine that Freemasonry is the fraternity and equality of men who
19489 have virtuous aims," said Pierre, feeling ashamed of the inadequacy of
19490 his words for the solemnity of the moment, as he spoke. "I imagine..."
19492 "Good!" said the Rhetor quickly, apparently satisfied with this answer.
19493 "Have you sought for means of attaining your aim in religion?"
19495 "No, I considered it erroneous and did not follow it," said Pierre, so
19496 softly that the Rhetor did not hear him and asked him what he was
19497 saying. "I have been an atheist," answered Pierre.
19499 "You are seeking for truth in order to follow its laws in your life,
19500 therefore you seek wisdom and virtue. Is that not so?" said the Rhetor,
19501 after a moment's pause.
19503 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
19505 The Rhetor cleared his throat, crossed his gloved hands on his breast,
19506 and began to speak.
19508 "Now I must disclose to you the chief aim of our Order," he said, "and
19509 if this aim coincides with yours, you may enter our Brotherhood with
19510 profit. The first and chief object of our Order, the foundation on which
19511 it rests and which no human power can destroy, is the preservation and
19512 handing on to posterity of a certain important mystery... which has come
19513 down to us from the remotest ages, even from the first man--a mystery on
19514 which perhaps the fate of mankind depends. But since this mystery is of
19515 such a nature that nobody can know or use it unless he be prepared by
19516 long and diligent self-purification, not everyone can hope to attain it
19517 quickly. Hence we have a secondary aim, that of preparing our members as
19518 much as possible to reform their hearts, to purify and enlighten their
19519 minds, by means handed on to us by tradition from those who have striven
19520 to attain this mystery, and thereby to render them capable of receiving
19523 "By purifying and regenerating our members we try, thirdly, to improve
19524 the whole human race, offering it in our members an example of piety and
19525 virtue, and thereby try with all our might to combat the evil which
19526 sways the world. Think this over and I will come to you again."
19528 "To combat the evil which sways the world..." Pierre repeated, and a
19529 mental image of his future activity in this direction rose in his mind.
19530 He imagined men such as he had himself been a fortnight ago, and he
19531 addressed an edifying exhortation to them. He imagined to himself
19532 vicious and unfortunate people whom he would assist by word and deed,
19533 imagined oppressors whose victims he would rescue. Of the three objects
19534 mentioned by the Rhetor, this last, that of improving mankind,
19535 especially appealed to Pierre. The important mystery mentioned by the
19536 Rhetor, though it aroused his curiosity, did not seem to him essential,
19537 and the second aim, that of purifying and regenerating himself, did not
19538 much interest him because at that moment he felt with delight that he
19539 was already perfectly cured of his former faults and was ready for all
19542 Half an hour later, the Rhetor returned to inform the seeker of the
19543 seven virtues, corresponding to the seven steps of Solomon's temple,
19544 which every Freemason should cultivate in himself. These virtues were:
19545 1. Discretion, the keeping of the secrets of the Order. 2. Obedience to
19546 those of higher ranks in the Order. 3. Morality. 4. Love of mankind. 5.
19547 Courage. 6. Generosity. 7. The love of death.
19549 "In the seventh place, try, by the frequent thought of death," the
19550 Rhetor said, "to bring yourself to regard it not as a dreaded foe, but
19551 as a friend that frees the soul grown weary in the labors of virtue from
19552 this distressful life, and leads it to its place of recompense and
19555 "Yes, that must be so," thought Pierre, when after these words the
19556 Rhetor went away, leaving him to solitary meditation. "It must be so,
19557 but I am still so weak that I love my life, the meaning of which is only
19558 now gradually opening before me." But five of the other virtues which
19559 Pierre recalled, counting them on his fingers, he felt already in his
19560 soul: courage, generosity, morality, love of mankind, and especially
19561 obedience--which did not even seem to him a virtue, but a joy. (He now
19562 felt so glad to be free from his own lawlessness and to submit his will
19563 to those who knew the indubitable truth.) He forgot what the seventh
19564 virtue was and could not recall it.
19566 The third time the Rhetor came back more quickly and asked Pierre
19567 whether he was still firm in his intention and determined to submit to
19568 all that would be required of him.
19570 "I am ready for everything," said Pierre.
19572 "I must also inform you," said the Rhetor, "that our Order delivers its
19573 teaching not in words only but also by other means, which may perhaps
19574 have a stronger effect on the sincere seeker after wisdom and virtue
19575 than mere words. This chamber with what you see therein should already
19576 have suggested to your heart, if it is sincere, more than words could
19577 do. You will perhaps also see in your further initiation a like method
19578 of enlightenment. Our Order imitates the ancient societies that
19579 explained their teaching by hieroglyphics. A hieroglyph," said the
19580 Rhetor, "is an emblem of something not cognizable by the senses but
19581 which possesses qualities resembling those of the symbol."
19583 Pierre knew very well what a hieroglyph was, but dared not speak. He
19584 listened to the Rhetor in silence, feeling from all he said that his
19585 ordeal was about to begin.
19587 "If you are resolved, I must begin your initiation," said the Rhetor
19588 coming closer to Pierre. "In token of generosity I ask you to give me
19589 all your valuables."
19591 "But I have nothing here," replied Pierre, supposing that he was asked
19592 to give up all he possessed.
19594 "What you have with you: watch, money, rings...."
19596 Pierre quickly took out his purse and watch, but could not manage for
19597 some time to get the wedding ring off his fat finger. When that had been
19598 done, the Rhetor said:
19600 "In token of obedience, I ask you to undress."
19602 Pierre took off his coat, waistcoat, and left boot according to the
19603 Rhetor's instructions. The Mason drew the shirt back from Pierre's left
19604 breast, and stooping down pulled up the left leg of his trousers to
19605 above the knee. Pierre hurriedly began taking off his right boot also
19606 and was going to tuck up the other trouser leg to save this stranger the
19607 trouble, but the Mason told him that was not necessary and gave him a
19608 slipper for his left foot. With a childlike smile of embarrassment,
19609 doubt, and self-derision, which appeared on his face against his will,
19610 Pierre stood with his arms hanging down and legs apart, before his
19611 brother Rhetor, and awaited his further commands.
19613 "And now, in token of candor, I ask you to reveal to me your chief
19614 passion," said the latter.
19616 "My passion! I have had so many," replied Pierre.
19618 "That passion which more than all others caused you to waver on the path
19619 of virtue," said the Mason.
19621 Pierre paused, seeking a reply.
19623 "Wine? Gluttony? Idleness? Laziness? Irritability? Anger? Women?" He
19624 went over his vices in his mind, not knowing to which of them to give
19627 "Women," he said in a low, scarcely audible voice.
19629 The Mason did not move and for a long time said nothing after this
19630 answer. At last he moved up to Pierre and, taking the kerchief that lay
19631 on the table, again bound his eyes.
19633 "For the last time I say to you--turn all your attention upon yourself,
19634 put a bridle on your senses, and seek blessedness, not in passion but in
19635 your own heart. The source of blessedness is not without us but
19638 Pierre had already long been feeling in himself that refreshing source
19639 of blessedness which now flooded his heart with glad emotion.
19646 Soon after this there came into the dark chamber to fetch Pierre, not
19647 the Rhetor but Pierre's sponsor, Willarski, whom he recognized by his
19648 voice. To fresh questions as to the firmness of his resolution Pierre
19649 replied: "Yes, yes, I agree," and with a beaming, childlike smile, his
19650 fat chest uncovered, stepping unevenly and timidly in one slippered and
19651 one booted foot, he advanced, while Willarski held a sword to his bare
19652 chest. He was conducted from that room along passages that turned
19653 backwards and forwards and was at last brought to the doors of the
19654 Lodge. Willarski coughed, he was answered by the masonic knock with
19655 mallets, the doors opened before them. A bass voice (Pierre was still
19656 blindfolded) questioned him as to who he was, when and where he was
19657 born, and so on. Then he was again led somewhere still blindfolded, and
19658 as they went along he was told allegories of the toils of his
19659 pilgrimage, of holy friendship, of the Eternal Architect of the
19660 universe, and of the courage with which he should endure toils and
19661 dangers. During these wanderings, Pierre noticed that he was spoken of
19662 now as the "Seeker," now as the "Sufferer," and now as the "Postulant,"
19663 to the accompaniment of various knockings with mallets and swords. As he
19664 was being led up to some object he noticed a hesitation and uncertainty
19665 among his conductors. He heard those around him disputing in whispers
19666 and one of them insisting that he should be led along a certain carpet.
19667 After that they took his right hand, placed it on something, and told
19668 him to hold a pair of compasses to his left breast with the other hand
19669 and to repeat after someone who read aloud an oath of fidelity to the
19670 laws of the Order. The candles were then extinguished and some spirit
19671 lighted, as Pierre knew by the smell, and he was told that he would now
19672 see the lesser light. The bandage was taken off his eyes and, by the
19673 faint light of the burning spirit, Pierre, as in a dream, saw several
19674 men standing before him, wearing aprons like the Rhetor's and holding
19675 swords in their hands pointed at his breast. Among them stood a man
19676 whose white shirt was stained with blood. On seeing this, Pierre moved
19677 forward with his breast toward the swords, meaning them to pierce it.
19678 But the swords were drawn back from him and he was at once blindfolded
19681 "Now thou hast seen the lesser light," uttered a voice. Then the candles
19682 were relit and he was told that he would see the full light; the bandage
19683 was again removed and more than ten voices said together: "Sic transit
19686 Pierre gradually began to recover himself and looked about at the room
19687 and at the people in it. Round a long table covered with black sat some
19688 twelve men in garments like those he had already seen. Some of them
19689 Pierre had met in Petersburg society. In the President's chair sat a
19690 young man he did not know, with a peculiar cross hanging from his neck.
19691 On his right sat the Italian abbe whom Pierre had met at Anna Pavlovna's
19692 two years before. There were also present a very distinguished dignitary
19693 and a Swiss who had formerly been tutor at the Kuragins'. All maintained
19694 a solemn silence, listening to the words of the President, who held a
19695 mallet in his hand. Let into the wall was a star-shaped light. At one
19696 side of the table was a small carpet with various figures worked upon
19697 it, at the other was something resembling an altar on which lay a
19698 Testament and a skull. Round it stood seven large candlesticks like
19699 those used in churches. Two of the brothers led Pierre up to the altar,
19700 placed his feet at right angles, and bade him lie down, saying that he
19701 must prostrate himself at the Gates of the Temple.
19703 "He must first receive the trowel," whispered one of the brothers.
19705 "Oh, hush, please!" said another.
19707 Pierre, perplexed, looked round with his shortsighted eyes without
19708 obeying, and suddenly doubts arose in his mind. "Where am I? What am I
19709 doing? Aren't they laughing at me? Shan't I be ashamed to remember
19710 this?" But these doubts only lasted a moment. Pierre glanced at the
19711 serious faces of those around, remembered all he had already gone
19712 through, and realized that he could not stop halfway. He was aghast at
19713 his hesitation and, trying to arouse his former devotional feeling,
19714 prostrated himself before the Gates of the Temple. And really, the
19715 feeling of devotion returned to him even more strongly than before. When
19716 he had lain there some time, he was told to get up, and a white leather
19717 apron, such as the others wore, was put on him: he was given a trowel
19718 and three pairs of gloves, and then the Grand Master addressed him. He
19719 told him that he should try to do nothing to stain the whiteness of that
19720 apron, which symbolized strength and purity; then of the unexplained
19721 trowel, he told him to toil with it to cleanse his own heart from vice,
19722 and indulgently to smooth with it the heart of his neighbor. As to the
19723 first pair of gloves, a man's, he said that Pierre could not know their
19724 meaning but must keep them. The second pair of man's gloves he was to
19725 wear at the meetings, and finally of the third, a pair of women's
19726 gloves, he said: "Dear brother, these woman's gloves are intended for
19727 you too. Give them to the woman whom you shall honor most of all. This
19728 gift will be a pledge of your purity of heart to her whom you select to
19729 be your worthy helpmeet in Masonry." And after a pause, he added: "But
19730 beware, dear brother, that these gloves do not deck hands that are
19731 unclean." While the Grand Master said these last words it seemed to
19732 Pierre that he grew embarrassed. Pierre himself grew still more
19733 confused, blushed like a child till tears came to his eyes, began
19734 looking about him uneasily, and an awkward pause followed.
19736 This silence was broken by one of the brethren, who led Pierre up to the
19737 rug and began reading to him from a manuscript book an explanation of
19738 all the figures on it: the sun, the moon, a hammer, a plumb line, a
19739 trowel, a rough stone and a squared stone, a pillar, three windows, and
19740 so on. Then a place was assigned to Pierre, he was shown the signs of
19741 the Lodge, told the password, and at last was permitted to sit down. The
19742 Grand Master began reading the statutes. They were very long, and
19743 Pierre, from joy, agitation, and embarrassment, was not in a state to
19744 understand what was being read. He managed to follow only the last words
19745 of the statutes and these remained in his mind.
19747 "In our temples we recognize no other distinctions," read the Grand
19748 Master, "but those between virtue and vice. Beware of making any
19749 distinctions which may infringe equality. Fly to a brother's aid whoever
19750 he may be, exhort him who goeth astray, raise him that falleth, never
19751 bear malice or enmity toward thy brother. Be kindly and courteous.
19752 Kindle in all hearts the flame of virtue. Share thy happiness with thy
19753 neighbor, and may envy never dim the purity of that bliss. Forgive thy
19754 enemy, do not avenge thyself except by doing him good. Thus fulfilling
19755 the highest law thou shalt regain traces of the ancient dignity which
19758 He finished and, getting up, embraced and kissed Pierre, who, with tears
19759 of joy in his eyes, looked round him, not knowing how to answer the
19760 congratulations and greetings from acquaintances that met him on all
19761 sides. He acknowledged no acquaintances but saw in all these men only
19762 brothers, and burned with impatience to set to work with them.
19764 The Grand Master rapped with his mallet. All the Masons sat down in
19765 their places, and one of them read an exhortation on the necessity of
19768 The Grand Master proposed that the last duty should be performed, and
19769 the distinguished dignitary who bore the title of "Collector of Alms"
19770 went round to all the brothers. Pierre would have liked to subscribe all
19771 he had, but fearing that it might look like pride subscribed the same
19772 amount as the others.
19774 The meeting was at an end, and on reaching home Pierre felt as if he had
19775 returned from a long journey on which he had spent dozens of years, had
19776 become completely changed, and had quite left behind his former habits
19784 The day after he had been received into the Lodge, Pierre was sitting at
19785 home reading a book and trying to fathom the significance of the Square,
19786 one side of which symbolized God, another moral things, a third physical
19787 things, and the fourth a combination of these. Now and then his
19788 attention wandered from the book and the Square and he formed in
19789 imagination a new plan of life. On the previous evening at the Lodge, he
19790 had heard that a rumor of his duel had reached the Emperor and that it
19791 would be wiser for him to leave Petersburg. Pierre proposed going to his
19792 estates in the south and there attending to the welfare of his serfs. He
19793 was joyfully planning this new life, when Prince Vasili suddenly entered
19796 "My dear fellow, what have you been up to in Moscow? Why have you
19797 quarreled with Helene, mon cher? You are under a delusion," said Prince
19798 Vasili, as he entered. "I know all about it, and I can tell you
19799 positively that Helene is as innocent before you as Christ was before
19802 Pierre was about to reply, but Prince Vasili interrupted him.
19804 "And why didn't you simply come straight to me as to a friend? I know
19805 all about it and understand it all," he said. "You behaved as becomes a
19806 man who values his honor, perhaps too hastily, but we won't go into
19807 that. But consider the position in which you are placing her and me in
19808 the eyes of society, and even of the court," he added, lowering his
19809 voice. "She is living in Moscow and you are here. Remember, dear boy,"
19810 and he drew Pierre's arm downwards, "it is simply a misunderstanding. I
19811 expect you feel it so yourself. Let us write her a letter at once, and
19812 she'll come here and all will be explained, or else, my dear boy, let me
19813 tell you it's quite likely you'll have to suffer for it."
19815 Prince Vasili gave Pierre a significant look.
19817 "I know from reliable sources that the Dowager Empress is taking a keen
19818 interest in the whole affair. You know she is very gracious to Helene."
19820 Pierre tried several times to speak, but, on one hand, Prince Vasili did
19821 not let him and, on the other, Pierre himself feared to begin to speak
19822 in the tone of decided refusal and disagreement in which he had firmly
19823 resolved to answer his father-in-law. Moreover, the words of the masonic
19824 statutes, "be kindly and courteous," recurred to him. He blinked, went
19825 red, got up and sat down again, struggling with himself to do what was
19826 for him the most difficult thing in life--to say an unpleasant thing to
19827 a man's face, to say what the other, whoever he might be, did not
19828 expect. He was so used to submitting to Prince Vasili's tone of careless
19829 self-assurance that he felt he would be unable to withstand it now, but
19830 he also felt that on what he said now his future depended--whether he
19831 would follow the same old road, or that new path so attractively shown
19832 him by the Masons, on which he firmly believed he would be reborn to a
19835 "Now, dear boy," said Prince Vasili playfully, "say 'yes,' and I'll
19836 write to her myself, and we will kill the fatted calf."
19838 But before Prince Vasili had finished his playful speech, Pierre,
19839 without looking at him, and with a kind of fury that made him like his
19840 father, muttered in a whisper:
19842 "Prince, I did not ask you here. Go, please go!" And he jumped up and
19843 opened the door for him.
19845 "Go!" he repeated, amazed at himself and glad to see the look of
19846 confusion and fear that showed itself on Prince Vasili's face.
19848 "What's the matter with you? Are you ill?"
19850 "Go!" the quivering voice repeated. And Prince Vasili had to go without
19851 receiving any explanation.
19853 A week later, Pierre, having taken leave of his new friends, the Masons,
19854 and leaving large sums of money with them for alms, went away to his
19855 estates. His new brethren gave him letters to the Kiev and Odessa Masons
19856 and promised to write to him and guide him in his new activity.
19863 The duel between Pierre and Dolokhov was hushed up and, in spite of the
19864 Emperor's severity regarding duels at that time, neither the principals
19865 nor their seconds suffered for it. But the story of the duel, confirmed
19866 by Pierre's rupture with his wife, was the talk of society. Pierre who
19867 had been regarded with patronizing condescension when he was an
19868 illegitimate son, and petted and extolled when he was the best match in
19869 Russia, had sunk greatly in the esteem of society after his marriage--
19870 when the marriageable daughters and their mothers had nothing to hope
19871 from him--especially as he did not know how, and did not wish, to court
19872 society's favor. Now he alone was blamed for what had happened, he was
19873 said to be insanely jealous and subject like his father to fits of
19874 bloodthirsty rage. And when after Pierre's departure Helene returned to
19875 Petersburg, she was received by all her acquaintances not only
19876 cordially, but even with a shade of deference due to her misfortune.
19877 When conversation turned on her husband Helene assumed a dignified
19878 expression, which with characteristic tact she had acquired though she
19879 did not understand its significance. This expression suggested that she
19880 had resolved to endure her troubles uncomplainingly and that her husband
19881 was a cross laid upon her by God. Prince Vasili expressed his opinion
19882 more openly. He shrugged his shoulders when Pierre was mentioned and,
19883 pointing to his forehead, remarked:
19885 "A bit touched--I always said so."
19887 "I said from the first," declared Anna Pavlovna referring to Pierre, "I
19888 said at the time and before anyone else" (she insisted on her priority)
19889 "that that senseless young man was spoiled by the depraved ideas of
19890 these days. I said so even at the time when everybody was in raptures
19891 about him, when he had just returned from abroad, and when, if you
19892 remember, he posed as a sort of Marat at one of my soirees. And how has
19893 it ended? I was against this marriage even then and foretold all that
19896 Anna Pavlovna continued to give on free evenings the same kind of
19897 soirees as before--such as she alone had the gift of arranging--at which
19898 was to be found "the cream of really good society, the bloom of the
19899 intellectual essence of Petersburg," as she herself put it. Besides this
19900 refined selection of society Anna Pavlovna's receptions were also
19901 distinguished by the fact that she always presented some new and
19902 interesting person to the visitors and that nowhere else was the state
19903 of the political thermometer of legitimate Petersburg court society so
19904 dearly and distinctly indicated.
19906 Toward the end of 1806, when all the sad details of Napoleon's
19907 destruction of the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstadt and the surrender
19908 of most of the Prussian fortresses had been received, when our troops
19909 had already entered Prussia and our second war with Napoleon was
19910 beginning, Anna Pavlovna gave one of her soirees. The "cream of really
19911 good society" consisted of the fascinating Helene, forsaken by her
19912 husband, Mortemart, the delightful Prince Hippolyte who had just
19913 returned from Vienna, two diplomatists, the old aunt, a young man
19914 referred to in that drawing room as "a man of great merit" (un homme de
19915 beaucoup de merite), a newly appointed maid of honor and her mother, and
19916 several other less noteworthy persons.
19918 The novelty Anna Pavlovna was setting before her guests that evening was
19919 Boris Drubetskoy, who had just arrived as a special messenger from the
19920 Prussian army and was aide-de-camp to a very important personage.
19922 The temperature shown by the political thermometer to the company that
19925 "Whatever the European sovereigns and commanders may do to countenance
19926 Bonaparte, and to cause me, and us in general, annoyance and
19927 mortification, our opinion of Bonaparte cannot alter. We shall not cease
19928 to express our sincere views on that subject, and can only say to the
19929 King of Prussia and others: 'So much the worse for you. Tu l'as voulu,
19930 George Dandin,' that's all we have to say about it!"
19932 When Boris, who was to be served up to the guests, entered the drawing
19933 room, almost all the company had assembled, and the conversation, guided
19934 by Anna Pavlovna, was about our diplomatic relations with Austria and
19935 the hope of an alliance with her.
19937 Boris, grown more manly and looking fresh, rosy and self-possessed,
19938 entered the drawing room elegantly dressed in the uniform of an aide-de-
19939 camp and was duly conducted to pay his respects to the aunt and then
19940 brought back to the general circle.
19942 Anna Pavlovna gave him her shriveled hand to kiss and introduced him to
19943 several persons whom he did not know, giving him a whispered description
19946 "Prince Hippolyte Kuragin, M. Krug, the charge d'affaires from
19947 Copenhagen--a profound intellect," and simply, "Mr. Shitov--a man of
19948 great merit"--this of the man usually so described.
19950 Thanks to Anna Mikhaylovna's efforts, his own tastes, and the
19951 peculiarities of his reserved nature, Boris had managed during his
19952 service to place himself very advantageously. He was aide-de-camp to a
19953 very important personage, had been sent on a very important mission to
19954 Prussia, and had just returned from there as a special messenger. He had
19955 become thoroughly conversant with that unwritten code with which he had
19956 been so pleased at Olmutz and according to which an ensign might rank
19957 incomparably higher than a general, and according to which what was
19958 needed for success in the service was not effort or work, or courage, or
19959 perseverance, but only the knowledge of how to get on with those who can
19960 grant rewards, and he was himself often surprised at the rapidity of his
19961 success and at the inability of others to understand these things. In
19962 consequence of this discovery his whole manner of life, all his
19963 relations with old friends, all his plans for his future, were
19964 completely altered. He was not rich, but would spend his last groat to
19965 be better dressed than others, and would rather deprive himself of many
19966 pleasures than allow himself to be seen in a shabby equipage or appear
19967 in the streets of Petersburg in an old uniform. He made friends with and
19968 sought the acquaintance of only those above him in position and who
19969 could therefore be of use to him. He liked Petersburg and despised
19970 Moscow. The remembrance of the Rostovs' house and of his childish love
19971 for Natasha was unpleasant to him and he had not once been to see the
19972 Rostovs since the day of his departure for the army. To be in Anna
19973 Pavlovna's drawing room he considered an important step up in the
19974 service, and he at once understood his role, letting his hostess make
19975 use of whatever interest he had to offer. He himself carefully scanned
19976 each face, appraising the possibilities of establishing intimacy with
19977 each of those present, and the advantages that might accrue. He took the
19978 seat indicated to him beside the fair Helene and listened to the general
19981 "Vienna considers the bases of the proposed treaty so unattainable that
19982 not even a continuity of most brilliant successes would secure them, and
19983 she doubts the means we have of gaining them. That is the actual phrase
19984 used by the Vienna cabinet," said the Danish charge d'affaires.
19986 "The doubt is flattering," said "the man of profound intellect," with a
19989 "We must distinguish between the Vienna cabinet and the Emperor of
19990 Austria," said Mortemart. "The Emperor of Austria can never have thought
19991 of such a thing, it is only the cabinet that says it."
19993 "Ah, my dear vicomte," put in Anna Pavlovna, "L'Urope" (for some reason
19994 she called it Urope as if that were a specially refined French
19995 pronunciation which she could allow herself when conversing with a
19996 Frenchman), "L'Urope ne sera jamais notre alliee sincere." *
19999 * "Europe will never be our sincere ally."
20001 After that Anna Pavlovna led up to the courage and firmness of the King
20002 of Prussia, in order to draw Boris into the conversation.
20004 Boris listened attentively to each of the speakers, awaiting his turn,
20005 but managed meanwhile to look round repeatedly at his neighbor, the
20006 beautiful Helene, whose eyes several times met those of the handsome
20007 young aide-de-camp with a smile.
20009 Speaking of the position of Prussia, Anna Pavlovna very naturally asked
20010 Boris to tell them about his journey to Glogau and in what state he
20011 found the Prussian army. Boris, speaking with deliberation, told them in
20012 pure, correct French many interesting details about the armies and the
20013 court, carefully abstaining from expressing an opinion of his own about
20014 the facts he was recounting. For some time he engrossed the general
20015 attention, and Anna Pavlovna felt that the novelty she had served up was
20016 received with pleasure by all her visitors. The greatest attention of
20017 all to Boris' narrative was shown by Helene. She asked him several
20018 questions about his journey and seemed greatly interested in the state
20019 of the Prussian army. As soon as he had finished she turned to him with
20022 "You absolutely must come and see me," she said in a tone that implied
20023 that, for certain considerations he could not know of, this was
20024 absolutely necessary.
20026 "On Tuesday between eight and nine. It will give me great pleasure."
20028 Boris promised to fulfill her wish and was about to begin a conversation
20029 with her, when Anna Pavlovna called him away on the pretext that her
20030 aunt wished to hear him.
20032 "You know her husband, of course?" said Anna Pavlovna, closing her eyes
20033 and indicating Helene with a sorrowful gesture. "Ah, she is such an
20034 unfortunate and charming woman! Don't mention him before her--please
20035 don't! It is too painful for her!"
20042 When Boris and Anna Pavlovna returned to the others Prince Hippolyte had
20043 the ear of the company.
20045 Bending forward in his armchair he said: "Le Roi de Prusse!" and having
20046 said this laughed. Everyone turned toward him.
20048 "Le Roi de Prusse?" Hippolyte said interrogatively, again laughing, and
20049 then calmly and seriously sat back in his chair. Anna Pavlovna waited
20050 for him to go on, but as he seemed quite decided to say no more she
20051 began to tell of how at Potsdam the impious Bonaparte had stolen the
20052 sword of Frederick the Great.
20054 "It is the sword of Frederick the Great which I..." she began, but
20055 Hippolyte interrupted her with the words: "Le Roi de Prusse..." and
20056 again, as soon as all turned toward him, excused himself and said no
20059 Anna Pavlovna frowned. Mortemart, Hippolyte's friend, addressed him
20062 "Come now, what about your Roi de Prusse?"
20064 Hippolyte laughed as if ashamed of laughing.
20066 "Oh, it's nothing. I only wished to say..." (he wanted to repeat a joke
20067 he had heard in Vienna and which he had been trying all that evening to
20068 get in) "I only wished to say that we are wrong to fight pour le Roi de
20071 Boris smiled circumspectly, so that it might be taken as ironical or
20072 appreciative according to the way the joke was received. Everybody
20075 "Your joke is too bad, it's witty but unjust," said Anna Pavlovna,
20076 shaking her little shriveled finger at him.
20078 "We are not fighting pour le Roi de Prusse, but for right principles.
20079 Oh, that wicked Prince Hippolyte!" she said.
20081 The conversation did not flag all evening and turned chiefly on the
20082 political news. It became particularly animated toward the end of the
20083 evening when the rewards bestowed by the Emperor were mentioned.
20085 "You know N-- N-- received a snuffbox with the portrait last year?" said
20086 "the man of profound intellect." "Why shouldn't S-- S-- get the same
20089 "Pardon me! A snuffbox with the Emperor's portrait is a reward but not a
20090 distinction," said the diplomatist--"a gift, rather."
20092 "There are precedents, I may mention Schwarzenberg."
20094 "It's impossible," replied another.
20096 "Will you bet? The ribbon of the order is a different matter...."
20098 When everybody rose to go, Helene who had spoken very little all the
20099 evening again turned to Boris, asking him in a tone of caressing
20100 significant command to come to her on Tuesday.
20102 "It is of great importance to me," she said, turning with a smile toward
20103 Anna Pavlovna, and Anna Pavlovna, with the same sad smile with which she
20104 spoke of her exalted patroness, supported Helene's wish.
20106 It seemed as if from some words Boris had spoken that evening about the
20107 Prussian army, Helene had suddenly found it necessary to see him. She
20108 seemed to promise to explain that necessity to him when he came on
20111 But on Tuesday evening, having come to Helene's splendid salon, Boris
20112 received no clear explanation of why it had been necessary for him to
20113 come. There were other guests and the countess talked little to him, and
20114 only as he kissed her hand on taking leave said unexpectedly and in a
20115 whisper, with a strangely unsmiling face: "Come to dinner tomorrow... in
20116 the evening. You must come.... Come!"
20118 During that stay in Petersburg, Boris became an intimate in the
20126 The war was flaming up and nearing the Russian frontier. Everywhere one
20127 heard curses on Bonaparte, "the enemy of mankind." Militiamen and
20128 recruits were being enrolled in the villages, and from the seat of war
20129 came contradictory news, false as usual and therefore variously
20130 interpreted. The life of old Prince Bolkonski, Prince Andrew, and
20131 Princess Mary had greatly changed since 1805.
20133 In 1806 the old prince was made one of the eight commanders in chief
20134 then appointed to supervise the enrollment decreed throughout Russia.
20135 Despite the weakness of age, which had become particularly noticeable
20136 since the time when he thought his son had been killed, he did not think
20137 it right to refuse a duty to which he had been appointed by the Emperor
20138 himself, and this fresh opportunity for action gave him new energy and
20139 strength. He was continually traveling through the three provinces
20140 entrusted to him, was pedantic in the fulfillment of his duties, severe
20141 to cruel with his subordinates, and went into everything down to the
20142 minutest details himself. Princess Mary had ceased taking lessons in
20143 mathematics from her father, and when the old prince was at home went to
20144 his study with the wet nurse and little Prince Nicholas (as his
20145 grandfather called him). The baby Prince Nicholas lived with his wet
20146 nurse and nurse Savishna in the late princess' rooms and Princess Mary
20147 spent most of the day in the nursery, taking a mother's place to her
20148 little nephew as best she could. Mademoiselle Bourienne, too, seemed
20149 passionately fond of the boy, and Princess Mary often deprived herself
20150 to give her friend the pleasure of dandling the little angel--as she
20151 called her nephew--and playing with him.
20153 Near the altar of the church at Bald Hills there was a chapel over the
20154 tomb of the little princess, and in this chapel was a marble monument
20155 brought from Italy, representing an angel with outspread wings ready to
20156 fly upwards. The angel's upper lip was slightly raised as though about
20157 to smile, and once on coming out of the chapel Prince Andrew and
20158 Princess Mary admitted to one another that the angel's face reminded
20159 them strangely of the little princess. But what was still stranger,
20160 though of this Prince Andrew said nothing to his sister, was that in the
20161 expression the sculptor had happened to give the angel's face, Prince
20162 Andrew read the same mild reproach he had read on the face of his dead
20163 wife: "Ah, why have you done this to me?"
20165 Soon after Prince Andrew's return the old prince made over to him a
20166 large estate, Bogucharovo, about twenty-five miles from Bald Hills.
20167 Partly because of the depressing memories associated with Bald Hills,
20168 partly because Prince Andrew did not always feel equal to bearing with
20169 his father's peculiarities, and partly because he needed solitude,
20170 Prince Andrew made use of Bogucharovo, began building and spent most of
20173 After the Austerlitz campaign Prince Andrew had firmly resolved not to
20174 continue his military service, and when the war recommenced and
20175 everybody had to serve, he took a post under his father in the
20176 recruitment so as to avoid active service. The old prince and his son
20177 seemed to have changed roles since the campaign of 1805. The old man,
20178 roused by activity, expected the best results from the new campaign,
20179 while Prince Andrew on the contrary, taking no part in the war and
20180 secretly regretting this, saw only the dark side.
20182 On February 26, 1807, the old prince set off on one of his circuits.
20183 Prince Andrew remained at Bald Hills as usual during his father's
20184 absence. Little Nicholas had been unwell for four days. The coachman who
20185 had driven the old prince to town returned bringing papers and letters
20188 Not finding the young prince in his study the valet went with the
20189 letters to Princess Mary's apartments, but did not find him there. He
20190 was told that the prince had gone to the nursery.
20192 "If you please, your excellency, Petrusha has brought some papers," said
20193 one of the nursemaids to Prince Andrew who was sitting on a child's
20194 little chair while, frowning and with trembling hands, he poured drops
20195 from a medicine bottle into a wineglass half full of water.
20197 "What is it?" he said crossly, and, his hand shaking unintentionally, he
20198 poured too many drops into the glass. He threw the mixture onto the
20199 floor and asked for some more water. The maid brought it.
20201 There were in the room a child's cot, two boxes, two armchairs, a table,
20202 a child's table, and the little chair on which Prince Andrew was
20203 sitting. The curtains were drawn, and a single candle was burning on the
20204 table, screened by a bound music book so that the light did not fall on
20207 "My dear," said Princess Mary, addressing her brother from beside the
20208 cot where she was standing, "better wait a bit... later..."
20210 "Oh, leave off, you always talk nonsense and keep putting things off--
20211 and this is what comes of it!" said Prince Andrew in an exasperated
20212 whisper, evidently meaning to wound his sister.
20214 "My dear, really... it's better not to wake him... he's asleep," said
20215 the princess in a tone of entreaty.
20217 Prince Andrew got up and went on tiptoe up to the little bed, wineglass
20220 "Perhaps we'd really better not wake him," he said hesitating.
20222 "As you please... really... I think so... but as you please," said
20223 Princess Mary, evidently intimidated and confused that her opinion had
20224 prevailed. She drew her brother's attention to the maid who was calling
20227 It was the second night that neither of them had slept, watching the boy
20228 who was in a high fever. These last days, mistrusting their household
20229 doctor and expecting another for whom they had sent to town, they had
20230 been trying first one remedy and then another. Worn out by sleeplessness
20231 and anxiety they threw their burden of sorrow on one another and
20232 reproached and disputed with each other.
20234 "Petrusha has come with papers from your father," whispered the maid.
20236 Prince Andrew went out.
20238 "Devil take them!" he muttered, and after listening to the verbal
20239 instructions his father had sent and taking the correspondence and his
20240 father's letter, he returned to the nursery.
20244 "Still the same. Wait, for heaven's sake. Karl Ivanich always says that
20245 sleep is more important than anything," whispered Princess Mary with a
20248 Prince Andrew went up to the child and felt him. He was burning hot.
20250 "Confound you and your Karl Ivanich!" He took the glass with the drops
20251 and again went up to the cot.
20253 "Andrew, don't!" said Princess Mary.
20255 But he scowled at her angrily though also with suffering in his eyes,
20256 and stooped glass in hand over the infant.
20258 "But I wish it," he said. "I beg you--give it him!"
20260 Princess Mary shrugged her shoulders but took the glass submissively and
20261 calling the nurse began giving the medicine. The child screamed
20262 hoarsely. Prince Andrew winced and, clutching his head, went out and sat
20263 down on a sofa in the next room.
20265 He still had all the letters in his hand. Opening them mechanically he
20266 began reading. The old prince, now and then using abbreviations, wrote
20267 in his large elongated hand on blue paper as follows:
20269 Have just this moment received by special messenger very joyful news--if
20270 it's not false. Bennigsen seems to have obtained a complete victory over
20271 Buonaparte at Eylau. In Petersburg everyone is rejoicing, and the
20272 rewards sent to the army are innumerable. Though he is a German--I
20273 congratulate him! I can't make out what the commander at Korchevo--a
20274 certain Khandrikov--is up to; till now the additional men and provisions
20275 have not arrived. Gallop off to him at once and say I'll have his head
20276 off if everything is not here in a week. Have received another letter
20277 about the Preussisch-Eylau battle from Petenka--he took part in it--and
20278 it's all true. When mischief-makers don't meddle even a German beats
20279 Buonaparte. He is said to be fleeing in great disorder. Mind you gallop
20280 off to Korchevo without delay and carry out instructions!
20282 Prince Andrew sighed and broke the seal of another envelope. It was a
20283 closely written letter of two sheets from Bilibin. He folded it up
20284 without reading it and reread his father's letter, ending with the
20285 words: "Gallop off to Korchevo and carry out instructions!"
20287 "No, pardon me, I won't go now till the child is better," thought he,
20288 going to the door and looking into the nursery.
20290 Princess Mary was still standing by the cot, gently rocking the baby.
20292 "Ah yes, and what else did he say that's unpleasant?" thought Prince
20293 Andrew, recalling his father's letter. "Yes, we have gained a victory
20294 over Bonaparte, just when I'm not serving. Yes, yes, he's always poking
20295 fun at me.... Ah, well! Let him!" And he began reading Bilibin's letter
20296 which was written in French. He read without understanding half of it,
20297 read only to forget, if but for a moment, what he had too long been
20298 thinking of so painfully to the exclusion of all else.
20305 Bilibin was now at army headquarters in a diplomatic capacity, and
20306 though he wrote in French and used French jests and French idioms, he
20307 described the whole campaign with a fearless self-censure and self-
20308 derision genuinely Russian. Bilibin wrote that the obligation of
20309 diplomatic discretion tormented him, and he was happy to have in Prince
20310 Andrew a reliable correspondent to whom he could pour out the bile he
20311 had accumulated at the sight of all that was being done in the army. The
20312 letter was old, having been written before the battle at Preussisch-
20315 "Since the day of our brilliant success at Austerlitz," wrote Bilibin,
20316 "as you know, my dear prince, I never leave headquarters. I have
20317 certainly acquired a taste for war, and it is just as well for me; what
20318 I have seen during these last three months is incredible.
20320 "I begin ab ovo. 'The enemy of the human race,' as you know, attacks the
20321 Prussians. The Prussians are our faithful allies who have only betrayed
20322 us three times in three years. We take up their cause, but it turns out
20323 that 'the enemy of the human race' pays no heed to our fine speeches and
20324 in his rude and savage way throws himself on the Prussians without
20325 giving them time to finish the parade they had begun, and in two twists
20326 of the hand he breaks them to smithereens and installs himself in the
20329 "'I most ardently desire,' writes the King of Prussia to Bonaparte,
20330 'that Your Majesty should be received and treated in my palace in a
20331 manner agreeable to yourself, and in so far as circumstances allowed, I
20332 have hastened to take all steps to that end. May I have succeeded!' The
20333 Prussian generals pride themselves on being polite to the French and lay
20334 down their arms at the first demand.
20336 "The head of the garrison at Glogau, with ten thousand men, asks the
20337 King of Prussia what he is to do if he is summoned to surrender.... All
20338 this is absolutely true.
20340 "In short, hoping to settle matters by taking up a warlike attitude, it
20341 turns out that we have landed ourselves in war, and what is more, in war
20342 on our own frontiers, with and for the King of Prussia. We have
20343 everything in perfect order, only one little thing is lacking, namely, a
20344 commander in chief. As it was considered that the Austerlitz success
20345 might have been more decisive had the commander-in-chief not been so
20346 young, all our octogenarians were reviewed, and of Prozorovski and
20347 Kamenski the latter was preferred. The general comes to us, Suvorov-
20348 like, in a kibitka, and is received with acclamations of joy and
20351 "On the 4th, the first courier arrives from Petersburg. The mails are
20352 taken to the field marshal's room, for he likes to do everything
20353 himself. I am called in to help sort the letters and take those meant
20354 for us. The field marshal looks on and waits for letters addressed to
20355 him. We search, but none are to be found. The field marshal grows
20356 impatient and sets to work himself and finds letters from the Emperor to
20357 Count T., Prince V., and others. Then he bursts into one of his wild
20358 furies and rages at everyone and everything, seizes the letters, opens
20359 them, and reads those from the Emperor addressed to others. 'Ah! So
20360 that's the way they treat me! No confidence in me! Ah, ordered to keep
20361 an eye on me! Very well then! Get along with you!' So he writes the
20362 famous order of the day to General Bennigsen:
20364 'I am wounded and cannot ride and consequently cannot command the army.
20365 You have brought your army corps to Pultusk, routed: here it is exposed,
20366 and without fuel or forage, so something must be done, and, as you
20367 yourself reported to Count Buxhowden yesterday, you must think of
20368 retreating to our frontier--which do today.'
20370 "'From all my riding,' he writes to the Emperor, 'I have got a saddle
20371 sore which, coming after all my previous journeys, quite prevents my
20372 riding and commanding so vast an army, so I have passed on the command
20373 to the general next in seniority, Count Buxhowden, having sent him my
20374 whole staff and all that belongs to it, advising him if there is a lack
20375 of bread, to move farther into the interior of Prussia, for only one
20376 day's ration of bread remains, and in some regiments none at all, as
20377 reported by the division commanders, Ostermann and Sedmoretzki, and all
20378 that the peasants had has been eaten up. I myself will remain in
20379 hospital at Ostrolenka till I recover. In regard to which I humbly
20380 submit my report, with the information that if the army remains in its
20381 present bivouac another fortnight there will not be a healthy man left
20384 "'Grant leave to retire to his country seat to an old man who is already
20385 in any case dishonored by being unable to fulfill the great and glorious
20386 task for which he was chosen. I shall await your most gracious
20387 permission here in hospital, that I may not have to play the part of a
20388 secretary rather than commander in the army. My removal from the army
20389 does not produce the slightest stir--a blind man has left it. There are
20390 thousands such as I in Russia.'
20392 "The field marshal is angry with the Emperor and he punishes us all,
20395 "This is the first act. Those that follow are naturally increasingly
20396 interesting and entertaining. After the field marshal's departure it
20397 appears that we are within sight of the enemy and must give battle.
20398 Buxhowden is commander-in-chief by seniority, but General Bennigsen does
20399 not quite see it; more particularly as it is he and his corps who are
20400 within sight of the enemy and he wishes to profit by the opportunity to
20401 fight a battle 'on his own hand' as the Germans say. He does so. This is
20402 the battle of Pultusk, which is considered a great victory but in my
20403 opinion was nothing of the kind. We civilians, as you know, have a very
20404 bad way of deciding whether a battle was won or lost. Those who retreat
20405 after a battle have lost it is what we say; and according to that it is
20406 we who lost the battle of Pultusk. In short, we retreat after the battle
20407 but send a courier to Petersburg with news of a victory, and General
20408 Bennigsen, hoping to receive from Petersburg the post of commander in
20409 chief as a reward for his victory, does not give up the command of the
20410 army to General Buxhowden. During this interregnum we begin a very
20411 original and interesting series of maneuvers. Our aim is no longer, as
20412 it should be, to avoid or attack the enemy, but solely to avoid General
20413 Buxhowden who by right of seniority should be our chief. So
20414 energetically do we pursue this aim that after crossing an unfordable
20415 river we burn the bridges to separate ourselves from our enemy, who at
20416 the moment is not Bonaparte but Buxhowden. General Buxhowden was all but
20417 attacked and captured by a superior enemy force as a result of one of
20418 these maneuvers that enabled us to escape him. Buxhowden pursues us--we
20419 scuttle. He hardly crosses the river to our side before we recross to
20420 the other. At last our enemy, Buxhowden, catches us and attacks. Both
20421 generals are angry, and the result is a challenge on Buxhowden's part
20422 and an epileptic fit on Bennigsen's. But at the critical moment the
20423 courier who carried the news of our victory at Pultusk to Petersburg
20424 returns bringing our appointment as commander-in-chief, and our first
20425 foe, Buxhowden, is vanquished; we can now turn our thoughts to the
20426 second, Bonaparte. But as it turns out, just at that moment a third
20427 enemy rises before us--namely the Orthodox Russian soldiers, loudly
20428 demanding bread, meat, biscuits, fodder, and whatnot! The stores are
20429 empty, the roads impassable. The Orthodox begin looting, and in a way of
20430 which our last campaign can give you no idea. Half the regiments form
20431 bands and scour the countryside and put everything to fire and sword.
20432 The inhabitants are totally ruined, the hospitals overflow with sick,
20433 and famine is everywhere. Twice the marauders even attack our
20434 headquarters, and the commander-in-chief has to ask for a battalion to
20435 disperse them. During one of these attacks they carried off my empty
20436 portmanteau and my dressing gown. The Emperor proposes to give all
20437 commanders of divisions the right to shoot marauders, but I much fear
20438 this will oblige one half the army to shoot the other."
20440 At first Prince Andrew read with his eyes only, but after a while, in
20441 spite of himself (although he knew how far it was safe to trust
20442 Bilibin), what he had read began to interest him more and more. When he
20443 had read thus far, he crumpled the letter up and threw it away. It was
20444 not what he had read that vexed him, but the fact that the life out
20445 there in which he had now no part could perturb him. He shut his eyes,
20446 rubbed his forehead as if to rid himself of all interest in what he had
20447 read, and listened to what was passing in the nursery. Suddenly he
20448 thought he heard a strange noise through the door. He was seized with
20449 alarm lest something should have happened to the child while he was
20450 reading the letter. He went on tiptoe to the nursery door and opened it.
20452 Just as he went in he saw that the nurse was hiding something from him
20453 with a scared look and that Princess Mary was no longer by the cot.
20455 "My dear," he heard what seemed to him her despairing whisper behind
20458 As often happens after long sleeplessness and long anxiety, he was
20459 seized by an unreasoning panic--it occurred to him that the child was
20460 dead. All that he saw and heard seemed to confirm this terror.
20462 "All is over," he thought, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
20463 He went to the cot in confusion, sure that he would find it empty and
20464 that the nurse had been hiding the dead baby. He drew the curtain aside
20465 and for some time his frightened, restless eyes could not find the baby.
20466 At last he saw him: the rosy boy had tossed about till he lay across the
20467 bed with his head lower than the pillow, and was smacking his lips in
20468 his sleep and breathing evenly.
20470 Prince Andrew was as glad to find the boy like that, as if he had
20471 already lost him. He bent over him and, as his sister had taught him,
20472 tried with his lips whether the child was still feverish. The soft
20473 forehead was moist. Prince Andrew touched the head with his hand; even
20474 the hair was wet, so profusely had the child perspired. He was not dead,
20475 but evidently the crisis was over and he was convalescent. Prince Andrew
20476 longed to snatch up, to squeeze, to hold to his heart, this helpless
20477 little creature, but dared not do so. He stood over him, gazing at his
20478 head and at the little arms and legs which showed under the blanket. He
20479 heard a rustle behind him and a shadow appeared under the curtain of the
20480 cot. He did not look round, but still gazing at the infant's face
20481 listened to his regular breathing. The dark shadow was Princess Mary,
20482 who had come up to the cot with noiseless steps, lifted the curtain, and
20483 dropped it again behind her. Prince Andrew recognized her without
20484 looking and held out his hand to her. She pressed it.
20486 "He has perspired," said Prince Andrew.
20488 "I was coming to tell you so."
20490 The child moved slightly in his sleep, smiled, and rubbed his forehead
20491 against the pillow.
20493 Prince Andrew looked at his sister. In the dim shadow of the curtain her
20494 luminous eyes shone more brightly than usual from the tears of joy that
20495 were in them. She leaned over to her brother and kissed him, slightly
20496 catching the curtain of the cot. Each made the other a warning gesture
20497 and stood still in the dim light beneath the curtain as if not wishing
20498 to leave that seclusion where they three were shut off from all the
20499 world. Prince Andrew was the first to move away, ruffling his hair
20500 against the muslin of the curtain.
20502 "Yes, this is the one thing left me now," he said with a sigh.
20509 Soon after his admission to the masonic Brotherhood, Pierre went to the
20510 Kiev province, where he had the greatest number of serfs, taking with
20511 him full directions which he had written down for his own guidance as to
20512 what he should do on his estates.
20514 When he reached Kiev he sent for all his stewards to the head office and
20515 explained to them his intentions and wishes. He told them that steps
20516 would be taken immediately to free his serfs--and that till then they
20517 were not to be overburdened with labor, women while nursing their babies
20518 were not to be sent to work, assistance was to be given to the serfs,
20519 punishments were to be admonitory and not corporal, and hospitals,
20520 asylums, and schools were to be established on all the estates. Some of
20521 the stewards (there were semiliterate foremen among them) listened with
20522 alarm, supposing these words to mean that the young count was displeased
20523 with their management and embezzlement of money, some after their first
20524 fright were amused by Pierre's lisp and the new words they had not heard
20525 before, others simply enjoyed hearing how the master talked, while the
20526 cleverest among them, including the chief steward, understood from this
20527 speech how they could best handle the master for their own ends.
20529 The chief steward expressed great sympathy with Pierre's intentions, but
20530 remarked that besides these changes it would be necessary to go into the
20531 general state of affairs which was far from satisfactory.
20533 Despite Count Bezukhov's enormous wealth, since he had come into an
20534 income which was said to amount to five hundred thousand rubles a year,
20535 Pierre felt himself far poorer than when his father had made him an
20536 allowance of ten thousand rubles. He had a dim perception of the
20539 About 80,000 went in payments on all the estates to the Land Bank, about
20540 30,000 went for the upkeep of the estate near Moscow, the town house,
20541 and the allowance to the three princesses; about 15,000 was given in
20542 pensions and the same amount for asylums; 150,000 alimony was sent to
20543 the countess; about 70,000 went for interest on debts. The building of a
20544 new church, previously begun, had cost about 10,000 in each of the last
20545 two years, and he did not know how the rest, about 100,000 rubles, was
20546 spent, and almost every year he was obliged to borrow. Besides this the
20547 chief steward wrote every year telling him of fires and bad harvests, or
20548 of the necessity of rebuilding factories and workshops. So the first
20549 task Pierre had to face was one for which he had very little aptitude or
20550 inclination--practical business.
20552 He discussed estate affairs every day with his chief steward. But he
20553 felt that this did not forward matters at all. He felt that these
20554 consultations were detached from real affairs and did not link up with
20555 them or make them move. On the one hand, the chief steward put the state
20556 of things to him in the very worst light, pointing out the necessity of
20557 paying off the debts and undertaking new activities with serf labor, to
20558 which Pierre did not agree. On the other hand, Pierre demanded that
20559 steps should be taken to liberate the serfs, which the steward met by
20560 showing the necessity of first paying off the loans from the Land Bank,
20561 and the consequent impossibility of a speedy emancipation.
20563 The steward did not say it was quite impossible, but suggested selling
20564 the forests in the province of Kostroma, the land lower down the river,
20565 and the Crimean estate, in order to make it possible: all of which
20566 operations according to him were connected with such complicated
20567 measures--the removal of injunctions, petitions, permits, and so on--
20568 that Pierre became quite bewildered and only replied:
20572 Pierre had none of the practical persistence that would have enabled him
20573 to attend to the business himself and so he disliked it and only tried
20574 to pretend to the steward that he was attending to it. The steward for
20575 his part tried to pretend to the count that he considered these
20576 consultations very valuable for the proprietor and troublesome to
20579 In Kiev Pierre found some people he knew, and strangers hastened to make
20580 his acquaintance and joyfully welcomed the rich newcomer, the largest
20581 landowner of the province. Temptations to Pierre's greatest weakness--
20582 the one to which he had confessed when admitted to the Lodge--were so
20583 strong that he could not resist them. Again whole days, weeks, and
20584 months of his life passed in as great a rush and were as much occupied
20585 with evening parties, dinners, lunches, and balls, giving him no time
20586 for reflection, as in Petersburg. Instead of the new life he had hoped
20587 to lead he still lived the old life, only in new surroundings.
20589 Of the three precepts of Freemasonry Pierre realized that he did not
20590 fulfill the one which enjoined every Mason to set an example of moral
20591 life, and that of the seven virtues he lacked two--morality and the love
20592 of death. He consoled himself with the thought that he fulfilled another
20593 of the precepts--that of reforming the human race--and had other
20594 virtues--love of his neighbor, and especially generosity.
20596 In the spring of 1807 he decided to return to Petersburg. On the way he
20597 intended to visit all his estates and see for himself how far his orders
20598 had been carried out and in what state were the serfs whom God had
20599 entrusted to his care and whom he intended to benefit.
20601 The chief steward, who considered the young count's attempts almost
20602 insane--unprofitable to himself, to the count, and to the serfs--made
20603 some concessions. Continuing to represent the liberation of the serfs as
20604 impracticable, he arranged for the erection of large buildings--schools,
20605 hospitals, and asylums--on all the estates before the master arrived.
20606 Everywhere preparations were made not for ceremonious welcomes (which he
20607 knew Pierre would not like), but for just such gratefully religious
20608 ones, with offerings of icons and the bread and salt of hospitality, as,
20609 according to his understanding of his master, would touch and delude
20612 The southern spring, the comfortable rapid traveling in a Vienna
20613 carriage, and the solitude of the road, all had a gladdening effect on
20614 Pierre. The estates he had not before visited were each more picturesque
20615 than the other; the serfs everywhere seemed thriving and touchingly
20616 grateful for the benefits conferred on them. Everywhere were receptions,
20617 which though they embarrassed Pierre awakened a joyful feeling in the
20618 depth of his heart. In one place the peasants presented him with bread
20619 and salt and an icon of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, asking permission,
20620 as a mark of their gratitude for the benefits he had conferred on them,
20621 to build a new chantry to the church at their own expense in honor of
20622 Peter and Paul, his patron saints. In another place the women with
20623 infants in arms met him to thank him for releasing them from hard work.
20624 On a third estate the priest, bearing a cross, came to meet him
20625 surrounded by children whom, by the count's generosity, he was
20626 instructing in reading, writing, and religion. On all his estates Pierre
20627 saw with his own eyes brick buildings erected or in course of erection,
20628 all on one plan, for hospitals, schools, and almshouses, which were soon
20629 to be opened. Everywhere he saw the stewards' accounts, according to
20630 which the serfs' manorial labor had been diminished, and heard the
20631 touching thanks of deputations of serfs in their full-skirted blue
20634 What Pierre did not know was that the place where they presented him
20635 with bread and salt and wished to build a chantry in honor of Peter and
20636 Paul was a market village where a fair was held on St. Peter's day, and
20637 that the richest peasants (who formed the deputation) had begun the
20638 chantry long before, but that nine tenths of the peasants in that
20639 villages were in a state of the greatest poverty. He did not know that
20640 since the nursing mothers were no longer sent to work on his land, they
20641 did still harder work on their own land. He did not know that the priest
20642 who met him with the cross oppressed the peasants by his exactions, and
20643 that the pupils' parents wept at having to let him take their children
20644 and secured their release by heavy payments. He did not know that the
20645 brick buildings, built to plan, were being built by serfs whose manorial
20646 labor was thus increased, though lessened on paper. He did not know that
20647 where the steward had shown him in the accounts that the serfs' payments
20648 had been diminished by a third, their obligatory manorial work had been
20649 increased by a half. And so Pierre was delighted with his visit to his
20650 estates and quite recovered the philanthropic mood in which he had left
20651 Petersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his "brother-instructor"
20652 as he called the Grand Master.
20654 "How easy it is, how little effort it needs, to do so much good,"
20655 thought Pierre, "and how little attention we pay to it!"
20657 He was pleased at the gratitude he received, but felt abashed at
20658 receiving it. This gratitude reminded him of how much more he might do
20659 for these simple, kindly people.
20661 The chief steward, a very stupid but cunning man who saw perfectly
20662 through the naive and intelligent count and played with him as with a
20663 toy, seeing the effect these prearranged receptions had on Pierre,
20664 pressed him still harder with proofs of the impossibility and above all
20665 the uselessness of freeing the serfs, who were quite happy as it was.
20667 Pierre in his secret soul agreed with the steward that it would be
20668 difficult to imagine happier people, and that God only knew what would
20669 happen to them when they were free, but he insisted, though reluctantly,
20670 on what he thought right. The steward promised to do all in his power to
20671 carry out the count's wishes, seeing clearly that not only would the
20672 count never be able to find out whether all measures had been taken for
20673 the sale of the land and forests and to release them from the Land Bank,
20674 but would probably never even inquire and would never know that the
20675 newly erected buildings were standing empty and that the serfs continued
20676 to give in money and work all that other people's serfs gave--that is to
20677 say, all that could be got out of them.
20684 Returning from his journey through South Russia in the happiest state of
20685 mind, Pierre carried out an intention he had long had of visiting his
20686 friend Bolkonski, whom he had not seen for two years.
20688 Bogucharovo lay in a flat uninteresting part of the country among fields
20689 and forests of fir and birch, which were partly cut down. The house lay
20690 behind a newly dug pond filled with water to the brink and with banks
20691 still bare of grass. It was at the end of a village that stretched along
20692 the highroad in the midst of a young copse in which were a few fir
20695 The homestead consisted of a threshing floor, outhouses, stables, a
20696 bathhouse, a lodge, and a large brick house with semicircular facade
20697 still in course of construction. Round the house was a garden newly laid
20698 out. The fences and gates were new and solid; two fire pumps and a water
20699 cart, painted green, stood in a shed; the paths were straight, the
20700 bridges were strong and had handrails. Everything bore an impress of
20701 tidiness and good management. Some domestic serfs Pierre met, in reply
20702 to inquiries as to where the prince lived, pointed out a small newly
20703 built lodge close to the pond. Anton, a man who had looked after Prince
20704 Andrew in his boyhood, helped Pierre out of his carriage, said that the
20705 prince was at home, and showed him into a clean little anteroom.
20707 Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small though clean house after
20708 the brilliant surroundings in which he had last met his friend in
20711 He quickly entered the small reception room with its still-unplastered
20712 wooden walls redolent of pine, and would have gone farther, but Anton
20713 ran ahead on tiptoe and knocked at a door.
20715 "Well, what is it?" came a sharp, unpleasant voice.
20717 "A visitor," answered Anton.
20719 "Ask him to wait," and the sound was heard of a chair being pushed back.
20721 Pierre went with rapid steps to the door and suddenly came face to face
20722 with Prince Andrew, who came out frowning and looking old. Pierre
20723 embraced him and lifting his spectacles kissed his friend on the cheek
20724 and looked at him closely.
20726 "Well, I did not expect you, I am very glad," said Prince Andrew.
20728 Pierre said nothing; he looked fixedly at his friend with surprise. He
20729 was struck by the change in him. His words were kindly and there was a
20730 smile on his lips and face, but his eyes were dull and lifeless and in
20731 spite of his evident wish to do so he could not give them a joyous and
20732 glad sparkle. Prince Andrew had grown thinner, paler, and more manly-
20733 looking, but what amazed and estranged Pierre till he got used to it
20734 were his inertia and a wrinkle on his brow indicating prolonged
20735 concentration on some one thought.
20737 As is usually the case with people meeting after a prolonged separation,
20738 it was long before their conversation could settle on anything. They put
20739 questions and gave brief replies about things they knew ought to be
20740 talked over at length. At last the conversation gradually settled on
20741 some of the topics at first lightly touched on: their past life, plans
20742 for the future, Pierre's journeys and occupations, the war, and so on.
20743 The preoccupation and despondency which Pierre had noticed in his
20744 friend's look was now still more clearly expressed in the smile with
20745 which he listened to Pierre, especially when he spoke with joyful
20746 animation of the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrew would
20747 have liked to sympathize with what Pierre was saying, but could not. The
20748 latter began to feel that it was in bad taste to speak of his
20749 enthusiasms, dreams, and hopes of happiness or goodness, in Prince
20750 Andrew's presence. He was ashamed to express his new masonic views,
20751 which had been particularly revived and strengthened by his late tour.
20752 He checked himself, fearing to seem naive, yet he felt an irresistible
20753 desire to show his friend as soon as possible that he was now a quite
20754 different, and better, Pierre than he had been in Petersburg.
20756 "I can't tell you how much I have lived through since then. I hardly
20757 know myself again."
20759 "Yes, we have altered much, very much, since then," said Prince Andrew.
20761 "Well, and you? What are your plans?"
20763 "Plans!" repeated Prince Andrew ironically. "My plans?" he said, as if
20764 astonished at the word. "Well, you see, I'm building. I mean to settle
20765 here altogether next year...."
20767 Pierre looked silently and searchingly into Prince Andrew's face, which
20768 had grown much older.
20770 "No, I meant to ask..." Pierre began, but Prince Andrew interrupted him.
20772 "But why talk of me?... Talk to me, yes, tell me about your travels and
20773 all you have been doing on your estates."
20775 Pierre began describing what he had done on his estates, trying as far
20776 as possible to conceal his own part in the improvements that had been
20777 made. Prince Andrew several times prompted Pierre's story of what he had
20778 been doing, as though it were all an old-time story, and he listened not
20779 only without interest but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling
20782 Pierre felt uncomfortable and even depressed in his friend's company and
20783 at last became silent.
20785 "I'll tell you what, my dear fellow," said Prince Andrew, who evidently
20786 also felt depressed and constrained with his visitor, "I am only
20787 bivouacking here and have just come to look round. I am going back to my
20788 sister today. I will introduce you to her. But of course you know her
20789 already," he said, evidently trying to entertain a visitor with whom he
20790 now found nothing in common. "We will go after dinner. And would you now
20791 like to look round my place?"
20793 They went out and walked about till dinnertime, talking of the political
20794 news and common acquaintances like people who do not know each other
20795 intimately. Prince Andrew spoke with some animation and interest only of
20796 the new homestead he was constructing and its buildings, but even here,
20797 while on the scaffolding, in the midst of a talk explaining the future
20798 arrangements of the house, he interrupted himself:
20800 "However, this is not at all interesting. Let us have dinner, and then
20803 At dinner, conversation turned on Pierre's marriage.
20805 "I was very much surprised when I heard of it," said Prince Andrew.
20807 Pierre blushed, as he always did when it was mentioned, and said
20808 hurriedly: "I will tell you some time how it all happened. But you know
20809 it is all over, and forever."
20811 "Forever?" said Prince Andrew. "Nothing's forever."
20813 "But you know how it all ended, don't you? You heard of the duel?"
20815 "And so you had to go through that too!"
20817 "One thing I thank God for is that I did not kill that man," said
20820 "Why so?" asked Prince Andrew. "To kill a vicious dog is a very good
20823 "No, to kill a man is bad--wrong."
20825 "Why is it wrong?" urged Prince Andrew. "It is not given to man to know
20826 what is right and what is wrong. Men always did and always will err, and
20827 in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong."
20829 "What does harm to another is wrong," said Pierre, feeling with pleasure
20830 that for the first time since his arrival Prince Andrew was roused, had
20831 begun to talk, and wanted to express what had brought him to his present
20834 "And who has told you what is bad for another man?" he asked.
20836 "Bad! Bad!" exclaimed Pierre. "We all know what is bad for ourselves."
20838 "Yes, we know that, but the harm I am conscious of in myself is
20839 something I cannot inflict on others," said Prince Andrew, growing more
20840 and more animated and evidently wishing to express his new outlook to
20841 Pierre. He spoke in French. "I only know two very real evils in life:
20842 remorse and illness. The only good is the absence of those evils. To
20843 live for myself avoiding those two evils is my whole philosophy now."
20845 "And love of one's neighbor, and self-sacrifice?" began Pierre. "No, I
20846 can't agree with you! To live only so as not to do evil and not to have
20847 to repent is not enough. I lived like that, I lived for myself and
20848 ruined my life. And only now when I am living, or at least trying"
20849 (Pierre's modesty made him correct himself) "to live for others, only
20850 now have I understood all the happiness of life. No, I shall not agree
20851 with you, and you do not really believe what you are saying." Prince
20852 Andrew looked silently at Pierre with an ironic smile.
20854 "When you see my sister, Princess Mary, you'll get on with her," he
20855 said. "Perhaps you are right for yourself," he added after a short
20856 pause, "but everyone lives in his own way. You lived for yourself and
20857 say you nearly ruined your life and only found happiness when you began
20858 living for others. I experienced just the reverse. I lived for glory.--
20859 And after all what is glory? The same love of others, a desire to do
20860 something for them, a desire for their approval.--So I lived for others,
20861 and not almost, but quite, ruined my life. And I have become calmer
20862 since I began to live only for myself."
20864 "But what do you mean by living only for yourself?" asked Pierre,
20865 growing excited. "What about your son, your sister, and your father?"
20867 "But that's just the same as myself--they are not others," explained
20868 Prince Andrew. "The others, one's neighbors, le prochain, as you and
20869 Princess Mary call it, are the chief source of all error and evil. Le
20870 prochain--your Kiev peasants to whom you want to do good."
20872 And he looked at Pierre with a mocking, challenging expression. He
20873 evidently wished to draw him on.
20875 "You are joking," replied Pierre, growing more and more excited. "What
20876 error or evil can there be in my wishing to do good, and even doing a
20877 little--though I did very little and did it very badly? What evil can
20878 there be in it if unfortunate people, our serfs, people like ourselves,
20879 were growing up and dying with no idea of God and truth beyond
20880 ceremonies and meaningless prayers and are now instructed in a
20881 comforting belief in future life, retribution, recompense, and
20882 consolation? What evil and error are there in it, if people were dying
20883 of disease without help while material assistance could so easily be
20884 rendered, and I supplied them with a doctor, a hospital, and an asylum
20885 for the aged? And is it not a palpable, unquestionable good if a
20886 peasant, or a woman with a baby, has no rest day or night and I give
20887 them rest and leisure?" said Pierre, hurrying and lisping. "And I have
20888 done that though badly and to a small extent; but I have done something
20889 toward it and you cannot persuade me that it was not a good action, and
20890 more than that, you can't make me believe that you do not think so
20891 yourself. And the main thing is," he continued, "that I know, and know
20892 for certain, that the enjoyment of doing this good is the only sure
20893 happiness in life."
20895 "Yes, if you put it like that it's quite a different matter," said
20896 Prince Andrew. "I build a house and lay out a garden, and you build
20897 hospitals. The one and the other may serve as a pastime. But what's
20898 right and what's good must be judged by one who knows all, but not by
20899 us. Well, you want an argument," he added, "come on then."
20901 They rose from the table and sat down in the entrance porch which served
20904 "Come, let's argue then," said Prince Andrew, "You talk of schools," he
20905 went on, crooking a finger, "education and so forth; that is, you want
20906 to raise him" (pointing to a peasant who passed by them taking off his
20907 cap) "from his animal condition and awaken in him spiritual needs, while
20908 it seems to me that animal happiness is the only happiness possible, and
20909 that is just what you want to deprive him of. I envy him, but you want
20910 to make him what I am, without giving him my means. Then you say,
20911 'lighten his toil.' But as I see it, physical labor is as essential to
20912 him, as much a condition of his existence, as mental activity is to you
20913 or me. You can't help thinking. I go to bed after two in the morning,
20914 thoughts come and I can't sleep but toss about till dawn, because I
20915 think and can't help thinking, just as he can't help plowing and mowing;
20916 if he didn't, he would go to the drink shop or fall ill. Just as I could
20917 not stand his terrible physical labor but should die of it in a week, so
20918 he could not stand my physical idleness, but would grow fat and die. The
20919 third thing--what else was it you talked about?" and Prince Andrew
20920 crooked a third finger. "Ah, yes, hospitals, medicine. He has a fit, he
20921 is dying, and you come and bleed him and patch him up. He will drag
20922 about as a cripple, a burden to everybody, for another ten years. It
20923 would be far easier and simpler for him to die. Others are being born
20924 and there are plenty of them as it is. It would be different if you
20925 grudged losing a laborer--that's how I regard him--but you want to cure
20926 him from love of him. And he does not want that. And besides, what a
20927 notion that medicine ever cured anyone! Killed them, yes!" said he,
20928 frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre.
20930 Prince Andrew expressed his ideas so clearly and distinctly that it was
20931 evident he had reflected on this subject more than once, and he spoke
20932 readily and rapidly like a man who has not talked for a long time. His
20933 glance became more animated as his conclusions became more hopeless.
20935 "Oh, that is dreadful, dreadful!" said Pierre. "I don't understand how
20936 one can live with such ideas. I had such moments myself not long ago, in
20937 Moscow and when traveling, but at such times I collapsed so that I don't
20938 live at all--everything seems hateful to me... myself most of all. Then
20939 I don't eat, don't wash... and how is it with you?..."
20941 "Why not wash? That is not cleanly," said Prince Andrew; "on the
20942 contrary one must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm
20943 alive, that is not my fault, so I must live out my life as best I can
20944 without hurting others."
20946 "But with such ideas what motive have you for living? One would sit
20947 without moving, undertaking nothing...."
20949 "Life as it is leaves one no peace. I should be thankful to do nothing,
20950 but here on the one hand the local nobility have done me the honor to
20951 choose me to be their marshal; it was all I could do to get out of it.
20952 They could not understand that I have not the necessary qualifications
20953 for it--the kind of good-natured, fussy shallowness necessary for the
20954 position. Then there's this house, which must be built in order to have
20955 a nook of one's own in which to be quiet. And now there's this
20958 "Why aren't you serving in the army?"
20960 "After Austerlitz!" said Prince Andrew gloomily. "No, thank you very
20961 much! I have promised myself not to serve again in the active Russian
20962 army. And I won't--not even if Bonaparte were here at Smolensk
20963 threatening Bald Hills--even then I wouldn't serve in the Russian army!
20964 Well, as I was saying," he continued, recovering his composure, "now
20965 there's this recruiting. My father is chief in command of the Third
20966 District, and my only way of avoiding active service is to serve under
20969 "Then you are serving?"
20973 He paused a little while.
20975 "And why do you serve?"
20977 "Why, for this reason! My father is one of the most remarkable men of
20978 his time. But he is growing old, and though not exactly cruel he has too
20979 energetic a character. He is so accustomed to unlimited power that he is
20980 terrible, and now he has this authority of a commander-in-chief of the
20981 recruiting, granted by the Emperor. If I had been two hours late a
20982 fortnight ago he would have had a paymaster's clerk at Yukhnovna
20983 hanged," said Prince Andrew with a smile. "So I am serving because I
20984 alone have any influence with my father, and now and then can save him
20985 from actions which would torment him afterwards."
20987 "Well, there you see!"
20989 "Yes, but it is not as you imagine," Prince Andrew continued. "I did
20990 not, and do not, in the least care about that scoundrel of a clerk who
20991 had stolen some boots from the recruits; I should even have been very
20992 glad to see him hanged, but I was sorry for my father--that again is for
20995 Prince Andrew grew more and more animated. His eyes glittered feverishly
20996 while he tried to prove to Pierre that in his actions there was no
20997 desire to do good to his neighbor.
20999 "There now, you wish to liberate your serfs," he continued; "that is a
21000 very good thing, but not for you--I don't suppose you ever had anyone
21001 flogged or sent to Siberia--and still less for your serfs. If they are
21002 beaten, flogged, or sent to Siberia, I don't suppose they are any the
21003 worse off. In Siberia they lead the same animal life, and the stripes on
21004 their bodies heal, and they are happy as before. But it is a good thing
21005 for proprietors who perish morally, bring remorse upon themselves,
21006 stifle this remorse and grow callous, as a result of being able to
21007 inflict punishments justly and unjustly. It is those people I pity, and
21008 for their sake I should like to liberate the serfs. You may not have
21009 seen, but I have seen, how good men brought up in those traditions of
21010 unlimited power, in time when they grow more irritable, become cruel and
21011 harsh, are conscious of it, but cannot restrain themselves and grow more
21012 and more miserable."
21014 Prince Andrew spoke so earnestly that Pierre could not help thinking
21015 that these thoughts had been suggested to Prince Andrew by his father's
21020 "So that's what I'm sorry for--human dignity, peace of mind, purity, and
21021 not the serfs' backs and foreheads, which, beat and shave as you may,
21022 always remain the same backs and foreheads."
21024 "No, no! A thousand times no! I shall never agree with you," said
21032 In the evening Andrew and Pierre got into the open carriage and drove to
21033 Bald Hills. Prince Andrew, glancing at Pierre, broke the silence now and
21034 then with remarks which showed that he was in a good temper.
21036 Pointing to the fields, he spoke of the improvements he was making in
21039 Pierre remained gloomily silent, answering in monosyllables and
21040 apparently immersed in his own thoughts.
21042 He was thinking that Prince Andrew was unhappy, had gone astray, did not
21043 see the true light, and that he, Pierre, ought to aid, enlighten, and
21044 raise him. But as soon as he thought of what he should say, he felt that
21045 Prince Andrew with one word, one argument, would upset all his teaching,
21046 and he shrank from beginning, afraid of exposing to possible ridicule
21047 what to him was precious and sacred.
21049 "No, but why do you think so?" Pierre suddenly began, lowering his head
21050 and looking like a bull about to charge, "why do you think so? You
21051 should not think so."
21053 "Think? What about?" asked Prince Andrew with surprise.
21055 "About life, about man's destiny. It can't be so. I myself thought like
21056 that, and do you know what saved me? Freemasonry! No, don't smile.
21057 Freemasonry is not a religious ceremonial sect, as I thought it was:
21058 Freemasonry is the best expression of the best, the eternal, aspects of
21061 And he began to explain Freemasonry as he understood it to Prince
21062 Andrew. He said that Freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity freed
21063 from the bonds of State and Church, a teaching of equality, brotherhood,
21066 "Only our holy brotherhood has the real meaning of life, all the rest is
21067 a dream," said Pierre. "Understand, my dear fellow, that outside this
21068 union all is filled with deceit and falsehood and I agree with you that
21069 nothing is left for an intelligent and good man but to live out his
21070 life, like you, merely trying not to harm others. But make our
21071 fundamental convictions your own, join our brotherhood, give yourself up
21072 to us, let yourself be guided, and you will at once feel yourself, as I
21073 have felt myself, a part of that vast invisible chain the beginning of
21074 which is hidden in heaven," said Pierre.
21076 Prince Andrew, looking straight in front of him, listened in silence to
21077 Pierre's words. More than once, when the noise of the wheels prevented
21078 his catching what Pierre said, he asked him to repeat it, and by the
21079 peculiar glow that came into Prince Andrew's eyes and by his silence,
21080 Pierre saw that his words were not in vain and that Prince Andrew would
21081 not interrupt him or laugh at what he said.
21083 They reached a river that had overflowed its banks and which they had to
21084 cross by ferry. While the carriage and horses were being placed on it,
21085 they also stepped on the raft.
21087 Prince Andrew, leaning his arms on the raft railing, gazed silently at
21088 the flooding waters glittering in the setting sun.
21090 "Well, what do you think about it?" Pierre asked. "Why are you silent?"
21092 "What do I think about it? I am listening to you. It's all very well....
21093 You say: join our brotherhood and we will show you the aim of life, the
21094 destiny of man, and the laws which govern the world. But who are we?
21095 Men. How is it you know everything? Why do I alone not see what you see?
21096 You see a reign of goodness and truth on earth, but I don't see it."
21098 Pierre interrupted him.
21100 "Do you believe in a future life?" he asked.
21102 "A future life?" Prince Andrew repeated, but Pierre, giving him no time
21103 to reply, took the repetition for a denial, the more readily as he knew
21104 Prince Andrew's former atheistic convictions.
21106 "You say you can't see a reign of goodness and truth on earth. Nor could
21107 I, and it cannot be seen if one looks on our life here as the end of
21108 everything. On earth, here on this earth" (Pierre pointed to the
21109 fields), "there is no truth, all is false and evil; but in the universe,
21110 in the whole universe there is a kingdom of truth, and we who are now
21111 the children of earth are--eternally--children of the whole universe.
21112 Don't I feel in my soul that I am part of this vast harmonious whole?
21113 Don't I feel that I form one link, one step, between the lower and
21114 higher beings, in this vast harmonious multitude of beings in whom the
21115 Deity--the Supreme Power if you prefer the term--is manifest? If I see,
21116 clearly see, that ladder leading from plant to man, why should I suppose
21117 it breaks off at me and does not go farther and farther? I feel that I
21118 cannot vanish, since nothing vanishes in this world, but that I shall
21119 always exist and always have existed. I feel that beyond me and above me
21120 there are spirits, and that in this world there is truth."
21122 "Yes, that is Herder's theory," said Prince Andrew, "but it is not that
21123 which can convince me, dear friend--life and death are what convince.
21124 What convinces is when one sees a being dear to one, bound up with one's
21125 own life, before whom one was to blame and had hoped to make it right"
21126 (Prince Andrew's voice trembled and he turned away), "and suddenly that
21127 being is seized with pain, suffers, and ceases to exist.... Why? It
21128 cannot be that there is no answer. And I believe there is.... That's
21129 what convinces, that is what has convinced me," said Prince Andrew.
21131 "Yes, yes, of course," said Pierre, "isn't that what I'm saying?"
21133 "No. All I say is that it is not argument that convinces me of the
21134 necessity of a future life, but this: when you go hand in hand with
21135 someone and all at once that person vanishes there, into nowhere, and
21136 you yourself are left facing that abyss, and look in. And I have looked
21139 "Well, that's it then! You know that there is a there and there is a
21140 Someone? There is the future life. The Someone is--God."
21142 Prince Andrew did not reply. The carriage and horses had long since been
21143 taken off, onto the farther bank, and reharnessed. The sun had sunk half
21144 below the horizon and an evening frost was starring the puddles near the
21145 ferry, but Pierre and Andrew, to the astonishment of the footmen,
21146 coachmen, and ferrymen, still stood on the raft and talked.
21148 "If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man's
21149 highest happiness consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we
21150 must love, and we must believe that we live not only today on this scrap
21151 of earth, but have lived and shall live forever, there, in the Whole,"
21152 said Pierre, and he pointed to the sky.
21154 Prince Andrew stood leaning on the railing of the raft listening to
21155 Pierre, and he gazed with his eyes fixed on the red reflection of the
21156 sun gleaming on the blue waters. There was perfect stillness. Pierre
21157 became silent. The raft had long since stopped and only the waves of the
21158 current beat softly against it below. Prince Andrew felt as if the sound
21159 of the waves kept up a refrain to Pierre's words, whispering:
21161 "It is true, believe it."
21163 He sighed, and glanced with a radiant, childlike, tender look at
21164 Pierre's face, flushed and rapturous, but yet shy before his superior
21167 "Yes, if it only were so!" said Prince Andrew. "However, it is time to
21168 get on," he added, and, stepping off the raft, he looked up at the sky
21169 to which Pierre had pointed, and for the first time since Austerlitz saw
21170 that high, everlasting sky he had seen while lying on that battlefield;
21171 and something that had long been slumbering, something that was best
21172 within him, suddenly awoke, joyful and youthful, in his soul. It
21173 vanished as soon as he returned to the customary conditions of his life,
21174 but he knew that this feeling which he did not know how to develop
21175 existed within him. His meeting with Pierre formed an epoch in Prince
21176 Andrew's life. Though outwardly he continued to live in the same old
21177 way, inwardly he began a new life.
21184 It was getting dusk when Prince Andrew and Pierre drove up to the front
21185 entrance of the house at Bald Hills. As they approached the house,
21186 Prince Andrew with a smile drew Pierre's attention to a commotion going
21187 on at the back porch. A woman, bent with age, with a wallet on her back,
21188 and a short, long-haired, young man in a black garment had rushed back
21189 to the gate on seeing the carriage driving up. Two women ran out after
21190 them, and all four, looking round at the carriage, ran in dismay up the
21191 steps of the back porch.
21193 "Those are Mary's 'God's folk,'" said Prince Andrew. "They have mistaken
21194 us for my father. This is the one matter in which she disobeys him. He
21195 orders these pilgrims to be driven away, but she receives them."
21197 "But what are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
21199 Prince Andrew had no time to answer. The servants came out to meet them,
21200 and he asked where the old prince was and whether he was expected back
21203 The old prince had gone to the town and was expected back any minute.
21205 Prince Andrew led Pierre to his own apartments, which were always kept
21206 in perfect order and readiness for him in his father's house; he himself
21207 went to the nursery.
21209 "Let us go and see my sister," he said to Pierre when he returned. "I
21210 have not found her yet, she is hiding now, sitting with her 'God's
21211 folk.' It will serve her right, she will be confused, but you will see
21212 her 'God's folk.' It's really very curious."
21214 "What are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
21216 "Come, and you'll see for yourself."
21218 Princess Mary really was disconcerted and red patches came on her face
21219 when they went in. In her snug room, with lamps burning before the icon
21220 stand, a young lad with a long nose and long hair, wearing a monk's
21221 cassock, sat on the sofa beside her, behind a samovar. Near them, in an
21222 armchair, sat a thin, shriveled, old woman, with a meek expression on
21223 her childlike face.
21225 "Andrew, why didn't you warn me?" said the princess, with mild reproach,
21226 as she stood before her pilgrims like a hen before her chickens.
21228 "Charmee de vous voir. Je suis tres contente de vous voir," * she said
21229 to Pierre as he kissed her hand. She had known him as a child, and now
21230 his friendship with Andrew, his misfortune with his wife, and above all
21231 his kindly, simple face disposed her favorably toward him. She looked at
21232 him with her beautiful radiant eyes and seemed to say, "I like you very
21233 much, but please don't laugh at my people." After exchanging the first
21234 greetings, they sat down.
21237 * "Delighted to see you. I am very glad to see you."
21239 "Ah, and Ivanushka is here too!" said Prince Andrew, glancing with a
21240 smile at the young pilgrim.
21242 "Andrew!" said Princess Mary, imploringly. "Il faut que vous sachiez que
21243 c'est une femme," * said Prince Andrew to Pierre.
21245 "Andrew, au nom de Dieu!" *(2) Princess Mary repeated.
21248 * "You must know that this is a woman."
21250 * (2) "For heaven's sake."
21252 It was evident that Prince Andrew's ironical tone toward the pilgrims
21253 and Princess Mary's helpless attempts to protect them were their
21254 customary long-established relations on the matter.
21256 "Mais, ma bonne amie," said Prince Andrew, "vous devriez au contraire
21257 m'etre reconnaissante de ce que j'explique a Pierre votre intimite avec
21261 * "But, my dear, you ought on the contrary to be grateful to me for
21262 explaining to Pierre your intimacy with this young man."
21264 "Really?" said Pierre, gazing over his spectacles with curiosity and
21265 seriousness (for which Princess Mary was specially grateful to him) into
21266 Ivanushka's face, who, seeing that she was being spoken about, looked
21267 round at them all with crafty eyes.
21269 Princess Mary's embarrassment on her people's account was quite
21270 unnecessary. They were not in the least abashed. The old woman, lowering
21271 her eyes but casting side glances at the newcomers, had turned her cup
21272 upside down and placed a nibbled bit of sugar beside it, and sat quietly
21273 in her armchair, though hoping to be offered another cup of tea.
21274 Ivanushka, sipping out of her saucer, looked with sly womanish eyes from
21275 under her brows at the young men.
21277 "Where have you been? To Kiev?" Prince Andrew asked the old woman.
21279 "I have, good sir," she answered garrulously. "Just at Christmastime I
21280 was deemed worthy to partake of the holy and heavenly sacrament at the
21281 shrine of the saint. And now I'm from Kolyazin, master, where a great
21282 and wonderful blessing has been revealed."
21284 "And was Ivanushka with you?"
21286 "I go by myself, benefactor," said Ivanushka, trying to speak in a bass
21287 voice. "I only came across Pelageya in Yukhnovo..."
21289 Pelageya interrupted her companion; she evidently wished to tell what
21292 "In Kolyazin, master, a wonderful blessing has been revealed."
21294 "What is it? Some new relics?" asked Prince Andrew.
21296 "Andrew, do leave off," said Princess Mary. "Don't tell him, Pelageya."
21298 "No... why not, my dear, why shouldn't I? I like him. He is kind, he is
21299 one of God's chosen, he's a benefactor, he once gave me ten rubles, I
21300 remember. When I was in Kiev, Crazy Cyril says to me (he's one of God's
21301 own and goes barefoot summer and winter), he says, 'Why are you not
21302 going to the right place? Go to Kolyazin where a wonder-working icon of
21303 the Holy Mother of God has been revealed.' On hearing those words I said
21304 good-by to the holy folk and went."
21306 All were silent, only the pilgrim woman went on in measured tones,
21307 drawing in her breath.
21309 "So I come, master, and the people say to me: 'A great blessing has been
21310 revealed, holy oil trickles from the cheeks of our blessed Mother, the
21311 Holy Virgin Mother of God'...."
21313 "All right, all right, you can tell us afterwards," said Princess Mary,
21316 "Let me ask her," said Pierre. "Did you see it yourselves?" he inquired.
21318 "Oh, yes, master, I was found worthy. Such a brightness on the face like
21319 the light of heaven, and from the blessed Mother's cheek it drops and
21322 "But, dear me, that must be a fraud!" said Pierre, naively, who had
21323 listened attentively to the pilgrim.
21325 "Oh, master, what are you saying?" exclaimed the horrified Pelageya,
21326 turning to Princess Mary for support.
21328 "They impose on the people," he repeated.
21330 "Lord Jesus Christ!" exclaimed the pilgrim woman, crossing herself. "Oh,
21331 don't speak so, master! There was a general who did not believe, and
21332 said, 'The monks cheat,' and as soon as he'd said it he went blind. And
21333 he dreamed that the Holy Virgin Mother of the Kiev catacombs came to him
21334 and said, 'Believe in me and I will make you whole.' So he begged: 'Take
21335 me to her, take me to her.' It's the real truth I'm telling you, I saw
21336 it myself. So he was brought, quite blind, straight to her, and he goes
21337 up to her and falls down and says, 'Make me whole,' says he, 'and I'll
21338 give thee what the Tsar bestowed on me.' I saw it myself, master, the
21339 star is fixed into the icon. Well, and what do you think? He received
21340 his sight! It's a sin to speak so. God will punish you," she said
21341 admonishingly, turning to Pierre.
21343 "How did the star get into the icon?" Pierre asked.
21345 "And was the Holy Mother promoted to the rank of general?" said Prince
21346 Andrew, with a smile.
21348 Pelageya suddenly grew quite pale and clasped her hands.
21350 "Oh, master, master, what a sin! And you who have a son!" she began, her
21351 pallor suddenly turning to a vivid red. "Master, what have you said? God
21352 forgive you!" And she crossed herself. "Lord forgive him! My dear, what
21353 does it mean?..." she asked, turning to Princess Mary. She got up and,
21354 almost crying, began to arrange her wallet. She evidently felt
21355 frightened and ashamed to have accepted charity in a house where such
21356 things could be said, and was at the same time sorry to have now to
21357 forgo the charity of this house.
21359 "Now, why need you do it?" said Princess Mary. "Why did you come to
21362 "Come, Pelageya, I was joking," said Pierre. "Princesse, ma parole, je
21363 n'ai pas voulu l'offenser. * I did not mean anything, I was only
21364 joking," he said, smiling shyly and trying to efface his offense. "It
21365 was all my fault, and Andrew was only joking."
21368 * "Princess, on my word, I did not wish to offend her."
21370 Pelageya stopped doubtfully, but in Pierre's face there was such a look
21371 of sincere penitence, and Prince Andrew glanced so meekly now at her and
21372 now at Pierre, that she was gradually reassured.
21379 The pilgrim woman was appeased and, being encouraged to talk, gave a
21380 long account of Father Amphilochus, who led so holy a life that his
21381 hands smelled of incense, and how on her last visit to Kiev some monks
21382 she knew let her have the keys of the catacombs, and how she, taking
21383 some dried bread with her, had spent two days in the catacombs with the
21384 saints. "I'd pray awhile to one, ponder awhile, then go on to another.
21385 I'd sleep a bit and then again go and kiss the relics, and there was
21386 such peace all around, such blessedness, that one don't want to come
21387 out, even into the light of heaven again."
21389 Pierre listened to her attentively and seriously. Prince Andrew went out
21390 of the room, and then, leaving "God's folk" to finish their tea,
21391 Princess Mary took Pierre into the drawing room.
21393 "You are very kind," she said to him.
21395 "Oh, I really did not mean to hurt her feelings. I understand them so
21396 well and have the greatest respect for them."
21398 Princess Mary looked at him silently and smiled affectionately.
21400 "I have known you a long time, you see, and am as fond of you as of a
21401 brother," she said. "How do you find Andrew?" she added hurriedly, not
21402 giving him time to reply to her affectionate words. "I am very anxious
21403 about him. His health was better in the winter, but last spring his
21404 wound reopened and the doctor said he ought to go away for a cure. And I
21405 am also very much afraid for him spiritually. He has not a character
21406 like us women who, when we suffer, can weep away our sorrows. He keeps
21407 it all within him. Today he is cheerful and in good spirits, but that is
21408 the effect of your visit--he is not often like that. If you could
21409 persuade him to go abroad. He needs activity, and this quiet regular
21410 life is very bad for him. Others don't notice it, but I see it."
21412 Toward ten o'clock the men servants rushed to the front door, hearing
21413 the bells of the old prince's carriage approaching. Prince Andrew and
21414 Pierre also went out into the porch.
21416 "Who's that?" asked the old prince, noticing Pierre as he got out of the
21419 "Ah! Very glad! Kiss me," he said, having learned who the young stranger
21422 The old prince was in a good temper and very gracious to Pierre.
21424 Before supper, Prince Andrew, coming back to his father's study, found
21425 him disputing hotly with his visitor. Pierre was maintaining that a time
21426 would come when there would be no more wars. The old prince disputed it
21427 chaffingly, but without getting angry.
21429 "Drain the blood from men's veins and put in water instead, then there
21430 will be no more war! Old women's nonsense--old women's nonsense!" he
21431 repeated, but still he patted Pierre affectionately on the shoulder, and
21432 then went up to the table where Prince Andrew, evidently not wishing to
21433 join in the conversation, was looking over the papers his father had
21434 brought from town. The old prince went up to him and began to talk
21437 "The marshal, a Count Rostov, hasn't sent half his contingent. He came
21438 to town and wanted to invite me to dinner--I gave him a pretty
21439 dinner!... And there, look at this.... Well, my boy," the old prince
21440 went on, addressing his son and patting Pierre on the shoulder. "A fine
21441 fellow--your friend--I like him! He stirs me up. Another says clever
21442 things and one doesn't care to listen, but this one talks rubbish yet
21443 stirs an old fellow up. Well, go! Get along! Perhaps I'll come and sit
21444 with you at supper. We'll have another dispute. Make friends with my
21445 little fool, Princess Mary," he shouted after Pierre, through the door.
21447 Only now, on his visit to Bald Hills, did Pierre fully realize the
21448 strength and charm of his friendship with Prince Andrew. That charm was
21449 not expressed so much in his relations with him as with all his family
21450 and with the household. With the stern old prince and the gentle, timid
21451 Princess Mary, though he had scarcely known them, Pierre at once felt
21452 like an old friend. They were all fond of him already. Not only Princess
21453 Mary, who had been won by his gentleness with the pilgrims, gave him her
21454 most radiant looks, but even the one-year-old "Prince Nicholas" (as his
21455 grandfather called him) smiled at Pierre and let himself be taken in his
21456 arms, and Michael Ivanovich and Mademoiselle Bourienne looked at him
21457 with pleasant smiles when he talked to the old prince.
21459 The old prince came in to supper; this was evidently on Pierre's
21460 account. And during the two days of the young man's visit he was
21461 extremely kind to him and told him to visit them again.
21463 When Pierre had gone and the members of the household met together, they
21464 began to express their opinions of him as people always do after a new
21465 acquaintance has left, but as seldom happens, no one said anything but
21466 what was good of him.
21473 When returning from his leave, Rostov felt, for the first time, how
21474 close was the bond that united him to Denisov and the whole regiment.
21476 On approaching it, Rostov felt as he had done when approaching his home
21477 in Moscow. When he saw the first hussar with the unbuttoned uniform of
21478 his regiment, when he recognized red-haired Dementyev and saw the picket
21479 ropes of the roan horses, when Lavrushka gleefully shouted to his
21480 master, "The count has come!" and Denisov, who had been asleep on his
21481 bed, ran all disheveled out of the mud hut to embrace him, and the
21482 officers collected round to greet the new arrival, Rostov experienced
21483 the same feeling as when his mother, his father, and his sister had
21484 embraced him, and tears of joy choked him so that he could not speak.
21485 The regiment was also a home, and as unalterably dear and precious as
21486 his parents' house.
21488 When he had reported himself to the commander of the regiment and had
21489 been reassigned to his former squadron, had been on duty and had gone
21490 out foraging, when he had again entered into all the little interests of
21491 the regiment and felt himself deprived of liberty and bound in one
21492 narrow, unchanging frame, he experienced the same sense of peace, of
21493 moral support, and the same sense of being at home here in his own
21494 place, as he had felt under the parental roof. But here was none of all
21495 that turmoil of the world at large, where he did not know his right
21496 place and took mistaken decisions; here was no Sonya with whom he ought,
21497 or ought not, to have an explanation; here was no possibility of going
21498 there or not going there; here there were not twenty-four hours in the
21499 day which could be spent in such a variety of ways; there was not that
21500 innumerable crowd of people of whom not one was nearer to him or farther
21501 from him than another; there were none of those uncertain and undefined
21502 money relations with his father, and nothing to recall that terrible
21503 loss to Dolokhov. Here, in the regiment, all was clear and simple. The
21504 whole world was divided into two unequal parts: one, our Pavlograd
21505 regiment; the other, all the rest. And the rest was no concern of his.
21506 In the regiment, everything was definite: who was lieutenant, who
21507 captain, who was a good fellow, who a bad one, and most of all, who was
21508 a comrade. The canteenkeeper gave one credit, one's pay came every four
21509 months, there was nothing to think out or decide, you had only to do
21510 nothing that was considered bad in the Pavlograd regiment and, when
21511 given an order, to do what was clearly, distinctly, and definitely
21512 ordered--and all would be well.
21514 Having once more entered into the definite conditions of this regimental
21515 life, Rostov felt the joy and relief a tired man feels on lying down to
21516 rest. Life in the regiment, during this campaign, was all the pleasanter
21517 for him, because, after his loss to Dolokhov (for which, in spite of all
21518 his family's efforts to console him, he could not forgive himself), he
21519 had made up his mind to atone for his fault by serving, not as he had
21520 done before, but really well, and by being a perfectly first-rate
21521 comrade and officer--in a word, a splendid man altogether, a thing which
21522 seemed so difficult out in the world, but so possible in the regiment.
21524 After his losses, he had determined to pay back his debt to his parents
21525 in five years. He received ten thousand rubles a year, but now resolved
21526 to take only two thousand and leave the rest to repay the debt to his
21529 Our army, after repeated retreats and advances and battles at Pultusk
21530 and Preussisch-Eylau, was concentrated near Bartenstein. It was awaiting
21531 the Emperor's arrival and the beginning of a new campaign.
21533 The Pavlograd regiment, belonging to that part of the army which had
21534 served in the 1805 campaign, had been recruiting up to strength in
21535 Russia, and arrived too late to take part in the first actions of the
21536 campaign. It had been neither at Pultusk nor at Preussisch-Eylau and,
21537 when it joined the army in the field in the second half of the campaign,
21538 was attached to Platov's division.
21540 Platov's division was acting independently of the main army. Several
21541 times parts of the Pavlograd regiment had exchanged shots with the
21542 enemy, had taken prisoners, and once had even captured Marshal Oudinot's
21543 carriages. In April the Pavlograds were stationed immovably for some
21544 weeks near a totally ruined and deserted German village.
21546 A thaw had set in, it was muddy and cold, the ice on the river broke,
21547 and the roads became impassable. For days neither provisions for the men
21548 nor fodder for the horses had been issued. As no transports could
21549 arrive, the men dispersed about the abandoned and deserted villages,
21550 searching for potatoes, but found few even of these.
21552 Everything had been eaten up and the inhabitants had all fled--if any
21553 remained, they were worse than beggars and nothing more could be taken
21554 from them; even the soldiers, usually pitiless enough, instead of taking
21555 anything from them, often gave them the last of their rations.
21557 The Pavlograd regiment had had only two men wounded in action, but had
21558 lost nearly half its men from hunger and sickness. In the hospitals,
21559 death was so certain that soldiers suffering from fever, or the swelling
21560 that came from bad food, preferred to remain on duty, and hardly able to
21561 drag their legs went to the front rather than to the hospitals. When
21562 spring came on, the soldiers found a plant just showing out of the
21563 ground that looked like asparagus, which, for some reason, they called
21564 "Mashka's sweet root." It was very bitter, but they wandered about the
21565 fields seeking it and dug it out with their sabers and ate it, though
21566 they were ordered not to do so, as it was a noxious plant. That spring a
21567 new disease broke out among the soldiers, a swelling of the arms, legs,
21568 and face, which the doctors attributed to eating this root. But in spite
21569 of all this, the soldiers of Denisov's squadron fed chiefly on "Mashka's
21570 sweet root," because it was the second week that the last of the
21571 biscuits were being doled out at the rate of half a pound a man and the
21572 last potatoes received had sprouted and frozen.
21574 The horses also had been fed for a fortnight on straw from the thatched
21575 roofs and had become terribly thin, though still covered with tufts of
21578 Despite this destitution, the soldiers and officers went on living just
21579 as usual. Despite their pale swollen faces and tattered uniforms, the
21580 hussars formed line for roll call, kept things in order, groomed their
21581 horses, polished their arms, brought in straw from the thatched roofs in
21582 place of fodder, and sat down to dine round the caldrons from which they
21583 rose up hungry, joking about their nasty food and their hunger. As
21584 usual, in their spare time, they lit bonfires, steamed themselves before
21585 them naked; smoked, picked out and baked sprouting rotten potatoes, told
21586 and listened to stories of Potemkin's and Suvorov's campaigns, or to
21587 legends of Alesha the Sly, or the priest's laborer Mikolka.
21589 The officers, as usual, lived in twos and threes in the roofless, half-
21590 ruined houses. The seniors tried to collect straw and potatoes and, in
21591 general, food for the men. The younger ones occupied themselves as
21592 before, some playing cards (there was plenty of money, though there was
21593 no food), some with more innocent games, such as quoits and skittles.
21594 The general trend of the campaign was rarely spoken of, partly because
21595 nothing certain was known about it, partly because there was a vague
21596 feeling that in the main it was going badly.
21598 Rostov lived, as before, with Denisov, and since their furlough they had
21599 become more friendly than ever. Denisov never spoke of Rostov's family,
21600 but by the tender friendship his commander showed him, Rostov felt that
21601 the elder hussar's luckless love for Natasha played a part in
21602 strengthening their friendship. Denisov evidently tried to expose Rostov
21603 to danger as seldom as possible, and after an action greeted his safe
21604 return with evident joy. On one of his foraging expeditions, in a
21605 deserted and ruined village to which he had come in search of
21606 provisions, Rostov found a family consisting of an old Pole and his
21607 daughter with an infant in arms. They were half clad, hungry, too weak
21608 to get away on foot and had no means of obtaining a conveyance. Rostov
21609 brought them to his quarters, placed them in his own lodging, and kept
21610 them for some weeks while the old man was recovering. One of his
21611 comrades, talking of women, began chaffing Rostov, saying that he was
21612 more wily than any of them and that it would not be a bad thing if he
21613 introduced to them the pretty Polish girl he had saved. Rostov took the
21614 joke as an insult, flared up, and said such unpleasant things to the
21615 officer that it was all Denisov could do to prevent a duel. When the
21616 officer had gone away, Denisov, who did not himself know what Rostov's
21617 relations with the Polish girl might be, began to upbraid him for his
21618 quickness of temper, and Rostov replied:
21620 "Say what you like.... She is like a sister to me, and I can't tell you
21621 how it offended me... because... well, for that reason...."
21623 Denisov patted him on the shoulder and began rapidly pacing the room
21624 without looking at Rostov, as was his way at moments of deep feeling.
21626 "Ah, what a mad bweed you Wostovs are!" he muttered, and Rostov noticed
21634 In April the troops were enlivened by news of the Emperor's arrival, but
21635 Rostov had no chance of being present at the review he held at
21636 Bartenstein, as the Pavlograds were at the outposts far beyond that
21639 They were bivouacking. Denisov and Rostov were living in an earth hut,
21640 dug out for them by the soldiers and roofed with branches and turf. The
21641 hut was made in the following manner, which had then come into vogue. A
21642 trench was dug three and a half feet wide, four feet eight inches deep,
21643 and eight feet long. At one end of the trench, steps were cut out and
21644 these formed the entrance and vestibule. The trench itself was the room,
21645 in which the lucky ones, such as the squadron commander, had a board,
21646 lying on piles at the end opposite the entrance, to serve as a table. On
21647 each side of the trench, the earth was cut out to a breadth of about two
21648 and a half feet, and this did duty for bedsteads and couches. The roof
21649 was so constructed that one could stand up in the middle of the trench
21650 and could even sit up on the beds if one drew close to the table.
21651 Denisov, who was living luxuriously because the soldiers of his squadron
21652 liked him, had also a board in the roof at the farther end, with a piece
21653 of (broken but mended) glass in it for a window. When it was very cold,
21654 embers from the soldiers' campfire were placed on a bent sheet of iron
21655 on the steps in the "reception room"--as Denisov called that part of the
21656 hut--and it was then so warm that the officers, of whom there were
21657 always some with Denisov and Rostov, sat in their shirt sleeves.
21659 In April, Rostov was on orderly duty. One morning, between seven and
21660 eight, returning after a sleepless night, he sent for embers, changed
21661 his rain-soaked underclothes, said his prayers, drank tea, got warm,
21662 then tidied up the things on the table and in his own corner, and, his
21663 face glowing from exposure to the wind and with nothing on but his
21664 shirt, lay down on his back, putting his arms under his head. He was
21665 pleasantly considering the probability of being promoted in a few days
21666 for his last reconnoitering expedition, and was awaiting Denisov, who
21667 had gone out somewhere and with whom he wanted a talk.
21669 Suddenly he heard Denisov shouting in a vibrating voice behind the hut,
21670 evidently much excited. Rostov moved to the window to see whom he was
21671 speaking to, and saw the quartermaster, Topcheenko.
21673 "I ordered you not to let them eat that Mashka woot stuff!" Denisov was
21674 shouting. "And I saw with my own eyes how Lazarchuk bwought some fwom
21677 "I have given the order again and again, your honor, but they don't
21678 obey," answered the quartermaster.
21680 Rostov lay down again on his bed and thought complacently: "Let him fuss
21681 and bustle now, my job's done and I'm lying down--capitally!" He could
21682 hear that Lavrushka--that sly, bold orderly of Denisov's--was talking,
21683 as well as the quartermaster. Lavrushka was saying something about
21684 loaded wagons, biscuits, and oxen he had seen when he had gone out for
21687 Then Denisov's voice was heard shouting farther and farther away.
21688 "Saddle! Second platoon!"
21690 "Where are they off to now?" thought Rostov.
21692 Five minutes later, Denisov came into the hut, climbed with muddy boots
21693 on the bed, lit his pipe, furiously scattered his things about, took his
21694 leaded whip, buckled on his saber, and went out again. In answer to
21695 Rostov's inquiry where he was going, he answered vaguely and crossly
21696 that he had some business.
21698 "Let God and our gweat monarch judge me afterwards!" said Denisov going
21699 out, and Rostov heard the hoofs of several horses splashing through the
21700 mud. He did not even trouble to find out where Denisov had gone. Having
21701 got warm in his corner, he fell asleep and did not leave the hut till
21702 toward evening. Denisov had not yet returned. The weather had cleared
21703 up, and near the next hut two officers and a cadet were playing svayka,
21704 laughing as they threw their missiles which buried themselves in the
21705 soft mud. Rostov joined them. In the middle of the game, the officers
21706 saw some wagons approaching with fifteen hussars on their skinny horses
21707 behind them. The wagons escorted by the hussars drew up to the picket
21708 ropes and a crowd of hussars surrounded them.
21710 "There now, Denisov has been worrying," said Rostov, "and here are the
21713 "So they are!" said the officers. "Won't the soldiers be glad!"
21715 A little behind the hussars came Denisov, accompanied by two infantry
21716 officers with whom he was talking.
21718 Rostov went to meet them.
21720 "I warn you, Captain," one of the officers, a short thin man, evidently
21721 very angry, was saying.
21723 "Haven't I told you I won't give them up?" replied Denisov.
21725 "You will answer for it, Captain. It is mutiny--seizing the transport of
21726 one's own army. Our men have had nothing to eat for two days."
21728 "And mine have had nothing for two weeks," said Denisov.
21730 "It is robbery! You'll answer for it, sir!" said the infantry officer,
21733 "Now, what are you pestewing me for?" cried Denisov, suddenly losing his
21734 temper. "I shall answer for it and not you, and you'd better not buzz
21735 about here till you get hurt. Be off! Go!" he shouted at the officers.
21737 "Very well, then!" shouted the little officer, undaunted and not riding
21738 away. "If you are determined to rob, I'll..."
21740 "Go to the devil! quick ma'ch, while you're safe and sound!" and Denisov
21741 turned his horse on the officer.
21743 "Very well, very well!" muttered the officer, threateningly, and turning
21744 his horse he trotted away, jolting in his saddle.
21746 "A dog astwide a fence! A weal dog astwide a fence!" shouted Denisov
21747 after him (the most insulting expression a cavalryman can address to a
21748 mounted infantryman) and riding up to Rostov, he burst out laughing.
21750 "I've taken twansports from the infantwy by force!" he said. "After all,
21751 can't let our men starve."
21753 The wagons that had reached the hussars had been consigned to an
21754 infantry regiment, but learning from Lavrushka that the transport was
21755 unescorted, Denisov with his hussars had seized it by force. The
21756 soldiers had biscuits dealt out to them freely, and they even shared
21757 them with the other squadrons.
21759 The next day the regimental commander sent for Denisov, and holding his
21760 fingers spread out before his eyes said:
21762 "This is how I look at this affair: I know nothing about it and won't
21763 begin proceedings, but I advise you to ride over to the staff and settle
21764 the business there in the commissariat department and if possible sign a
21765 receipt for such and such stores received. If not, as the demand was
21766 booked against an infantry regiment, there will be a row and the affair
21769 From the regimental commander's, Denisov rode straight to the staff with
21770 a sincere desire to act on this advice. In the evening he came back to
21771 his dugout in a state such as Rostov had never yet seen him in. Denisov
21772 could not speak and gasped for breath. When Rostov asked what was the
21773 matter, he only uttered some incoherent oaths and threats in a hoarse,
21776 Alarmed at Denisov's condition, Rostov suggested that he should undress,
21777 drink some water, and send for the doctor.
21779 "Twy me for wobbewy... oh! Some more water... Let them twy me, but I'll
21780 always thwash scoundwels... and I'll tell the Empewo'... Ice..." he
21783 The regimental doctor, when he came, said it was absolutely necessary to
21784 bleed Denisov. A deep saucer of black blood was taken from his hairy arm
21785 and only then was he able to relate what had happened to him.
21787 "I get there," began Denisov. "'Now then, where's your chief's
21788 quarters?' They were pointed out. 'Please to wait.' 'I've widden twenty
21789 miles and have duties to attend to and no time to wait. Announce me.'
21790 Vewy well, so out comes their head chief--also took it into his head to
21791 lecture me: 'It's wobbewy!'--'Wobbewy,' I say, 'is not done by man who
21792 seizes pwovisions to feed his soldiers, but by him who takes them to
21793 fill his own pockets!' 'Will you please be silent?' 'Vewy good!' Then he
21794 says: 'Go and give a weceipt to the commissioner, but your affair will
21795 be passed on to headquarters.' I go to the commissioner. I enter, and at
21796 the table... who do you think? No, but wait a bit!... Who is it that's
21797 starving us?" shouted Denisov, hitting the table with the fist of his
21798 newly bled arm so violently that the table nearly broke down and the
21799 tumblers on it jumped about. "Telyanin! 'What? So it's you who's
21800 starving us to death! Is it? Take this and this!' and I hit him so pat,
21801 stwaight on his snout... 'Ah, what a... what a...!' and I sta'ted
21802 fwashing him... Well, I've had a bit of fun I can tell you!" cried
21803 Denisov, gleeful and yet angry, his white teeth showing under his black
21804 mustache. "I'd have killed him if they hadn't taken him away!"
21806 "But what are you shouting for? Calm yourself," said Rostov. "You've set
21807 your arm bleeding afresh. Wait, we must tie it up again."
21809 Denisov was bandaged up again and put to bed. Next day he woke calm and
21812 But at noon the adjutant of the regiment came into Rostov's and
21813 Denisov's dugout with a grave and serious face and regretfully showed
21814 them a paper addressed to Major Denisov from the regimental commander in
21815 which inquiries were made about yesterday's occurrence. The adjutant
21816 told them that the affair was likely to take a very bad turn: that a
21817 court-martial had been appointed, and that in view of the severity with
21818 which marauding and insubordination were now regarded, degradation to
21819 the ranks would be the best that could be hoped for.
21821 The case, as represented by the offended parties, was that, after
21822 seizing the transports, Major Denisov, being drunk, went to the chief
21823 quartermaster and without any provocation called him a thief, threatened
21824 to strike him, and on being led out had rushed into the office and given
21825 two officials a thrashing, and dislocated the arm of one of them.
21827 In answer to Rostov's renewed questions, Denisov said, laughing, that he
21828 thought he remembered that some other fellow had got mixed up in it, but
21829 that it was all nonsense and rubbish, and he did not in the least fear
21830 any kind of trial, and that if those scoundrels dared attack him he
21831 would give them an answer that they would not easily forget.
21833 Denisov spoke contemptuously of the whole matter, but Rostov knew him
21834 too well not to detect that (while hiding it from others) at heart he
21835 feared a court-martial and was worried over the affair, which was
21836 evidently taking a bad turn. Every day, letters of inquiry and notices
21837 from the court arrived, and on the first of May, Denisov was ordered to
21838 hand the squadron over to the next in seniority and appear before the
21839 staff of his division to explain his violence at the commissariat
21840 office. On the previous day Platov reconnoitered with two Cossack
21841 regiments and two squadrons of hussars. Denisov, as was his wont, rode
21842 out in front of the outposts, parading his courage. A bullet fired by a
21843 French sharpshooter hit him in the fleshy part of his leg. Perhaps at
21844 another time Denisov would not have left the regiment for so slight a
21845 wound, but now he took advantage of it to excuse himself from appearing
21846 at the staff and went into hospital.
21853 In June the battle of Friedland was fought, in which the Pavlograds did
21854 not take part, and after that an armistice was proclaimed. Rostov, who
21855 felt his friend's absence very much, having no news of him since he left
21856 and feeling very anxious about his wound and the progress of his
21857 affairs, took advantage of the armistice to get leave to visit Denisov
21860 The hospital was in a small Prussian town that had been twice devastated
21861 by Russian and French troops. Because it was summer, when it is so
21862 beautiful out in the fields, the little town presented a particularly
21863 dismal appearance with its broken roofs and fences, its foul streets,
21864 tattered inhabitants, and the sick and drunken soldiers wandering about.
21866 The hospital was in a brick building with some of the window frames and
21867 panes broken and a courtyard surrounded by the remains of a wooden fence
21868 that had been pulled to pieces. Several bandaged soldiers, with pale
21869 swollen faces, were sitting or walking about in the sunshine in the
21872 Directly Rostov entered the door he was enveloped by a smell of
21873 putrefaction and hospital air. On the stairs he met a Russian army
21874 doctor smoking a cigar. The doctor was followed by a Russian assistant.
21876 "I can't tear myself to pieces," the doctor was saying. "Come to Makar
21877 Alexeevich in the evening. I shall be there."
21879 The assistant asked some further questions.
21881 "Oh, do the best you can! Isn't it all the same?" The doctor noticed
21882 Rostov coming upstairs.
21884 "What do you want, sir?" said the doctor. "What do you want? The bullets
21885 having spared you, do you want to try typhus? This is a pesthouse, sir."
21887 "How so?" asked Rostov.
21889 "Typhus, sir. It's death to go in. Only we two, Makeev and I" (he
21890 pointed to the assistant), "keep on here. Some five of us doctors have
21891 died in this place.... When a new one comes he is done for in a week,"
21892 said the doctor with evident satisfaction. "Prussian doctors have been
21893 invited here, but our allies don't like it at all."
21895 Rostov explained that he wanted to see Major Denisov of the hussars, who
21898 "I don't know. I can't tell you, sir. Only think! I am alone in charge
21899 of three hospitals with more than four hundred patients! It's well that
21900 the charitable Prussian ladies send us two pounds of coffee and some
21901 lint each month or we should be lost!" he laughed. "Four hundred, sir,
21902 and they're always sending me fresh ones. There are four hundred? Eh?"
21903 he asked, turning to the assistant.
21905 The assistant looked fagged out. He was evidently vexed and impatient
21906 for the talkative doctor to go.
21908 "Major Denisov," Rostov said again. "He was wounded at Molliten."
21910 "Dead, I fancy. Eh, Makeev?" queried the doctor, in a tone of
21913 The assistant, however, did not confirm the doctor's words.
21915 "Is he tall and with reddish hair?" asked the doctor.
21917 Rostov described Denisov's appearance.
21919 "There was one like that," said the doctor, as if pleased. "That one is
21920 dead, I fancy. However, I'll look up our list. We had a list. Have you
21923 "Makar Alexeevich has the list," answered the assistant. "But if you'll
21924 step into the officers' wards you'll see for yourself," he added,
21927 "Ah, you'd better not go, sir," said the doctor, "or you may have to
21928 stay here yourself."
21930 But Rostov bowed himself away from the doctor and asked the assistant to
21933 "Only don't blame me!" the doctor shouted up after him.
21935 Rostov and the assistant went into the dark corridor. The smell was so
21936 strong there that Rostov held his nose and had to pause and collect his
21937 strength before he could go on. A door opened to the right, and an
21938 emaciated sallow man on crutches, barefoot and in underclothing, limped
21939 out and, leaning against the doorpost, looked with glittering envious
21940 eyes at those who were passing. Glancing in at the door, Rostov saw that
21941 the sick and wounded were lying on the floor on straw and overcoats.
21943 "May I go in and look?"
21945 "What is there to see?" said the assistant.
21947 But, just because the assistant evidently did not want him to go in,
21948 Rostov entered the soldiers' ward. The foul air, to which he had already
21949 begun to get used in the corridor, was still stronger here. It was a
21950 little different, more pungent, and one felt that this was where it
21953 In the long room, brightly lit up by the sun through the large windows,
21954 the sick and wounded lay in two rows with their heads to the walls, and
21955 leaving a passage in the middle. Most of them were unconscious and paid
21956 no attention to the newcomers. Those who were conscious raised
21957 themselves or lifted their thin yellow faces, and all looked intently at
21958 Rostov with the same expression of hope, of relief, reproach, and envy
21959 of another's health. Rostov went to the middle of the room and looking
21960 through the open doors into the two adjoining rooms saw the same thing
21961 there. He stood still, looking silently around. He had not at all
21962 expected such a sight. Just before him, almost across the middle of the
21963 passage on the bare floor, lay a sick man, probably a Cossack to judge
21964 by the cut of his hair. The man lay on his back, his huge arms and legs
21965 outstretched. His face was purple, his eyes were rolled back so that
21966 only the whites were seen, and on his bare legs and arms which were
21967 still red, the veins stood out like cords. He was knocking the back of
21968 his head against the floor, hoarsely uttering some word which he kept
21969 repeating. Rostov listened and made out the word. It was "drink, drink,
21970 a drink!" Rostov glanced round, looking for someone who would put this
21971 man back in his place and bring him water.
21973 "Who looks after the sick here?" he asked the assistant.
21975 Just then a commissariat soldier, a hospital orderly, came in from the
21976 next room, marching stiffly, and drew up in front of Rostov.
21978 "Good day, your honor!" he shouted, rolling his eyes at Rostov and
21979 evidently mistaking him for one of the hospital authorities.
21981 "Get him to his place and give him some water," said Rostov, pointing to
21984 "Yes, your honor," the soldier replied complacently, and rolling his
21985 eyes more than ever he drew himself up still straighter, but did not
21988 "No, it's impossible to do anything here," thought Rostov, lowering his
21989 eyes, and he was going out, but became aware of an intense look fixed on
21990 him on his right, and he turned. Close to the corner, on an overcoat,
21991 sat an old, unshaven, gray-bearded soldier as thin as a skeleton, with a
21992 stern sallow face and eyes intently fixed on Rostov. The man's neighbor
21993 on one side whispered something to him, pointing at Rostov, who noticed
21994 that the old man wanted to speak to him. He drew nearer and saw that the
21995 old man had only one leg bent under him, the other had been amputated
21996 above the knee. His neighbor on the other side, who lay motionless some
21997 distance from him with his head thrown back, was a young soldier with a
21998 snub nose. His pale waxen face was still freckled and his eyes were
21999 rolled back. Rostov looked at the young soldier and a cold chill ran
22002 "Why, this one seems..." he began, turning to the assistant.
22004 "And how we've been begging, your honor," said the old soldier, his jaw
22005 quivering. "He's been dead since morning. After all we're men, not
22008 "I'll send someone at once. He shall be taken away--taken away at once,"
22009 said the assistant hurriedly. "Let us go, your honor."
22011 "Yes, yes, let us go," said Rostov hastily, and lowering his eyes and
22012 shrinking, he tried to pass unnoticed between the rows of reproachful
22013 envious eyes that were fixed upon him, and went out of the room.
22020 Going along the corridor, the assistant led Rostov to the officers'
22021 wards, consisting of three rooms, the doors of which stood open. There
22022 were beds in these rooms and the sick and wounded officers were lying or
22023 sitting on them. Some were walking about the rooms in hospital dressing
22024 gowns. The first person Rostov met in the officers' ward was a thin
22025 little man with one arm, who was walking about the first room in a
22026 nightcap and hospital dressing gown, with a pipe between his teeth.
22027 Rostov looked at him, trying to remember where he had seen him before.
22029 "See where we've met again!" said the little man. "Tushin, Tushin, don't
22030 you remember, who gave you a lift at Schon Grabern? And I've had a bit
22031 cut off, you see..." he went on with a smile, pointing to the empty
22032 sleeve of his dressing gown. "Looking for Vasili Dmitrich Denisov? My
22033 neighbor," he added, when he heard who Rostov wanted. "Here, here," and
22034 Tushin led him into the next room, from whence came sounds of several
22037 "How can they laugh, or even live at all here?" thought Rostov, still
22038 aware of that smell of decomposing flesh that had been so strong in the
22039 soldiers' ward, and still seeming to see fixed on him those envious
22040 looks which had followed him out from both sides, and the face of that
22041 young soldier with eyes rolled back.
22043 Denisov lay asleep on his bed with his head under the blanket, though it
22046 "Ah, Wostov? How are you, how are you?" he called out, still in the same
22047 voice as in the regiment, but Rostov noticed sadly that under this
22048 habitual ease and animation some new, sinister, hidden feeling showed
22049 itself in the expression of Denisov's face and the intonations of his
22052 His wound, though a slight one, had not yet healed even now, six weeks
22053 after he had been hit. His face had the same swollen pallor as the faces
22054 of the other hospital patients, but it was not this that struck Rostov.
22055 What struck him was that Denisov did not seem glad to see him, and
22056 smiled at him unnaturally. He did not ask about the regiment, nor about
22057 the general state of affairs, and when Rostov spoke of these matters did
22060 Rostov even noticed that Denisov did not like to be reminded of the
22061 regiment, or in general of that other free life which was going on
22062 outside the hospital. He seemed to try to forget that old life and was
22063 only interested in the affair with the commissariat officers. On
22064 Rostov's inquiry as to how the matter stood, he at once produced from
22065 under his pillow a paper he had received from the commission and the
22066 rough draft of his answer to it. He became animated when he began
22067 reading his paper and specially drew Rostov's attention to the stinging
22068 rejoinders he made to his enemies. His hospital companions, who had
22069 gathered round Rostov--a fresh arrival from the world outside--gradually
22070 began to disperse as soon as Denisov began reading his answer. Rostov
22071 noticed by their faces that all those gentlemen had already heard that
22072 story more than once and were tired of it. Only the man who had the next
22073 bed, a stout Uhlan, continued to sit on his bed, gloomily frowning and
22074 smoking a pipe, and little one-armed Tushin still listened, shaking his
22075 head disapprovingly. In the middle of the reading, the Uhlan interrupted
22078 "But what I say is," he said, turning to Rostov, "it would be best
22079 simply to petition the Emperor for pardon. They say great rewards will
22080 now be distributed, and surely a pardon would be granted...."
22082 "Me petition the Empewo'!" exclaimed Denisov, in a voice to which he
22083 tried hard to give the old energy and fire, but which sounded like an
22084 expression of irritable impotence. "What for? If I were a wobber I would
22085 ask mercy, but I'm being court-martialed for bwinging wobbers to book.
22086 Let them twy me, I'm not afwaid of anyone. I've served the Tsar and my
22087 countwy honowably and have not stolen! And am I to be degwaded?...
22088 Listen, I'm w'iting to them stwaight. This is what I say: 'If I had
22089 wobbed the Tweasuwy...'"
22091 "It's certainly well written," said Tushin, "but that's not the point,
22092 Vasili Dmitrich," and he also turned to Rostov. "One has to submit, and
22093 Vasili Dmitrich doesn't want to. You know the auditor told you it was a
22096 "Well, let it be bad," said Denisov.
22098 "The auditor wrote out a petition for you," continued Tushin, "and you
22099 ought to sign it and ask this gentleman to take it. No doubt he"
22100 (indicating Rostov) "has connections on the staff. You won't find a
22101 better opportunity."
22103 "Haven't I said I'm not going to gwovel?" Denisov interrupted him, went
22104 on reading his paper.
22106 Rostov had not the courage to persuade Denisov, though he instinctively
22107 felt that the way advised by Tushin and the other officers was the
22108 safest, and though he would have been glad to be of service to Denisov.
22109 He knew his stubborn will and straightforward hasty temper.
22111 When the reading of Denisov's virulent reply, which took more than an
22112 hour, was over, Rostov said nothing, and he spent the rest of the day in
22113 a most dejected state of mind amid Denisov's hospital comrades, who had
22114 gathered round him, telling them what he knew and listening to their
22115 stories. Denisov was moodily silent all the evening.
22117 Late in the evening, when Rostov was about to leave, he asked Denisov
22118 whether he had no commission for him.
22120 "Yes, wait a bit," said Denisov, glancing round at the officers, and
22121 taking his papers from under his pillow he went to the window, where he
22122 had an inkpot, and sat down to write.
22124 "It seems it's no use knocking one's head against a wall!" he said,
22125 coming from the window and giving Rostov a large envelope. In it was the
22126 petition to the Emperor drawn up by the auditor, in which Denisov,
22127 without alluding to the offenses of the commissariat officials, simply
22130 "Hand it in. It seems..."
22132 He did not finish, but gave a painfully unnatural smile.
22139 Having returned to the regiment and told the commander the state of
22140 Denisov's affairs, Rostov rode to Tilsit with the letter to the Emperor.
22142 On the thirteenth of June the French and Russian Emperors arrived in
22143 Tilsit. Boris Drubetskoy had asked the important personage on whom he
22144 was in attendance, to include him in the suite appointed for the stay at
22147 "I should like to see the great man," he said, alluding to Napoleon,
22148 whom hitherto he, like everyone else, had always called Buonaparte.
22150 "You are speaking of Buonaparte?" asked the general, smiling.
22152 Boris looked at his general inquiringly and immediately saw that he was
22155 "I am speaking, Prince, of the Emperor Napoleon," he replied. The
22156 general patted him on the shoulder, with a smile.
22158 "You will go far," he said, and took him to Tilsit with him.
22160 Boris was among the few present at the Niemen on the day the two
22161 Emperors met. He saw the raft, decorated with monograms, saw Napoleon
22162 pass before the French Guards on the farther bank of the river, saw the
22163 pensive face of the Emperor Alexander as he sat in silence in a tavern
22164 on the bank of the Niemen awaiting Napoleon's arrival, saw both Emperors
22165 get into boats, and saw how Napoleon--reaching the raft first--stepped
22166 quickly forward to meet Alexander and held out his hand to him, and how
22167 they both retired into the pavilion. Since he had begun to move in the
22168 highest circles Boris had made it his habit to watch attentively all
22169 that went on around him and to note it down. At the time of the meeting
22170 at Tilsit he asked the names of those who had come with Napoleon and
22171 about the uniforms they wore, and listened attentively to words spoken
22172 by important personages. At the moment the Emperors went into the
22173 pavilion he looked at his watch, and did not forget to look at it again
22174 when Alexander came out. The interview had lasted an hour and fifty-
22175 three minutes. He noted this down that same evening, among other facts
22176 he felt to be of historic importance. As the Emperor's suite was a very
22177 small one, it was a matter of great importance, for a man who valued his
22178 success in the service, to be at Tilsit on the occasion of this
22179 interview between the two Emperors, and having succeeded in this, Boris
22180 felt that henceforth his position was fully assured. He had not only
22181 become known, but people had grown accustomed to him and accepted him.
22182 Twice he had executed commissions to the Emperor himself, so that the
22183 latter knew his face, and all those at court, far from cold-shouldering
22184 him as at first when they considered him a newcomer, would now have been
22185 surprised had he been absent.
22187 Boris lodged with another adjutant, the Polish Count Zhilinski.
22188 Zhilinski, a Pole brought up in Paris, was rich, and passionately fond
22189 of the French, and almost every day of the stay at Tilsit, French
22190 officers of the Guard and from French headquarters were dining and
22191 lunching with him and Boris.
22193 On the evening of the twenty-fourth of June, Count Zhilinski arranged a
22194 supper for his French friends. The guest of honor was an aide-de-camp of
22195 Napoleon's, there were also several French officers of the Guard, and a
22196 page of Napoleon's, a young lad of an old aristocratic French family.
22197 That same day, Rostov, profiting by the darkness to avoid being
22198 recognized in civilian dress, came to Tilsit and went to the lodging
22199 occupied by Boris and Zhilinski.
22201 Rostov, in common with the whole army from which he came, was far from
22202 having experienced the change of feeling toward Napoleon and the French-
22203 -who from being foes had suddenly become friends--that had taken place
22204 at headquarters and in Boris. In the army, Bonaparte and the French were
22205 still regarded with mingled feelings of anger, contempt, and fear. Only
22206 recently, talking with one of Platov's Cossack officers, Rostov had
22207 argued that if Napoleon were taken prisoner he would be treated not as a
22208 sovereign, but as a criminal. Quite lately, happening to meet a wounded
22209 French colonel on the road, Rostov had maintained with heat that peace
22210 was impossible between a legitimate sovereign and the criminal
22211 Bonaparte. Rostov was therefore unpleasantly struck by the presence of
22212 French officers in Boris' lodging, dressed in uniforms he had been
22213 accustomed to see from quite a different point of view from the outposts
22214 of the flank. As soon as he noticed a French officer, who thrust his
22215 head out of the door, that warlike feeling of hostility which he always
22216 experienced at the sight of the enemy suddenly seized him. He stopped at
22217 the threshold and asked in Russian whether Drubetskoy lived there.
22218 Boris, hearing a strange voice in the anteroom, came out to meet him. An
22219 expression of annoyance showed itself for a moment on his face on first
22220 recognizing Rostov.
22222 "Ah, it's you? Very glad, very glad to see you," he said, however,
22223 coming toward him with a smile. But Rostov had noticed his first
22226 "I've come at a bad time I think. I should not have come, but I have
22227 business," he said coldly.
22229 "No, I only wonder how you managed to get away from your regiment. Dans
22230 un moment je suis a vous," * he said, answering someone who called him.
22233 * "In a minute I shall be at your disposal."
22235 "I see I'm intruding," Rostov repeated.
22237 The look of annoyance had already disappeared from Boris' face: having
22238 evidently reflected and decided how to act, he very quietly took both
22239 Rostov's hands and led him into the next room. His eyes, looking
22240 serenely and steadily at Rostov, seemed to be veiled by something, as if
22241 screened by blue spectacles of conventionality. So it seemed to Rostov.
22243 "Oh, come now! As if you could come at a wrong time!" said Boris, and he
22244 led him into the room where the supper table was laid and introduced him
22245 to his guests, explaining that he was not a civilian, but an hussar
22246 officer, and an old friend of his.
22248 "Count Zhilinski--le Comte N. N.--le Capitaine S. S.," said he, naming
22249 his guests. Rostov looked frowningly at the Frenchmen, bowed
22250 reluctantly, and remained silent.
22252 Zhilinski evidently did not receive this new Russian person very
22253 willingly into his circle and did not speak to Rostov. Boris did not
22254 appear to notice the constraint the newcomer produced and, with the same
22255 pleasant composure and the same veiled look in his eyes with which he
22256 had met Rostov, tried to enliven the conversation. One of the Frenchmen,
22257 with the politeness characteristic of his countrymen, addressed the
22258 obstinately taciturn Rostov, saying that the latter had probably come to
22259 Tilsit to see the Emperor.
22261 "No, I came on business," replied Rostov, briefly.
22263 Rostov had been out of humor from the moment he noticed the look of
22264 dissatisfaction on Boris' face, and as always happens to those in a bad
22265 humor, it seemed to him that everyone regarded him with aversion and
22266 that he was in everybody's way. He really was in their way, for he alone
22267 took no part in the conversation which again became general. The looks
22268 the visitors cast on him seemed to say: "And what is he sitting here
22269 for?" He rose and went up to Boris.
22271 "Anyhow, I'm in your way," he said in a low tone. "Come and talk over my
22272 business and I'll go away."
22274 "Oh, no, not at all," said Boris. "But if you are tired, come and lie
22275 down in my room and have a rest."
22279 They went into the little room where Boris slept. Rostov, without
22280 sitting down, began at once, irritably (as if Boris were to blame in
22281 some way) telling him about Denisov's affair, asking him whether,
22282 through his general, he could and would intercede with the Emperor on
22283 Denisov's behalf and get Denisov's petition handed in. When he and Boris
22284 were alone, Rostov felt for the first time that he could not look Boris
22285 in the face without a sense of awkwardness. Boris, with one leg crossed
22286 over the other and stroking his left hand with the slender fingers of
22287 his right, listened to Rostov as a general listens to the report of a
22288 subordinate, now looking aside and now gazing straight into Rostov's
22289 eyes with the same veiled look. Each time this happened Rostov felt
22290 uncomfortable and cast down his eyes.
22292 "I have heard of such cases and know that His Majesty is very severe in
22293 such affairs. I think it would be best not to bring it before the
22294 Emperor, but to apply to the commander of the corps.... But in general,
22297 "So you don't want to do anything? Well then, say so!" Rostov almost
22298 shouted, not looking Boris in the face.
22302 "On the contrary, I will do what I can. Only I thought..."
22304 At that moment Zhilinski's voice was heard calling Boris.
22306 "Well then, go, go, go..." said Rostov, and refusing supper and
22307 remaining alone in the little room, he walked up and down for a long
22308 time, hearing the lighthearted French conversation from the next room.
22315 Rostov had come to Tilsit the day least suitable for a petition on
22316 Denisov's behalf. He could not himself go to the general in attendance
22317 as he was in mufti and had come to Tilsit without permission to do so,
22318 and Boris, even had he wished to, could not have done so on the
22319 following day. On that day, June 27, the preliminaries of peace were
22320 signed. The Emperors exchanged decorations: Alexander received the Cross
22321 of the Legion of Honor and Napoleon the Order of St. Andrew of the First
22322 Degree, and a dinner had been arranged for the evening, given by a
22323 battalion of the French Guards to the Preobrazhensk battalion. The
22324 Emperors were to be present at that banquet.
22326 Rostov felt so ill at ease and uncomfortable with Boris that, when the
22327 latter looked in after supper, he pretended to be asleep, and early next
22328 morning went away, avoiding Boris. In his civilian clothes and a round
22329 hat, he wandered about the town, staring at the French and their
22330 uniforms and at the streets and houses where the Russian and French
22331 Emperors were staying. In a square he saw tables being set up and
22332 preparations made for the dinner; he saw the Russian and French colors
22333 draped from side to side of the streets, with huge monograms A and N. In
22334 the windows of the houses also flags and bunting were displayed.
22336 "Boris doesn't want to help me and I don't want to ask him. That's
22337 settled," thought Nicholas. "All is over between us, but I won't leave
22338 here without having done all I can for Denisov and certainly not without
22339 getting his letter to the Emperor. The Emperor!... He is here!" thought
22340 Rostov, who had unconsciously returned to the house where Alexander
22343 Saddled horses were standing before the house and the suite were
22344 assembling, evidently preparing for the Emperor to come out.
22346 "I may see him at any moment," thought Rostov. "If only I were to hand
22347 the letter direct to him and tell him all... could they really arrest me
22348 for my civilian clothes? Surely not! He would understand on whose side
22349 justice lies. He understands everything, knows everything. Who can be
22350 more just, more magnanimous than he? And even if they did arrest me for
22351 being here, what would it matter?" thought he, looking at an officer who
22352 was entering the house the Emperor occupied. "After all, people do go
22353 in.... It's all nonsense! I'll go in and hand the letter to the Emperor
22354 myself so much the worse for Drubetskoy who drives me to it!" And
22355 suddenly with a determination he himself did not expect, Rostov felt for
22356 the letter in his pocket and went straight to the house.
22358 "No, I won't miss my opportunity now, as I did after Austerlitz," he
22359 thought, expecting every moment to meet the monarch, and conscious of
22360 the blood that rushed to his heart at the thought. "I will fall at his
22361 feet and beseech him. He will lift me up, will listen, and will even
22362 thank me. 'I am happy when I can do good, but to remedy injustice is the
22363 greatest happiness,'" Rostov fancied the sovereign saying. And passing
22364 people who looked after him with curiosity, he entered the porch of the
22367 A broad staircase led straight up from the entry, and to the right he
22368 saw a closed door. Below, under the staircase, was a door leading to the
22371 "Whom do you want?" someone inquired.
22373 "To hand in a letter, a petition, to His Majesty," said Nicholas, with a
22374 tremor in his voice.
22376 "A petition? This way, to the officer on duty" (he was shown the door
22377 leading downstairs), "only it won't be accepted."
22379 On hearing this indifferent voice, Rostov grew frightened at what he was
22380 doing; the thought of meeting the Emperor at any moment was so
22381 fascinating and consequently so alarming that he was ready to run away,
22382 but the official who had questioned him opened the door, and Rostov
22385 A short stout man of about thirty, in white breeches and high boots and
22386 a batiste shirt that he had evidently only just put on, standing in that
22387 room, and his valet was buttoning on to the back of his breeches a new
22388 pair of handsome silk-embroidered braces that, for some reason,
22389 attracted Rostov's attention. This man was speaking to someone in the
22392 "A good figure and in her first bloom," he was saying, but on seeing
22393 Rostov, he stopped short and frowned.
22395 "What is it? A petition?"
22397 "What is it?" asked the person in the other room.
22399 "Another petitioner," answered the man with the braces.
22401 "Tell him to come later. He'll be coming out directly, we must go."
22403 "Later... later! Tomorrow. It's too late..."
22405 Rostov turned and was about to go, but the man in the braces stopped
22408 "Whom have you come from? Who are you?"
22410 "I come from Major Denisov," answered Rostov.
22412 "Are you an officer?"
22414 "Lieutenant Count Rostov."
22416 "What audacity! Hand it in through your commander. And go along with
22417 you... go," and he continued to put on the uniform the valet handed him.
22419 Rostov went back into the hall and noticed that in the porch there were
22420 many officers and generals in full parade uniform, whom he had to pass.
22422 Cursing his temerity, his heart sinking at the thought of finding
22423 himself at any moment face to face with the Emperor and being put to
22424 shame and arrested in his presence, fully alive now to the impropriety
22425 of his conduct and repenting of it, Rostov, with downcast eyes, was
22426 making his way out of the house through the brilliant suite when a
22427 familiar voice called him and a hand detained him.
22429 "What are you doing here, sir, in civilian dress?" asked a deep voice.
22431 It was a cavalry general who had obtained the Emperor's special favor
22432 during this campaign, and who had formerly commanded the division in
22433 which Rostov was serving.
22435 Rostov, in dismay, began justifying himself, but seeing the kindly,
22436 jocular face of the general, he took him aside and in an excited voice
22437 told him the whole affair, asking him to intercede for Denisov, whom the
22438 general knew. Having heard Rostov to the end, the general shook his head
22441 "I'm sorry, sorry for that fine fellow. Give me the letter."
22443 Hardly had Rostov handed him the letter and finished explaining
22444 Denisov's case, when hasty steps and the jingling of spurs were heard on
22445 the stairs, and the general, leaving him, went to the porch. The
22446 gentlemen of the Emperor's suite ran down the stairs and went to their
22447 horses. Hayne, the same groom who had been at Austerlitz, led up the
22448 Emperor's horse, and the faint creak of a footstep Rostov knew at once
22449 was heard on the stairs. Forgetting the danger of being recognized,
22450 Rostov went close to the porch, together with some inquisitive
22451 civilians, and again, after two years, saw those features he adored:
22452 that same face and same look and step, and the same union of majesty and
22453 mildness.... And the feeling of enthusiasm and love for his sovereign
22454 rose again in Rostov's soul in all its old force. In the uniform of the
22455 Preobrazhensk regiment--white chamois-leather breeches and high boots--
22456 and wearing a star Rostov did not know (it was that of the Legion
22457 d'honneur), the monarch came out into the porch, putting on his gloves
22458 and carrying his hat under his arm. He stopped and looked about him,
22459 brightening everything around by his glance. He spoke a few words to
22460 some of the generals, and, recognizing the former commander of Rostov's
22461 division, smiled and beckoned to him.
22463 All the suite drew back and Rostov saw the general talking for some time
22466 The Emperor said a few words to him and took a step toward his horse.
22467 Again the crowd of members of the suite and street gazers (among whom
22468 was Rostov) moved nearer to the Emperor. Stopping beside his horse, with
22469 his hand on the saddle, the Emperor turned to the cavalry general and
22470 said in a loud voice, evidently wishing to be heard by all:
22472 "I cannot do it, General. I cannot, because the law is stronger than I,"
22473 and he raised his foot to the stirrup.
22475 The general bowed his head respectfully, and the monarch mounted and
22476 rode down the street at a gallop. Beside himself with enthusiasm, Rostov
22477 ran after him with the crowd.
22484 The Emperor rode to the square where, facing one another, a battalion of
22485 the Preobrazhensk regiment stood on the right and a battalion of the
22486 French Guards in their bearskin caps on the left.
22488 As the Tsar rode up to one flank of the battalions, which presented
22489 arms, another group of horsemen galloped up to the opposite flank, and
22490 at the head of them Rostov recognized Napoleon. It could be no one else.
22491 He came at a gallop, wearing a small hat, a blue uniform open over a
22492 white vest, and the St. Andrew ribbon over his shoulder. He was riding a
22493 very fine thoroughbred gray Arab horse with a crimson gold-embroidered
22494 saddlecloth. On approaching Alexander he raised his hat, and as he did
22495 so, Rostov, with his cavalryman's eye, could not help noticing that
22496 Napoleon did not sit well or firmly in the saddle. The battalions
22497 shouted "Hurrah!" and "Vive l'Empereur!" Napoleon said something to
22498 Alexander, and both Emperors dismounted and took each other's hands.
22499 Napoleon's face wore an unpleasant and artificial smile. Alexander was
22500 saying something affable to him.
22502 In spite of the trampling of the French gendarmes' horses, which were
22503 pushing back the crowd, Rostov kept his eyes on every movement of
22504 Alexander and Bonaparte. It struck him as a surprise that Alexander
22505 treated Bonaparte as an equal and that the latter was quite at ease with
22506 the Tsar, as if such relations with an Emperor were an everyday matter
22509 Alexander and Napoleon, with the long train of their suites, approached
22510 the right flank of the Preobrazhensk battalion and came straight up to
22511 the crowd standing there. The crowd unexpectedly found itself so close
22512 to the Emperors that Rostov, standing in the front row, was afraid he
22513 might be recognized.
22515 "Sire, I ask your permission to present the Legion of Honor to the
22516 bravest of your soldiers," said a sharp, precise voice, articulating
22519 This was said by the undersized Napoleon, looking up straight into
22520 Alexander's eyes. Alexander listened attentively to what was said to him
22521 and, bending his head, smiled pleasantly.
22523 "To him who has borne himself most bravely in this last war," added
22524 Napoleon, accentuating each syllable, as with a composure and assurance
22525 exasperating to Rostov, he ran his eyes over the Russian ranks drawn up
22526 before him, who all presented arms with their eyes fixed on their
22529 "Will Your Majesty allow me to consult the colonel?" said Alexander and
22530 took a few hasty steps toward Prince Kozlovski, the commander of the
22533 Bonaparte meanwhile began taking the glove off his small white hand,
22534 tore it in doing so, and threw it away. An aide-de-camp behind him
22535 rushed forward and picked it up.
22537 "To whom shall it be given?" the Emperor Alexander asked Koslovski, in
22538 Russian in a low voice.
22540 "To whomever Your Majesty commands."
22542 The Emperor knit his brows with dissatisfaction and, glancing back,
22545 "But we must give him an answer."
22547 Kozlovski scanned the ranks resolutely and included Rostov in his
22550 "Can it be me?" thought Rostov.
22552 "Lazarev!" the colonel called, with a frown, and Lazarev, the first
22553 soldier in the rank, stepped briskly forward.
22555 "Where are you off to? Stop here!" voices whispered to Lazarev who did
22556 not know where to go. Lazarev stopped, casting a sidelong look at his
22557 colonel in alarm. His face twitched, as often happens to soldiers called
22560 Napoleon slightly turned his head, and put his plump little hand out
22561 behind him as if to take something. The members of his suite, guessing
22562 at once what he wanted, moved about and whispered as they passed
22563 something from one to another, and a page--the same one Rostov had seen
22564 the previous evening at Boris'--ran forward and, bowing respectfully
22565 over the outstretched hand and not keeping it waiting a moment, laid in
22566 it an Order on a red ribbon. Napoleon, without looking, pressed two
22567 fingers together and the badge was between them. Then he approached
22568 Lazarev (who rolled his eyes and persistently gazed at his own monarch),
22569 looked round at the Emperor Alexander to imply that what he was now
22570 doing was done for the sake of his ally, and the small white hand
22571 holding the Order touched one of Lazarev's buttons. It was as if
22572 Napoleon knew that it was only necessary for his hand to deign to touch
22573 that soldier's breast for the soldier to be forever happy, rewarded, and
22574 distinguished from everyone else in the world. Napoleon merely laid the
22575 cross on Lazarev's breast and, dropping his hand, turned toward
22576 Alexander as though sure that the cross would adhere there. And it
22579 Officious hands, Russian and French, immediately seized the cross and
22580 fastened it to the uniform. Lazarev glanced morosely at the little man
22581 with white hands who was doing something to him and, still standing
22582 motionless presenting arms, looked again straight into Alexander's eyes,
22583 as if asking whether he should stand there, or go away, or do something
22584 else. But receiving no orders, he remained for some time in that rigid
22587 The Emperors remounted and rode away. The Preobrazhensk battalion,
22588 breaking rank, mingled with the French Guards and sat down at the tables
22591 Lazarev sat in the place of honor. Russian and French officers embraced
22592 him, congratulated him, and pressed his hands. Crowds of officers and
22593 civilians drew near merely to see him. A rumble of Russian and French
22594 voices and laughter filled the air round the tables in the square. Two
22595 officers with flushed faces, looking cheerful and happy, passed by
22598 "What d'you think of the treat? All on silver plate," one of them was
22599 saying. "Have you seen Lazarev?"
22603 "Tomorrow, I hear, the Preobrazhenskis will give them a dinner."
22605 "Yes, but what luck for Lazarev! Twelve hundred francs' pension for
22608 "Here's a cap, lads!" shouted a Preobrazhensk soldier, donning a shaggy
22611 "It's a fine thing! First-rate!"
22613 "Have you heard the password?" asked one Guards' officer of another.
22614 "The day before yesterday it was 'Napoleon, France, bravoure';
22615 yesterday, 'Alexandre, Russie, grandeur.' One day our Emperor gives it
22616 and next day Napoleon. Tomorrow our Emperor will send a St. George's
22617 Cross to the bravest of the French Guards. It has to be done. He must
22620 Boris, too, with his friend Zhilinski, came to see the Preobrazhensk
22621 banquet. On his way back, he noticed Rostov standing by the corner of a
22624 "Rostov! How d'you do? We missed one another," he said, and could not
22625 refrain from asking what was the matter, so strangely dismal and
22626 troubled was Rostov's face.
22628 "Nothing, nothing," replied Rostov.
22630 "You'll call round?"
22634 Rostov stood at that corner for a long time, watching the feast from a
22635 distance. In his mind, a painful process was going on which he could not
22636 bring to a conclusion. Terrible doubts rose in his soul. Now he
22637 remembered Denisov with his changed expression, his submission, and the
22638 whole hospital, with arms and legs torn off and its dirt and disease. So
22639 vividly did he recall that hospital stench of dead flesh that he looked
22640 round to see where the smell came from. Next he thought of that self-
22641 satisfied Bonaparte, with his small white hand, who was now an Emperor,
22642 liked and respected by Alexander. Then why those severed arms and legs
22643 and those dead men?... Then again he thought of Lazarev rewarded and
22644 Denisov punished and unpardoned. He caught himself harboring such
22645 strange thoughts that he was frightened.
22647 The smell of the food the Preobrazhenskis were eating and a sense of
22648 hunger recalled him from these reflections; he had to get something to
22649 eat before going away. He went to a hotel he had noticed that morning.
22650 There he found so many people, among them officers who, like himself,
22651 had come in civilian clothes, that he had difficulty in getting a
22652 dinner. Two officers of his own division joined him. The conversation
22653 naturally turned on the peace. The officers, his comrades, like most of
22654 the army, were dissatisfied with the peace concluded after the battle of
22655 Friedland. They said that had we held out a little longer Napoleon would
22656 have been done for, as his troops had neither provisions nor ammunition.
22657 Nicholas ate and drank (chiefly the latter) in silence. He finished a
22658 couple of bottles of wine by himself. The process in his mind went on
22659 tormenting him without reaching a conclusion. He feared to give way to
22660 his thoughts, yet could not get rid of them. Suddenly, on one of the
22661 officers' saying that it was humiliating to look at the French, Rostov
22662 began shouting with uncalled-for wrath, and therefore much to the
22663 surprise of the officers:
22665 "How can you judge what's best?" he cried, the blood suddenly rushing to
22666 his face. "How can you judge the Emperor's actions? What right have we
22667 to argue? We cannot comprehend either the Emperor's aims or his
22670 "But I never said a word about the Emperor!" said the officer,
22671 justifying himself, and unable to understand Rostov's outburst, except
22672 on the supposition that he was drunk.
22674 But Rostov did not listen to him.
22676 "We are not diplomatic officials, we are soldiers and nothing more," he
22677 went on. "If we are ordered to die, we must die. If we're punished, it
22678 means that we have deserved it, it's not for us to judge. If the Emperor
22679 pleases to recognize Bonaparte as Emperor and to conclude an alliance
22680 with him, it means that that is the right thing to do. If once we begin
22681 judging and arguing about everything, nothing sacred will be left! That
22682 way we shall be saying there is no God--nothing!" shouted Nicholas,
22683 banging the table--very little to the point as it seemed to his
22684 listeners, but quite relevantly to the course of his own thoughts.
22686 "Our business is to do our duty, to fight and not to think! That's
22689 "And to drink," said one of the officers, not wishing to quarrel.
22691 "Yes, and to drink," assented Nicholas. "Hullo there! Another bottle!"
22694 In 1808 the Emperor Alexander went to Erfurt for a fresh interview with
22695 the Emperor Napoleon, and in the upper circles of Petersburg there was
22696 much talk of the grandeur of this important meeting.
22703 In 1809 the intimacy between "the world's two arbiters," as Napoleon and
22704 Alexander were called, was such that when Napoleon declared war on
22705 Austria a Russian corps crossed the frontier to co-operate with our old
22706 enemy Bonaparte against our old ally the Emperor of Austria, and in
22707 court circles the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one of
22708 Alexander's sisters was spoken of. But besides considerations of foreign
22709 policy, the attention of Russian society was at that time keenly
22710 directed on the internal changes that were being undertaken in all the
22711 departments of government.
22713 Life meanwhile--real life, with its essential interests of health and
22714 sickness, toil and rest, and its intellectual interests in thought,
22715 science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions--went on
22716 as usual, independently of and apart from political friendship or enmity
22717 with Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction.
22719 BOOK SIX: 1808 - 10
22726 Prince Andrew had spent two years continuously in the country.
22728 All the plans Pierre had attempted on his estates--and constantly
22729 changing from one thing to another had never accomplished--were carried
22730 out by Prince Andrew without display and without perceptible difficulty.
22732 He had in the highest degree a practical tenacity which Pierre lacked,
22733 and without fuss or strain on his part this set things going.
22735 On one of his estates the three hundred serfs were liberated and became
22736 free agricultural laborers--this being one of the first examples of the
22737 kind in Russia. On other estates the serfs' compulsory labor was
22738 commuted for a quitrent. A trained midwife was engaged for Bogucharovo
22739 at his expense, and a priest was paid to teach reading and writing to
22740 the children of the peasants and household serfs.
22742 Prince Andrew spent half his time at Bald Hills with his father and his
22743 son, who was still in the care of nurses. The other half he spent in
22744 "Bogucharovo Cloister," as his father called Prince Andrew's estate.
22745 Despite the indifference to the affairs of the world he had expressed to
22746 Pierre, he diligently followed all that went on, received many books,
22747 and to his surprise noticed that when he or his father had visitors from
22748 Petersburg, the very vortex of life, these people lagged behind himself-
22749 -who never left the country--in knowledge of what was happening in home
22750 and foreign affairs.
22752 Besides being occupied with his estates and reading a great variety of
22753 books, Prince Andrew was at this time busy with a critical survey of our
22754 last two unfortunate campaigns, and with drawing up a proposal for a
22755 reform of the army rules and regulations.
22757 In the spring of 1809 he went to visit the Ryazan estates which had been
22758 inherited by his son, whose guardian he was.
22760 Warmed by the spring sunshine he sat in the caleche looking at the new
22761 grass, the first leaves on the birches, and the first puffs of white
22762 spring clouds floating across the clear blue sky. He was not thinking of
22763 anything, but looked absent-mindedly and cheerfully from side to side.
22765 They crossed the ferry where he had talked with Pierre the year before.
22766 They went through the muddy village, past threshing floors and green
22767 fields of winter rye, downhill where snow still lodged near the bridge,
22768 uphill where the clay had been liquefied by the rain, past strips of
22769 stubble land and bushes touched with green here and there, and into a
22770 birch forest growing on both sides of the road. In the forest it was
22771 almost hot, no wind could be felt. The birches with their sticky green
22772 leaves were motionless, and lilac-colored flowers and the first blades
22773 of green grass were pushing up and lifting last year's leaves. The
22774 coarse evergreen color of the small fir trees scattered here and there
22775 among the birches was an unpleasant reminder of winter. On entering the
22776 forest the horses began to snort and sweated visibly.
22778 Peter the footman made some remark to the coachman; the latter assented.
22779 But apparently the coachman's sympathy was not enough for Peter, and he
22780 turned on the box toward his master.
22782 "How pleasant it is, your excellency!" he said with a respectful smile.
22786 "It's pleasant, your excellency!"
22789 "What is he talking about?" thought Prince Andrew. "Oh, the spring, I
22790 suppose," he thought as he turned round. "Yes, really everything is
22791 green already.... How early! The birches and cherry and alders too are
22792 coming out.... But the oaks show no sign yet. Ah, here is one oak!"
22794 At the edge of the road stood an oak. Probably ten times the age of the
22795 birches that formed the forest, it was ten times as thick and twice as
22796 tall as they. It was an enormous tree, its girth twice as great as a man
22797 could embrace, and evidently long ago some of its branches had been
22798 broken off and its bark scarred. With its huge ungainly limbs sprawling
22799 unsymmetrically, and its gnarled hands and fingers, it stood an aged,
22800 stern, and scornful monster among the smiling birch trees. Only the
22801 dead-looking evergreen firs dotted about in the forest, and this oak,
22802 refused to yield to the charm of spring or notice either the spring or
22805 "Spring, love, happiness!" this oak seemed to say. "Are you not weary of
22806 that stupid, meaningless, constantly repeated fraud? Always the same and
22807 always a fraud? There is no spring, no sun, no happiness! Look at those
22808 cramped dead firs, ever the same, and at me too, sticking out my broken
22809 and barked fingers just where they have grown, whether from my back or
22810 my sides: as they have grown so I stand, and I do not believe in your
22811 hopes and your lies."
22813 As he passed through the forest Prince Andrew turned several times to
22814 look at that oak, as if expecting something from it. Under the oak, too,
22815 were flowers and grass, but it stood among them scowling, rigid,
22816 misshapen, and grim as ever.
22818 "Yes, the oak is right, a thousand times right," thought Prince Andrew.
22819 "Let others--the young--yield afresh to that fraud, but we know life,
22820 our life is finished!"
22822 A whole sequence of new thoughts, hopeless but mournfully pleasant, rose
22823 in his soul in connection with that tree. During this journey he, as it
22824 were, considered his life afresh and arrived at his old conclusion,
22825 restful in its hopelessness: that it was not for him to begin anything
22826 anew--but that he must live out his life, content to do no harm, and not
22827 disturbing himself or desiring anything.
22834 Prince Andrew had to see the Marshal of the Nobility for the district in
22835 connection with the affairs of the Ryazan estate of which he was
22836 trustee. This Marshal was Count Ilya Rostov, and in the middle of May
22837 Prince Andrew went to visit him.
22839 It was now hot spring weather. The whole forest was already clothed in
22840 green. It was dusty and so hot that on passing near water one longed to
22843 Prince Andrew, depressed and preoccupied with the business about which
22844 he had to speak to the Marshal, was driving up the avenue in the grounds
22845 of the Rostovs' house at Otradnoe. He heard merry girlish cries behind
22846 some trees on the right and saw a group of girls running to cross the
22847 path of his caleche. Ahead of the rest and nearer to him ran a dark-
22848 haired, remarkably slim, pretty girl in a yellow chintz dress, with a
22849 white handkerchief on her head from under which loose locks of hair
22850 escaped. The girl was shouting something but, seeing that he was a
22851 stranger, ran back laughing without looking at him.
22853 Suddenly, he did not know why, he felt a pang. The day was so beautiful,
22854 the sun so bright, everything around so gay, but that slim pretty girl
22855 did not know, or wish to know, of his existence and was contented and
22856 cheerful in her own separate--probably foolish--but bright and happy
22857 life. "What is she so glad about? What is she thinking of? Not of the
22858 military regulations or of the arrangement of the Ryazan serfs'
22859 quitrents. Of what is she thinking? Why is she so happy?" Prince Andrew
22860 asked himself with instinctive curiosity.
22862 In 1809 Count Ilya Rostov was living at Otradnoe just as he had done in
22863 former years, that is, entertaining almost the whole province with
22864 hunts, theatricals, dinners, and music. He was glad to see Prince
22865 Andrew, as he was to see any new visitor, and insisted on his staying
22868 During the dull day, in the course of which he was entertained by his
22869 elderly hosts and by the more important of the visitors (the old count's
22870 house was crowded on account of an approaching name day), Prince Andrew
22871 repeatedly glanced at Natasha, gay and laughing among the younger
22872 members of the company, and asked himself each time, "What is she
22873 thinking about? Why is she so glad?"
22875 That night, alone in new surroundings, he was long unable to sleep. He
22876 read awhile and then put out his candle, but relit it. It was hot in the
22877 room, the inside shutters of which were closed. He was cross with the
22878 stupid old man (as he called Rostov), who had made him stay by assuring
22879 him that some necessary documents had not yet arrived from town, and he
22880 was vexed with himself for having stayed.
22882 He got up and went to the window to open it. As soon as he opened the
22883 shutters the moonlight, as if it had long been watching for this, burst
22884 into the room. He opened the casement. The night was fresh, bright, and
22885 very still. Just before the window was a row of pollard trees, looking
22886 black on one side and with a silvery light on the other. Beneath the
22887 trees grew some kind of lush, wet, bushy vegetation with silver-lit
22888 leaves and stems here and there. Farther back beyond the dark trees a
22889 roof glittered with dew, to the right was a leafy tree with brilliantly
22890 white trunk and branches, and above it shone the moon, nearly at its
22891 full, in a pale, almost starless, spring sky. Prince Andrew leaned his
22892 elbows on the window ledge and his eyes rested on that sky.
22894 His room was on the first floor. Those in the rooms above were also
22895 awake. He heard female voices overhead.
22897 "Just once more," said a girlish voice above him which Prince Andrew
22898 recognized at once.
22900 "But when are you coming to bed?" replied another voice.
22902 "I won't, I can't sleep, what's the use? Come now for the last time."
22905 Two girlish voices sang a musical passage--the end of some song.
22907 "Oh, how lovely! Now go to sleep, and there's an end of it."
22909 "You go to sleep, but I can't," said the first voice, coming nearer to
22910 the window. She was evidently leaning right out, for the rustle of her
22911 dress and even her breathing could be heard. Everything was stone-still,
22912 like the moon and its light and the shadows. Prince Andrew, too, dared
22913 not stir, for fear of betraying his unintentional presence.
22915 "Sonya! Sonya!" he again heard the first speaker. "Oh, how can you
22916 sleep? Only look how glorious it is! Ah, how glorious! Do wake up,
22917 Sonya!" she said almost with tears in her voice. "There never, never was
22918 such a lovely night before!"
22920 Sonya made some reluctant reply.
22922 "Do just come and see what a moon!... Oh, how lovely! Come here....
22923 Darling, sweetheart, come here! There, you see? I feel like sitting down
22924 on my heels, putting my arms round my knees like this, straining tight,
22925 as tight as possible, and flying away! Like this...."
22927 "Take care, you'll fall out."
22929 He heard the sound of a scuffle and Sonya's disapproving voice: "It's
22932 "Oh, you only spoil things for me. All right, go, go!"
22934 Again all was silent, but Prince Andrew knew she was still sitting
22935 there. From time to time he heard a soft rustle and at times a sigh.
22937 "O God, O God! What does it mean?" she suddenly exclaimed. "To bed then,
22938 if it must be!" and she slammed the casement.
22940 "For her I might as well not exist!" thought Prince Andrew while he
22941 listened to her voice, for some reason expecting yet fearing that she
22942 might say something about him. "There she is again! As if it were on
22943 purpose," thought he.
22945 In his soul there suddenly arose such an unexpected turmoil of youthful
22946 thoughts and hopes, contrary to the whole tenor of his life, that unable
22947 to explain his condition to himself he lay down and fell asleep at once.
22954 Next morning, having taken leave of no one but the count, and not
22955 waiting for the ladies to appear, Prince Andrew set off for home.
22957 It was already the beginning of June when on his return journey he drove
22958 into the birch forest where the gnarled old oak had made so strange and
22959 memorable an impression on him. In the forest the harness bells sounded
22960 yet more muffled than they had done six weeks before, for now all was
22961 thick, shady, and dense, and the young firs dotted about in the forest
22962 did not jar on the general beauty but, lending themselves to the mood
22963 around, were delicately green with fluffy young shoots.
22965 The whole day had been hot. Somewhere a storm was gathering, but only a
22966 small cloud had scattered some raindrops lightly, sprinkling the road
22967 and the sappy leaves. The left side of the forest was dark in the shade,
22968 the right side glittered in the sunlight, wet and shiny and scarcely
22969 swayed by the breeze. Everything was in blossom, the nightingales
22970 trilled, and their voices reverberated now near, now far away.
22972 "Yes, here in this forest was that oak with which I agreed," thought
22973 Prince Andrew. "But where is it?" he again wondered, gazing at the left
22974 side of the road, and without recognizing it he looked with admiration
22975 at the very oak he sought. The old oak, quite transfigured, spreading
22976 out a canopy of sappy dark-green foliage, stood rapt and slightly
22977 trembling in the rays of the evening sun. Neither gnarled fingers nor
22978 old scars nor old doubts and sorrows were any of them in evidence now.
22979 Through the hard century-old bark, even where there were no twigs,
22980 leaves had sprouted such as one could hardly believe the old veteran
22981 could have produced.
22983 "Yes, it is the same oak," thought Prince Andrew, and all at once he was
22984 seized by an unreasoning springtime feeling of joy and renewal. All the
22985 best moments of his life suddenly rose to his memory. Austerlitz with
22986 the lofty heavens, his wife's dead reproachful face, Pierre at the
22987 ferry, that girl thrilled by the beauty of the night, and that night
22988 itself and the moon, and.... all this rushed suddenly to his mind.
22990 "No, life is not over at thirty-one!" Prince Andrew suddenly decided
22991 finally and decisively. "It is not enough for me to know what I have in
22992 me--everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly
22993 away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be
22994 lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that
22995 it may be reflected in them all, and they and I may live in harmony!"
22997 On reaching home Prince Andrew decided to go to Petersburg that autumn
22998 and found all sorts of reasons for this decision. A whole series of
22999 sensible and logical considerations showing it to be essential for him
23000 to go to Petersburg, and even to re-enter the service, kept springing up
23001 in his mind. He could not now understand how he could ever even have
23002 doubted the necessity of taking an active share in life, just as a month
23003 before he had not understood how the idea of leaving the quiet country
23004 could ever enter his head. It now seemed clear to him that all his
23005 experience of life must be senselessly wasted unless he applied it to
23006 some kind of work and again played an active part in life. He did not
23007 even remember how formerly, on the strength of similar wretched logical
23008 arguments, it had seemed obvious that he would be degrading himself if
23009 he now, after the lessons he had had in life, allowed himself to believe
23010 in the possibility of being useful and in the possibility of happiness
23011 or love. Now reason suggested quite the opposite. After that journey to
23012 Ryazan he found the country dull; his former pursuits no longer
23013 interested him, and often when sitting alone in his study he got up,
23014 went to the mirror, and gazed a long time at his own face. Then he would
23015 turn away to the portrait of his dead Lise, who with hair curled a la
23016 grecque looked tenderly and gaily at him out of the gilt frame. She did
23017 not now say those former terrible words to him, but looked simply,
23018 merrily, and inquisitively at him. And Prince Andrew, crossing his arms
23019 behind him, long paced the room, now frowning, now smiling, as he
23020 reflected on those irrational, inexpressible thoughts, secret as a
23021 crime, which altered his whole life and were connected with Pierre, with
23022 fame, with the girl at the window, the oak, and woman's beauty and love.
23023 And if anyone came into his room at such moments he was particularly
23024 cold, stern, and above all unpleasantly logical.
23026 "My dear," Princess Mary entering at such a moment would say, "little
23027 Nicholas can't go out today, it's very cold."
23029 "If it were hot," Prince Andrew would reply at such times very dryly to
23030 his sister, "he could go out in his smock, but as it is cold he must
23031 wear warm clothes, which were designed for that purpose. That is what
23032 follows from the fact that it is cold; and not that a child who needs
23033 fresh air should remain at home," he would add with extreme logic, as if
23034 punishing someone for those secret illogical emotions that stirred
23037 At such moments Princess Mary would think how intellectual work dries
23045 Prince Andrew arrived in Petersburg in August, 1809. It was the time
23046 when the youthful Speranski was at the zenith of his fame and his
23047 reforms were being pushed forward with the greatest energy. That same
23048 August the Emperor was thrown from his caleche, injured his leg, and
23049 remained three weeks at Peterhof, receiving Speranski every day and no
23050 one else. At that time the two famous decrees were being prepared that
23051 so agitated society--abolishing court ranks and introducing examinations
23052 to qualify for the grades of Collegiate Assessor and State Councilor--
23053 and not merely these but a whole state constitution, intended to change
23054 the existing order of government in Russia: legal, administrative, and
23055 financial, from the Council of State down to the district tribunals. Now
23056 those vague liberal dreams with which the Emperor Alexander had ascended
23057 the throne, and which he had tried to put into effect with the aid of
23058 his associates, Czartoryski, Novosiltsev, Kochubey, and Strogonov--whom
23059 he himself in jest had called his Comite de salut public--were taking
23060 shape and being realized.
23062 Now all these men were replaced by Speranski on the civil side, and
23063 Arakcheev on the military. Soon after his arrival Prince Andrew, as a
23064 gentleman of the chamber, presented himself at court and at a levee. The
23065 Emperor, though he met him twice, did not favor him with a single word.
23066 It had always seemed to Prince Andrew before that he was antipathetic to
23067 the Emperor and that the latter disliked his face and personality
23068 generally, and in the cold, repellent glance the Emperor gave him, he
23069 now found further confirmation of this surmise. The courtiers explained
23070 the Emperor's neglect of him by His Majesty's displeasure at Bolkonski's
23071 not having served since 1805.
23073 "I know myself that one cannot help one's sympathies and antipathies,"
23074 thought Prince Andrew, "so it will not do to present my proposal for the
23075 reform of the army regulations to the Emperor personally, but the
23076 project will speak for itself."
23078 He mentioned what he had written to an old field marshal, a friend of
23079 his father's. The field marshal made an appointment to see him, received
23080 him graciously, and promised to inform the Emperor. A few days later
23081 Prince Andrew received notice that he was to go to see the Minister of
23082 War, Count Arakcheev.
23084 On the appointed day Prince Andrew entered Count Arakcheev's waiting
23085 room at nine in the morning.
23087 He did not know Arakcheev personally, had never seen him, and all he had
23088 heard of him inspired him with but little respect for the man.
23090 "He is Minister of War, a man trusted by the Emperor, and I need not
23091 concern myself about his personal qualities: he has been commissioned to
23092 consider my project, so he alone can get it adopted," thought Prince
23093 Andrew as he waited among a number of important and unimportant people
23094 in Count Arakcheev's waiting room.
23096 During his service, chiefly as an adjutant, Prince Andrew had seen the
23097 anterooms of many important men, and the different types of such rooms
23098 were well known to him. Count Arakcheev's anteroom had quite a special
23099 character. The faces of the unimportant people awaiting their turn for
23100 an audience showed embarrassment and servility; the faces of those of
23101 higher rank expressed a common feeling of awkwardness, covered by a mask
23102 of unconcern and ridicule of themselves, their situation, and the person
23103 for whom they were waiting. Some walked thoughtfully up and down, others
23104 whispered and laughed. Prince Andrew heard the nickname "Sila
23105 Andreevich" and the words, "Uncle will give it to us hot," in reference
23106 to Count Arakcheev. One general (an important personage), evidently
23107 feeling offended at having to wait so long, sat crossing and uncrossing
23108 his legs and smiling contemptuously to himself.
23110 But the moment the door opened one feeling alone appeared on all faces--
23111 that of fear. Prince Andrew for the second time asked the adjutant on
23112 duty to take in his name, but received an ironical look and was told
23113 that his turn would come in due course. After some others had been shown
23114 in and out of the minister's room by the adjutant on duty, an officer
23115 who struck Prince Andrew by his humiliated and frightened air was
23116 admitted at that terrible door. This officer's audience lasted a long
23117 time. Then suddenly the grating sound of a harsh voice was heard from
23118 the other side of the door, and the officer--with pale face and
23119 trembling lips--came out and passed through the waiting room, clutching
23122 After this Prince Andrew was conducted to the door and the officer on
23123 duty said in a whisper, "To the right, at the window."
23125 Prince Andrew entered a plain tidy room and saw at the table a man of
23126 forty with a long waist, a long closely cropped head, deep wrinkles,
23127 scowling brows above dull greenish-hazel eyes and an overhanging red
23128 nose. Arakcheev turned his head toward him without looking at him.
23130 "What is your petition?" asked Arakcheev.
23132 "I am not petitioning, your excellency," returned Prince Andrew quietly.
23134 Arakcheev's eyes turned toward him.
23136 "Sit down," said he. "Prince Bolkonski?"
23138 "I am not petitioning about anything. His Majesty the Emperor has
23139 deigned to send your excellency a project submitted by me..."
23141 "You see, my dear sir, I have read your project," interrupted Arakcheev,
23142 uttering only the first words amiably and then--again without looking at
23143 Prince Andrew--relapsing gradually into a tone of grumbling contempt.
23144 "You are proposing new military laws? There are many laws but no one to
23145 carry out the old ones. Nowadays everybody designs laws, it is easier
23146 writing than doing."
23148 "I came at His Majesty the Emperor's wish to learn from your excellency
23149 how you propose to deal with the memorandum I have presented," said
23150 Prince Andrew politely.
23152 "I have endorsed a resolution on your memorandum and sent it to the
23153 committee. I do not approve of it," said Arakcheev, rising and taking a
23154 paper from his writing table. "Here!" and he handed it to Prince Andrew.
23156 Across the paper was scrawled in pencil, without capital letters,
23157 misspelled, and without punctuation: "Unsoundly constructed because
23158 resembles an imitation of the French military code and from the Articles
23159 of War needlessly deviating."
23161 "To what committee has the memorandum been referred?" inquired Prince
23164 "To the Committee on Army Regulations, and I have recommended that your
23165 honor should be appointed a member, but without a salary."
23167 Prince Andrew smiled.
23169 "I don't want one."
23171 "A member without salary," repeated Arakcheev. "I have the honor... Eh!
23172 Call the next one! Who else is there?" he shouted, bowing to Prince
23180 While waiting for the announcement of his appointment to the committee
23181 Prince Andrew looked up his former acquaintances, particularly those he
23182 knew to be in power and whose aid he might need. In Petersburg he now
23183 experienced the same feeling he had had on the eve of a battle, when
23184 troubled by anxious curiosity and irresistibly attracted to the ruling
23185 circles where the future, on which the fate of millions depended, was
23186 being shaped. From the irritation of the older men, the curiosity of the
23187 uninitiated, the reserve of the initiated, the hurry and preoccupation
23188 of everyone, and the innumerable committees and commissions of whose
23189 existence he learned every day, he felt that now, in 1809, here in
23190 Petersburg a vast civil conflict was in preparation, the commander in
23191 chief of which was a mysterious person he did not know, but who was
23192 supposed to be a man of genius--Speranski. And this movement of
23193 reconstruction of which Prince Andrew had a vague idea, and Speranski
23194 its chief promoter, began to interest him so keenly that the question of
23195 the army regulations quickly receded to a secondary place in his
23198 Prince Andrew was most favorably placed to secure good reception in the
23199 highest and most diverse Petersburg circles of the day. The reforming
23200 party cordially welcomed and courted him, in the first place because he
23201 was reputed to be clever and very well read, and secondly because by
23202 liberating his serfs he had obtained the reputation of being a liberal.
23203 The party of the old and dissatisfied, who censured the innovations,
23204 turned to him expecting his sympathy in their disapproval of the
23205 reforms, simply because he was the son of his father. The feminine
23206 society world welcomed him gladly, because he was rich, distinguished, a
23207 good match, and almost a newcomer, with a halo of romance on account of
23208 his supposed death and the tragic loss of his wife. Besides this the
23209 general opinion of all who had known him previously was that he had
23210 greatly improved during these last five years, having softened and grown
23211 more manly, lost his former affectation, pride, and contemptuous irony,
23212 and acquired the serenity that comes with years. People talked about
23213 him, were interested in him, and wanted to meet him.
23215 The day after his interview with Count Arakcheev, Prince Andrew spent
23216 the evening at Count Kochubey's. He told the count of his interview with
23217 Sila Andreevich (Kochubey spoke of Arakcheev by that nickname with the
23218 same vague irony Prince Andrew had noticed in the Minister of War's
23221 "Mon cher, even in this case you can't do without Michael Mikhaylovich
23222 Speranski. He manages everything. I'll speak to him. He has promised to
23223 come this evening."
23225 "What has Speranski to do with the army regulations?" asked Prince
23228 Kochubey shook his head smilingly, as if surprised at Bolkonski's
23231 "We were talking to him about you a few days ago," Kochubey continued,
23232 "and about your freed plowmen."
23234 "Oh, is it you, Prince, who have freed your serfs?" said an old man of
23235 Catherine's day, turning contemptuously toward Bolkonski.
23237 "It was a small estate that brought in no profit," replied Prince
23238 Andrew, trying to extenuate his action so as not to irritate the old man
23241 "Afraid of being late..." said the old man, looking at Kochubey.
23243 "There's one thing I don't understand," he continued. "Who will plow the
23244 land if they are set free? It is easy to write laws, but difficult to
23245 rule.... Just the same as now--I ask you, Count--who will be heads of
23246 the departments when everybody has to pass examinations?"
23248 "Those who pass the examinations, I suppose," replied Kochubey, crossing
23249 his legs and glancing round.
23251 "Well, I have Pryanichnikov serving under me, a splendid man, a
23252 priceless man, but he's sixty. Is he to go up for examination?"
23254 "Yes, that's a difficulty, as education is not at all general, but..."
23256 Count Kochubey did not finish. He rose, took Prince Andrew by the arm,
23257 and went to meet a tall, bald, fair man of about forty with a large open
23258 forehead and a long face of unusual and peculiar whiteness, who was just
23259 entering. The newcomer wore a blue swallow-tail coat with a cross
23260 suspended from his neck and a star on his left breast. It was Speranski.
23261 Prince Andrew recognized him at once, and felt a throb within him, as
23262 happens at critical moments of life. Whether it was from respect, envy,
23263 or anticipation, he did not know. Speranski's whole figure was of a
23264 peculiar type that made him easily recognizable. In the society in which
23265 Prince Andrew lived he had never seen anyone who together with awkward
23266 and clumsy gestures possessed such calmness and self-assurance; he had
23267 never seen so resolute yet gentle an expression as that in those half-
23268 closed, rather humid eyes, or so firm a smile that expressed nothing;
23269 nor had he heard such a refined, smooth, soft voice; above all he had
23270 never seen such delicate whiteness of face or hands--hands which were
23271 broad, but very plump, soft, and white. Such whiteness and softness
23272 Prince Andrew had only seen on the faces of soldiers who had been long
23273 in hospital. This was Speranski, Secretary of State, reporter to the
23274 Emperor and his companion at Erfurt, where he had more than once met and
23275 talked with Napoleon.
23277 Speranski did not shift his eyes from one face to another as people
23278 involuntarily do on entering a large company and was in no hurry to
23279 speak. He spoke slowly, with assurance that he would be listened to, and
23280 he looked only at the person with whom he was conversing.
23282 Prince Andrew followed Speranski's every word and movement with
23283 particular attention. As happens to some people, especially to men who
23284 judge those near to them severely, he always on meeting anyone new--
23285 especially anyone whom, like Speranski, he knew by reputation--expected
23286 to discover in him the perfection of human qualities.
23288 Speranski told Kochubey he was sorry he had been unable to come sooner
23289 as he had been detained at the palace. He did not say that the Emperor
23290 had kept him, and Prince Andrew noticed this affectation of modesty.
23291 When Kochubey introduced Prince Andrew, Speranski slowly turned his eyes
23292 to Bolkonski with his customary smile and looked at him in silence.
23294 "I am very glad to make your acquaintance. I had heard of you, as
23295 everyone has," he said after a pause.
23297 Kochubey said a few words about the reception Arakcheev had given
23298 Bolkonski. Speranski smiled more markedly.
23300 "The chairman of the Committee on Army Regulations is my good friend
23301 Monsieur Magnitski," he said, fully articulating every word and
23302 syllable, "and if you like I can put you in touch with him." He paused
23303 at the full stop. "I hope you will find him sympathetic and ready to co-
23304 operate in promoting all that is reasonable."
23306 A circle soon formed round Speranski, and the old man who had talked
23307 about his subordinate Pryanichnikov addressed a question to him.
23309 Prince Andrew without joining in the conversation watched every movement
23310 of Speranski's: this man, not long since an insignificant divinity
23311 student, who now, Bolkonski thought, held in his hands--those plump
23312 white hands--the fate of Russia. Prince Andrew was struck by the
23313 extraordinarily disdainful composure with which Speranski answered the
23314 old man. He appeared to address condescending words to him from an
23315 immeasurable height. When the old man began to speak too loud, Speranski
23316 smiled and said he could not judge of the advantage or disadvantage of
23317 what pleased the sovereign.
23319 Having talked for a little while in the general circle, Speranski rose
23320 and coming up to Prince Andrew took him along to the other end of the
23321 room. It was clear that he thought it necessary to interest himself in
23324 "I had no chance to talk with you, Prince, during the animated
23325 conversation in which that venerable gentleman involved me," he said
23326 with a mildly contemptuous smile, as if intimating by that smile that he
23327 and Prince Andrew understood the insignificance of the people with whom
23328 he had just been talking. This flattered Prince Andrew. "I have known of
23329 you for a long time: first from your action with regard to your serfs, a
23330 first example, of which it is very desirable that there should be more
23331 imitators; and secondly because you are one of those gentlemen of the
23332 chamber who have not considered themselves offended by the new decree
23333 concerning the ranks allotted to courtiers, which is causing so much
23334 gossip and tittle-tattle."
23336 "No," said Prince Andrew, "my father did not wish me to take advantage
23337 of the privilege. I began the service from the lower grade."
23339 "Your father, a man of the last century, evidently stands above our
23340 contemporaries who so condemn this measure which merely reestablishes
23343 "I think, however, that these condemnations have some ground," returned
23344 Prince Andrew, trying to resist Speranski's influence, of which he began
23345 to be conscious. He did not like to agree with him in everything and
23346 felt a wish to contradict. Though he usually spoke easily and well, he
23347 felt a difficulty in expressing himself now while talking with
23348 Speranski. He was too much absorbed in observing the famous man's
23351 "Grounds of personal ambition maybe," Speranski put in quietly.
23353 "And of state interest to some extent," said Prince Andrew.
23355 "What do you mean?" asked Speranski quietly, lowering his eyes.
23357 "I am an admirer of Montesquieu," replied Prince Andrew, "and his idea
23358 that le principe des monarchies est l'honneur me parait incontestable.
23359 Certains droits et privileges de la noblesse me paraissent etre des
23360 moyens de soutenir ce sentiment." *
23363 * "The principle of monarchies is honor seems to me incontestable.
23364 Certain rights and privileges for the aristocracy appear to me a means
23365 of maintaining that sentiment."
23367 The smile vanished from Speranski's white face, which was much improved
23368 by the change. Probably Prince Andrew's thought interested him.
23370 "Si vous envisagez la question sous ce point de vue," * he began,
23371 pronouncing French with evident difficulty, and speaking even slower
23372 than in Russian but quite calmly.
23375 * "If you regard the question from that point of view."
23377 Speranski went on to say that honor, l'honneur, cannot be upheld by
23378 privileges harmful to the service; that honor, l'honneur, is either a
23379 negative concept of not doing what is blameworthy or it is a source of
23380 emulation in pursuit of commendation and rewards, which recognize it.
23381 His arguments were concise, simple, and clear.
23383 "An institution upholding honor, the source of emulation, is one similar
23384 to the Legion d'honneur of the great Emperor Napoleon, not harmful but
23385 helpful to the success of the service, but not a class or court
23388 "I do not dispute that, but it cannot be denied that court privileges
23389 have attained the same end," returned Prince Andrew. "Every courtier
23390 considers himself bound to maintain his position worthily."
23392 "Yet you do not care to avail yourself of the privilege, Prince," said
23393 Speranski, indicating by a smile that he wished to finish amiably an
23394 argument which was embarrassing for his companion. "If you will do me
23395 the honor of calling on me on Wednesday," he added, "I will, after
23396 talking with Magnitski, let you know what may interest you, and shall
23397 also have the pleasure of a more detailed chat with you."
23399 Closing his eyes, he bowed a la francaise, without taking leave, and
23400 trying to attract as little attention as possible, he left the room.
23407 During the first weeks of his stay in Petersburg Prince Andrew felt the
23408 whole trend of thought he had formed during his life of seclusion quite
23409 overshadowed by the trifling cares that engrossed him in that city.
23411 On returning home in the evening he would jot down in his notebook four
23412 or five necessary calls or appointments for certain hours. The mechanism
23413 of life, the arrangement of the day so as to be in time everywhere,
23414 absorbed the greater part of his vital energy. He did nothing, did not
23415 even think or find time to think, but only talked, and talked
23416 successfully, of what he had thought while in the country.
23418 He sometimes noticed with dissatisfaction that he repeated the same
23419 remark on the same day in different circles. But he was so busy for
23420 whole days together that he had no time to notice that he was thinking
23423 As he had done on their first meeting at Kochubey's, Speranski produced
23424 a strong impression on Prince Andrew on the Wednesday, when he received
23425 him tete-a-tete at his own house and talked to him long and
23428 To Bolkonski so many people appeared contemptible and insignificant
23429 creatures, and he so longed to find in someone the living ideal of that
23430 perfection toward which he strove, that he readily believed that in
23431 Speranski he had found this ideal of a perfectly rational and virtuous
23432 man. Had Speranski sprung from the same class as himself and possessed
23433 the same breeding and traditions, Bolkonski would soon have discovered
23434 his weak, human, unheroic sides; but as it was, Speranski's strange and
23435 logical turn of mind inspired him with respect all the more because he
23436 did not quite understand him. Moreover, Speranski, either because he
23437 appreciated the other's capacity or because he considered it necessary
23438 to win him to his side, showed off his dispassionate calm reasonableness
23439 before Prince Andrew and flattered him with that subtle flattery which
23440 goes hand in hand with self-assurance and consists in a tacit assumption
23441 that one's companion is the only man besides oneself capable of
23442 understanding the folly of the rest of mankind and the reasonableness
23443 and profundity of one's own ideas.
23445 During their long conversation on Wednesday evening, Speranski more than
23446 once remarked: "We regard everything that is above the common level of
23447 rooted custom..." or, with a smile: "But we want the wolves to be fed
23448 and the sheep to be safe..." or: "They cannot understand this..." and
23449 all in a way that seemed to say: "We, you and I, understand what they
23450 are and who we are."
23452 This first long conversation with Speranski only strengthened in Prince
23453 Andrew the feeling he had experienced toward him at their first meeting.
23454 He saw in him a remarkable, clear-thinking man of vast intellect who by
23455 his energy and persistence had attained power, which he was using solely
23456 for the welfare of Russia. In Prince Andrew's eyes Speranski was the man
23457 he would himself have wished to be--one who explained all the facts of
23458 life reasonably, considered important only what was rational, and was
23459 capable of applying the standard of reason to everything. Everything
23460 seemed so simple and clear in Speranski's exposition that Prince Andrew
23461 involuntarily agreed with him about everything. If he replied and
23462 argued, it was only because he wished to maintain his independence and
23463 not submit to Speranski's opinions entirely. Everything was right and
23464 everything was as it should be: only one thing disconcerted Prince
23465 Andrew. This was Speranski's cold, mirrorlike look, which did not allow
23466 one to penetrate to his soul, and his delicate white hands, which Prince
23467 Andrew involuntarily watched as one does watch the hands of those who
23468 possess power. This mirrorlike gaze and those delicate hands irritated
23469 Prince Andrew, he knew not why. He was unpleasantly struck, too, by the
23470 excessive contempt for others that he observed in Speranski, and by the
23471 diversity of lines of argument he used to support his opinions. He made
23472 use of every kind of mental device, except analogy, and passed too
23473 boldly, it seemed to Prince Andrew, from one to another. Now he would
23474 take up the position of a practical man and condemn dreamers; now that
23475 of a satirist, and laugh ironically at his opponents; now grow severely
23476 logical, or suddenly rise to the realm of metaphysics. (This last
23477 resource was one he very frequently employed.) He would transfer a
23478 question to metaphysical heights, pass on to definitions of space, time,
23479 and thought, and, having deduced the refutation he needed, would again
23480 descend to the level of the original discussion.
23482 In general the trait of Speranski's mentality which struck Prince Andrew
23483 most was his absolute and unshakable belief in the power and authority
23484 of reason. It was evident that the thought could never occur to him
23485 which to Prince Andrew seemed so natural, namely, that it is after all
23486 impossible to express all one thinks; and that he had never felt the
23487 doubt, "Is not all I think and believe nonsense?" And it was just this
23488 peculiarity of Speranski's mind that particularly attracted Prince
23491 During the first period of their acquaintance Bolkonski felt a
23492 passionate admiration for him similar to that which he had once felt for
23493 Bonaparte. The fact that Speranski was the son of a village priest, and
23494 that stupid people might meanly despise him on account of his humble
23495 origin (as in fact many did), caused Prince Andrew to cherish his
23496 sentiment for him the more, and unconsciously to strengthen it.
23498 On that first evening Bolkonski spent with him, having mentioned the
23499 Commission for the Revision of the Code of Laws, Speranski told him
23500 sarcastically that the Commission had existed for a hundred and fifty
23501 years, had cost millions, and had done nothing except that Rosenkampf
23502 had stuck labels on the corresponding paragraphs of the different codes.
23504 "And that is all the state has for the millions it has spent," said he.
23505 "We want to give the Senate new juridical powers, but we have no laws.
23506 That is why it is a sin for men like you, Prince, not to serve in these
23509 Prince Andrew said that for that work an education in jurisprudence was
23510 needed which he did not possess.
23512 "But nobody possesses it, so what would you have? It is a vicious circle
23513 from which we must break a way out."
23515 A week later Prince Andrew was a member of the Committee on Army
23516 Regulations and--what he had not at all expected--was chairman of a
23517 section of the committee for the revision of the laws. At Speranski's
23518 request he took the first part of the Civil Code that was being drawn up
23519 and, with the aid of the Code Napoleon and the Institutes of Justinian,
23520 he worked at formulating the section on Personal Rights.
23527 Nearly two years before this, in 1808, Pierre on returning to Petersburg
23528 after visiting his estates had involuntarily found himself in a leading
23529 position among the Petersburg Freemasons. He arranged dining and funeral
23530 lodge meetings, enrolled new members, and busied himself uniting various
23531 lodges and acquiring authentic charters. He gave money for the erection
23532 of temples and supplemented as far as he could the collection of alms,
23533 in regard to which the majority of members were stingy and irregular. He
23534 supported almost singlehanded a poorhouse the order had founded in
23537 His life meanwhile continued as before, with the same infatuations and
23538 dissipations. He liked to dine and drink well, and though he considered
23539 it immoral and humiliating could not resist the temptations of the
23540 bachelor circles in which he moved.
23542 Amid the turmoil of his activities and distractions, however, Pierre at
23543 the end of a year began to feel that the more firmly he tried to rest
23544 upon it, the more masonic ground on which he stood gave way under him.
23545 At the same time he felt that the deeper the ground sank under him the
23546 closer bound he involuntarily became to the order. When he had joined
23547 the Freemasons he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently
23548 steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down it
23549 sank in. To make quite sure of the firmness of the ground, he put his
23550 other foot down and sank deeper still, became stuck in it, and
23551 involuntarily waded knee-deep in the bog.
23553 Joseph Alexeevich was not in Petersburg--he had of late stood aside from
23554 the affairs of the Petersburg lodges, and lived almost entirely in
23555 Moscow. All the members of the lodges were men Pierre knew in ordinary
23556 life, and it was difficult for him to regard them merely as Brothers in
23557 Freemasonry and not as Prince B. or Ivan Vasilevich D., whom he knew in
23558 society mostly as weak and insignificant men. Under the masonic aprons
23559 and insignia he saw the uniforms and decorations at which they aimed in
23560 ordinary life. Often after collecting alms, and reckoning up twenty to
23561 thirty rubles received for the most part in promises from a dozen
23562 members, of whom half were as well able to pay as himself, Pierre
23563 remembered the masonic vow in which each Brother promised to devote all
23564 his belongings to his neighbor, and doubts on which he tried not to
23565 dwell arose in his soul.
23567 He divided the Brothers he knew into four categories. In the first he
23568 put those who did not take an active part in the affairs of the lodges
23569 or in human affairs, but were exclusively occupied with the mystical
23570 science of the order: with questions of the threefold designation of
23571 God, the three primordial elements--sulphur, mercury, and salt--or the
23572 meaning of the square and all the various figures of the temple of
23573 Solomon. Pierre respected this class of Brothers to which the elder ones
23574 chiefly belonged, including, Pierre thought, Joseph Alexeevich himself,
23575 but he did not share their interests. His heart was not in the mystical
23576 aspect of Freemasonry.
23578 In the second category Pierre reckoned himself and others like him,
23579 seeking and vacillating, who had not yet found in Freemasonry a straight
23580 and comprehensible path, but hoped to do so.
23582 In the third category he included those Brothers (the majority) who saw
23583 nothing in Freemasonry but the external forms and ceremonies, and prized
23584 the strict performance of these forms without troubling about their
23585 purport or significance. Such were Willarski and even the Grand Master
23586 of the principal lodge.
23588 Finally, to the fourth category also a great many Brothers belonged,
23589 particularly those who had lately joined. These according to Pierre's
23590 observations were men who had no belief in anything, nor desire for
23591 anything, but joined the Freemasons merely to associate with the wealthy
23592 young Brothers who were influential through their connections or rank,
23593 and of whom there were very many in the lodge.
23595 Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with what he was doing. Freemasonry,
23596 at any rate as he saw it here, sometimes seemed to him based merely on
23597 externals. He did not think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but
23598 suspected that Russian Masonry had taken a wrong path and deviated from
23599 its original principles. And so toward the end of the year he went
23600 abroad to be initiated into the higher secrets of the order.
23602 In the summer of 1809 Pierre returned to Petersburg. Our Freemasons knew
23603 from correspondence with those abroad that Bezukhov had obtained the
23604 confidence of many highly placed persons, had been initiated into many
23605 mysteries, had been raised to a higher grade, and was bringing back with
23606 him much that might conduce to the advantage of the masonic cause in
23607 Russia. The Petersburg Freemasons all came to see him, tried to
23608 ingratiate themselves with him, and it seemed to them all that he was
23609 preparing something for them and concealing it.
23611 A solemn meeting of the lodge of the second degree was convened, at
23612 which Pierre promised to communicate to the Petersburg Brothers what he
23613 had to deliver to them from the highest leaders of their order. The
23614 meeting was a full one. After the usual ceremonies Pierre rose and began
23617 "Dear Brothers," he began, blushing and stammering, with a written
23618 speech in his hand, "it is not sufficient to observe our mysteries in
23619 the seclusion of our lodge--we must act--act! We are drowsing, but we
23620 must act." Pierre raised his notebook and began to read.
23622 "For the dissemination of pure truth and to secure the triumph of
23623 virtue," he read, "we must cleanse men from prejudice, diffuse
23624 principles in harmony with the spirit of the times, undertake the
23625 education of the young, unite ourselves in indissoluble bonds with the
23626 wisest men, boldly yet prudently overcome superstitions, infidelity, and
23627 folly, and form of those devoted to us a body linked together by unity
23628 of purpose and possessed of authority and power.
23630 "To attain this end we must secure a preponderance of virtue over vice
23631 and must endeavor to secure that the honest man may, even in this world,
23632 receive a lasting reward for his virtue. But in these great endeavors we
23633 are gravely hampered by the political institutions of today. What is to
23634 be done in these circumstances? To favor revolutions, overthrow
23635 everything, repel force by force?... No! We are very far from that.
23636 Every violent reform deserves censure, for it quite fails to remedy evil
23637 while men remain what they are, and also because wisdom needs no
23640 "The whole plan of our order should be based on the idea of preparing
23641 men of firmness and virtue bound together by unity of conviction--aiming
23642 at the punishment of vice and folly, and patronizing talent and virtue:
23643 raising worthy men from the dust and attaching them to our Brotherhood.
23644 Only then will our order have the power unobtrusively to bind the hands
23645 of the protectors of disorder and to control them without their being
23646 aware of it. In a word, we must found a form of government holding
23647 universal sway, which should be diffused over the whole world without
23648 destroying the bonds of citizenship, and beside which all other
23649 governments can continue in their customary course and do everything
23650 except what impedes the great aim of our order, which is to obtain for
23651 virtue the victory over vice. This aim was that of Christianity itself.
23652 It taught men to be wise and good and for their own benefit to follow
23653 the example and instruction of the best and wisest men.
23655 "At that time, when everything was plunged in darkness, preaching alone
23656 was of course sufficient. The novelty of Truth endowed her with special
23657 strength, but now we need much more powerful methods. It is now
23658 necessary that man, governed by his senses, should find in virtue a
23659 charm palpable to those senses. It is impossible to eradicate the
23660 passions; but we must strive to direct them to a noble aim, and it is
23661 therefore necessary that everyone should be able to satisfy his passions
23662 within the limits of virtue. Our order should provide means to that end.
23664 "As soon as we have a certain number of worthy men in every state, each
23665 of them again training two others and all being closely united,
23666 everything will be possible for our order, which has already in secret
23667 accomplished much for the welfare of mankind."
23669 This speech not only made a strong impression, but created excitement in
23670 the lodge. The majority of the Brothers, seeing in it dangerous designs
23671 of Illuminism, * met it with a coldness that surprised Pierre. The Grand
23672 Master began answering him, and Pierre began developing his views with
23673 more and more warmth. It was long since there had been so stormy a
23674 meeting. Parties were formed, some accusing Pierre of Illuminism, others
23675 supporting him. At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the
23676 endless variety of men's minds, which prevents a truth from ever
23677 presenting itself identically to two persons. Even those members who
23678 seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way with
23679 limitations and alterations he could not agree to, as what he always
23680 wanted most was to convey his thought to others just as he himself
23684 * The Illuminati sought to substitute republican for monarchical
23687 At the end of the meeting the Grand Master with irony and ill-will
23688 reproved Bezukhov for his vehemence and said it was not love of virtue
23689 alone, but also a love of strife that had moved him in the dispute.
23690 Pierre did not answer him and asked briefly whether his proposal would
23691 be accepted. He was told that it would not, and without waiting for the
23692 usual formalities he left the lodge and went home.
23699 Again Pierre was overtaken by the depression he so dreaded. For three
23700 days after the delivery of his speech at the lodge he lay on a sofa at
23701 home receiving no one and going nowhere.
23703 It was just then that he received a letter from his wife, who implored
23704 him to see her, telling him how grieved she was about him and how she
23705 wished to devote her whole life to him.
23707 At the end of the letter she informed him that in a few days she would
23708 return to Petersburg from abroad.
23710 Following this letter one of the masonic Brothers whom Pierre respected
23711 less than the others forced his way in to see him and, turning the
23712 conversation upon Pierre's matrimonial affairs, by way of fraternal
23713 advice expressed the opinion that his severity to his wife was wrong and
23714 that he was neglecting one of the first rules of Freemasonry by not
23715 forgiving the penitent.
23717 At the same time his mother-in-law, Prince Vasili's wife, sent to him
23718 imploring him to come if only for a few minutes to discuss a most
23719 important matter. Pierre saw that there was a conspiracy against him and
23720 that they wanted to reunite him with his wife, and in the mood he then
23721 was, this was not even unpleasant to him. Nothing mattered to him.
23722 Nothing in life seemed to him of much importance, and under the
23723 influence of the depression that possessed him he valued neither his
23724 liberty nor his resolution to punish his wife.
23726 "No one is right and no one is to blame; so she too is not to blame," he
23729 If he did not at once give his consent to a reunion with his wife, it
23730 was only because in his state of depression he did not feel able to take
23731 any step. Had his wife come to him, he would not have turned her away.
23732 Compared to what preoccupied him, was it not a matter of indifference
23733 whether he lived with his wife or not?
23735 Without replying either to his wife or his mother-in-law, Pierre late
23736 one night prepared for a journey and started for Moscow to see Joseph
23737 Alexeevich. This is what he noted in his diary:
23739 Moscow, 17th November
23741 I have just returned from my benefactor, and hasten to write down what I
23742 have experienced. Joseph Alexeevich is living poorly and has for three
23743 years been suffering from a painful disease of the bladder. No one has
23744 ever heard him utter a groan or a word of complaint. From morning till
23745 late at night, except when he eats his very plain food, he is working at
23746 science. He received me graciously and made me sit down on the bed on
23747 which he lay. I made the sign of the Knights of the East and of
23748 Jerusalem, and he responded in the same manner, asking me with a mild
23749 smile what I had learned and gained in the Prussian and Scottish lodges.
23750 I told him everything as best I could, and told him what I had proposed
23751 to our Petersburg lodge, of the bad reception I had encountered, and of
23752 my rupture with the Brothers. Joseph Alexeevich, having remained silent
23753 and thoughtful for a good while, told me his view of the matter, which
23754 at once lit up for me my whole past and the future path I should follow.
23755 He surprised me by asking whether I remembered the threefold aim of the
23756 order: (1) The preservation and study of the mystery. (2) The
23757 purification and reformation of oneself for its reception, and (3) The
23758 improvement of the human race by striving for such purification. Which
23759 is the principal aim of these three? Certainly self-reformation and
23760 self-purification. Only to this aim can we always strive independently
23761 of circumstances. But at the same time just this aim demands the
23762 greatest efforts of us; and so, led astray by pride, losing sight of
23763 this aim, we occupy ourselves either with the mystery which in our
23764 impurity we are unworthy to receive, or seek the reformation of the
23765 human race while ourselves setting an example of baseness and
23766 profligacy. Illuminism is not a pure doctrine, just because it is
23767 attracted by social activity and puffed up by pride. On this ground
23768 Joseph Alexeevich condemned my speech and my whole activity, and in the
23769 depth of my soul I agreed with him. Talking of my family affairs he said
23770 to me, "the chief duty of a true Mason, as I have told you, lies in
23771 perfecting himself. We often think that by removing all the difficulties
23772 of our life we shall more quickly reach our aim, but on the contrary, my
23773 dear sir, it is only in the midst of worldly cares that we can attain
23774 our three chief aims: (1) Self-knowledge--for man can only know himself
23775 by comparison, (2) Self-perfecting, which can only be attained by
23776 conflict, and (3) The attainment of the chief virtue--love of death.
23777 Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its vanity and develop our
23778 innate love of death or of rebirth to a new life." These words are all
23779 the more remarkable because, in spite of his great physical sufferings,
23780 Joseph Alexeevich is never weary of life though he loves death, for
23781 which--in spite of the purity and loftiness of his inner man--he does
23782 not yet feel himself sufficiently prepared. My benefactor then explained
23783 to me fully the meaning of the Great Square of creation and pointed out
23784 to me that the numbers three and seven are the basis of everything. He
23785 advised me not to avoid intercourse with the Petersburg Brothers, but to
23786 take up only second-grade posts in the lodge, to try, while diverting
23787 the Brothers from pride, to turn them toward the true path self-
23788 knowledge and self-perfecting. Besides this he advised me for myself
23789 personally above all to keep a watch over myself, and to that end he
23790 gave me a notebook, the one I am now writing in and in which I will in
23791 future note down all my actions.
23793 Petersburg, 23rd November
23795 I am again living with my wife. My mother-in-law came to me in tears and
23796 said that Helene was here and that she implored me to hear her; that she
23797 was innocent and unhappy at my desertion, and much more. I knew that if
23798 I once let myself see her I should not have strength to go on refusing
23799 what she wanted. In my perplexity I did not know whose aid and advice to
23800 seek. Had my benefactor been here he would have told me what to do. I
23801 went to my room and reread Joseph Alexeevich's letters and recalled my
23802 conversations with him, and deduced from it all that I ought not to
23803 refuse a supplicant, and ought to reach a helping hand to everyone--
23804 especially to one so closely bound to me--and that I must bear my cross.
23805 But if I forgive her for the sake of doing right, then let union with
23806 her have only a spiritual aim. That is what I decided, and what I wrote
23807 to Joseph Alexeevich. I told my wife that I begged her to forget the
23808 past, to forgive me whatever wrong I may have done her, and that I had
23809 nothing to forgive. It gave me joy to tell her this. She need not know
23810 how hard it was for me to see her again. I have settled on the upper
23811 floor of this big house and am experiencing a happy feeling of
23819 At that time, as always happens, the highest society that met at court
23820 and at the grand balls was divided into several circles, each with its
23821 own particular tone. The largest of these was the French circle of the
23822 Napoleonic alliance, the circle of Count Rumyantsev and Caulaincourt. In
23823 this group Helene, as soon as she had settled in Petersburg with her
23824 husband, took a very prominent place. She was visited by the members of
23825 the French embassy and by many belonging to that circle and noted for
23826 their intellect and polished manners.
23828 Helene had been at Erfurt during the famous meeting of the Emperors and
23829 had brought from there these connections with the Napoleonic
23830 notabilities. At Erfurt her success had been brilliant. Napoleon himself
23831 had noticed her in the theater and said of her: "C'est un superbe
23832 animal." * Her success as a beautiful and elegant woman did not surprise
23833 Pierre, for she had become even handsomer than before. What did surprise
23834 him was that during these last two years his wife had succeeded in
23835 gaining the reputation "d' une femme charmante, aussi spirituelle que
23836 belle." *(2) The distinguished Prince de Ligne wrote her eight-page
23837 letters. Bilibin saved up his epigrams to produce them in Countess
23838 Bezukhova's presence. To be received in the Countess Bezukhova's salon
23839 was regarded as a diploma of intellect. Young men read books before
23840 attending Helene's evenings, to have something to say in her salon, and
23841 secretaries of the embassy, and even ambassadors, confided diplomatic
23842 secrets to her, so that in a way Helene was a power. Pierre, who knew
23843 she was very stupid, sometimes attended, with a strange feeling of
23844 perplexity and fear, her evenings and dinner parties, where politics,
23845 poetry, and philosophy were discussed. At these parties his feelings
23846 were like those of a conjuror who always expects his trick to be found
23847 out at any moment. But whether because stupidity was just what was
23848 needed to run such a salon, or because those who were deceived found
23849 pleasure in the deception, at any rate it remained unexposed and Helene
23850 Bezukhova's reputation as a lovely and clever woman became so firmly
23851 established that she could say the emptiest and stupidest things and
23852 everybody would go into raptures over every word of hers and look for a
23853 profound meaning in it of which she herself had no conception.
23856 * "That's a superb animal."
23858 * (2) "Of a charming woman, as witty as she is lovely."
23860 Pierre was just the husband needed for a brilliant society woman. He was
23861 that absent-minded crank, a grand seigneur husband who was in no one's
23862 way, and far from spoiling the high tone and general impression of the
23863 drawing room, he served, by the contrast he presented to her, as an
23864 advantageous background to his elegant and tactful wife. Pierre during
23865 the last two years, as a result of his continual absorption in abstract
23866 interests and his sincere contempt for all else, had acquired in his
23867 wife's circle, which did not interest him, that air of unconcern,
23868 indifference, and benevolence toward all, which cannot be acquired
23869 artificially and therefore inspires involuntary respect. He entered his
23870 wife's drawing room as one enters a theater, was acquainted with
23871 everybody, equally pleased to see everyone, and equally indifferent to
23872 them all. Sometimes he joined in a conversation which interested him
23873 and, regardless of whether any "gentlemen of the embassy" were present
23874 or not, lispingly expressed his views, which were sometimes not at all
23875 in accord with the accepted tone of the moment. But the general opinion
23876 concerning the queer husband of "the most distinguished woman in
23877 Petersburg" was so well established that no one took his freaks
23880 Among the many young men who frequented her house every day, Boris
23881 Drubetskoy, who had already achieved great success in the service, was
23882 the most intimate friend of the Bezukhov household since Helene's return
23883 from Erfurt. Helene spoke of him as "mon page" and treated him like a
23884 child. Her smile for him was the same as for everybody, but sometimes
23885 that smile made Pierre uncomfortable. Toward him Boris behaved with a
23886 particularly dignified and sad deference. This shade of deference also
23887 disturbed Pierre. He had suffered so painfully three years before from
23888 the mortification to which his wife had subjected him that he now
23889 protected himself from the danger of its repetition, first by not being
23890 a husband to his wife, and secondly by not allowing himself to suspect.
23892 "No, now that she has become a bluestocking she has finally renounced
23893 her former infatuations," he told himself. "There has never been an
23894 instance of a bluestocking being carried away by affairs of the heart"--
23895 a statement which, though gathered from an unknown source, he believed
23896 implicitly. Yet strange to say Boris' presence in his wife's drawing
23897 room (and he was almost always there) had a physical effect upon Pierre;
23898 it constricted his limbs and destroyed the unconsciousness and freedom
23901 "What a strange antipathy," thought Pierre, "yet I used to like him very
23904 In the eyes of the world Pierre was a great gentleman, the rather blind
23905 and absurd husband of a distinguished wife, a clever crank who did
23906 nothing but harmed nobody and was a first-rate, good-natured fellow. But
23907 a complex and difficult process of internal development was taking place
23908 all this time in Pierre's soul, revealing much to him and causing him
23909 many spiritual doubts and joys.
23916 Pierre went on with his diary, and this is what he wrote in it during
23921 Got up at eight, read the Scriptures, then went to my duties. (By Joseph
23922 Alexeevich's advice Pierre had entered the service of the state and
23923 served on one of the committees.) Returned home for dinner and dined
23924 alone--the countess had many visitors I do not like. I ate and drank
23925 moderately and after dinner copied out some passages for the Brothers.
23926 In the evening I went down to the countess and told a funny story about
23927 B., and only remembered that I ought not to have done so when everybody
23928 laughed loudly at it.
23930 I am going to bed with a happy and tranquil mind. Great God, help me to
23931 walk in Thy paths, (1) to conquer anger by calmness and deliberation,
23932 (2) to vanquish lust by self-restraint and repulsion, (3) to withdraw
23933 from worldliness, but not avoid (a) the service of the state, (b) family
23934 duties, (c) relations with my friends, and the management of my affairs.
23938 I got up late. On waking I lay long in bed yielding to sloth. O God,
23939 help and strengthen me that I may walk in Thy ways! Read the Scriptures,
23940 but without proper feeling. Brother Urusov came and we talked about
23941 worldly vanities. He told me of the Emperor's new projects. I began to
23942 criticize them, but remembered my rules and my benefactor's words--that
23943 a true Freemason should be a zealous worker for the state when his aid
23944 is required and a quiet onlooker when not called on to assist. My tongue
23945 is my enemy. Brothers G. V. and O. visited me and we had a preliminary
23946 talk about the reception of a new Brother. They laid on me the duty of
23947 Rhetor. I feel myself weak and unworthy. Then our talk turned to the
23948 interpretation of the seven pillars and steps of the Temple, the seven
23949 sciences, the seven virtues, the seven vices, and the seven gifts of the
23950 Holy Spirit. Brother O. was very eloquent. In the evening the admission
23951 took place. The new decoration of the Premises contributed much to the
23952 magnificence of the spectacle. It was Boris Drubetskoy who was admitted.
23953 I nominated him and was the Rhetor. A strange feeling agitated me all
23954 the time I was alone with him in the dark chamber. I caught myself
23955 harboring a feeling of hatred toward him which I vainly tried to
23956 overcome. That is why I should really like to save him from evil and
23957 lead him into the path of truth, but evil thoughts of him did not leave
23958 me. It seemed to me that his object in entering the Brotherhood was
23959 merely to be intimate and in favor with members of our lodge. Apart from
23960 the fact that he had asked me several times whether N. and S. were
23961 members of our lodge (a question to which I could not reply) and that
23962 according to my observation he is incapable of feeling respect for our
23963 holy order and is too preoccupied and satisfied with the outer man to
23964 desire spiritual improvement, I had no cause to doubt him, but he seemed
23965 to me insincere, and all the time I stood alone with him in the dark
23966 temple it seemed to me that he was smiling contemptuously at my words,
23967 and I wished really to stab his bare breast with the sword I held to it.
23968 I could not be eloquent, nor could I frankly mention my doubts to the
23969 Brothers and to the Grand Master. Great Architect of Nature, help me to
23970 find the true path out of the labyrinth of lies!
23973 After this, three pages were left blank in the diary, and then the
23974 following was written:
23976 I have had a long and instructive talk alone with Brother V., who
23977 advised me to hold fast by Brother A. Though I am unworthy, much was
23978 revealed to me. Adonai is the name of the creator of the world. Elohim
23979 is the name of the ruler of all. The third name is the name unutterable
23980 which means the All. Talks with Brother V. strengthen, refresh, and
23981 support me in the path of virtue. In his presence doubt has no place.
23982 The distinction between the poor teachings of mundane science and our
23983 sacred all-embracing teaching is clear to me. Human sciences dissect
23984 everything to comprehend it, and kill everything to examine it. In the
23985 holy science of our order all is one, all is known in its entirety and
23986 life. The Trinity--the three elements of matter--are sulphur, mercury,
23987 and salt. Sulphur is of an oily and fiery nature; in combination with
23988 salt by its fiery nature it arouses a desire in the latter by means of
23989 which it attracts mercury, seizes it, holds it, and in combination
23990 produces other bodies. Mercury is a fluid, volatile, spiritual essence.
23991 Christ, the Holy Spirit, Him!...
23995 Awoke late, read the Scriptures but was apathetic. Afterwards went and
23996 paced up and down the large hall. I wished to meditate, but instead my
23997 imagination pictured an occurrence of four years ago, when Dolokhov,
23998 meeting me in Moscow after our duel, said he hoped I was enjoying
23999 perfect peace of mind in spite of my wife's absence. At the time I gave
24000 him no answer. Now I recalled every detail of that meeting and in my
24001 mind gave him the most malevolent and bitter replies. I recollected
24002 myself and drove away that thought only when I found myself glowing with
24003 anger, but I did not sufficiently repent. Afterwards Boris Drubetskoy
24004 came and began relating various adventures. His coming vexed me from the
24005 first, and I said something disagreeable to him. He replied. I flared up
24006 and said much that was unpleasant and even rude to him. He became
24007 silent, and I recollected myself only when it was too late. My God, I
24008 cannot get on with him at all. The cause of this is my egotism. I set
24009 myself above him and so become much worse than he, for he is lenient to
24010 my rudeness while I on the contrary nourish contempt for him. O God,
24011 grant that in his presence I may rather see my own vileness, and behave
24012 so that he too may benefit. After dinner I fell asleep and as I was
24013 drowsing off I clearly heard a voice saying in my left ear, "Thy day!"
24015 I dreamed that I was walking in the dark and was suddenly surrounded by
24016 dogs, but I went on undismayed. Suddenly a smallish dog seized my left
24017 thigh with its teeth and would not let go. I began to throttle it with
24018 my hands. Scarcely had I torn it off before another, a bigger one, began
24019 biting me. I lifted it up, but the higher I lifted it the bigger and
24020 heavier it grew. And suddenly Brother A. came and, taking my arm, led me
24021 to a building to enter which we had to pass along a narrow plank. I
24022 stepped on it, but it bent and gave way and I began to clamber up a
24023 fence which I could scarcely reach with my hands. After much effort I
24024 dragged myself up, so that my leg hung down on one side and my body on
24025 the other. I looked round and saw Brother A. standing on the fence and
24026 pointing me to a broad avenue and garden, and in the garden was a large
24027 and beautiful building. I woke up. O Lord, great Architect of Nature,
24028 help me to tear from myself these dogs--my passions especially the last,
24029 which unites in itself the strength of all the former ones, and aid me
24030 to enter that temple of virtue to a vision of which I attained in my
24035 I dreamed that Joseph Alexeevich was sitting in my house, and that I was
24036 very glad and wished to entertain him. It seemed as if I chattered
24037 incessantly with other people and suddenly remembered that this could
24038 not please him, and I wished to come close to him and embrace him. But
24039 as soon as I drew near I saw that his face had changed and grown young,
24040 and he was quietly telling me something about the teaching of our order,
24041 but so softly that I could not hear it. Then it seemed that we all left
24042 the room and something strange happened. We were sitting or lying on the
24043 floor. He was telling me something, and I wished to show him my
24044 sensibility, and not listening to what he was saying I began picturing
24045 to myself the condition of my inner man and the grace of God sanctifying
24046 me. And tears came into my eyes, and I was glad he noticed this. But he
24047 looked at me with vexation and jumped up, breaking off his remarks. I
24048 felt abashed and asked whether what he had been saying did not concern
24049 me; but he did not reply, gave me a kind look, and then we suddenly
24050 found ourselves in my bedroom where there is a double bed. He lay down
24051 on the edge of it and I burned with longing to caress him and lie down
24052 too. And he said, "Tell me frankly what is your chief temptation? Do you
24053 know it? I think you know it already." Abashed by this question, I
24054 replied that sloth was my chief temptation. He shook his head
24055 incredulously; and even more abashed, I said that though I was living
24056 with my wife as he advised, I was not living with her as her husband. To
24057 this he replied that one should not deprive a wife of one's embraces and
24058 gave me to understand that that was my duty. But I replied that I should
24059 be ashamed to do it, and suddenly everything vanished. And I awoke and
24060 found in my mind the text from the Gospel: "The life was the light of
24061 men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it
24062 not." Joseph Alexeevich's face had looked young and bright. That day I
24063 received a letter from my benefactor in which he wrote about "conjugal
24068 I had a dream from which I awoke with a throbbing heart. I saw that I
24069 was in Moscow in my house, in the big sitting room, and Joseph
24070 Alexeevich came in from the drawing room. I seemed to know at once that
24071 the process of regeneration had already taken place in him, and I rushed
24072 to meet him. I embraced him and kissed his hands, and he said, "Hast
24073 thou noticed that my face is different?" I looked at him, still holding
24074 him in my arms, and saw that his face was young, but that he had no hair
24075 on his head and his features were quite changed. And I said, "I should
24076 have known you had I met you by chance," and I thought to myself, "Am I
24077 telling the truth?" And suddenly I saw him lying like a dead body; then
24078 he gradually recovered and went with me into my study carrying a large
24079 book of sheets of drawing paper; I said, "I drew that," and he answered
24080 by bowing his head. I opened the book, and on all the pages there were
24081 excellent drawings. And in my dream I knew that these drawings
24082 represented the love adventures of the soul with its beloved. And on its
24083 pages I saw a beautiful representation of a maiden in transparent
24084 garments and with a transparent body, flying up to the clouds. And I
24085 seemed to know that this maiden was nothing else than a representation
24086 of the Song of Songs. And looking at those drawings I dreamed I felt
24087 that I was doing wrong, but could not tear myself away from them. Lord,
24088 help me! My God, if Thy forsaking me is Thy doing, Thy will be done; but
24089 if I am myself the cause, teach me what I should do! I shall perish of
24090 my debauchery if Thou utterly desertest me!
24097 The Rostovs' monetary affairs had not improved during the two years they
24098 had spent in the country.
24100 Though Nicholas Rostov had kept firmly to his resolution and was still
24101 serving modestly in an obscure regiment, spending comparatively little,
24102 the way of life at Otradnoe--Mitenka's management of affairs, in
24103 particular--was such that the debts inevitably increased every year. The
24104 only resource obviously presenting itself to the old count was to apply
24105 for an official post, so he had come to Petersburg to look for one and
24106 also, as he said, to let the lassies enjoy themselves for the last time.
24108 Soon after their arrival in Petersburg Berg proposed to Vera and was
24111 Though in Moscow the Rostovs belonged to the best society without
24112 themselves giving it a thought, yet in Petersburg their circle of
24113 acquaintances was a mixed and indefinite one. In Petersburg they were
24114 provincials, and the very people they had entertained in Moscow without
24115 inquiring to what set they belonged, here looked down on them.
24117 The Rostovs lived in the same hospitable way in Petersburg as in Moscow,
24118 and the most diverse people met at their suppers. Country neighbors from
24119 Otradnoe, impoverished old squires and their daughters, Peronskaya a
24120 maid of honor, Pierre Bezukhov, and the son of their district postmaster
24121 who had obtained a post in Petersburg. Among the men who very soon
24122 became frequent visitors at the Rostovs' house in Petersburg were Boris,
24123 Pierre whom the count had met in the street and dragged home with him,
24124 and Berg who spent whole days at the Rostovs' and paid the eldest
24125 daughter, Countess Vera, the attentions a young man pays when he intends
24128 Not in vain had Berg shown everybody his right hand wounded at
24129 Austerlitz and held a perfectly unnecessary sword in his left. He
24130 narrated that episode so persistently and with so important an air that
24131 everyone believed in the merit and usefulness of his deed, and he had
24132 obtained two decorations for Austerlitz.
24134 In the Finnish war he also managed to distinguish himself. He had picked
24135 up the scrap of a grenade that had killed an aide-de-camp standing near
24136 the commander-in-chief and had taken it to his commander. Just as he had
24137 done after Austerlitz, he related this occurrence at such length and so
24138 insistently that everyone again believed it had been necessary to do
24139 this, and he received two decorations for the Finnish war also. In 1809
24140 he was a captain in the Guards, wore medals, and held some special
24141 lucrative posts in Petersburg.
24143 Though some skeptics smiled when told of Berg's merits, it could not be
24144 denied that he was a painstaking and brave officer, on excellent terms
24145 with his superiors, and a moral young man with a brilliant career before
24146 him and an assured position in society.
24148 Four years before, meeting a German comrade in the stalls of a Moscow
24149 theater, Berg had pointed out Vera Rostova to him and had said in
24150 German, "das soll mein Weib werden," * and from that moment had made up
24151 his mind to marry her. Now in Petersburg, having considered the Rostovs'
24152 position and his own, he decided that the time had come to propose.
24155 * "That girl shall be my wife."
24157 Berg's proposal was at first received with a perplexity that was not
24158 flattering to him. At first it seemed strange that the son of an obscure
24159 Livonian gentleman should propose marriage to a Countess Rostova; but
24160 Berg's chief characteristic was such a naive and good natured egotism
24161 that the Rostovs involuntarily came to think it would be a good thing,
24162 since he himself was so firmly convinced that it was good, indeed
24163 excellent. Moreover, the Rostovs' affairs were seriously embarrassed, as
24164 the suitor could not but know; and above all, Vera was twenty-four, had
24165 been taken out everywhere, and though she was certainly good-looking and
24166 sensible, no one up to now had proposed to her. So they gave their
24169 "You see," said Berg to his comrade, whom he called "friend" only
24170 because he knew that everyone has friends, "you see, I have considered
24171 it all, and should not marry if I had not thought it all out or if it
24172 were in any way unsuitable. But on the contrary, my papa and mamma are
24173 now provided for--I have arranged that rent for them in the Baltic
24174 Provinces--and I can live in Petersburg on my pay, and with her fortune
24175 and my good management we can get along nicely. I am not marrying for
24176 money--I consider that dishonorable--but a wife should bring her share
24177 and a husband his. I have my position in the service, she has
24178 connections and some means. In our times that is worth something, isn't
24179 it? But above all, she is a handsome, estimable girl, and she loves
24182 Berg blushed and smiled.
24184 "And I love her, because her character is sensible and very good. Now
24185 the other sister, though they are the same family, is quite different--
24186 an unpleasant character and has not the same intelligence. She is so...
24187 you know?... Unpleasant... But my fiancee!... Well, you will be coming,"
24188 he was going to say, "to dine," but changed his mind and said "to take
24189 tea with us," and quickly doubling up his tongue he blew a small round
24190 ring of tobacco smoke, perfectly embodying his dream of happiness.
24192 After the first feeling of perplexity aroused in the parents by Berg's
24193 proposal, the holiday tone of joyousness usual at such times took
24194 possession of the family, but the rejoicing was external and insincere.
24195 In the family's feeling toward this wedding a certain awkwardness and
24196 constraint was evident, as if they were ashamed of not having loved Vera
24197 sufficiently and of being so ready to get her off their hands. The old
24198 count felt this most. He would probably have been unable to state the
24199 cause of his embarrassment, but it resulted from the state of his
24200 affairs. He did not know at all how much he had, what his debts amounted
24201 to, or what dowry he could give Vera. When his daughters were born he
24202 had assigned to each of them, for her dowry, an estate with three
24203 hundred serfs; but one of these estates had already been sold, and the
24204 other was mortgaged and the interest so much in arrears that it would
24205 have to be sold, so that it was impossible to give it to Vera. Nor had
24208 Berg had already been engaged a month, and only a week remained before
24209 the wedding, but the count had not yet decided in his own mind the
24210 question of the dowry, nor spoken to his wife about it. At one time the
24211 count thought of giving her the Ryazan estate or of selling a forest, at
24212 another time of borrowing money on a note of hand. A few days before the
24213 wedding Berg entered the count's study early one morning and, with a
24214 pleasant smile, respectfully asked his future father-in-law to let him
24215 know what Vera's dowry would be. The count was so disconcerted by this
24216 long-foreseen inquiry that without consideration he gave the first reply
24217 that came into his head. "I like your being businesslike about it.... I
24218 like it. You shall be satisfied...."
24220 And patting Berg on the shoulder he got up, wishing to end the
24221 conversation. But Berg, smiling pleasantly, explained that if he did not
24222 know for certain how much Vera would have and did not receive at least
24223 part of the dowry in advance, he would have to break matters off.
24225 "Because, consider, Count--if I allowed myself to marry now without
24226 having definite means to maintain my wife, I should be acting badly...."
24228 The conversation ended by the count, who wished to be generous and to
24229 avoid further importunity, saying that he would give a note of hand for
24230 eighty thousand rubles. Berg smiled meekly, kissed the count on the
24231 shoulder, and said that he was very grateful, but that it was impossible
24232 for him to arrange his new life without receiving thirty thousand in
24233 ready money. "Or at least twenty thousand, Count," he added, "and then a
24234 note of hand for only sixty thousand."
24236 "Yes, yes, all right!" said the count hurriedly. "Only excuse me, my
24237 dear fellow, I'll give you twenty thousand and a note of hand for eighty
24238 thousand as well. Yes, yes! Kiss me."
24245 Natasha was sixteen and it was the year 1809, the very year to which she
24246 had counted on her fingers with Boris after they had kissed four years
24247 ago. Since then she had not seen him. Before Sonya and her mother, if
24248 Boris happened to be mentioned, she spoke quite freely of that episode
24249 as of some childish, long-forgotten matter that was not worth
24250 mentioning. But in the secret depths of her soul the question whether
24251 her engagement to Boris was a jest or an important, binding promise
24254 Since Boris left Moscow in 1805 to join the army he had not seen the
24255 Rostovs. He had been in Moscow several times, and had passed near
24256 Otradnoe, but had never been to see them.
24258 Sometimes it occurred to Natasha that he did not wish to see her, and
24259 this conjecture was confirmed by the sad tone in which her elders spoke
24262 "Nowadays old friends are not remembered," the countess would say when
24263 Boris was mentioned.
24265 Anna Mikhaylovna also had of late visited them less frequently, seemed
24266 to hold herself with particular dignity, and always spoke rapturously
24267 and gratefully of the merits of her son and the brilliant career on
24268 which he had entered. When the Rostovs came to Petersburg Boris called
24271 He drove to their house in some agitation. The memory of Natasha was his
24272 most poetic recollection. But he went with the firm intention of letting
24273 her and her parents feel that the childish relations between himself and
24274 Natasha could not be binding either on her or on him. He had a brilliant
24275 position in society thanks to his intimacy with Countess Bezukhova, a
24276 brilliant position in the service thanks to the patronage of an
24277 important personage whose complete confidence he enjoyed, and he was
24278 beginning to make plans for marrying one of the richest heiresses in
24279 Petersburg, plans which might very easily be realized. When he entered
24280 the Rostovs' drawing room Natasha was in her own room. When she heard of
24281 his arrival she almost ran into the drawing room, flushed and beaming
24282 with a more than cordial smile.
24284 Boris remembered Natasha in a short dress, with dark eyes shining from
24285 under her curls and boisterous, childish laughter, as he had known her
24286 four years before; and so he was taken aback when quite a different
24287 Natasha entered, and his face expressed rapturous astonishment. This
24288 expression on his face pleased Natasha.
24290 "Well, do you recognize your little madcap playmate?" asked the
24293 Boris kissed Natasha's hand and said that he was astonished at the
24296 "How handsome you have grown!"
24298 "I should think so!" replied Natasha's laughing eyes.
24300 "And is Papa older?" she asked.
24302 Natasha sat down and, without joining in Boris' conversation with the
24303 countess, silently and minutely studied her childhood's suitor. He felt
24304 the weight of that resolute and affectionate scrutiny and glanced at her
24307 Boris' uniform, spurs, tie, and the way his hair was brushed were all
24308 comme il faut and in the latest fashion. This Natasha noticed at once.
24309 He sat rather sideways in the armchair next to the countess, arranging
24310 with his right hand the cleanest of gloves that fitted his left hand
24311 like a skin, and he spoke with a particularly refined compression of his
24312 lips about the amusements of the highest Petersburg society, recalling
24313 with mild irony old times in Moscow and Moscow acquaintances. It was not
24314 accidentally, Natasha felt, that he alluded, when speaking of the
24315 highest aristocracy, to an ambassador's ball he had attended, and to
24316 invitations he had received from N.N. and S.S.
24318 All this time Natasha sat silent, glancing up at him from under her
24319 brows. This gaze disturbed and confused Boris more and more. He looked
24320 round more frequently toward her, and broke off in what he was saying.
24321 He did not stay more than ten minutes, then rose and took his leave. The
24322 same inquisitive, challenging, and rather mocking eyes still looked at
24323 him. After his first visit Boris said to himself that Natasha attracted
24324 him just as much as ever, but that he must not yield to that feeling,
24325 because to marry her, a girl almost without fortune, would mean ruin to
24326 his career, while to renew their former relations without intending to
24327 marry her would be dishonorable. Boris made up his mind to avoid meeting
24328 Natasha, but despite that resolution he called again a few days later
24329 and began calling often and spending whole days at the Rostovs'. It
24330 seemed to him that he ought to have an explanation with Natasha and tell
24331 her that the old times must be forgotten, that in spite of everything...
24332 she could not be his wife, that he had no means, and they would never
24333 let her marry him. But he failed to do so and felt awkward about
24334 entering on such an explanation. From day to day he became more and more
24335 entangled. It seemed to her mother and Sonya that Natasha was in love
24336 with Boris as of old. She sang him his favorite songs, showed him her
24337 album, making him write in it, did not allow him to allude to the past,
24338 letting it be understood how delightful was the present; and every day
24339 he went away in a fog, without having said what he meant to, and not
24340 knowing what he was doing or why he came, or how it would all end. He
24341 left off visiting Helene and received reproachful notes from her every
24342 day, and yet he continued to spend whole days with the Rostovs.
24349 One night when the old countess, in nightcap and dressing jacket,
24350 without her false curls, and with her poor little knob of hair showing
24351 under her white cotton cap, knelt sighing and groaning on a rug and
24352 bowing to the ground in prayer, her door creaked and Natasha, also in a
24353 dressing jacket with slippers on her bare feet and her hair in
24354 curlpapers, ran in. The countess--her prayerful mood dispelled--looked
24355 round and frowned. She was finishing her last prayer: "Can it be that
24356 this couch will be my grave?" Natasha, flushed and eager, seeing her
24357 mother in prayer, suddenly checked her rush, half sat down, and
24358 unconsciously put out her tongue as if chiding herself. Seeing that her
24359 mother was still praying she ran on tiptoe to the bed and, rapidly
24360 slipping one little foot against the other, pushed off her slippers and
24361 jumped onto the bed the countess had feared might become her grave. This
24362 couch was high, with a feather bed and five pillows each smaller than
24363 the one below. Natasha jumped on it, sank into the feather bed, rolled
24364 over to the wall, and began snuggling up the bedclothes as she settled
24365 down, raising her knees to her chin, kicking out and laughing almost
24366 inaudibly, now covering herself up head and all, and now peeping at her
24367 mother. The countess finished her prayers and came to the bed with a
24368 stern face, but seeing, that Natasha's head was covered, she smiled in
24369 her kind, weak way.
24371 "Now then, now then!" said she.
24373 "Mamma, can we have a talk? Yes?" said Natasha. "Now, just one on your
24374 throat and another... that'll do!" And seizing her mother round the
24375 neck, she kissed her on the throat. In her behavior to her mother
24376 Natasha seemed rough, but she was so sensitive and tactful that however
24377 she clasped her mother she always managed to do it without hurting her
24378 or making her feel uncomfortable or displeased.
24380 "Well, what is it tonight?" said the mother, having arranged her pillows
24381 and waited until Natasha, after turning over a couple of times, had
24382 settled down beside her under the quilt, spread out her arms, and
24383 assumed a serious expression.
24385 These visits of Natasha's at night before the count returned from his
24386 club were one of the greatest pleasures of both mother, and daughter.
24388 "What is it tonight?--But I have to tell you..."
24390 Natasha put her hand on her mother's mouth.
24392 "About Boris... I know," she said seriously; "that's what I have come
24393 about. Don't say it--I know. No, do tell me!" and she removed her hand.
24394 "Tell me, Mamma! He's nice?"
24396 "Natasha, you are sixteen. At your age I was married. You say Boris is
24397 nice. He is very nice, and I love him like a son. But what then?... What
24398 are you thinking about? You have quite turned his head, I can see
24401 As she said this the countess looked round at her daughter. Natasha was
24402 lying looking steadily straight before her at one of the mahogany
24403 sphinxes carved on the corners of the bedstead, so that the countess
24404 only saw her daughter's face in profile. That face struck her by its
24405 peculiarly serious and concentrated expression.
24407 Natasha was listening and considering.
24409 "Well, what then?" said she.
24411 "You have quite turned his head, and why? What do you want of him? You
24412 know you can't marry him."
24414 "Why not?" said Natasha, without changing her position.
24416 "Because he is young, because he is poor, because he is a relation...
24417 and because you yourself don't love him."
24421 "I know. It is not right, darling!"
24424 "But if I want to..." said Natasha.
24426 "Leave off talking nonsense," said the countess.
24428 "But if I want to..."
24430 "Natasha, I am in earnest..."
24432 Natasha did not let her finish. She drew the countess' large hand to
24433 her, kissed it on the back and then on the palm, then again turned it
24434 over and began kissing first one knuckle, then the space between the
24435 knuckles, then the next knuckle, whispering, "January, February, March,
24436 April, May. Speak, Mamma, why don't you say anything? Speak!" said she,
24437 turning to her mother, who was tenderly gazing at her daughter and in
24438 that contemplation seemed to have forgotten all she had wished to say.
24440 "It won't do, my love! Not everyone will understand this friendship
24441 dating from your childish days, and to see him so intimate with you may
24442 injure you in the eyes of other young men who visit us, and above all it
24443 torments him for nothing. He may already have found a suitable and
24444 wealthy match, and now he's half crazy."
24446 "Crazy?" repeated Natasha.
24448 "I'll tell you some things about myself. I had a cousin..."
24450 "I know! Cyril Matveich... but he is old."
24452 "He was not always old. But this is what I'll do, Natasha, I'll have a
24453 talk with Boris. He need not come so often...."
24455 "Why not, if he likes to?"
24457 "Because I know it will end in nothing...."
24459 "How can you know? No, Mamma, don't speak to him! What nonsense!" said
24460 Natasha in the tone of one being deprived of her property. "Well, I
24461 won't marry, but let him come if he enjoys it and I enjoy it." Natasha
24462 smiled and looked at her mother. "Not to marry, but just so," she added.
24466 "Just so. There's no need for me to marry him. But... just so."
24468 "Just so, just so," repeated the countess, and shaking all over, she
24469 went off into a good humored, unexpected, elderly laugh.
24471 "Don't laugh, stop!" cried Natasha. "You're shaking the whole bed!
24472 You're awfully like me, just such another giggler.... Wait..." and she
24473 seized the countess' hands and kissed a knuckle of the little finger,
24474 saying, "June," and continued, kissing, "July, August," on the other
24475 hand. "But, Mamma, is he very much in love? What do you think? Was
24476 anybody ever so much in love with you? And he's very nice, very, very
24477 nice. Only not quite my taste--he is so narrow, like the dining-room
24478 clock.... Don't you understand? Narrow, you know--gray, light gray..."
24480 "What rubbish you're talking!" said the countess.
24482 Natasha continued: "Don't you really understand? Nicholas would
24483 understand.... Bezukhov, now, is blue, dark-blue and red, and he is
24486 "You flirt with him too," said the countess, laughing.
24488 "No, he is a Freemason, I have found out. He is fine, dark-blue and
24489 red.... How can I explain it to you?"
24491 "Little countess!" the count's voice called from behind the door.
24492 "You're not asleep?" Natasha jumped up, snatched up her slippers, and
24493 ran barefoot to her own room.
24495 It was a long time before she could sleep. She kept thinking that no one
24496 could understand all that she understood and all there was in her.
24498 "Sonya?" she thought, glancing at that curled-up, sleeping little kitten
24499 with her enormous plait of hair. "No, how could she? She's virtuous. She
24500 fell in love with Nicholas and does not wish to know anything more. Even
24501 Mamma does not understand. It is wonderful how clever I am and how...
24502 charming she is," she went on, speaking of herself in the third person,
24503 and imagining it was some very wise man--the wisest and best of men--who
24504 was saying it of her. "There is everything, everything in her,"
24505 continued this man. "She is unusually intelligent, charming... and then
24506 she is pretty, uncommonly pretty, and agile--she swims and rides
24507 splendidly... and her voice! One can really say it's a wonderful voice!"
24509 She hummed a scrap from her favorite opera by Cherubini, threw herself
24510 on her bed, laughed at the pleasant thought that she would immediately
24511 fall asleep, called Dunyasha the maid to put out the candle, and before
24512 Dunyasha had left the room had already passed into yet another happier
24513 world of dreams, where everything was as light and beautiful as in
24514 reality, and even more so because it was different.
24516 Next day the countess called Boris aside and had a talk with him, after
24517 which he ceased coming to the Rostovs'.
24524 On the thirty-first of December, New Year's Eve, 1809 - 10 an old
24525 grandee of Catherine's day was giving a ball and midnight supper. The
24526 diplomatic corps and the Emperor himself were to be present.
24528 The grandee's well-known mansion on the English Quay glittered with
24529 innumerable lights. Police were stationed at the brightly lit entrance
24530 which was carpeted with red baize, and not only gendarmes but dozens of
24531 police officers and even the police master himself stood at the porch.
24532 Carriages kept driving away and fresh ones arriving, with red-liveried
24533 footmen and footmen in plumed hats. From the carriages emerged men
24534 wearing uniforms, stars, and ribbons, while ladies in satin and ermine
24535 cautiously descended the carriage steps which were let down for them
24536 with a clatter, and then walked hurriedly and noiselessly over the baize
24539 Almost every time a new carriage drove up a whisper ran through the
24540 crowd and caps were doffed.
24542 "The Emperor?... No, a minister.... prince... ambassador. Don't you see
24543 the plumes?..." was whispered among the crowd.
24545 One person, better dressed than the rest, seemed to know everyone and
24546 mentioned by name the greatest dignitaries of the day.
24548 A third of the visitors had already arrived, but the Rostovs, who were
24549 to be present, were still hurrying to get dressed.
24551 There had been many discussions and preparations for this ball in the
24552 Rostov family, many fears that the invitation would not arrive, that the
24553 dresses would not be ready, or that something would not be arranged as
24556 Marya Ignatevna Peronskaya, a thin and shallow maid of honor at the
24557 court of the Dowager Empress, who was a friend and relation of the
24558 countess and piloted the provincial Rostovs in Petersburg high society,
24559 was to accompany them to the ball.
24561 They were to call for her at her house in the Taurida Gardens at ten
24562 o'clock, but it was already five minutes to ten, and the girls were not
24565 Natasha was going to her first grand ball. She had got up at eight that
24566 morning and had been in a fever of excitement and activity all day. All
24567 her powers since morning had been concentrated on ensuring that they
24568 all--she herself, Mamma, and Sonya--should be as well dressed as
24569 possible. Sonya and her mother put themselves entirely in her hands. The
24570 countess was to wear a claret-colored velvet dress, and the two girls
24571 white gauze over pink silk slips, with roses on their bodices and their
24572 hair dressed a la grecque.
24574 Everything essential had already been done; feet, hands, necks, and ears
24575 washed, perfumed, and powdered, as befits a ball; the openwork silk
24576 stockings and white satin shoes with ribbons were already on; the
24577 hairdressing was almost done. Sonya was finishing dressing and so was
24578 the countess, but Natasha, who had bustled about helping them all, was
24579 behindhand. She was still sitting before a looking-glass with a dressing
24580 jacket thrown over her slender shoulders. Sonya stood ready dressed in
24581 the middle of the room and, pressing the head of a pin till it hurt her
24582 dainty finger, was fixing on a last ribbon that squeaked as the pin went
24585 "That's not the way, that's not the way, Sonya!" cried Natasha turning
24586 her head and clutching with both hands at her hair which the maid who
24587 was dressing it had not time to release. "That bow is not right. Come
24590 Sonya sat down and Natasha pinned the ribbon on differently.
24592 "Allow me, Miss! I can't do it like that," said the maid who was holding
24595 "Oh, dear! Well then, wait. That's right, Sonya."
24597 "Aren't you ready? It is nearly ten," came the countess' voice.
24599 "Directly! Directly! And you, Mamma?"
24601 "I have only my cap to pin on."
24603 "Don't do it without me!" called Natasha. "You won't do it right."
24605 "But it's already ten."
24607 They had decided to be at the ball by half past ten, and Natasha had
24608 still to get dressed and they had to call at the Taurida Gardens.
24610 When her hair was done, Natasha, in her short petticoat from under which
24611 her dancing shoes showed, and in her mother's dressing jacket, ran up to
24612 Sonya, scrutinized her, and then ran to her mother. Turning her mother's
24613 head this way and that, she fastened on the cap and, hurriedly kissing
24614 her gray hair, ran back to the maids who were turning up the hem of her
24617 The cause of the delay was Natasha's skirt, which was too long. Two
24618 maids were turning up the hem and hurriedly biting off the ends of
24619 thread. A third with pins in her mouth was running about between the
24620 countess and Sonya, and a fourth held the whole of the gossamer garment
24621 up high on one uplifted hand.
24623 "Mavra, quicker, darling!"
24625 "Give me my thimble, Miss, from there..."
24627 "Whenever will you be ready?" asked the count coming to the door. "Here
24628 is some scent. Peronskaya must be tired of waiting."
24630 "It's ready, Miss," said the maid, holding up the shortened gauze dress
24631 with two fingers, and blowing and shaking something off it, as if by
24632 this to express a consciousness of the airiness and purity of what she
24635 Natasha began putting on the dress.
24637 "In a minute! In a minute! Don't come in, Papa!" she cried to her father
24638 as he opened the door--speaking from under the filmy skirt which still
24639 covered her whole face.
24641 Sonya slammed the door to. A minute later they let the count in. He was
24642 wearing a blue swallow-tail coat, shoes and stockings, and was perfumed
24643 and his hair pomaded.
24645 "Oh, Papa! how nice you look! Charming!" cried Natasha, as she stood in
24646 the middle of the room smoothing out the folds of the gauze.
24648 "If you please, Miss! allow me," said the maid, who on her knees was
24649 pulling the skirt straight and shifting the pins from one side of her
24650 mouth to the other with her tongue.
24652 "Say what you like," exclaimed Sonya, in a despairing voice as she
24653 looked at Natasha, "say what you like, it's still too long."
24655 Natasha stepped back to look at herself in the pier glass. The dress was
24658 "Really, madam, it is not at all too long," said Mavra, crawling on her
24659 knees after her young lady.
24661 "Well, if it's too long we'll take it up... we'll tack it up in one
24662 minute," said the resolute Dunyasha taking a needle that was stuck on
24663 the front of her little shawl and, still kneeling on the floor, set to
24666 At that moment, with soft steps, the countess came in shyly, in her cap
24669 "Oo-oo, my beauty!" exclaimed the count, "she looks better than any of
24672 He would have embraced her but, blushing, she stepped aside fearing to
24675 "Mamma, your cap, more to this side," said Natasha. "I'll arrange it,"
24676 and she rushed forward so that the maids who were tacking up her skirt
24677 could not move fast enough and a piece of gauze was torn off.
24679 "Oh goodness! What has happened? Really it was not my fault!"
24681 "Never mind, I'll run it up, it won't show," said Dunyasha.
24683 "What a beauty--a very queen!" said the nurse as she came to the door.
24684 "And Sonya! They are lovely!"
24686 At a quarter past ten they at last got into their carriages and started.
24687 But they had still to call at the Taurida Gardens.
24689 Peronskaya was quite ready. In spite of her age and plainness she had
24690 gone through the same process as the Rostovs, but with less flurry--for
24691 to her it was a matter of routine. Her ugly old body was washed,
24692 perfumed, and powdered in just the same way. She had washed behind her
24693 ears just as carefully, and when she entered her drawing room in her
24694 yellow dress, wearing her badge as maid of honor, her old lady's maid
24695 was as full of rapturous admiration as the Rostovs' servants had been.
24697 She praised the Rostovs' toilets. They praised her taste and toilet, and
24698 at eleven o'clock, careful of their coiffures and dresses, they settled
24699 themselves in their carriages and drove off.
24706 Natasha had not had a moment free since early morning and had not once
24707 had time to think of what lay before her.
24709 In the damp chill air and crowded closeness of the swaying carriage, she
24710 for the first time vividly imagined what was in store for her there at
24711 the ball, in those brightly lighted rooms--with music, flowers, dances,
24712 the Emperor, and all the brilliant young people of Petersburg. The
24713 prospect was so splendid that she hardly believed it would come true, so
24714 out of keeping was it with the chill darkness and closeness of the
24715 carriage. She understood all that awaited her only when, after stepping
24716 over the red baize at the entrance, she entered the hall, took off her
24717 fur cloak, and, beside Sonya and in front of her mother, mounted the
24718 brightly illuminated stairs between the flowers. Only then did she
24719 remember how she must behave at a ball, and tried to assume the majestic
24720 air she considered indispensable for a girl on such an occasion. But,
24721 fortunately for her, she felt her eyes growing misty, she saw nothing
24722 clearly, her pulse beat a hundred to the minute, and the blood throbbed
24723 at her heart. She could not assume that pose, which would have made her
24724 ridiculous, and she moved on almost fainting from excitement and trying
24725 with all her might to conceal it. And this was the very attitude that
24726 became her best. Before and behind them other visitors were entering,
24727 also talking in low tones and wearing ball dresses. The mirrors on the
24728 landing reflected ladies in white, pale-blue, and pink dresses, with
24729 diamonds and pearls on their bare necks and arms.
24731 Natasha looked in the mirrors and could not distinguish her reflection
24732 from the others. All was blended into one brilliant procession. On
24733 entering the ballroom the regular hum of voices, footsteps, and
24734 greetings deafened Natasha, and the light and glitter dazzled her still
24735 more. The host and hostess, who had already been standing at the door
24736 for half an hour repeating the same words to the various arrivals,
24737 "Charme de vous voir," * greeted the Rostovs and Peronskaya in the same
24741 * "Delighted to see you."
24743 The two girls in their white dresses, each with a rose in her black
24744 hair, both curtsied in the same way, but the hostess' eye involuntarily
24745 rested longer on the slim Natasha. She looked at her and gave her alone
24746 a special smile in addition to her usual smile as hostess. Looking at
24747 her she may have recalled the golden, irrecoverable days of her own
24748 girlhood and her own first ball. The host also followed Natasha with his
24749 eyes and asked the count which was his daughter.
24751 "Charming!" said he, kissing the tips of his fingers.
24753 In the ballroom guests stood crowding at the entrance doors awaiting the
24754 Emperor. The countess took up a position in one of the front rows of
24755 that crowd. Natasha heard and felt that several people were asking about
24756 her and looking at her. She realized that those noticing her liked her,
24757 and this observation helped to calm her.
24759 "There are some like ourselves and some worse," she thought.
24761 Peronskaya was pointing out to the countess the most important people at
24764 "That is the Dutch ambassador, do you see? That gray-haired man," she
24765 said, indicating an old man with a profusion of silver-gray curly hair,
24766 who was surrounded by ladies laughing at something he said.
24768 "Ah, here she is, the Queen of Petersburg, Countess Bezukhova," said
24769 Peronskaya, indicating Helene who had just entered. "How lovely! She is
24770 quite equal to Marya Antonovna. See how the men, young and old, pay
24771 court to her. Beautiful and clever... they say Prince--is quite mad
24772 about her. But see, those two, though not good-looking, are even more
24775 She pointed to a lady who was crossing the room followed by a very plain
24778 "She is a splendid match, a millionairess," said Peronskaya. "And look,
24779 here come her suitors."
24781 "That is Bezukhova's brother, Anatole Kuragin," she said, indicating a
24782 handsome officer of the Horse Guards who passed by them with head erect,
24783 looking at something over the heads of the ladies. "He's handsome, isn't
24784 he? I hear they will marry him to that rich girl. But your cousin,
24785 Drubetskoy, is also very attentive to her. They say she has millions. Oh
24786 yes, that's the French ambassador himself!" she replied to the countess'
24787 inquiry about Caulaincourt. "Looks as if he were a king! All the same,
24788 the French are charming, very charming. No one more charming in society.
24789 Ah, here she is! Yes, she is still the most beautiful of them all, our
24790 Marya Antonovna! And how simply she is dressed! Lovely! And that stout
24791 one in spectacles is the universal Freemason," she went on, indicating
24792 Pierre. "Put him beside his wife and he looks a regular buffoon!"
24794 Pierre, swaying his stout body, advanced, making way through the crowd
24795 and nodding to right and left as casually and good-naturedly as if he
24796 were passing through a crowd at a fair. He pushed through, evidently
24797 looking for someone.
24799 Natasha looked joyfully at the familiar face of Pierre, "the buffoon,"
24800 as Peronskaya had called him, and knew he was looking for them, and for
24801 her in particular. He had promised to be at the ball and introduce
24804 But before he reached them Pierre stopped beside a very handsome, dark
24805 man of middle height, and in a white uniform, who stood by a window
24806 talking to a tall man wearing stars and a ribbon. Natasha at once
24807 recognized the shorter and younger man in the white uniform: it was
24808 Bolkonski, who seemed to her to have grown much younger, happier, and
24811 "There's someone else we know--Bolkonski, do you see, Mamma?" said
24812 Natasha, pointing out Prince Andrew. "You remember, he stayed a night
24813 with us at Otradnoe."
24815 "Oh, you know him?" said Peronskaya. "I can't bear him. Il fait a
24816 present la pluie et le beau temps. * He's too proud for anything. Takes
24817 after his father. And he's hand in glove with Speranski, writing some
24818 project or other. Just look how he treats the ladies! There's one
24819 talking to him and he has turned away," she said, pointing at him. "I'd
24820 give it to him if he treated me as he does those ladies."
24823 * "He is all the rage just now."
24830 Suddenly everybody stirred, began talking, and pressed forward and then
24831 back, and between the two rows, which separated, the Emperor entered to
24832 the sounds of music that had immediately struck up. Behind him walked
24833 his host and hostess. He walked in rapidly, bowing to right and left as
24834 if anxious to get the first moments of the reception over. The band
24835 played the polonaise in vogue at that time on account of the words that
24836 had been set to it, beginning: "Alexander, Elisaveta, all our hearts you
24837 ravish quite..." The Emperor passed on to the drawing room, the crowd
24838 made a rush for the doors, and several persons with excited faces
24839 hurried there and back again. Then the crowd hastily retired from the
24840 drawing-room door, at which the Emperor reappeared talking to the
24841 hostess. A young man, looking distraught, pounced down on the ladies,
24842 asking them to move aside. Some ladies, with faces betraying complete
24843 forgetfulness of all the rules of decorum, pushed forward to the
24844 detriment of their toilets. The men began to choose partners and take
24845 their places for the polonaise.
24847 Everyone moved back, and the Emperor came smiling out of the drawing
24848 room leading his hostess by the hand but not keeping time to the music.
24849 The host followed with Marya Antonovna Naryshkina; then came
24850 ambassadors, ministers, and various generals, whom Peronskaya diligently
24851 named. More than half the ladies already had partners and were taking
24852 up, or preparing to take up, their positions for the polonaise. Natasha
24853 felt that she would be left with her mother and Sonya among a minority
24854 of women who crowded near the wall, not having been invited to dance.
24855 She stood with her slender arms hanging down, her scarcely defined bosom
24856 rising and falling regularly, and with bated breath and glittering,
24857 frightened eyes gazed straight before her, evidently prepared for the
24858 height of joy or misery. She was not concerned about the Emperor or any
24859 of those great people whom Peronskaya was pointing out--she had but one
24860 thought: "Is it possible no one will ask me, that I shall not be among
24861 the first to dance? Is it possible that not one of all these men will
24862 notice me? They do not even seem to see me, or if they do they look as
24863 if they were saying, 'Ah, she's not the one I'm after, so it's not worth
24864 looking at her!' No, it's impossible," she thought. "They must know how
24865 I long to dance, how splendidly I dance, and how they would enjoy
24868 The strains of the polonaise, which had continued for a considerable
24869 time, had begun to sound like a sad reminiscence to Natasha's ears. She
24870 wanted to cry. Peronskaya had left them. The count was at the other end
24871 of the room. She and the countess and Sonya were standing by themselves
24872 as in the depths of a forest amid that crowd of strangers, with no one
24873 interested in them and not wanted by anyone. Prince Andrew with a lady
24874 passed by, evidently not recognizing them. The handsome Anatole was
24875 smilingly talking to a partner on his arm and looked at Natasha as one
24876 looks at a wall. Boris passed them twice and each time turned away. Berg
24877 and his wife, who were not dancing, came up to them.
24879 This family gathering seemed humiliating to Natasha--as if there were
24880 nowhere else for the family to talk but here at the ball. She did not
24881 listen to or look at Vera, who was telling her something about her own
24884 At last the Emperor stopped beside his last partner (he had danced with
24885 three) and the music ceased. A worried aide-de-camp ran up to the
24886 Rostovs requesting them to stand farther back, though as it was they
24887 were already close to the wall, and from the gallery resounded the
24888 distinct, precise, enticingly rhythmical strains of a waltz. The Emperor
24889 looked smilingly down the room. A minute passed but no one had yet begun
24890 dancing. An aide-de-camp, the Master of Ceremonies, went up to Countess
24891 Bezukhova and asked her to dance. She smilingly raised her hand and laid
24892 it on his shoulder without looking at him. The aide-de-camp, an adept in
24893 his art, grasping his partner firmly round her waist, with confident
24894 deliberation started smoothly, gliding first round the edge of the
24895 circle, then at the corner of the room he caught Helene's left hand and
24896 turned her, the only sound audible, apart from the ever-quickening
24897 music, being the rhythmic click of the spurs on his rapid, agile feet,
24898 while at every third beat his partner's velvet dress spread out and
24899 seemed to flash as she whirled round. Natasha gazed at them and was
24900 ready to cry because it was not she who was dancing that first turn of
24903 Prince Andrew, in the white uniform of a cavalry colonel, wearing
24904 stockings and dancing shoes, stood looking animated and bright in the
24905 front row of the circle not far from the Rostovs. Baron Firhoff was
24906 talking to him about the first sitting of the Council of State to be
24907 held next day. Prince Andrew, as one closely connected with Speranski
24908 and participating in the work of the legislative commission, could give
24909 reliable information about that sitting, concerning which various rumors
24910 were current. But not listening to what Firhoff was saying, he was
24911 gazing now at the sovereign and now at the men intending to dance who
24912 had not yet gathered courage to enter the circle.
24914 Prince Andrew was watching these men abashed by the Emperor's presence,
24915 and the women who were breathlessly longing to be asked to dance.
24917 Pierre came up to him and caught him by the arm.
24919 "You always dance. I have a protegee, the young Rostova, here. Ask her,"
24922 "Where is she?" asked Bolkonski. "Excuse me!" he added, turning to the
24923 baron, "we will finish this conversation elsewhere--at a ball one must
24924 dance." He stepped forward in the direction Pierre indicated. The
24925 despairing, dejected expression of Natasha's face caught his eye. He
24926 recognized her, guessed her feelings, saw that it was her debut,
24927 remembered her conversation at the window, and with an expression of
24928 pleasure on his face approached Countess Rostova.
24930 "Allow me to introduce you to my daughter," said the countess, with
24933 "I have the pleasure of being already acquainted, if the countess
24934 remembers me," said Prince Andrew with a low and courteous bow quite
24935 belying Peronskaya's remarks about his rudeness, and approaching Natasha
24936 he held out his arm to grasp her waist before he had completed his
24937 invitation. He asked her to waltz. That tremulous expression on
24938 Natasha's face, prepared either for despair or rapture, suddenly
24939 brightened into a happy, grateful, childlike smile.
24941 "I have long been waiting for you," that frightened happy little girl
24942 seemed to say by the smile that replaced the threatened tears, as she
24943 raised her hand to Prince Andrew's shoulder. They were the second couple
24944 to enter the circle. Prince Andrew was one of the best dancers of his
24945 day and Natasha danced exquisitely. Her little feet in their white satin
24946 dancing shoes did their work swiftly, lightly, and independently of
24947 herself, while her face beamed with ecstatic happiness. Her slender bare
24948 arms and neck were not beautiful--compared to Helene's her shoulders
24949 looked thin and her bosom undeveloped. But Helene seemed, as it were,
24950 hardened by a varnish left by the thousands of looks that had scanned
24951 her person, while Natasha was like a girl exposed for the first time,
24952 who would have felt very much ashamed had she not been assured that this
24953 was absolutely necessary.
24955 Prince Andrew liked dancing, and wishing to escape as quickly as
24956 possible from the political and clever talk which everyone addressed to
24957 him, wishing also to break up the circle of restraint he disliked,
24958 caused by the Emperor's presence, he danced, and had chosen Natasha
24959 because Pierre pointed her out to him and because she was the first
24960 pretty girl who caught his eye; but scarcely had he embraced that
24961 slender supple figure and felt her stirring so close to him and smiling
24962 so near him than the wine of her charm rose to his head, and he felt
24963 himself revived and rejuvenated when after leaving her he stood
24964 breathing deeply and watching the other dancers.
24971 After Prince Andrew, Boris came up to ask Natasha for a dance, and then
24972 the aide-de-camp who had opened the ball, and several other young men,
24973 so that, flushed and happy, and passing on her superfluous partners to
24974 Sonya, she did not cease dancing all the evening. She noticed and saw
24975 nothing of what occupied everyone else. Not only did she fail to notice
24976 that the Emperor talked a long time with the French ambassador, and how
24977 particularly gracious he was to a certain lady, or that Prince So-and-so
24978 and So-and-so did and said this and that, and that Helene had great
24979 success and was honored by the special attention of So-and-so, but she
24980 did not even see the Emperor, and only noticed that he had gone because
24981 the ball became livelier after his departure. For one of the merry
24982 cotillions before supper Prince Andrew was again her partner. He
24983 reminded her of their first encounter in the Otradnoe avenue, and how
24984 she had been unable to sleep that moonlight night, and told her how he
24985 had involuntarily overheard her. Natasha blushed at that recollection
24986 and tried to excuse herself, as if there had been something to be
24987 ashamed of in what Prince Andrew had overheard.
24989 Like all men who have grown up in society, Prince Andrew liked meeting
24990 someone there not of the conventional society stamp. And such was
24991 Natasha, with her surprise, her delight, her shyness, and even her
24992 mistakes in speaking French. With her he behaved with special care and
24993 tenderness, sitting beside her and talking of the simplest and most
24994 unimportant matters; he admired her shy grace. In the middle of the
24995 cotillion, having completed one of the figures, Natasha, still out of
24996 breath, was returning to her seat when another dancer chose her. She was
24997 tired and panting and evidently thought of declining, but immediately
24998 put her hand gaily on the man's shoulder, smiling at Prince Andrew.
25000 "I'd be glad to sit beside you and rest: I'm tired; but you see how they
25001 keep asking me, and I'm glad of it, I'm happy and I love everybody, and
25002 you and I understand it all," and much, much more was said in her smile.
25003 When her partner left her Natasha ran across the room to choose two
25004 ladies for the figure.
25006 "If she goes to her cousin first and then to another lady, she will be
25007 my wife," said Prince Andrew to himself quite to his own surprise, as he
25008 watched her. She did go first to her cousin.
25010 "What rubbish sometimes enters one's head!" thought Prince Andrew, "but
25011 what is certain is that that girl is so charming, so original, that she
25012 won't be dancing here a month before she will be married.... Such as she
25013 are rare here," he thought, as Natasha, readjusting a rose that was
25014 slipping on her bodice, settled herself beside him.
25016 When the cotillion was over the old count in his blue coat came up to
25017 the dancers. He invited Prince Andrew to come and see them, and asked
25018 his daughter whether she was enjoying herself. Natasha did not answer at
25019 once but only looked up with a smile that said reproachfully: "How can
25020 you ask such a question?"
25022 "I have never enjoyed myself so much before!" she said, and Prince
25023 Andrew noticed how her thin arms rose quickly as if to embrace her
25024 father and instantly dropped again. Natasha was happier than she had
25025 ever been in her life. She was at that height of bliss when one becomes
25026 completely kind and good and does not believe in the possibility of
25027 evil, unhappiness, or sorrow.
25029 At that ball Pierre for the first time felt humiliated by the position
25030 his wife occupied in court circles. He was gloomy and absent-minded. A
25031 deep furrow ran across his forehead, and standing by a window he stared
25032 over his spectacles seeing no one.
25034 On her way to supper Natasha passed him.
25036 Pierre's gloomy, unhappy look struck her. She stopped in front of him.
25037 She wished to help him, to bestow on him the superabundance of her own
25040 "How delightful it is, Count!" said she. "Isn't it?"
25042 Pierre smiled absent-mindedly, evidently not grasping what she said.
25044 "Yes, I am very glad," he said.
25046 "How can people be dissatisfied with anything?" thought Natasha.
25047 "Especially such a capital fellow as Bezukhov!" In Natasha's eyes all
25048 the people at the ball alike were good, kind, and splendid people,
25049 loving one another; none of them capable of injuring another--and so
25050 they ought all to be happy.
25057 Next day Prince Andrew thought of the ball, but his mind did not dwell
25058 on it long. "Yes, it was a very brilliant ball," and then... "Yes, that
25059 little Rostova is very charming. There's something fresh, original, un-
25060 Petersburg-like about her that distinguishes her." That was all he
25061 thought about yesterday's ball, and after his morning tea he set to
25064 But either from fatigue or want of sleep he was ill-disposed for work
25065 and could get nothing done. He kept criticizing his own work, as he
25066 often did, and was glad when he heard someone coming.
25068 The visitor was Bitski, who served on various committees, frequented all
25069 the societies in Petersburg, and a passionate devotee of the new ideas
25070 and of Speranski, and a diligent Petersburg newsmonger--one of those men
25071 who choose their opinions like their clothes according to the fashion,
25072 but who for that very reason appear to be the warmest partisans. Hardly
25073 had he got rid of his hat before he ran into Prince Andrew's room with a
25074 preoccupied air and at once began talking. He had just heard particulars
25075 of that morning's sitting of the Council of State opened by the Emperor,
25076 and he spoke of it enthusiastically. The Emperor's speech had been
25077 extraordinary. It had been a speech such as only constitutional monarchs
25078 deliver. "The Sovereign plainly said that the Council and Senate are
25079 estates of the realm, he said that the government must rest not on
25080 authority but on secure bases. The Emperor said that the fiscal system
25081 must be reorganized and the accounts published," recounted Bitski,
25082 emphasizing certain words and opening his eyes significantly.
25084 "Ah, yes! Today's events mark an epoch, the greatest epoch in our
25085 history," he concluded.
25087 Prince Andrew listened to the account of the opening of the Council of
25088 State, which he had so impatiently awaited and to which he had attached
25089 such importance, and was surprised that this event, now that it had
25090 taken place, did not affect him, and even seemed quite insignificant. He
25091 listened with quiet irony to Bitski's enthusiastic account of it. A very
25092 simple thought occurred to him: "What does it matter to me or to Bitski
25093 what the Emperor was pleased to say at the Council? Can all that make me
25094 any happier or better?"
25096 And this simple reflection suddenly destroyed all the interest Prince
25097 Andrew had felt in the impending reforms. He was going to dine that
25098 evening at Speranski's, "with only a few friends," as the host had said
25099 when inviting him. The prospect of that dinner in the intimate home
25100 circle of the man he so admired had greatly interested Prince Andrew,
25101 especially as he had not yet seen Speranski in his domestic
25102 surroundings, but now he felt disinclined to go to it.
25104 At the appointed hour, however, he entered the modest house Speranski
25105 owned in the Taurida Gardens. In the parqueted dining room this small
25106 house, remarkable for its extreme cleanliness (suggesting that of a
25107 monastery), Prince Andrew, who was rather late, found the friendly
25108 gathering of Speranski's intimate acquaintances already assembled at
25109 five o'clock. There were no ladies present except Speranski's little
25110 daughter (long-faced like her father) and her governess. The other
25111 guests were Gervais, Magnitski, and Stolypin. While still in the
25112 anteroom Prince Andrew heard loud voices and a ringing staccato laugh--a
25113 laugh such as one hears on the stage. Someone--it sounded like
25114 Speranski--was distinctly ejaculating ha-ha-ha. Prince Andrew had never
25115 before heard Speranski's famous laugh, and this ringing, high-pitched
25116 laughter from a statesman made a strange impression on him.
25118 He entered the dining room. The whole company were standing between two
25119 windows at a small table laid with hors-d'oeuvres. Speranski, wearing a
25120 gray swallow-tail coat with a star on the breast, and evidently still
25121 the same waistcoat and high white stock he had worn at the meeting of
25122 the Council of State, stood at the table with a beaming countenance. His
25123 guests surrounded him. Magnitski, addressing himself to Speranski, was
25124 relating an anecdote, and Speranski was laughing in advance at what
25125 Magnitski was going to say. When Prince Andrew entered the room
25126 Magnitski's words were again crowned by laughter. Stolypin gave a deep
25127 bass guffaw as he munched a piece of bread and cheese. Gervais laughed
25128 softly with a hissing chuckle, and Speranski in a high-pitched staccato
25131 Still laughing, Speranski held out his soft white hand to Prince Andrew.
25133 "Very pleased to see you, Prince," he said. "One moment..." he went on,
25134 turning to Magnitski and interrupting his story. "We have agreed that
25135 this is a dinner for recreation, with not a word about business!" and
25136 turning again to the narrator he began to laugh afresh.
25138 Prince Andrew looked at the laughing Speranski with astonishment,
25139 regret, and disillusionment. It seemed to him that this was not
25140 Speranski but someone else. Everything that had formerly appeared
25141 mysterious and fascinating in Speranski suddenly became plain and
25144 At dinner the conversation did not cease for a moment and seemed to
25145 consist of the contents of a book of funny anecdotes. Before Magnitski
25146 had finished his story someone else was anxious to relate something
25147 still funnier. Most of the anecdotes, if not relating to the state
25148 service, related to people in the service. It seemed that in this
25149 company the insignificance of those people was so definitely accepted
25150 that the only possible attitude toward them was one of good humored
25151 ridicule. Speranski related how at the Council that morning a deaf
25152 dignitary, when asked his opinion, replied that he thought so too.
25153 Gervais gave a long account of an official revision, remarkable for the
25154 stupidity of everybody concerned. Stolypin, stuttering, broke into the
25155 conversation and began excitedly talking of the abuses that existed
25156 under the former order of things--threatening to give a serious turn to
25157 the conversation. Magnitski starting quizzing Stolypin about his
25158 vehemence. Gervais intervened with a joke, and the talk reverted to its
25159 former lively tone.
25161 Evidently Speranski liked to rest after his labors and find amusement in
25162 a circle of friends, and his guests, understanding his wish, tried to
25163 enliven him and amuse themselves. But their gaiety seemed to Prince
25164 Andrew mirthless and tiresome. Speranski's high-pitched voice struck him
25165 unpleasantly, and the incessant laughter grated on him like a false
25166 note. Prince Andrew did not laugh and feared that he would be a damper
25167 on the spirits of the company, but no one took any notice of his being
25168 out of harmony with the general mood. They all seemed very gay.
25170 He tried several times to join in the conversation, but his remarks were
25171 tossed aside each time like a cork thrown out of the water, and he could
25172 not jest with them.
25174 There was nothing wrong or unseemly in what they said, it was witty and
25175 might have been funny, but it lacked just that something which is the
25176 salt of mirth, and they were not even aware that such a thing existed.
25178 After dinner Speranski's daughter and her governess rose. He patted the
25179 little girl with his white hand and kissed her. And that gesture, too,
25180 seemed unnatural to Prince Andrew.
25182 The men remained at table over their port--English fashion. In the midst
25183 of a conversation that was started about Napoleon's Spanish affairs,
25184 which they all agreed in approving, Prince Andrew began to express a
25185 contrary opinion. Speranski smiled and, with an evident wish to prevent
25186 the conversation from taking an unpleasant course, told a story that had
25187 no connection with the previous conversation. For a few moments all were
25190 Having sat some time at table, Speranski corked a bottle of wine and,
25191 remarking, "Nowadays good wine rides in a carriage and pair," passed it
25192 to the servant and got up. All rose and continuing to talk loudly went
25193 into the drawing room. Two letters brought by a courier were handed to
25194 Speranski and he took them to his study. As soon as he had left the room
25195 the general merriment stopped and the guests began to converse sensibly
25196 and quietly with one another.
25198 "Now for the recitation!" said Speranski on returning from his study. "A
25199 wonderful talent!" he said to Prince Andrew, and Magnitski immediately
25200 assumed a pose and began reciting some humorous verses in French which
25201 he had composed about various well-known Petersburg people. He was
25202 interrupted several times by applause. When the verses were finished
25203 Prince Andrew went up to Speranski and took his leave.
25205 "Where are you off to so early?" asked Speranski.
25207 "I promised to go to a reception."
25209 They said no more. Prince Andrew looked closely into those mirrorlike,
25210 impenetrable eyes, and felt that it had been ridiculous of him to have
25211 expected anything from Speranski and from any of his own activities
25212 connected with him, or ever to have attributed importance to what
25213 Speranski was doing. That precise, mirthless laughter rang in Prince
25214 Andrew's ears long after he had left the house.
25216 When he reached home Prince Andrew began thinking of his life in
25217 Petersburg during those last four months as if it were something new. He
25218 recalled his exertions and solicitations, and the history of his project
25219 of army reform, which had been accepted for consideration and which they
25220 were trying to pass over in silence simply because another, a very poor
25221 one, had already been prepared and submitted to the Emperor. He thought
25222 of the meetings of a committee of which Berg was a member. He remembered
25223 how carefully and at what length everything relating to form and
25224 procedure was discussed at those meetings, and how sedulously and
25225 promptly all that related to the gist of the business was evaded. He
25226 recalled his labors on the Legal Code, and how painstakingly he had
25227 translated the articles of the Roman and French codes into Russian, and
25228 he felt ashamed of himself. Then he vividly pictured to himself
25229 Bogucharovo, his occupations in the country, his journey to Ryazan; he
25230 remembered the peasants and Dron the village elder, and mentally
25231 applying to them the Personal Rights he had divided into paragraphs, he
25232 felt astonished that he could have spent so much time on such useless
25240 Next day Prince Andrew called at a few houses he had not visited before,
25241 and among them at the Rostovs' with whom he had renewed acquaintance at
25242 the ball. Apart from considerations of politeness which demanded the
25243 call, he wanted to see that original, eager girl who had left such a
25244 pleasant impression on his mind, in her own home.
25246 Natasha was one of the first to meet him. She was wearing a dark-blue
25247 house dress in which Prince Andrew thought her even prettier than in her
25248 ball dress. She and all the Rostov family welcomed him as an old friend,
25249 simply and cordially. The whole family, whom he had formerly judged
25250 severely, now seemed to him to consist of excellent, simple, and kindly
25251 people. The old count's hospitality and good nature, which struck one
25252 especially in Petersburg as a pleasant surprise, were such that Prince
25253 Andrew could not refuse to stay to dinner. "Yes," he thought, "they are
25254 capital people, who of course have not the slightest idea what a
25255 treasure they possess in Natasha; but they are kindly folk and form the
25256 best possible setting for this strikingly poetic, charming girl,
25257 overflowing with life!"
25259 In Natasha Prince Andrew was conscious of a strange world completely
25260 alien to him and brimful of joys unknown to him, a different world, that
25261 in the Otradnoe avenue and at the window that moonlight night had
25262 already begun to disconcert him. Now this world disconcerted him no
25263 longer and was no longer alien to him, but he himself having entered it
25264 found in it a new enjoyment.
25266 After dinner Natasha, at Prince Andrew's request, went to the clavichord
25267 and began singing. Prince Andrew stood by a window talking to the ladies
25268 and listened to her. In the midst of a phrase he ceased speaking and
25269 suddenly felt tears choking him, a thing he had thought impossible for
25270 him. He looked at Natasha as she sang, and something new and joyful
25271 stirred in his soul. He felt happy and at the same time sad. He had
25272 absolutely nothing to weep about yet he was ready to weep. What about?
25273 His former love? The little princess? His disillusionments?... His hopes
25274 for the future?... Yes and no. The chief reason was a sudden, vivid
25275 sense of the terrible contrast between something infinitely great and
25276 illimitable within him and that limited and material something that he,
25277 and even she, was. This contrast weighed on and yet cheered him while
25280 As soon as Natasha had finished she went up to him and asked how he
25281 liked her voice. She asked this and then became confused, feeling that
25282 she ought not to have asked it. He smiled, looking at her, and said he
25283 liked her singing as he liked everything she did.
25285 Prince Andrew left the Rostovs' late in the evening. He went to bed from
25286 habit, but soon realized that he could not sleep. Having lit his candle
25287 he sat up in bed, then got up, then lay down again not at all troubled
25288 by his sleeplessness: his soul was as fresh and joyful as if he had
25289 stepped out of a stuffy room into God's own fresh air. It did not enter
25290 his head that he was in love with Natasha; he was not thinking about
25291 her, but only picturing her to himself, and in consequence all life
25292 appeared in a new light. "Why do I strive, why do I toil in this narrow,
25293 confined frame, when life, all life with all its joys, is open to me?"
25294 said he to himself. And for the first time for a very long while he
25295 began making happy plans for the future. He decided that he must attend
25296 to his son's education by finding a tutor and putting the boy in his
25297 charge, then he ought to retire from the service and go abroad, and see
25298 England, Switzerland and Italy. "I must use my freedom while I feel so
25299 much strength and youth in me," he said to himself. "Pierre was right
25300 when he said one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order
25301 to be happy, and now I do believe in it. Let the dead bury their dead,
25302 but while one has life one must live and be happy!" thought he.
25309 One morning Colonel Berg, whom Pierre knew as he knew everybody in
25310 Moscow and Petersburg, came to see him. Berg arrived in an immaculate
25311 brand-new uniform, with his hair pomaded and brushed forward over his
25312 temples as the Emperor Alexander wore his hair.
25314 "I have just been to see the countess, your wife. Unfortunately she
25315 could not grant my request, but I hope, Count, I shall be more fortunate
25316 with you," he said with a smile.
25318 "What is it you wish, Colonel? I am at your service."
25320 "I have now quite settled in my new rooms, Count" (Berg said this with
25321 perfect conviction that this information could not but be agreeable),
25322 "and so I wish to arrange just a small party for my own and my wife's
25323 friends." (He smiled still more pleasantly.) "I wished to ask the
25324 countess and you to do me the honor of coming to tea and to supper."
25326 Only Countess Helene, considering the society of such people as the
25327 Bergs beneath her, could be cruel enough to refuse such an invitation.
25328 Berg explained so clearly why he wanted to collect at his house a small
25329 but select company, and why this would give him pleasure, and why though
25330 he grudged spending money on cards or anything harmful, he was prepared
25331 to run into some expense for the sake of good society--that Pierre could
25332 not refuse, and promised to come.
25334 "But don't be late, Count, if I may venture to ask; about ten minutes to
25335 eight, please. We shall make up a rubber. Our general is coming. He is
25336 very good to me. We shall have supper, Count. So you will do me the
25339 Contrary to his habit of being late, Pierre on that day arrived at the
25340 Bergs' house, not at ten but at fifteen minutes to eight.
25342 Having prepared everything necessary for the party, the Bergs were ready
25343 for their guests' arrival.
25345 In their new, clean, and light study with its small busts and pictures
25346 and new furniture sat Berg and his wife. Berg, closely buttoned up in
25347 his new uniform, sat beside his wife explaining to her that one always
25348 could and should be acquainted with people above one, because only then
25349 does one get satisfaction from acquaintances.
25351 "You can get to know something, you can ask for something. See how I
25352 managed from my first promotion." (Berg measured his life not by years
25353 but by promotions.) "My comrades are still nobodies, while I am only
25354 waiting for a vacancy to command a regiment, and have the happiness to
25355 be your husband." (He rose and kissed Vera's hand, and on the way to her
25356 straightened out a turned-up corner of the carpet.) "And how have I
25357 obtained all this? Chiefly by knowing how to choose my aquaintances. It
25358 goes without saying that one must be conscientious and methodical."
25360 Berg smiled with a sense of his superiority over a weak woman, and
25361 paused, reflecting that this dear wife of his was after all but a weak
25362 woman who could not understand all that constitutes a man's dignity,
25363 what it was ein Mann zu sein. * Vera at the same time smiling with a
25364 sense of superiority over her good, conscientious husband, who all the
25365 same understood life wrongly, as according to Vera all men did. Berg,
25366 judging by his wife, thought all women weak and foolish. Vera, judging
25367 only by her husband and generalizing from that observation, supposed
25368 that all men, though they understand nothing and are conceited and
25369 selfish, ascribe common sense to themselves alone.
25374 Berg rose and embraced his wife carefully, so as not to crush her lace
25375 fichu for which he had paid a good price, kissing her straight on the
25378 "The only thing is, we mustn't have children too soon," he continued,
25379 following an unconscious sequence of ideas.
25381 "Yes," answered Vera, "I don't at all want that. We must live for
25384 "Princess Yusupova wore one exactly like this," said Berg, pointing to
25385 the fichu with a happy and kindly smile.
25387 Just then Count Bezukhov was announced. Husband and wife glanced at one
25388 another, both smiling with self-satisfaction, and each mentally claiming
25389 the honor of this visit.
25391 "This is what comes of knowing how to make acquaintances," thought Berg.
25392 "This is what comes of knowing how to conduct oneself."
25394 "But please don't interrupt me when I am entertaining the guests," said
25395 Vera, "because I know what interests each of them and what to say to
25400 "It can't be helped: men must sometimes have masculine conversation,"
25403 They received Pierre in their small, new drawing-room, where it was
25404 impossible to sit down anywhere without disturbing its symmetry,
25405 neatness, and order; so it was quite comprehensible and not strange that
25406 Berg, having generously offered to disturb the symmetry of an armchair
25407 or of the sofa for his dear guest, but being apparently painfully
25408 undecided on the matter himself, eventually left the visitor to settle
25409 the question of selection. Pierre disturbed the symmetry by moving a
25410 chair for himself, and Berg and Vera immediately began their evening
25411 party, interrupting each other in their efforts to entertain their
25414 Vera, having decided in her own mind that Pierre ought to be entertained
25415 with conversation about the French embassy, at once began accordingly.
25416 Berg, having decided that masculine conversation was required,
25417 interrupted his wife's remarks and touched on the question of the war
25418 with Austria, and unconsciously jumped from the general subject to
25419 personal considerations as to the proposals made him to take part in the
25420 Austrian campaign and the reasons why he had declined them. Though the
25421 conversation was very incoherent and Vera was angry at the intrusion of
25422 the masculine element, both husband and wife felt with satisfaction
25423 that, even if only one guest was present, their evening had begun very
25424 well and was as like as two peas to every other evening party with its
25425 talk, tea, and lighted candles.
25427 Before long Boris, Berg's old comrade, arrived. There was a shade of
25428 condescension and patronage in his treatment of Berg and Vera. After
25429 Boris came a lady with the colonel, then the general himself, then the
25430 Rostovs, and the party became unquestionably exactly like all other
25431 evening parties. Berg and Vera could not repress their smiles of
25432 satisfaction at the sight of all this movement in their drawing room, at
25433 the sound of the disconnected talk, the rustling of dresses, and the
25434 bowing and scraping. Everything was just as everybody always has it,
25435 especially so the general, who admired the apartment, patted Berg on the
25436 shoulder, and with parental authority superintended the setting out of
25437 the table for boston. The general sat down by Count Ilya Rostov, who was
25438 next to himself the most important guest. The old people sat with the
25439 old, the young with the young, and the hostess at the tea table, on
25440 which stood exactly the same kind of cakes in a silver cake basket as
25441 the Panins had at their party. Everything was just as it was everywhere
25449 Pierre, as one of the principal guests, had to sit down to boston with
25450 Count Rostov, the general, and the colonel. At the card table he
25451 happened to be directly facing Natasha, and was struck by a curious
25452 change that had come over her since the ball. She was silent, and not
25453 only less pretty than at the ball, but only redeemed from plainness by
25454 her look of gentle indifference to everything around.
25456 "What's the matter with her?" thought Pierre, glancing at her. She was
25457 sitting by her sister at the tea table, and reluctantly, without looking
25458 at him, made some reply to Boris who sat down beside her. After playing
25459 out a whole suit and to his partner's delight taking five tricks,
25460 Pierre, hearing greetings and the steps of someone who had entered the
25461 room while he was picking up his tricks, glanced again at Natasha.
25463 "What has happened to her?" he asked himself with still greater
25466 Prince Andrew was standing before her, saying something to her with a
25467 look of tender solicitude. She, having raised her head, was looking up
25468 at him, flushed and evidently trying to master her rapid breathing. And
25469 the bright glow of some inner fire that had been suppressed was again
25470 alight in her. She was completely transformed and from a plain girl had
25471 again become what she had been at the ball.
25473 Prince Andrew went up to Pierre, and the latter noticed a new and
25474 youthful expression in his friend's face.
25476 Pierre changed places several times during the game, sitting now with
25477 his back to Natasha and now facing her, but during the whole of the six
25478 rubbers he watched her and his friend.
25480 "Something very important is happening between them," thought Pierre,
25481 and a feeling that was both joyful and painful agitated him and made him
25484 After six rubbers the general got up, saying that it was no use playing
25485 like that, and Pierre was released. Natasha on one side was talking with
25486 Sonya and Boris, and Vera with a subtle smile was saying something to
25487 Prince Andrew. Pierre went up to his friend and, asking whether they
25488 were talking secrets, sat down beside them. Vera, having noticed Prince
25489 Andrew's attentions to Natasha, decided that at a party, a real evening
25490 party, subtle allusions to the tender passion were absolutely necessary
25491 and, seizing a moment when Prince Andrew was alone, began a conversation
25492 with him about feelings in general and about her sister. With so
25493 intellectual a guest as she considered Prince Andrew to be, she felt
25494 that she had to employ her diplomatic tact.
25496 When Pierre went up to them he noticed that Vera was being carried away
25497 by her self-satisfied talk, but that Prince Andrew seemed embarrassed, a
25498 thing that rarely happened with him.
25500 "What do you think?" Vera was saying with an arch smile. "You are so
25501 discerning, Prince, and understand people's characters so well at a
25502 glance. What do you think of Natalie? Could she be constant in her
25503 attachments? Could she, like other women" (Vera meant herself), "love a
25504 man once for all and remain true to him forever? That is what I consider
25505 true love. What do you think, Prince?"
25507 "I know your sister too little," replied Prince Andrew, with a sarcastic
25508 smile under which he wished to hide his embarrassment, "to be able to
25509 solve so delicate a question, and then I have noticed that the less
25510 attractive a woman is the more constant she is likely to be," he added,
25511 and looked up at Pierre who was just approaching them.
25513 "Yes, that is true, Prince. In our days," continued Vera--mentioning
25514 "our days" as people of limited intelligence are fond of doing,
25515 imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of
25516 "our days" and that human characteristics change with the times--"in our
25517 days a girl has so much freedom that the pleasure of being courted often
25518 stifles real feeling in her. And it must be confessed that Natalie is
25519 very susceptible." This return to the subject of Natalie caused Prince
25520 Andrew to knit his brows with discomfort: he was about to rise, but Vera
25521 continued with a still more subtle smile:
25523 "I think no one has been more courted than she," she went on, "but till
25524 quite lately she never cared seriously for anyone. Now you know, Count,"
25525 she said to Pierre, "even our dear cousin Boris, who, between ourselves,
25526 was very far gone in the land of tenderness..." (alluding to a map of
25527 love much in vogue at that time).
25529 Prince Andrew frowned and remained silent.
25531 "You are friendly with Boris, aren't you?" asked Vera.
25533 "Yes, I know him..."
25535 "I expect he has told you of his childish love for Natasha?"
25537 "Oh, there was childish love?" suddenly asked Prince Andrew, blushing
25540 "Yes, you know between cousins intimacy often leads to love. Le
25541 cousinage est un dangereux voisinage. * Don't you think so?"
25544 * "Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood."
25546 "Oh, undoubtedly!" said Prince Andrew, and with sudden and unnatural
25547 liveliness he began chaffing Pierre about the need to be very careful
25548 with his fifty-year-old Moscow cousins, and in the midst of these
25549 jesting remarks he rose, taking Pierre by the arm, and drew him aside.
25551 "Well?" asked Pierre, seeing his friend's strange animation with
25552 surprise, and noticing the glance he turned on Natasha as he rose.
25554 "I must... I must have a talk with you," said Prince Andrew. "You know
25555 that pair of women's gloves?" (He referred to the masonic gloves given
25556 to a newly initiated Brother to present to the woman he loved.) "I...
25557 but no, I will talk to you later on," and with a strange light in his
25558 eyes and restlessness in his movements, Prince Andrew approached Natasha
25559 and sat down beside her. Pierre saw how Prince Andrew asked her
25560 something and how she flushed as she replied.
25562 But at that moment Berg came to Pierre and began insisting that he
25563 should take part in an argument between the general and the colonel on
25564 the affairs in Spain.
25566 Berg was satisfied and happy. The smile of pleasure never left his face.
25567 The party was very successful and quite like other parties he had seen.
25568 Everything was similar: the ladies' subtle talk, the cards, the general
25569 raising his voice at the card table, and the samovar and the tea cakes;
25570 only one thing was lacking that he had always seen at the evening
25571 parties he wished to imitate. They had not yet had a loud conversation
25572 among the men and a dispute about something important and clever. Now
25573 the general had begun such a discussion and so Berg drew Pierre to it.
25580 Next day, having been invited by the count, Prince Andrew dined with the
25581 Rostovs and spent the rest of the day there.
25583 Everyone in the house realized for whose sake Prince Andrew came, and
25584 without concealing it he tried to be with Natasha all day. Not only in
25585 the soul of the frightened yet happy and enraptured Natasha, but in the
25586 whole house, there was a feeling of awe at something important that was
25587 bound to happen. The countess looked with sad and sternly serious eyes
25588 at Prince Andrew when he talked to Natasha and timidly started some
25589 artificial conversation about trifles as soon as he looked her way.
25590 Sonya was afraid to leave Natasha and afraid of being in the way when
25591 she was with them. Natasha grew pale, in a panic of expectation, when
25592 she remained alone with him for a moment. Prince Andrew surprised her by
25593 his timidity. She felt that he wanted to say something to her but could
25594 not bring himself to do so.
25596 In the evening, when Prince Andrew had left, the countess went up to
25597 Natasha and whispered: "Well, what?"
25599 "Mamma! For heaven's sake don't ask me anything now! One can't talk
25600 about that," said Natasha.
25602 But all the same that night Natasha, now agitated and now frightened,
25603 lay a long time in her mother's bed gazing straight before her. She told
25604 her how he had complimented her, how he told her he was going abroad,
25605 asked her where they were going to spend the summer, and then how he had
25606 asked her about Boris.
25608 "But such a... such a... never happened to me before!" she said. "Only I
25609 feel afraid in his presence. I am always afraid when I'm with him. What
25610 does that mean? Does it mean that it's the real thing? Yes? Mamma, are
25613 "No, my love; I am frightened myself," answered her mother. "Now go!"
25615 "All the same I shan't sleep. What silliness, to sleep! Mummy! Mummy!
25616 such a thing never happened to me before," she said, surprised and
25617 alarmed at the feeling she was aware of in herself. "And could we ever
25620 It seemed to Natasha that even at the time she first saw Prince Andrew
25621 at Otradnoe she had fallen in love with him. It was as if she feared
25622 this strange, unexpected happiness of meeting again the very man she had
25623 then chosen (she was firmly convinced she had done so) and of finding
25624 him, as it seemed, not indifferent to her.
25626 "And it had to happen that he should come specially to Petersburg while
25627 we are here. And it had to happen that we should meet at that ball. It
25628 is fate. Clearly it is fate that everything led up to this! Already
25629 then, directly I saw him I felt something peculiar."
25631 "What else did he say to you? What are those verses? Read them..." said
25632 her mother, thoughtfully, referring to some verses Prince Andrew had
25633 written in Natasha's album.
25635 "Mamma, one need not be ashamed of his being a widower?"
25637 "Don't, Natasha! Pray to God. 'Marriages are made in heaven,'" said her
25640 "Darling Mummy, how I love you! How happy I am!" cried Natasha, shedding
25641 tears of joy and excitement and embracing her mother.
25643 At that very time Prince Andrew was sitting with Pierre and telling him
25644 of his love for Natasha and his firm resolve to make her his wife.
25646 That day Countess Helene had a reception at her house. The French
25647 ambassador was there, and a foreign prince of the blood who had of late
25648 become a frequent visitor of hers, and many brilliant ladies and
25649 gentlemen. Pierre, who had come downstairs, walked through the rooms and
25650 struck everyone by his preoccupied, absent-minded, and morose air.
25652 Since the ball he had felt the approach of a fit of nervous depression
25653 and had made desperate efforts to combat it. Since the intimacy of his
25654 wife with the royal prince, Pierre had unexpectedly been made a
25655 gentleman of the bedchamber, and from that time he had begun to feel
25656 oppressed and ashamed in court society, and dark thoughts of the vanity
25657 of all things human came to him oftener than before. At the same time
25658 the feeling he had noticed between his protegee Natasha and Prince
25659 Andrew accentuated his gloom by the contrast between his own position
25660 and his friend's. He tried equally to avoid thinking about his wife, and
25661 about Natasha and Prince Andrew; and again everything seemed to him
25662 insignificant in comparison with eternity; again the question: for what?
25663 presented itself; and he forced himself to work day and night at masonic
25664 labors, hoping to drive away the evil spirit that threatened him. Toward
25665 midnight, after he had left the countess' apartments, he was sitting
25666 upstairs in a shabby dressing gown, copying out the original transaction
25667 of the Scottish lodge of Freemasons at a table in his low room cloudy
25668 with tobacco smoke, when someone came in. It was Prince Andrew.
25670 "Ah, it's you!" said Pierre with a preoccupied, dissatisfied air. "And
25671 I, you see, am hard at it." He pointed to his manuscript book with that
25672 air of escaping from the ills of life with which unhappy people look at
25675 Prince Andrew, with a beaming, ecstatic expression of renewed life on
25676 his face, paused in front of Pierre and, not noticing his sad look,
25677 smiled at him with the egotism of joy.
25679 "Well, dear heart," said he, "I wanted to tell you about it yesterday
25680 and I have come to do so today. I never experienced anything like it
25681 before. I am in love, my friend!"
25683 Suddenly Pierre heaved a deep sigh and dumped his heavy person down on
25684 the sofa beside Prince Andrew.
25686 "With Natasha Rostova, yes?" said he.
25688 "Yes, yes! Who else should it be? I should never have believed it, but
25689 the feeling is stronger than I. Yesterday I tormented myself and
25690 suffered, but I would not exchange even that torment for anything in the
25691 world, I have not lived till now. At last I live, but I can't live
25692 without her! But can she love me?... I am too old for her.... Why don't
25695 "I? I? What did I tell you?" said Pierre suddenly, rising and beginning
25696 to pace up and down the room. "I always thought it.... That girl is such
25697 a treasure... she is a rare girl.... My dear friend, I entreat you,
25698 don't philosophize, don't doubt, marry, marry, marry.... And I am sure
25699 there will not be a happier man than you."
25705 "Don't talk rubbish..." said Prince Andrew, smiling and looking into
25708 "She does, I know," Pierre cried fiercely.
25710 "But do listen," returned Prince Andrew, holding him by the arm. "Do you
25711 know the condition I am in? I must talk about it to someone."
25713 "Well, go on, go on. I am very glad," said Pierre, and his face really
25714 changed, his brow became smooth, and he listened gladly to Prince
25715 Andrew. Prince Andrew seemed, and really was, quite a different, quite a
25716 new man. Where was his spleen, his contempt for life, his
25717 disillusionment? Pierre was the only person to whom he made up his mind
25718 to speak openly; and to him he told all that was in his soul. Now he
25719 boldly and lightly made plans for an extended future, said he could not
25720 sacrifice his own happiness to his father's caprice, and spoke of how he
25721 would either make his father consent to this marriage and love her, or
25722 would do without his consent; then he marveled at the feeling that had
25723 mastered him as at something strange, apart from and independent of
25726 "I should not have believed anyone who told me that I was capable of
25727 such love," said Prince Andrew. "It is not at all the same feeling that
25728 I knew in the past. The whole world is now for me divided into two
25729 halves: one half is she, and there all is joy, hope, light: the other
25730 half is everything where she is not, and there is all gloom and
25733 "Darkness and gloom," reiterated Pierre: "yes, yes, I understand that."
25735 "I cannot help loving the light, it is not my fault. And I am very
25736 happy! You understand me? I know you are glad for my sake."
25738 "Yes, yes," Pierre assented, looking at his friend with a touched and
25739 sad expression in his eyes. The brighter Prince Andrew's lot appeared to
25740 him, the gloomier seemed his own.
25747 Prince Andrew needed his father's consent to his marriage, and to obtain
25748 this he started for the country next day.
25750 His father received his son's communication with external composure, but
25751 inward wrath. He could not comprehend how anyone could wish to alter his
25752 life or introduce anything new into it, when his own life was already
25753 ending. "If only they would let me end my days as I want to," thought
25754 the old man, "then they might do as they please." With his son, however,
25755 he employed the diplomacy he reserved for important occasions and,
25756 adopting a quiet tone, discussed the whole matter.
25758 In the first place the marriage was not a brilliant one as regards
25759 birth, wealth, or rank. Secondly, Prince Andrew was no longer as young
25760 as he had been and his health was poor (the old man laid special stress
25761 on this), while she was very young. Thirdly, he had a son whom it would
25762 be a pity to entrust to a chit of a girl. "Fourthly and finally," the
25763 father said, looking ironically at his son, "I beg you to put it off for
25764 a year: go abroad, take a cure, look out as you wanted to for a German
25765 tutor for Prince Nicholas. Then if your love or passion or obstinacy--as
25766 you please--is still as great, marry! And that's my last word on it.
25767 Mind, the last..." concluded the prince, in a tone which showed that
25768 nothing would make him alter his decision.
25770 Prince Andrew saw clearly that the old man hoped that his feelings, or
25771 his fiancee's, would not stand a year's test, or that he (the old prince
25772 himself) would die before then, and he decided to conform to his
25773 father's wish--to propose, and postpone the wedding for a year.
25775 Three weeks after the last evening he had spent with the Rostovs, Prince
25776 Andrew returned to Petersburg.
25778 Next day after her talk with her mother Natasha expected Bolkonski all
25779 day, but he did not come. On the second and third day it was the same.
25780 Pierre did not come either and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrew
25781 had gone to see his father, could not explain his absence to herself.
25783 Three weeks passed in this way. Natasha had no desire to go out anywhere
25784 and wandered from room to room like a shadow, idle and listless; she
25785 wept secretly at night and did not go to her mother in the evenings. She
25786 blushed continually and was irritable. It seemed to her that everybody
25787 knew about her disappointment and was laughing at her and pitying her.
25788 Strong as was her inward grief, this wound to her vanity intensified her
25791 Once she came to her mother, tried to say something, and suddenly began
25792 to cry. Her tears were those of an offended child who does not know why
25793 it is being punished.
25795 The countess began to soothe Natasha, who after first listening to her
25796 mother's words, suddenly interrupted her:
25798 "Leave off, Mamma! I don't think, and don't want to think about it! He
25799 just came and then left off, left off..."
25801 Her voice trembled, and she again nearly cried, but recovered and went
25804 "And I don't at all want to get married. And I am afraid of him; I have
25805 now become quite calm, quite calm."
25807 The day after this conversation Natasha put on the old dress which she
25808 knew had the peculiar property of conducing to cheerfulness in the
25809 mornings, and that day she returned to the old way of life which she had
25810 abandoned since the ball. Having finished her morning tea she went to
25811 the ballroom, which she particularly liked for its loud resonance, and
25812 began singing her solfeggio. When she had finished her first exercise
25813 she stood still in the middle of the room and sang a musical phrase that
25814 particularly pleased her. She listened joyfully (as though she had not
25815 expected it) to the charm of the notes reverberating, filling the whole
25816 empty ballroom, and slowly dying away; and all at once she felt
25817 cheerful. "What's the good of making so much of it? Things are nice as
25818 it is," she said to herself, and she began walking up and down the room,
25819 not stepping simply on the resounding parquet but treading with each
25820 step from the heel to the toe (she had on a new and favorite pair of
25821 shoes) and listening to the regular tap of the heel and creak of the toe
25822 as gladly as she had to the sounds of her own voice. Passing a mirror
25823 she glanced into it. "There, that's me!" the expression of her face
25824 seemed to say as she caught sight of herself. "Well, and very nice too!
25827 A footman wanted to come in to clear away something in the room but she
25828 would not let him, and having closed the door behind him continued her
25829 walk. That morning she had returned to her favorite mood--love of, and
25830 delight in, herself. "How charming that Natasha is!" she said again,
25831 speaking as some third, collective, male person. "Pretty, a good voice,
25832 young, and in nobody's way if only they leave her in peace." But however
25833 much they left her in peace she could not now be at peace, and
25834 immediately felt this.
25836 In the hall the porch door opened, and someone asked, "At home?" and
25837 then footsteps were heard. Natasha was looking at the mirror, but did
25838 not see herself. She listened to the sounds in the hall. When she saw
25839 herself, her face was pale. It was he. She knew this for certain, though
25840 she hardly heard his voice through the closed doors.
25842 Pale and agitated, Natasha ran into the drawing room.
25844 "Mamma! Bolkonski has come!" she said. "Mamma, it is awful, it is
25845 unbearable! I don't want... to be tormented? What am I to do?..."
25847 Before the countess could answer, Prince Andrew entered the room with an
25848 agitated and serious face. As soon as he saw Natasha his face
25849 brightened. He kissed the countess' hand and Natasha's, and sat down
25852 "It is long since we had the pleasure..." began the countess, but Prince
25853 Andrew interrupted her by answering her intended question, obviously in
25854 haste to say what he had to.
25856 "I have not been to see you all this time because I have been at my
25857 father's. I had to talk over a very important matter with him. I only
25858 got back last night," he said glancing at Natasha; "I want to have a
25859 talk with you, Countess," he added after a moment's pause.
25861 The countess lowered her eyes, sighing deeply.
25863 "I am at your disposal," she murmured.
25865 Natasha knew that she ought to go away, but was unable to do so:
25866 something gripped her throat, and regardless of manners she stared
25867 straight at Prince Andrew with wide-open eyes.
25869 "At once? This instant!... No, it can't be!" she thought.
25871 Again he glanced at her, and that glance convinced her that she was not
25872 mistaken. Yes, at once, that very instant, her fate would be decided.
25874 "Go, Natasha! I will call you," said the countess in a whisper.
25876 Natasha glanced with frightened imploring eyes at Prince Andrew and at
25877 her mother and went out.
25879 "I have come, Countess, to ask for your daughter's hand," said Prince
25882 The countess' face flushed hotly, but she said nothing.
25884 "Your offer..." she began at last sedately. He remained silent, looking
25885 into her eyes. "Your offer..." (she grew confused) "is agreeable to us,
25886 and I accept your offer. I am glad. And my husband... I hope... but it
25887 will depend on her...."
25889 "I will speak to her when I have your consent.... Do you give it to me?"
25890 said Prince Andrew.
25892 "Yes," replied the countess. She held out her hand to him, and with a
25893 mixed feeling of estrangement and tenderness pressed her lips to his
25894 forehead as he stooped to kiss her hand. She wished to love him as a
25895 son, but felt that to her he was a stranger and a terrifying man. "I am
25896 sure my husband will consent," said the countess, "but your father..."
25898 "My father, to whom I have told my plans, has made it an express
25899 condition of his consent that the wedding is not to take place for a
25900 year. And I wished to tell you of that," said Prince Andrew.
25902 "It is true that Natasha is still young, but--so long as that?..."
25904 "It is unavoidable," said Prince Andrew with a sigh.
25906 "I will send her to you," said the countess, and left the room.
25908 "Lord have mercy upon us!" she repeated while seeking her daughter.
25910 Sonya said that Natasha was in her bedroom. Natasha was sitting on the
25911 bed, pale and dry eyed, and was gazing at the icons and whispering
25912 something as she rapidly crossed herself. Seeing her mother she jumped
25913 up and flew to her.
25915 "Well, Mamma?... Well?..."
25917 "Go, go to him. He is asking for your hand," said the countess, coldly
25918 it seemed to Natasha. "Go... go," said the mother, sadly and
25919 reproachfully, with a deep sigh, as her daughter ran away.
25921 Natasha never remembered how she entered the drawing room. When she came
25922 in and saw him she paused. "Is it possible that this stranger has now
25923 become everything to me?" she asked herself, and immediately answered,
25924 "Yes, everything! He alone is now dearer to me than everything in the
25925 world." Prince Andrew came up to her with downcast eyes.
25927 "I have loved you from the very first moment I saw you. May I hope?"
25929 He looked at her and was struck by the serious impassioned expression of
25930 her face. Her face said: "Why ask? Why doubt what you cannot but know?
25931 Why speak, when words cannot express what one feels?"
25933 She drew near to him and stopped. He took her hand and kissed it.
25937 "Yes, yes!" Natasha murmured as if in vexation. Then she sighed loudly
25938 and, catching her breath more and more quickly, began to sob.
25940 "What is it? What's the matter?"
25942 "Oh, I am so happy!" she replied, smiled through her tears, bent over
25943 closer to him, paused for an instant as if asking herself whether she
25944 might, and then kissed him.
25946 Prince Andrew held her hands, looked into her eyes, and did not find in
25947 his heart his former love for her. Something in him had suddenly
25948 changed; there was no longer the former poetic and mystic charm of
25949 desire, but there was pity for her feminine and childish weakness, fear
25950 at her devotion and trustfulness, and an oppressive yet joyful sense of
25951 the duty that now bound him to her forever. The present feeling, though
25952 not so bright and poetic as the former, was stronger and more serious.
25954 "Did your mother tell you that it cannot be for a year?" asked Prince
25955 Andrew, still looking into her eyes.
25957 "Is it possible that I--the 'chit of a girl,' as everybody called me,"
25958 thought Natasha--"is it possible that I am now to be the wife and the
25959 equal of this strange, dear, clever man whom even my father looks up to?
25960 Can it be true? Can it be true that there can be no more playing with
25961 life, that now I am grown up, that on me now lies a responsibility for
25962 my every word and deed? Yes, but what did he ask me?"
25964 "No," she replied, but she had not understood his question.
25966 "Forgive me!" he said. "But you are so young, and I have already been
25967 through so much in life. I am afraid for you, you do not yet know
25970 Natasha listened with concentrated attention, trying but failing to take
25971 in the meaning of his words.
25973 "Hard as this year which delays my happiness will be," continued Prince
25974 Andrew, "it will give you time to be sure of yourself. I ask you to make
25975 me happy in a year, but you are free: our engagement shall remain a
25976 secret, and should you find that you do not love me, or should you come
25977 to love..." said Prince Andrew with an unnatural smile.
25979 "Why do you say that?" Natasha interrupted him. "You know that from the
25980 very day you first came to Otradnoe I have loved you," she cried, quite
25981 convinced that she spoke the truth.
25983 "In a year you will learn to know yourself...."
25985 "A whole year!" Natasha repeated suddenly, only now realizing that the
25986 marriage was to be postponed for a year. "But why a year? Why a
25989 Prince Andrew began to explain to her the reasons for this delay.
25990 Natasha did not hear him.
25992 "And can't it be helped?" she asked. Prince Andrew did not reply, but
25993 his face expressed the impossibility of altering that decision.
25995 "It's awful! Oh, it's awful! awful!" Natasha suddenly cried, and again
25996 burst into sobs. "I shall die, waiting a year: it's impossible, it's
25997 awful!" She looked into her lover's face and saw in it a look of
25998 commiseration and perplexity.
26000 "No, no! I'll do anything!" she said, suddenly checking her tears. "I am
26003 The father and mother came into the room and gave the betrothed couple
26006 From that day Prince Andrew began to frequent the Rostovs' as Natasha's
26014 No betrothal ceremony took place and Natasha's engagement to Bolkonski
26015 was not announced; Prince Andrew insisted on that. He said that as he
26016 was responsible for the delay he ought to bear the whole burden of it;
26017 that he had given his word and bound himself forever, but that he did
26018 not wish to bind Natasha and gave her perfect freedom. If after six
26019 months she felt that she did not love him she would have full right to
26020 reject him. Naturally neither Natasha nor her parents wished to hear of
26021 this, but Prince Andrew was firm. He came every day to the Rostovs', but
26022 did not behave to Natasha as an affianced lover: he did not use the
26023 familiar thou, but said you to her, and kissed only her hand. After
26024 their engagement, quite different, intimate, and natural relations
26025 sprang up between them. It was as if they had not known each other till
26026 now. Both liked to recall how they had regarded each other when as yet
26027 they were nothing to one another; they felt themselves now quite
26028 different beings: then they were artificial, now natural and sincere. At
26029 first the family felt some constraint in intercourse with Prince Andrew;
26030 he seemed a man from another world, and for a long time Natasha trained
26031 the family to get used to him, proudly assuring them all that he only
26032 appeared to be different, but was really just like all of them, and that
26033 she was not afraid of him and no one else ought to be. After a few days
26034 they grew accustomed to him, and without restraint in his presence
26035 pursued their usual way of life, in which he took his part. He could
26036 talk about rural economy with the count, fashions with the countess and
26037 Natasha, and about albums and fancywork with Sonya. Sometimes the
26038 household both among themselves and in his presence expressed their
26039 wonder at how it had all happened, and at the evident omens there had
26040 been of it: Prince Andrew's coming to Otradnoe and their coming to
26041 Petersburg, and the likeness between Natasha and Prince Andrew which her
26042 nurse had noticed on his first visit, and Andrew's encounter with
26043 Nicholas in 1805, and many other incidents betokening that it had to be.
26045 In the house that poetic dullness and quiet reigned which always
26046 accompanies the presence of a betrothed couple. Often when all sitting
26047 together everyone kept silent. Sometimes the others would get up and go
26048 away and the couple, left alone, still remained silent. They rarely
26049 spoke of their future life. Prince Andrew was afraid and ashamed to
26050 speak of it. Natasha shared this as she did all his feelings, which she
26051 constantly divined. Once she began questioning him about his son. Prince
26052 Andrew blushed, as he often did now--Natasha particularly liked it in
26053 him--and said that his son would not live with them.
26055 "Why not?" asked Natasha in a frightened tone.
26057 "I cannot take him away from his grandfather, and besides..."
26059 "How I should have loved him!" said Natasha, immediately guessing his
26060 thought; "but I know you wish to avoid any pretext for finding fault
26063 Sometimes the old count would come up, kiss Prince Andrew, and ask his
26064 advice about Petya's education or Nicholas' service. The old countess
26065 sighed as she looked at them; Sonya was always getting frightened lest
26066 she should be in the way and tried to find excuses for leaving them
26067 alone, even when they did not wish it. When Prince Andrew spoke (he
26068 could tell a story very well), Natasha listened to him with pride; when
26069 she spoke she noticed with fear and joy that he gazed attentively and
26070 scrutinizingly at her. She asked herself in perplexity: "What does he
26071 look for in me? He is trying to discover something by looking at me!
26072 What if what he seeks in me is not there?" Sometimes she fell into one
26073 of the mad, merry moods characteristic of her, and then she particularly
26074 loved to hear and see how Prince Andrew laughed. He seldom laughed, but
26075 when he did he abandoned himself entirely to his laughter, and after
26076 such a laugh she always felt nearer to him. Natasha would have been
26077 completely happy if the thought of the separation awaiting her and
26078 drawing near had not terrified her, just as the mere thought of it made
26079 him turn pale and cold.
26081 On the eve of his departure from Petersburg Prince Andrew brought with
26082 him Pierre, who had not been to the Rostovs' once since the ball. Pierre
26083 seemed disconcerted and embarrassed. He was talking to the countess, and
26084 Natasha sat down beside a little chess table with Sonya, thereby
26085 inviting Prince Andrew to come too. He did so.
26087 "You have known Bezukhov a long time?" he asked. "Do you like him?"
26089 "Yes, he's a dear, but very absurd."
26091 And as usual when speaking of Pierre, she began to tell anecdotes of his
26092 absent-mindedness, some of which had even been invented about him.
26094 "Do you know I have entrusted him with our secret? I have known him from
26095 childhood. He has a heart of gold. I beg you, Natalie," Prince Andrew
26096 said with sudden seriousness--"I am going away and heaven knows what may
26097 happen. You may cease to... all right, I know I am not to say that. Only
26098 this, then: whatever may happen to you when I am not here..."
26102 "Whatever trouble may come," Prince Andrew continued, "I beg you,
26103 Mademoiselle Sophie, whatever may happen, to turn to him alone for
26104 advice and help! He is a most absent-minded and absurd fellow, but he
26105 has a heart of gold."
26107 Neither her father, nor her mother, nor Sonya, nor Prince Andrew himself
26108 could have foreseen how the separation from her lover would act on
26109 Natasha. Flushed and agitated she went about the house all that day,
26110 dry-eyed, occupied with most trivial matters as if not understanding
26111 what awaited her. She did not even cry when, on taking leave, he kissed
26112 her hand for the last time. "Don't go!" she said in a tone that made him
26113 wonder whether he really ought not to stay and which he remembered long
26114 afterwards. Nor did she cry when he was gone; but for several days she
26115 sat in her room dry-eyed, taking no interest in anything and only saying
26116 now and then, "Oh, why did he go away?"
26118 But a fortnight after his departure, to the surprise of those around
26119 her, she recovered from her mental sickness just as suddenly and became
26120 her old self again, but with a change in her moral physiognomy, as a
26121 child gets up after a long illness with a changed expression of face.
26128 During that year after his son's departure, Prince Nicholas Bolkonski's
26129 health and temper became much worse. He grew still more irritable, and
26130 it was Princess Mary who generally bore the brunt of his frequent fits
26131 of unprovoked anger. He seemed carefully to seek out her tender spots so
26132 as to torture her mentally as harshly as possible. Princess Mary had two
26133 passions and consequently two joys--her nephew, little Nicholas, and
26134 religion--and these were the favorite subjects of the prince's attacks
26135 and ridicule. Whatever was spoken of he would bring round to the
26136 superstitiousness of old maids, or the petting and spoiling of children.
26137 "You want to make him"--little Nicholas--"into an old maid like
26138 yourself! A pity! Prince Andrew wants a son and not an old maid," he
26139 would say. Or, turning to Mademoiselle Bourienne, he would ask her in
26140 Princess Mary's presence how she liked our village priests and icons and
26141 would joke about them.
26143 He continually hurt Princess Mary's feelings and tormented her, but it
26144 cost her no effort to forgive him. Could he be to blame toward her, or
26145 could her father, whom she knew loved her in spite of it all, be unjust?
26146 And what is justice? The princess never thought of that proud word
26147 "justice." All the complex laws of man centered for her in one clear and
26148 simple law--the law of love and self-sacrifice taught us by Him who
26149 lovingly suffered for mankind though He Himself was God. What had she to
26150 do with the justice or injustice of other people? She had to endure and
26151 love, and that she did.
26153 During the winter Prince Andrew had come to Bald Hills and had been gay,
26154 gentle, and more affectionate than Princess Mary had known him for a
26155 long time past. She felt that something had happened to him, but he said
26156 nothing to her about his love. Before he left he had a long talk with
26157 his father about something, and Princess Mary noticed that before his
26158 departure they were dissatisfied with one another.
26160 Soon after Prince Andrew had gone, Princess Mary wrote to her friend
26161 Julie Karagina in Petersburg, whom she had dreamed (as all girls dream)
26162 of marrying to her brother, and who was at that time in mourning for her
26163 own brother, killed in Turkey.
26165 Sorrow, it seems, is our common lot, my dear, tender friend Julie.
26167 Your loss is so terrible that I can only explain it to myself as a
26168 special providence of God who, loving you, wishes to try you and your
26169 excellent mother. Oh, my friend! Religion, and religion alone, can--I
26170 will not say comfort us--but save us from despair. Religion alone can
26171 explain to us what without its help man cannot comprehend: why, for what
26172 cause, kind and noble beings able to find happiness in life--not merely
26173 harming no one but necessary to the happiness of others--are called away
26174 to God, while cruel, useless, harmful persons, or such as are a burden
26175 to themselves and to others, are left living. The first death I saw, and
26176 one I shall never forget--that of my dear sister-in-law--left that
26177 impression on me. Just as you ask destiny why your splendid brother had
26178 to die, so I asked why that angel Lise, who not only never wronged
26179 anyone, but in whose soul there were never any unkind thoughts, had to
26180 die. And what do you think, dear friend? Five years have passed since
26181 then, and already I, with my petty understanding, begin to see clearly
26182 why she had to die, and in what way that death was but an expression of
26183 the infinite goodness of the Creator, whose every action, though
26184 generally incomprehensible to us, is but a manifestation of His infinite
26185 love for His creatures. Perhaps, I often think, she was too angelically
26186 innocent to have the strength to perform all a mother's duties. As a
26187 young wife she was irreproachable; perhaps she could not have been so as
26188 a mother. As it is, not only has she left us, and particularly Prince
26189 Andrew, with the purest regrets and memories, but probably she will
26190 there receive a place I dare not hope for myself. But not to speak of
26191 her alone, that early and terrible death has had the most beneficent
26192 influence on me and on my brother in spite of all our grief. Then, at
26193 the moment of our loss, these thoughts could not occur to me; I should
26194 then have dismissed them with horror, but now they are very clear and
26195 certain. I write all this to you, dear friend, only to convince you of
26196 the Gospel truth which has become for me a principle of life: not a
26197 single hair of our heads will fall without His will. And His will is
26198 governed only by infinite love for us, and so whatever befalls us is for
26201 You ask whether we shall spend next winter in Moscow. In spite of my
26202 wish to see you, I do not think so and do not want to do so. You will be
26203 surprised to hear that the reason for this is Buonaparte! The case is
26204 this: my father's health is growing noticeably worse, he cannot stand
26205 any contradiction and is becoming irritable. This irritability is, as
26206 you know, chiefly directed to political questions. He cannot endure the
26207 notion that Buonaparte is negotiating on equal terms with all the
26208 sovereigns of Europe and particularly with our own, the grandson of the
26209 Great Catherine! As you know, I am quite indifferent to politics, but
26210 from my father's remarks and his talks with Michael Ivanovich I know all
26211 that goes on in the world and especially about the honors conferred on
26212 Buonaparte, who only at Bald Hills in the whole world, it seems, is not
26213 accepted as a great man, still less as Emperor of France. And my father
26214 cannot stand this. It seems to me that it is chiefly because of his
26215 political views that my father is reluctant to speak of going to Moscow;
26216 for he foresees the encounters that would result from his way of
26217 expressing his views regardless of anybody. All the benefit he might
26218 derive from a course of treatment he would lose as a result of the
26219 disputes about Buonaparte which would be inevitable. In any case it will
26220 be decided very shortly.
26222 Our family life goes on in the old way except for my brother Andrew's
26223 absence. He, as I wrote you before, has changed very much of late. After
26224 his sorrow he only this year quite recovered his spirits. He has again
26225 become as I used to know him when a child: kind, affectionate, with that
26226 heart of gold to which I know no equal. He has realized, it seems to me,
26227 that life is not over for him. But together with this mental change he
26228 has grown physically much weaker. He has become thinner and more
26229 nervous. I am anxious about him and glad he is taking this trip abroad
26230 which the doctors recommended long ago. I hope it will cure him. You
26231 write that in Petersburg he is spoken of as one of the most active,
26232 cultivated, and capable of the young men. Forgive my vanity as a
26233 relation, but I never doubted it. The good he has done to everybody
26234 here, from his peasants up to the gentry, is incalculable. On his
26235 arrival in Petersburg he received only his due. I always wonder at the
26236 way rumors fly from Petersburg to Moscow, especially such false ones as
26237 that you write about--I mean the report of my brother's betrothal to the
26238 little Rostova. I do not think my brother will ever marry again, and
26239 certainly not her; and this is why: first, I know that though he rarely
26240 speaks about the wife he has lost, the grief of that loss has gone too
26241 deep in his heart for him ever to decide to give her a successor and our
26242 little angel a stepmother. Secondly because, as far as I know, that girl
26243 is not the kind of girl who could please Prince Andrew. I do not think
26244 he would choose her for a wife, and frankly I do not wish it. But I am
26245 running on too long and am at the end of my second sheet. Good-bye, my
26246 dear friend. May God keep you in His holy and mighty care. My dear
26247 friend, Mademoiselle Bourienne, sends you kisses.
26256 In the middle of the summer Princess Mary received an unexpected letter
26257 from Prince Andrew in Switzerland in which he gave her strange and
26258 surprising news. He informed her of his engagement to Natasha Rostova.
26259 The whole letter breathed loving rapture for his betrothed and tender
26260 and confiding affection for his sister. He wrote that he had never loved
26261 as he did now and that only now did he understand and know what life
26262 was. He asked his sister to forgive him for not having told her of his
26263 resolve when he had last visited Bald Hills, though he had spoken of it
26264 to his father. He had not done so for fear Princess Mary should ask her
26265 father to give his consent, irritating him and having to bear the brunt
26266 of his displeasure without attaining her object. "Besides," he wrote,
26267 "the matter was not then so definitely settled as it is now. My father
26268 then insisted on a delay of a year and now already six months, half of
26269 that period, have passed, and my resolution is firmer than ever. If the
26270 doctors did not keep me here at the spas I should be back in Russia, but
26271 as it is I have to postpone my return for three months. You know me and
26272 my relations with Father. I want nothing from him. I have been and
26273 always shall be independent; but to go against his will and arouse his
26274 anger, now that he may perhaps remain with us such a short time, would
26275 destroy half my happiness. I am now writing to him about the same
26276 question, and beg you to choose a good moment to hand him the letter and
26277 to let me know how he looks at the whole matter and whether there is
26278 hope that he may consent to reduce the term by four months."
26280 After long hesitations, doubts, and prayers, Princess Mary gave the
26281 letter to her father. The next day the old prince said to her quietly:
26283 "Write and tell your brother to wait till I am dead.... It won't be
26284 long--I shall soon set him free."
26286 The princess was about to reply, but her father would not let her speak
26287 and, raising his voice more and more, cried:
26289 "Marry, marry, my boy!... A good family!... Clever people, eh? Rich, eh?
26290 Yes, a nice stepmother little Nicholas will have! Write and tell him
26291 that he may marry tomorrow if he likes. She will be little Nicholas'
26292 stepmother and I'll marry Bourienne!... Ha, ha, ha! He mustn't be
26293 without a stepmother either! Only one thing, no more women are wanted in
26294 my house--let him marry and live by himself. Perhaps you will go and
26295 live with him too?" he added, turning to Princess Mary. "Go in heavens
26296 name! Go out into the frost... the frost... the frost!"
26298 After this outburst the prince did not speak any more about the matter.
26299 But repressed vexation at his son's poor-spirited behavior found
26300 expression in his treatment of his daughter. To his former pretexts for
26301 irony a fresh one was now added--allusions to stepmothers and
26302 amiabilities to Mademoiselle Bourienne.
26304 "Why shouldn't I marry her?" he asked his daughter. "She'll make a
26305 splendid princess!"
26307 And latterly, to her surprise and bewilderment, Princess Mary noticed
26308 that her father was really associating more and more with the
26309 Frenchwoman. She wrote to Prince Andrew about the reception of his
26310 letter, but comforted him with hopes of reconciling their father to the
26313 Little Nicholas and his education, her brother Andrew, and religion were
26314 Princess Mary's joys and consolations; but besides that, since everyone
26315 must have personal hopes, Princess Mary in the profoundest depths of her
26316 heart had a hidden dream and hope that supplied the chief consolation of
26317 her life. This comforting dream and hope were given her by God's folk--
26318 the half-witted and other pilgrims who visited her without the prince's
26319 knowledge. The longer she lived, the more experience and observation she
26320 had of life, the greater was her wonder at the short-sightedness of men
26321 who seek enjoyment and happiness here on earth: toiling, suffering,
26322 struggling, and harming one another, to obtain that impossible,
26323 visionary, sinful happiness. Prince Andrew had loved his wife, she died,
26324 but that was not enough: he wanted to bind his happiness to another
26325 woman. Her father objected to this because he wanted a more
26326 distinguished and wealthier match for Andrew. And they all struggled and
26327 suffered and tormented one another and injured their souls, their
26328 eternal souls, for the attainment of benefits which endure but for an
26329 instant. Not only do we know this ourselves, but Christ, the Son of God,
26330 came down to earth and told us that this life is but for a moment and is
26331 a probation; yet we cling to it and think to find happiness in it. "How
26332 is it that no one realizes this?" thought Princess Mary. "No one except
26333 these despised God's folk who, wallet on back, come to me by the back
26334 door, afraid of being seen by the prince, not for fear of ill-usage by
26335 him but for fear of causing him to sin. To leave family, home, and all
26336 the cares of worldly welfare, in order without clinging to anything to
26337 wander in hempen rags from place to place under an assumed name, doing
26338 no one any harm but praying for all--for those who drive one away as
26339 well as for those who protect one: higher than that life and truth there
26340 is no life or truth!"
26342 There was one pilgrim, a quiet pockmarked little woman of fifty called
26343 Theodosia, who for over thirty years had gone about barefoot and worn
26344 heavy chains. Princess Mary was particularly fond of her. Once, when in
26345 a room with a lamp dimly lit before the icon Theodosia was talking of
26346 her life, the thought that Theodosia alone had found the true path of
26347 life suddenly came to Princess Mary with such force that she resolved to
26348 become a pilgrim herself. When Theodosia had gone to sleep Princess Mary
26349 thought about this for a long time, and at last made up her mind that,
26350 strange as it might seem, she must go on a pilgrimage. She disclosed
26351 this thought to no one but to her confessor, Father Akinfi, the monk,
26352 and he approved of her intention. Under guise of a present for the
26353 pilgrims, Princess Mary prepared a pilgrim's complete costume for
26354 herself: a coarse smock, bast shoes, a rough coat, and a black kerchief.
26355 Often, approaching the chest of drawers containing this secret treasure,
26356 Princess Mary paused, uncertain whether the time had not already come to
26357 put her project into execution.
26359 Often, listening to the pilgrims' tales, she was so stimulated by their
26360 simple speech, mechanical to them but to her so full of deep meaning,
26361 that several times she was on the point of abandoning everything and
26362 running away from home. In imagination she already pictured herself by
26363 Theodosia's side, dressed in coarse rags, walking with a staff, a wallet
26364 on her back, along the dusty road, directing her wanderings from one
26365 saint's shrine to another, free from envy, earthly love, or desire, and
26366 reaching at last the place where there is no more sorrow or sighing, but
26367 eternal joy and bliss.
26369 "I shall come to a place and pray there, and before having time to get
26370 used to it or getting to love it, I shall go farther. I will go on till
26371 my legs fail, and I'll lie down and die somewhere, and shall at last
26372 reach that eternal, quiet haven, where there is neither sorrow nor
26373 sighing..." thought Princess Mary.
26375 But afterwards, when she saw her father and especially little Koko
26376 (Nicholas), her resolve weakened. She wept quietly, and felt that she
26377 was a sinner who loved her father and little nephew more than God.
26379 BOOK SEVEN: 1810 - 11
26386 The Bible legend tells us that the absence of labor--idleness--was a
26387 condition of the first man's blessedness before the Fall. Fallen man has
26388 retained a love of idleness, but the curse weighs on the race not only
26389 because we have to seek our bread in the sweat of our brows, but because
26390 our moral nature is such that we cannot be both idle and at ease. An
26391 inner voice tells us we are in the wrong if we are idle. If man could
26392 find a state in which he felt that though idle he was fulfilling his
26393 duty, he would have found one of the conditions of man's primitive
26394 blessedness. And such a state of obligatory and irreproachable idleness
26395 is the lot of a whole class--the military. The chief attraction of
26396 military service has consisted and will consist in this compulsory and
26397 irreproachable idleness.
26399 Nicholas Rostov experienced this blissful condition to the full when,
26400 after 1807, he continued to serve in the Pavlograd regiment, in which he
26401 already commanded the squadron he had taken over from Denisov.
26403 Rostov had become a bluff, good-natured fellow, whom his Moscow
26404 acquaintances would have considered rather bad form, but who was liked
26405 and respected by his comrades, subordinates, and superiors, and was well
26406 contented with his life. Of late, in 1809, he found in letters from home
26407 more frequent complaints from his mother that their affairs were falling
26408 into greater and greater disorder, and that it was time for him to come
26409 back to gladden and comfort his old parents.
26411 Reading these letters, Nicholas felt a dread of their wanting to take
26412 him away from surroundings in which, protected from all the
26413 entanglements of life, he was living so calmly and quietly. He felt that
26414 sooner or later he would have to re-enter that whirlpool of life, with
26415 its embarrassments and affairs to be straightened out, its accounts with
26416 stewards, quarrels, and intrigues, its ties, society, and with Sonya's
26417 love and his promise to her. It was all dreadfully difficult and
26418 complicated; and he replied to his mother in cold, formal letters in
26419 French, beginning: "My dear Mamma," and ending: "Your obedient son,"
26420 which said nothing of when he would return. In 1810 he received letters
26421 from his parents, in which they told him of Natasha's engagement to
26422 Bolkonski, and that the wedding would be in a year's time because the
26423 old prince made difficulties. This letter grieved and mortified
26424 Nicholas. In the first place he was sorry that Natasha, for whom he
26425 cared more than for anyone else in the family, should be lost to the
26426 home; and secondly, from his hussar point of view, he regretted not to
26427 have been there to show that fellow Bolkonski that connection with him
26428 was no such great honor after all, and that if he loved Natasha he might
26429 dispense with permission from his dotard father. For a moment he
26430 hesitated whether he should not apply for leave in order to see Natasha
26431 before she was married, but then came the maneuvers, and considerations
26432 about Sonya and about the confusion of their affairs, and Nicholas again
26433 put it off. But in the spring of that year, he received a letter from
26434 his mother, written without his father's knowledge, and that letter
26435 persuaded him to return. She wrote that if he did not come and take
26436 matters in hand, their whole property would be sold by auction and they
26437 would all have to go begging. The count was so weak, and trusted Mitenka
26438 so much, and was so good-natured, that everybody took advantage of him
26439 and things were going from bad to worse. "For God's sake, I implore you,
26440 come at once if you do not wish to make me and the whole family
26441 wretched," wrote the countess.
26443 This letter touched Nicholas. He had that common sense of a matter-of-
26444 fact man which showed him what he ought to do.
26446 The right thing now was, if not to retire from the service, at any rate
26447 to go home on leave. Why he had to go he did not know; but after his
26448 after-dinner nap he gave orders to saddle Mars, an extremely vicious
26449 gray stallion that had not been ridden for a long time, and when he
26450 returned with the horse all in a lather, he informed Lavrushka
26451 (Denisov's servant who had remained with him) and his comrades who
26452 turned up in the evening that he was applying for leave and was going
26453 home. Difficult and strange as it was for him to reflect that he would
26454 go away without having heard from the staff--and this interested him
26455 extremely--whether he was promoted to a captaincy or would receive the
26456 Order of St. Anne for the last maneuvers; strange as it was to think
26457 that he would go away without having sold his three roans to the Polish
26458 Count Golukhovski, who was bargaining for the horses Rostov had betted
26459 he would sell for two thousand rubles; incomprehensible as it seemed
26460 that the ball the hussars were giving in honor of the Polish
26461 Mademoiselle Przazdziecka (out of rivalry to the uhlans who had given
26462 one in honor of their Polish Mademoiselle Borzozowska) would take place
26463 without him--he knew he must go away from this good, bright world to
26464 somewhere where everything was stupid and confused. A week later he
26465 obtained his leave. His hussar comrades--not only those of his own
26466 regiment, but the whole brigade--gave Rostov a dinner to which the
26467 subscription was fifteen rubles a head, and at which there were two
26468 bands and two choirs of singers. Rostov danced the Trepak with Major
26469 Basov; the tipsy officers tossed, embraced, and dropped Rostov; the
26470 soldiers of the third squadron tossed him too, and shouted "hurrah!" and
26471 then they put him in his sleigh and escorted him as far as the first
26474 During the first half of the journey--from Kremenchug to Kiev--all
26475 Rostov's thoughts, as is usual in such cases, were behind him, with the
26476 squadron; but when he had gone more than halfway he began to forget his
26477 three roans and Dozhoyveyko, his quartermaster, and to wonder anxiously
26478 how things would be at Otradnoe and what he would find there. Thoughts
26479 of home grew stronger the nearer he approached it--far stronger, as
26480 though this feeling of his was subject to the law by which the force of
26481 attraction is in inverse proportion to the square of the distance. At
26482 the last post station before Otradnoe he gave the driver a three-ruble
26483 tip, and on arriving he ran breathlessly, like a boy, up the steps of
26486 After the rapture of meeting, and after that odd feeling of unsatisfied
26487 expectation--the feeling that "everything is just the same, so why did I
26488 hurry?"--Nicholas began to settle down in his old home world. His father
26489 and mother were much the same, only a little older. What was new in them
26490 was a certain uneasiness and occasional discord, which there used not to
26491 be, and which, as Nicholas soon found out, was due to the bad state of
26492 their affairs. Sonya was nearly twenty; she had stopped growing prettier
26493 and promised nothing more than she was already, but that was enough. She
26494 exhaled happiness and love from the time Nicholas returned, and the
26495 faithful, unalterable love of this girl had a gladdening effect on him.
26496 Petya and Natasha surprised Nicholas most. Petya was a big handsome boy
26497 of thirteen, merry, witty, and mischievous, with a voice that was
26498 already breaking. As for Natasha, for a long while Nicholas wondered and
26499 laughed whenever he looked at her.
26501 "You're not the same at all," he said.
26503 "How? Am I uglier?"
26505 "On the contrary, but what dignity? A princess!" he whispered to her.
26507 "Yes, yes, yes!" cried Natasha, joyfully.
26509 She told him about her romance with Prince Andrew and of his visit to
26510 Otradnoe and showed him his last letter.
26512 "Well, are you glad?" Natasha asked. "I am so tranquil and happy now."
26514 "Very glad," answered Nicholas. "He is an excellent fellow.... And are
26515 you very much in love?"
26517 "How shall I put it?" replied Natasha. "I was in love with Boris, with
26518 my teacher, and with Denisov, but this is quite different. I feel at
26519 peace and settled. I know that no better man than he exists, and I am
26520 calm and contented now. Not at all as before."
26522 Nicholas expressed his disapproval of the postponement of the marriage
26523 for a year; but Natasha attacked her brother with exasperation, proving
26524 to him that it could not be otherwise, and that it would be a bad thing
26525 to enter a family against the father's will, and that she herself wished
26528 "You don't at all understand," she said.
26530 Nicholas was silent and agreed with her.
26532 Her brother often wondered as he looked at her. She did not seem at all
26533 like a girl in love and parted from her affianced husband. She was even-
26534 tempered and calm and quite as cheerful as of old. This amazed Nicholas
26535 and even made him regard Bolkonski's courtship skeptically. He could not
26536 believe that her fate was sealed, especially as he had not seen her with
26537 Prince Andrew. It always seemed to him that there was something not
26538 quite right about this intended marriage.
26540 "Why this delay? Why no betrothal?" he thought. Once, when he had
26541 touched on this topic with his mother, he discovered, to his surprise
26542 and somewhat to his satisfaction, that in the depth of her soul she too
26543 had doubts about this marriage.
26545 "You see he writes," said she, showing her son a letter of Prince
26546 Andrew's, with that latent grudge a mother always has in regard to a
26547 daughter's future married happiness, "he writes that he won't come
26548 before December. What can be keeping him? Illness, probably! His health
26549 is very delicate. Don't tell Natasha. And don't attach importance to her
26550 being so bright: that's because she's living through the last days of
26551 her girlhood, but I know what she is like every time we receive a letter
26552 from him! However, God grant that everything turns out well!" (She
26553 always ended with these words.) "He is an excellent man!"
26560 After reaching home Nicholas was at first serious and even dull. He was
26561 worried by the impending necessity of interfering in the stupid business
26562 matters for which his mother had called him home. To throw off this
26563 burden as quickly as possible, on the third day after his arrival he
26564 went, angry and scowling and without answering questions as to where he
26565 was going, to Mitenka's lodge and demanded an account of everything. But
26566 what an account of everything might be Nicholas knew even less than the
26567 frightened and bewildered Mitenka. The conversation and the examination
26568 of the accounts with Mitenka did not last long. The village elder, a
26569 peasant delegate, and the village clerk, who were waiting in the
26570 passage, heard with fear and delight first the young count's voice
26571 roaring and snapping and rising louder and louder, and then words of
26572 abuse, dreadful words, ejaculated one after the other.
26574 "Robber!... Ungrateful wretch!... I'll hack the dog to pieces! I'm not
26575 my father!... Robbing us!..." and so on.
26577 Then with no less fear and delight they saw how the young count, red in
26578 the face and with bloodshot eyes, dragged Mitenka out by the scruff of
26579 the neck and applied his foot and knee to his behind with great agility
26580 at convenient moments between the words, shouting, "Be off! Never let me
26581 see your face here again, you villain!"
26583 Mitenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran away into the
26584 shrubbery. (This shrubbery was a well-known haven of refuge for culprits
26585 at Otradnoe. Mitenka himself, returning tipsy from the town, used to
26586 hide there, and many of the residents at Otradnoe, hiding from Mitenka,
26587 knew of its protective qualities.)
26589 Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law thrust their heads and frightened
26590 faces out of the door of a room where a bright samovar was boiling and
26591 where the steward's high bedstead stood with its patchwork quilt.
26593 The young count paid no heed to them, but, breathing hard, passed by
26594 with resolute strides and went into the house.
26596 The countess, who heard at once from the maids what had happened at the
26597 lodge, was calmed by the thought that now their affairs would certainly
26598 improve, but on the other hand felt anxious as to the effect this
26599 excitement might have on her son. She went several times to his door on
26600 tiptoe and listened, as he lighted one pipe after another.
26602 Next day the old count called his son aside and, with an embarrassed
26603 smile, said to him:
26605 "But you know, my dear boy, it's a pity you got excited! Mitenka has
26606 told me all about it."
26608 "I knew," thought Nicholas, "that I should never understand anything in
26611 "You were angry that he had not entered those 700 rubles. But they were
26612 carried forward--and you did not look at the other page."
26614 "Papa, he is a blackguard and a thief! I know he is! And what I have
26615 done, I have done; but, if you like, I won't speak to him again."
26617 "No, my dear boy" (the count, too, felt embarrassed. He knew he had
26618 mismanaged his wife's property and was to blame toward his children, but
26619 he did not know how to remedy it). "No, I beg you to attend to the
26620 business. I am old. I..."
26622 "No, Papa. Forgive me if I have caused you unpleasantness. I understand
26623 it all less than you do."
26625 "Devil take all these peasants, and money matters, and carryings forward
26626 from page to page," he thought. "I used to understand what a 'corner'
26627 and the stakes at cards meant, but carrying forward to another page I
26628 don't understand at all," said he to himself, and after that he did not
26629 meddle in business affairs. But once the countess called her son and
26630 informed him that she had a promissory note from Anna Mikhaylovna for
26631 two thousand rubles, and asked him what he thought of doing with it.
26633 "This," answered Nicholas. "You say it rests with me. Well, I don't like
26634 Anna Mikhaylovna and I don't like Boris, but they were our friends and
26635 poor. Well then, this!" and he tore up the note, and by so doing caused
26636 the old countess to weep tears of joy. After that, young Rostov took no
26637 further part in any business affairs, but devoted himself with
26638 passionate enthusiasm to what was to him a new pursuit--the chase--for
26639 which his father kept a large establishment.
26646 The weather was already growing wintry and morning frosts congealed an
26647 earth saturated by autumn rains. The verdure had thickened and its
26648 bright green stood out sharply against the brownish strips of winter rye
26649 trodden down by the cattle, and against the pale-yellow stubble of the
26650 spring buckwheat. The wooded ravines and the copses, which at the end of
26651 August had still been green islands amid black fields and stubble, had
26652 become golden and bright-red islands amid the green winter rye. The
26653 hares had already half changed their summer coats, the fox cubs were
26654 beginning to scatter, and the young wolves were bigger than dogs. It was
26655 the best time of the year for the chase. The hounds of that ardent young
26656 sportsman Rostov had not merely reached hard winter condition, but were
26657 so jaded that at a meeting of the huntsmen it was decided to give them a
26658 three days' rest and then, on the sixteenth of September, to go on a
26659 distant expedition, starting from the oak grove where there was an
26660 undisturbed litter of wolf cubs.
26662 All that day the hounds remained at home. It was frosty and the air was
26663 sharp, but toward evening the sky became overcast and it began to thaw.
26664 On the fifteenth, when young Rostov, in his dressing gown, looked out of
26665 the window, he saw it was an unsurpassable morning for hunting: it was
26666 as if the sky were melting and sinking to the earth without any wind.
26667 The only motion in the air was that of the dripping, microscopic
26668 particles of drizzling mist. The bare twigs in the garden were hung with
26669 transparent drops which fell on the freshly fallen leaves. The earth in
26670 the kitchen garden looked wet and black and glistened like poppy seed
26671 and at a short distance merged into the dull, moist veil of mist.
26672 Nicholas went out into the wet and muddy porch. There was a smell of
26673 decaying leaves and of dog. Milka, a black-spotted, broad-haunched bitch
26674 with prominent black eyes, got up on seeing her master, stretched her
26675 hind legs, lay down like a hare, and then suddenly jumped up and licked
26676 him right on his nose and mustache. Another borzoi, a dog, catching
26677 sight of his master from the garden path, arched his back and, rushing
26678 headlong toward the porch with lifted tail, began rubbing himself
26681 "O-hoy!" came at that moment, that inimitable huntsman's call which
26682 unites the deepest bass with the shrillest tenor, and round the corner
26683 came Daniel the head huntsman and head kennelman, a gray, wrinkled old
26684 man with hair cut straight over his forehead, Ukrainian fashion, a long
26685 bent whip in his hand, and that look of independence and scorn of
26686 everything that is only seen in huntsmen. He doffed his Circassian cap
26687 to his master and looked at him scornfully. This scorn was not offensive
26688 to his master. Nicholas knew that this Daniel, disdainful of everybody
26689 and who considered himself above them, was all the same his serf and
26692 "Daniel!" Nicholas said timidly, conscious at the sight of the weather,
26693 the hounds, and the huntsman that he was being carried away by that
26694 irresistible passion for sport which makes a man forget all his previous
26695 resolutions, as a lover forgets in the presence of his mistress.
26697 "What orders, your excellency?" said the huntsman in his deep bass, deep
26698 as a proto-deacon's and hoarse with hallooing--and two flashing black
26699 eyes gazed from under his brows at his master, who was silent. "Can you
26700 resist it?" those eyes seemed to be asking.
26702 "It's a good day, eh? For a hunt and a gallop, eh?" asked Nicholas,
26703 scratching Milka behind the ears.
26705 Daniel did not answer, but winked instead.
26707 "I sent Uvarka at dawn to listen," his bass boomed out after a minute's
26708 pause. "He says she's moved them into the Otradnoe enclosure. They were
26709 howling there." (This meant that the she-wolf, about whom they both
26710 knew, had moved with her cubs to the Otradnoe copse, a small place a
26711 mile and a half from the house.)
26713 "We ought to go, don't you think so?" said Nicholas. "Come to me with
26718 "Then put off feeding them."
26722 Five minutes later Daniel and Uvarka were standing in Nicholas' big
26723 study. Though Daniel was not a big man, to see him in a room was like
26724 seeing a horse or a bear on the floor among the furniture and
26725 surroundings of human life. Daniel himself felt this, and as usual stood
26726 just inside the door, trying to speak softly and not move, for fear of
26727 breaking something in the master's apartment, and he hastened to say all
26728 that was necessary so as to get from under that ceiling, out into the
26729 open under the sky once more.
26731 Having finished his inquiries and extorted from Daniel an opinion that
26732 the hounds were fit (Daniel himself wished to go hunting), Nicholas
26733 ordered the horses to be saddled. But just as Daniel was about to go
26734 Natasha came in with rapid steps, not having done up her hair or
26735 finished dressing and with her old nurse's big shawl wrapped round her.
26736 Petya ran in at the same time.
26738 "You are going?" asked Natasha. "I knew you would! Sonya said you
26739 wouldn't go, but I knew that today is the sort of day when you couldn't
26742 "Yes, we are going," replied Nicholas reluctantly, for today, as he
26743 intended to hunt seriously, he did not want to take Natasha and Petya.
26744 "We are going, but only wolf hunting: it would be dull for you."
26746 "You know it is my greatest pleasure," said Natasha. "It's not fair; you
26747 are going by yourself, are having the horses saddled and said nothing to
26750 "'No barrier bars a Russian's path'--we'll go!" shouted Petya.
26752 "But you can't. Mamma said you mustn't," said Nicholas to Natasha.
26754 "Yes, I'll go. I shall certainly go," said Natasha decisively. "Daniel,
26755 tell them to saddle for us, and Michael must come with my dogs," she
26756 added to the huntsman.
26758 It seemed to Daniel irksome and improper to be in a room at all, but to
26759 have anything to do with a young lady seemed to him impossible. He cast
26760 down his eyes and hurried out as if it were none of his business,
26761 careful as he went not to inflict any accidental injury on the young
26769 The old count, who had always kept up an enormous hunting establishment
26770 but had now handed it all completely over to his son's care, being in
26771 very good spirits on this fifteenth of September, prepared to go out
26774 In an hour's time the whole hunting party was at the porch. Nicholas,
26775 with a stern and serious air which showed that now was no time for
26776 attending to trifles, went past Natasha and Petya who were trying to
26777 tell him something. He had a look at all the details of the hunt, sent a
26778 pack of hounds and huntsmen on ahead to find the quarry, mounted his
26779 chestnut Donets, and whistling to his own leash of borzois, set off
26780 across the threshing ground to a field leading to the Otradnoe wood. The
26781 old count's horse, a sorrel gelding called Viflyanka, was led by the
26782 groom in attendance on him, while the count himself was to drive in a
26783 small trap straight to a spot reserved for him.
26785 They were taking fifty-four hounds, with six hunt attendants and
26786 whippers-in. Besides the family, there were eight borzoi kennelmen and
26787 more than forty borzois, so that, with the borzois on the leash
26788 belonging to members of the family, there were about a hundred and
26789 thirty dogs and twenty horsemen.
26791 Each dog knew its master and its call. Each man in the hunt knew his
26792 business, his place, what he had to do. As soon as they had passed the
26793 fence they all spread out evenly and quietly, without noise or talk,
26794 along the road and field leading to the Otradnoe covert.
26796 The horses stepped over the field as over a thick carpet, now and then
26797 splashing into puddles as they crossed a road. The misty sky still
26798 seemed to descend evenly and imperceptibly toward the earth, the air was
26799 still, warm, and silent. Occasionally the whistle of a huntsman, the
26800 snort of a horse, the crack of a whip, or the whine of a straggling
26801 hound could be heard.
26803 When they had gone a little less than a mile, five more riders with dogs
26804 appeared out of the mist, approaching the Rostovs. In front rode a
26805 fresh-looking, handsome old man with a large gray mustache.
26807 "Good morning, Uncle!" said Nicholas, when the old man drew near.
26809 "That's it. Come on!... I was sure of it," began "Uncle." (He was a
26810 distant relative of the Rostovs', a man of small means, and their
26811 neighbor.) "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist it and it's a good
26812 thing you're going. That's it! Come on!" (This was "Uncle's" favorite
26813 expression.) "Take the covert at once, for my Girchik says the Ilagins
26814 are at Korniki with their hounds. That's it. Come on!... They'll take
26815 the cubs from under your very nose."
26817 "That's where I'm going. Shall we join up our packs?" asked Nicholas.
26819 The hounds were joined into one pack, and "Uncle" and Nicholas rode on
26820 side by side. Natasha, muffled up in shawls which did not hide her eager
26821 face and shining eyes, galloped up to them. She was followed by Petya
26822 who always kept close to her, by Michael, a huntsman, and by a groom
26823 appointed to look after her. Petya, who was laughing, whipped and pulled
26824 at his horse. Natasha sat easily and confidently on her black Arabchik
26825 and reined him in without effort with a firm hand.
26827 "Uncle" looked round disapprovingly at Petya and Natasha. He did not
26828 like to combine frivolity with the serious business of hunting.
26830 "Good morning, Uncle! We are going too!" shouted Petya.
26832 "Good morning, good morning! But don't go overriding the hounds," said
26835 "Nicholas, what a fine dog Trunila is! He knew me," said Natasha,
26836 referring to her favorite hound.
26838 "In the first place, Trunila is not a 'dog,' but a harrier," thought
26839 Nicholas, and looked sternly at his sister, trying to make her feel the
26840 distance that ought to separate them at that moment. Natasha understood
26843 "You mustn't think we'll be in anyone's way, Uncle," she said. "We'll go
26844 to our places and won't budge."
26846 "A good thing too, little countess," said "Uncle," "only mind you don't
26847 fall off your horse," he added, "because--that's it, come on!--you've
26848 nothing to hold on to."
26850 The oasis of the Otradnoe covert came in sight a few hundred yards off,
26851 the huntsmen were already nearing it. Rostov, having finally settled
26852 with "Uncle" where they should set on the hounds, and having shown
26853 Natasha where she was to stand--a spot where nothing could possibly run
26854 out--went round above the ravine.
26856 "Well, nephew, you're going for a big wolf," said "Uncle." "Mind and
26857 don't let her slip!"
26859 "That's as may happen," answered Rostov. "Karay, here!" he shouted,
26860 answering "Uncle's" remark by this call to his borzoi. Karay was a
26861 shaggy old dog with a hanging jowl, famous for having tackled a big wolf
26862 unaided. They all took up their places.
26864 The old count, knowing his son's ardor in the hunt, hurried so as not to
26865 be late, and the huntsmen had not yet reached their places when Count
26866 Ilya Rostov, cheerful, flushed, and with quivering cheeks, drove up with
26867 his black horses over the winter rye to the place reserved for him,
26868 where a wolf might come out. Having straightened his coat and fastened
26869 on his hunting knives and horn, he mounted his good, sleek, well-fed,
26870 and comfortable horse, Viflyanka, which was turning gray, like himself.
26871 His horses and trap were sent home. Count Ilya Rostov, though not at
26872 heart a keen sportsman, knew the rules of the hunt well, and rode to the
26873 bushy edge of the road where he was to stand, arranged his reins,
26874 settled himself in the saddle, and, feeling that he was ready, looked
26875 about with a smile.
26877 Beside him was Simon Chekmar, his personal attendant, an old horseman
26878 now somewhat stiff in the saddle. Chekmar held in leash three formidable
26879 wolfhounds, who had, however, grown fat like their master and his horse.
26880 Two wise old dogs lay down unleashed. Some hundred paces farther along
26881 the edge of the wood stood Mitka, the count's other groom, a daring
26882 horseman and keen rider to hounds. Before the hunt, by old custom, the
26883 count had drunk a silver cupful of mulled brandy, taken a snack, and
26884 washed it down with half a bottle of his favorite Bordeaux.
26886 He was somewhat flushed with the wine and the drive. His eyes were
26887 rather moist and glittered more than usual, and as he sat in his saddle,
26888 wrapped up in his fur coat, he looked like a child taken out for an
26891 The thin, hollow-cheeked Chekmar, having got everything ready, kept
26892 glancing at his master with whom he had lived on the best of terms for
26893 thirty years, and understanding the mood he was in expected a pleasant
26894 chat. A third person rode up circumspectly through the wood (it was
26895 plain that he had had a lesson) and stopped behind the count. This
26896 person was a gray-bearded old man in a woman's cloak, with a tall peaked
26897 cap on his head. He was the buffoon, who went by a woman's name,
26900 "Well, Nastasya Ivanovna!" whispered the count, winking at him. "If you
26901 scare away the beast, Daniel'll give it you!"
26903 "I know a thing or two myself!" said Nastasya Ivanovna.
26905 "Hush!" whispered the count and turned to Simon. "Have you seen the
26906 young countess?" he asked. "Where is she?"
26908 "With young Count Peter, by the Zharov rank grass," answered Simon,
26909 smiling. "Though she's a lady, she's very fond of hunting."
26911 "And you're surprised at the way she rides, Simon, eh?" said the count.
26912 "She's as good as many a man!"
26914 "Of course! It's marvelous. So bold, so easy!"
26916 "And Nicholas? Where is he? By the Lyadov upland, isn't he?"
26918 "Yes, sir. He knows where to stand. He understands the matter so well
26919 that Daniel and I are often quite astounded," said Simon, well knowing
26920 what would please his master.
26922 "Rides well, eh? And how well he looks on his horse, eh?"
26924 "A perfect picture! How he chased a fox out of the rank grass by the
26925 Zavarzinsk thicket the other day! Leaped a fearful place; what a sight
26926 when they rushed from the covert... the horse worth a thousand rubles
26927 and the rider beyond all price! Yes, one would have to search far to
26928 find another as smart."
26930 "To search far..." repeated the count, evidently sorry Simon had not
26931 said more. "To search far," he said, turning back the skirt of his coat
26932 to get at his snuffbox.
26934 "The other day when he came out from Mass in full uniform, Michael
26935 Sidorych..." Simon did not finish, for on the still air he had
26936 distinctly caught the music of the hunt with only two or three hounds
26937 giving tongue. He bent down his head and listened, shaking a warning
26938 finger at his master. "They are on the scent of the cubs..." he
26939 whispered, "straight to the Lyadov uplands."
26941 The count, forgetting to smooth out the smile on his face, looked into
26942 the distance straight before him, down the narrow open space, holding
26943 the snuffbox in his hand but not taking any. After the cry of the hounds
26944 came the deep tones of the wolf call from Daniel's hunting horn; the
26945 pack joined the first three hounds and they could be heard in full cry,
26946 with that peculiar lift in the note that indicates that they are after a
26947 wolf. The whippers-in no longer set on the hounds, but changed to the
26948 cry of ulyulyu, and above the others rose Daniel's voice, now a deep
26949 bass, now piercingly shrill. His voice seemed to fill the whole wood and
26950 carried far beyond out into the open field.
26952 After listening a few moments in silence, the count and his attendant
26953 convinced themselves that the hounds had separated into two packs: the
26954 sound of the larger pack, eagerly giving tongue, began to die away in
26955 the distance, the other pack rushed by the wood past the count, and it
26956 was with this that Daniel's voice was heard calling ulyulyu. The sounds
26957 of both packs mingled and broke apart again, but both were becoming more
26960 Simon sighed and stooped to straighten the leash a young borzoi had
26961 entangled; the count too sighed and, noticing the snuffbox in his hand,
26962 opened it and took a pinch. "Back!" cried Simon to a borzoi that was
26963 pushing forward out of the wood. The count started and dropped the
26964 snuffbox. Nastasya Ivanovna dismounted to pick it up. The count and
26965 Simon were looking at him.
26967 Then, unexpectedly, as often happens, the sound of the hunt suddenly
26968 approached, as if the hounds in full cry and Daniel ulyulyuing were just
26971 The count turned and saw on his right Mitka staring at him with eyes
26972 starting out of his head, raising his cap and pointing before him to the
26975 "Look out!" he shouted, in a voice plainly showing that he had long
26976 fretted to utter that word, and letting the borzois slip he galloped
26979 The count and Simon galloped out of the wood and saw on their left a
26980 wolf which, softly swaying from side to side, was coming at a quiet lope
26981 farther to the left to the very place where they were standing. The
26982 angry borzois whined and getting free of the leash rushed past the
26983 horses' feet at the wolf.
26985 The wolf paused, turned its heavy forehead toward the dogs awkwardly,
26986 like a man suffering from the quinsy, and, still slightly swaying from
26987 side to side, gave a couple of leaps and with a swish of its tail
26988 disappeared into the skirt of the wood. At the same instant, with a cry
26989 like a wail, first one hound, then another, and then another, sprang
26990 helter-skelter from the wood opposite and the whole pack rushed across
26991 the field toward the very spot where the wolf had disappeared. The hazel
26992 bushes parted behind the hounds and Daniel's chestnut horse appeared,
26993 dark with sweat. On its long back sat Daniel, hunched forward, capless,
26994 his disheveled gray hair hanging over his flushed, perspiring face.
26996 "Ulyulyulyu! ulyulyu!..." he cried. When he caught sight of the count
26997 his eyes flashed lightning.
26999 "Blast you!" he shouted, holding up his whip threateningly at the count.
27001 "You've let the wolf go!... What sportsmen!" and as if scorning to say
27002 more to the frightened and shamefaced count, he lashed the heaving
27003 flanks of his sweating chestnut gelding with all the anger the count had
27004 aroused and flew off after the hounds. The count, like a punished
27005 schoolboy, looked round, trying by a smile to win Simon's sympathy for
27006 his plight. But Simon was no longer there. He was galloping round by the
27007 bushes while the field was coming up on both sides, all trying to head
27008 the wolf, but it vanished into the wood before they could do so.
27015 Nicholas Rostov meanwhile remained at his post, waiting for the wolf. By
27016 the way the hunt approached and receded, by the cries of the dogs whose
27017 notes were familiar to him, by the way the voices of the huntsmen
27018 approached, receded, and rose, he realized what was happening at the
27019 copse. He knew that young and old wolves were there, that the hounds had
27020 separated into two packs, that somewhere a wolf was being chased, and
27021 that something had gone wrong. He expected the wolf to come his way any
27022 moment. He made thousands of different conjectures as to where and from
27023 what side the beast would come and how he would set upon it. Hope
27024 alternated with despair. Several times he addressed a prayer to God that
27025 the wolf should come his way. He prayed with that passionate and
27026 shamefaced feeling with which men pray at moments of great excitement
27027 arising from trivial causes. "What would it be to Thee to do this for
27028 me?" he said to God. "I know Thou art great, and that it is a sin to ask
27029 this of Thee, but for God's sake do let the old wolf come my way and let
27030 Karay spring at it--in sight of 'Uncle' who is watching from over there-
27031 -and seize it by the throat in a death grip!" A thousand times during
27032 that half-hour Rostov cast eager and restless glances over the edge of
27033 the wood, with the two scraggy oaks rising above the aspen undergrowth
27034 and the gully with its water-worn side and "Uncle's" cap just visible
27035 above the bush on his right.
27037 "No, I shan't have such luck," thought Rostov, "yet what wouldn't it be
27038 worth! It is not to be! Everywhere, at cards and in war, I am always
27039 unlucky." Memories of Austerlitz and of Dolokhov flashed rapidly and
27040 clearly through his mind. "Only once in my life to get an old wolf, I
27041 want only that!" thought he, straining eyes and ears and looking to the
27042 left and then to the right and listening to the slightest variation of
27043 note in the cries of the dogs.
27045 Again he looked to the right and saw something running toward him across
27046 the deserted field. "No, it can't be!" thought Rostov, taking a deep
27047 breath, as a man does at the coming of something long hoped for. The
27048 height of happiness was reached--and so simply, without warning, or
27049 noise, or display, that Rostov could not believe his eyes and remained
27050 in doubt for over a second. The wolf ran forward and jumped heavily over
27051 a gully that lay in her path. She was an old animal with a gray back and
27052 big reddish belly. She ran without hurry, evidently feeling sure that no
27053 one saw her. Rostov, holding his breath, looked round at the borzois.
27054 They stood or lay not seeing the wolf or understanding the situation.
27055 Old Karay had turned his head and was angrily searching for fleas,
27056 baring his yellow teeth and snapping at his hind legs.
27058 "Ulyulyulyu!" whispered Rostov, pouting his lips. The borzois jumped up,
27059 jerking the rings of the leashes and pricking their ears. Karay finished
27060 scratching his hindquarters and, cocking his ears, got up with quivering
27061 tail from which tufts of matted hair hung down.
27063 "Shall I loose them or not?" Nicholas asked himself as the wolf
27064 approached him coming from the copse. Suddenly the wolf's whole
27065 physiognomy changed: she shuddered, seeing what she had probably never
27066 seen before--human eyes fixed upon her--and turning her head a little
27067 toward Rostov, she paused.
27069 "Back or forward? Eh, no matter, forward..." the wolf seemed to say to
27070 herself, and she moved forward without again looking round and with a
27071 quiet, long, easy yet resolute lope.
27073 "Ulyulyu!" cried Nicholas, in a voice not his own, and of its own accord
27074 his good horse darted headlong downhill, leaping over gullies to head
27075 off the wolf, and the borzois passed it, running faster still. Nicholas
27076 did not hear his own cry nor feel that he was galloping, nor see the
27077 borzois, nor the ground over which he went: he saw only the wolf, who,
27078 increasing her speed, bounded on in the same direction along the hollow.
27079 The first to come into view was Milka, with her black markings and
27080 powerful quarters, gaining upon the wolf. Nearer and nearer... now she
27081 was ahead of it; but the wolf turned its head to face her, and instead
27082 of putting on speed as she usually did Milka suddenly raised her tail
27083 and stiffened her forelegs.
27085 "Ulyulyulyulyu!" shouted Nicholas.
27087 The reddish Lyubim rushed forward from behind Milka, sprang impetuously
27088 at the wolf, and seized it by its hindquarters, but immediately jumped
27089 aside in terror. The wolf crouched, gnashed her teeth, and again rose
27090 and bounded forward, followed at the distance of a couple of feet by all
27091 the borzois, who did not get any closer to her.
27093 "She'll get away! No, it's impossible!" thought Nicholas, still shouting
27094 with a hoarse voice.
27096 "Karay, ulyulyu!..." he shouted, looking round for the old borzoi who
27097 was now his only hope. Karay, with all the strength age had left him,
27098 stretched himself to the utmost and, watching the wolf, galloped heavily
27099 aside to intercept it. But the quickness of the wolf's lope and the
27100 borzoi's slower pace made it plain that Karay had miscalculated.
27101 Nicholas could already see not far in front of him the wood where the
27102 wolf would certainly escape should she reach it. But, coming toward him,
27103 he saw hounds and a huntsman galloping almost straight at the wolf.
27104 There was still hope. A long, yellowish young borzoi, one Nicholas did
27105 not know, from another leash, rushed impetuously at the wolf from in
27106 front and almost knocked her over. But the wolf jumped up more quickly
27107 than anyone could have expected and, gnashing her teeth, flew at the
27108 yellowish borzoi, which, with a piercing yelp, fell with its head on the
27109 ground, bleeding from a gash in its side.
27111 "Karay? Old fellow!..." wailed Nicholas.
27113 Thanks to the delay caused by this crossing of the wolf's path, the old
27114 dog with its felted hair hanging from its thigh was within five paces of
27115 it. As if aware of her danger, the wolf turned her eyes on Karay, tucked
27116 her tail yet further between her legs, and increased her speed. But here
27117 Nicholas only saw that something happened to Karay--the borzoi was
27118 suddenly on the wolf, and they rolled together down into a gully just in
27121 That instant, when Nicholas saw the wolf struggling in the gully with
27122 the dogs, while from under them could be seen her gray hair and
27123 outstretched hind leg and her frightened choking head, with her ears
27124 laid back (Karay was pinning her by the throat), was the happiest moment
27125 of his life. With his hand on his saddlebow, he was ready to dismount
27126 and stab the wolf, when she suddenly thrust her head up from among that
27127 mass of dogs, and then her forepaws were on the edge of the gully. She
27128 clicked her teeth (Karay no longer had her by the throat), leaped with a
27129 movement of her hind legs out of the gully, and having disengaged
27130 herself from the dogs, with tail tucked in again, went forward. Karay,
27131 his hair bristling, and probably bruised or wounded, climbed with
27132 difficulty out of the gully.
27134 "Oh my God! Why?" Nicholas cried in despair.
27136 "Uncle's" huntsman was galloping from the other side across the wolf's
27137 path and his borzois once more stopped the animal's advance. She was
27140 Nicholas and his attendant, with "Uncle" and his huntsman, were all
27141 riding round the wolf, crying "ulyulyu!" shouting and preparing to
27142 dismount each moment that the wolf crouched back, and starting forward
27143 again every time she shook herself and moved toward the wood where she
27146 Already, at the beginning of this chase, Daniel, hearing the ulyulyuing,
27147 had rushed out from the wood. He saw Karay seize the wolf, and checked
27148 his horse, supposing the affair to be over. But when he saw that the
27149 horsemen did not dismount and that the wolf shook herself and ran for
27150 safety, Daniel set his chestnut galloping, not at the wolf but straight
27151 toward the wood, just as Karay had run to cut the animal off. As a
27152 result of this, he galloped up to the wolf just when she had been
27153 stopped a second time by "Uncle's" borzois.
27155 Daniel galloped up silently, holding a naked dagger in his left hand and
27156 thrashing the laboring sides of his chestnut horse with his whip as if
27159 Nicholas neither saw nor heard Daniel until the chestnut, breathing
27160 heavily, panted past him, and he heard the fall of a body and saw Daniel
27161 lying on the wolf's back among the dogs, trying to seize her by the
27162 ears. It was evident to the dogs, the hunters, and to the wolf herself
27163 that all was now over. The terrified wolf pressed back her ears and
27164 tried to rise, but the borzois stuck to her. Daniel rose a little, took
27165 a step, and with his whole weight, as if lying down to rest, fell on the
27166 wolf, seizing her by the ears. Nicholas was about to stab her, but
27167 Daniel whispered, "Don't! We'll gag her!" and, changing his position,
27168 set his foot on the wolf's neck. A stick was thrust between her jaws and
27169 she was fastened with a leash, as if bridled, her legs were bound
27170 together, and Daniel rolled her over once or twice from side to side.
27172 With happy, exhausted faces, they laid the old wolf, alive, on a shying
27173 and snorting horse and, accompanied by the dogs yelping at her, took her
27174 to the place where they were all to meet. The hounds had killed two of
27175 the cubs and the borzois three. The huntsmen assembled with their booty
27176 and their stories, and all came to look at the wolf, which, with her
27177 broad-browed head hanging down and the bitten stick between her jaws,
27178 gazed with great glassy eyes at this crowd of dogs and men surrounding
27179 her. When she was touched, she jerked her bound legs and looked wildly
27180 yet simply at everybody. Old Count Rostov also rode up and touched the
27183 "Oh, what a formidable one!" said he. "A formidable one, eh?" he asked
27184 Daniel, who was standing near.
27186 "Yes, your excellency," answered Daniel, quickly doffing his cap.
27188 The count remembered the wolf he had let slip and his encounter with
27191 "Ah, but you are a crusty fellow, friend!" said the count.
27193 For sole reply Daniel gave him a shy, childlike, meek, and amiable
27201 The old count went home, and Natasha and Petya promised to return very
27202 soon, but as it was still early the hunt went farther. At midday they
27203 put the hounds into a ravine thickly overgrown with young trees.
27204 Nicholas standing in a fallow field could see all his whips.
27206 Facing him lay a field of winter rye, there his own huntsman stood alone
27207 in a hollow behind a hazel bush. The hounds had scarcely been loosed
27208 before Nicholas heard one he knew, Voltorn, giving tongue at intervals;
27209 other hounds joined in, now pausing and now again giving tongue. A
27210 moment later he heard a cry from the wooded ravine that a fox had been
27211 found, and the whole pack, joining together, rushed along the ravine
27212 toward the ryefield and away from Nicholas.
27214 He saw the whips in their red caps galloping along the edge of the
27215 ravine, he even saw the hounds, and was expecting a fox to show itself
27216 at any moment on the ryefield opposite.
27218 The huntsman standing in the hollow moved and loosed his borzois, and
27219 Nicholas saw a queer, short-legged red fox with a fine brush going hard
27220 across the field. The borzois bore down on it.... Now they drew close to
27221 the fox which began to dodge between the field in sharper and sharper
27222 curves, trailing its brush, when suddenly a strange white borzoi dashed
27223 in followed by a black one, and everything was in confusion; the borzois
27224 formed a star-shaped figure, scarcely swaying their bodies and with
27225 tails turned away from the center of the group. Two huntsmen galloped up
27226 to the dogs; one in a red cap, the other, a stranger, in a green coat.
27228 "What's this?" thought Nicholas. "Where's that huntsman from? He is not
27231 The huntsmen got the fox, but stayed there a long time without strapping
27232 it to the saddle. Their horses, bridled and with high saddles, stood
27233 near them and there too the dogs were lying. The huntsmen waved their
27234 arms and did something to the fox. Then from that spot came the sound of
27235 a horn, with the signal agreed on in case of a fight.
27237 "That's Ilagin's huntsman having a row with our Ivan," said Nicholas'
27240 Nicholas sent the man to call Natasha and Petya to him, and rode at a
27241 footpace to the place where the whips were getting the hounds together.
27242 Several of the field galloped to the spot where the fight was going on.
27244 Nicholas dismounted, and with Natasha and Petya, who had ridden up,
27245 stopped near the hounds, waiting to see how the matter would end. Out of
27246 the bushes came the huntsman who had been fighting and rode toward his
27247 young master, with the fox tied to his crupper. While still at a
27248 distance he took off his cap and tried to speak respectfully, but he was
27249 pale and breathless and his face was angry. One of his eyes was black,
27250 but he probably was not even aware of it.
27252 "What has happened?" asked Nicholas.
27254 "A likely thing, killing a fox our dogs had hunted! And it was my gray
27255 bitch that caught it! Go to law, indeed!... He snatches at the fox! I
27256 gave him one with the fox. Here it is on my saddle! Do you want a taste
27257 of this?..." said the huntsman, pointing to his dagger and probably
27258 imagining himself still speaking to his foe.
27260 Nicholas, not stopping to talk to the man, asked his sister and Petya to
27261 wait for him and rode to the spot where the enemy's, Ilagin's, hunting
27264 The victorious huntsman rode off to join the field, and there,
27265 surrounded by inquiring sympathizers, recounted his exploits.
27267 The facts were that Ilagin, with whom the Rostovs had a quarrel and were
27268 at law, hunted over places that belonged by custom to the Rostovs, and
27269 had now, as if purposely, sent his men to the very woods the Rostovs
27270 were hunting and let his man snatch a fox their dogs had chased.
27272 Nicholas, though he had never seen Ilagin, with his usual absence of
27273 moderation in judgment, hated him cordially from reports of his
27274 arbitrariness and violence, and regarded him as his bitterest foe. He
27275 rode in angry agitation toward him, firmly grasping his whip and fully
27276 prepared to take the most resolute and desperate steps to punish his
27279 Hardly had he passed an angle of the wood before a stout gentleman in a
27280 beaver cap came riding toward him on a handsome raven-black horse,
27281 accompanied by two hunt servants.
27283 Instead of an enemy, Nicholas found in Ilagin a stately and courteous
27284 gentleman who was particularly anxious to make the young count's
27285 acquaintance. Having ridden up to Nicholas, Ilagin raised his beaver cap
27286 and said he much regretted what had occurred and would have the man
27287 punished who had allowed himself to seize a fox hunted by someone else's
27288 borzois. He hoped to become better acquainted with the count and invited
27289 him to draw his covert.
27291 Natasha, afraid that her brother would do something dreadful, had
27292 followed him in some excitement. Seeing the enemies exchanging friendly
27293 greetings, she rode up to them. Ilagin lifted his beaver cap still
27294 higher to Natasha and said, with a pleasant smile, that the young
27295 countess resembled Diana in her passion for the chase as well as in her
27296 beauty, of which he had heard much.
27298 To expiate his huntsman's offense, Ilagin pressed the Rostovs to come to
27299 an upland of his about a mile away which he usually kept for himself and
27300 which, he said, swarmed with hares. Nicholas agreed, and the hunt, now
27303 The way to Iligin's upland was across the fields. The hunt servants fell
27304 into line. The masters rode together. "Uncle," Rostov, and Ilagin kept
27305 stealthily glancing at one another's dogs, trying not to be observed by
27306 their companions and searching uneasily for rivals to their own borzois.
27308 Rostov was particularly struck by the beauty of a small, pure-bred, red-
27309 spotted bitch on Ilagin's leash, slender but with muscles like steel, a
27310 delicate muzzle, and prominent black eyes. He had heard of the swiftness
27311 of Ilagin's borzois, and in that beautiful bitch saw a rival to his own
27314 In the middle of a sober conversation begun by Ilagin about the year's
27315 harvest, Nicholas pointed to the red-spotted bitch.
27317 "A fine little bitch, that!" said he in a careless tone. "Is she swift?"
27319 "That one? Yes, she's a good dog, gets what she's after," answered
27320 Ilagin indifferently, of the red-spotted bitch Erza, for which, a year
27321 before, he had given a neighbor three families of house serfs. "So in
27322 your parts, too, the harvest is nothing to boast of, Count?" he went on,
27323 continuing the conversation they had begun. And considering it polite to
27324 return the young count's compliment, Ilagin looked at his borzois and
27325 picked out Milka who attracted his attention by her breadth. "That
27326 black-spotted one of yours is fine--well shaped!" said he.
27328 "Yes, she's fast enough," replied Nicholas, and thought: "If only a
27329 full-grown hare would cross the field now I'd show you what sort of
27330 borzoi she is," and turning to his groom, he said he would give a ruble
27331 to anyone who found a hare.
27333 "I don't understand," continued Ilagin, "how some sportsmen can be so
27334 jealous about game and dogs. For myself, I can tell you, Count, I enjoy
27335 riding in company such as this... what could be better?" (he again
27336 raised his cap to Natasha) "but as for counting skins and what one
27337 takes, I don't care about that."
27341 "Or being upset because someone else's borzoi and not mine catches
27342 something. All I care about is to enjoy seeing the chase, is it not so,
27343 Count? For I consider that..."
27345 "A-tu!" came the long-drawn cry of one of the borzoi whippers-in, who
27346 had halted. He stood on a knoll in the stubble, holding his whip aloft,
27347 and again repeated his long-drawn cry, "A-tu!" (This call and the
27348 uplifted whip meant that he saw a sitting hare.)
27350 "Ah, he has found one, I think," said Ilagin carelessly. "Yes, we must
27351 ride up.... Shall we both course it?" answered Nicholas, seeing in Erza
27352 and "Uncle's" red Rugay two rivals he had never yet had a chance of
27353 pitting against his own borzois. "And suppose they outdo my Milka at
27354 once!" he thought as he rode with "Uncle" and Ilagin toward the hare.
27356 "A full-grown one?" asked Ilagin as he approached the whip who had
27357 sighted the hare--and not without agitation he looked round and whistled
27360 "And you, Michael Nikanorovich?" he said, addressing "Uncle."
27362 The latter was riding with a sullen expression on his face.
27364 "How can I join in? Why, you've given a village for each of your
27365 borzois! That's it, come on! Yours are worth thousands. Try yours
27366 against one another, you two, and I'll look on!"
27368 "Rugay, hey, hey!" he shouted. "Rugayushka!" he added, involuntarily by
27369 this diminutive expressing his affection and the hopes he placed on this
27370 red borzoi. Natasha saw and felt the agitation the two elderly men and
27371 her brother were trying to conceal, and was herself excited by it.
27373 The huntsman stood halfway up the knoll holding up his whip and the
27374 gentlefolk rode up to him at a footpace; the hounds that were far off on
27375 the horizon turned away from the hare, and the whips, but not the
27376 gentlefolk, also moved away. All were moving slowly and sedately.
27378 "How is it pointing?" asked Nicholas, riding a hundred paces toward the
27379 whip who had sighted the hare.
27381 But before the whip could reply, the hare, scenting the frost coming
27382 next morning, was unable to rest and leaped up. The pack on leash rushed
27383 downhill in full cry after the hare, and from all sides the borzois that
27384 were not on leash darted after the hounds and the hare. All the hunt,
27385 who had been moving slowly, shouted, "Stop!" calling in the hounds,
27386 while the borzoi whips, with a cry of "A-tu!" galloped across the field
27387 setting the borzois on the hare. The tranquil Ilagin, Nicholas, Natasha,
27388 and "Uncle" flew, reckless of where and how they went, seeing only the
27389 borzois and the hare and fearing only to lose sight even for an instant
27390 of the chase. The hare they had started was a strong and swift one. When
27391 he jumped up he did not run at once, but pricked his ears listening to
27392 the shouting and trampling that resounded from all sides at once. He
27393 took a dozen bounds, not very quickly, letting the borzois gain on him,
27394 and, finally having chosen his direction and realized his danger, laid
27395 back his ears and rushed off headlong. He had been lying in the stubble,
27396 but in front of him was the autumn sowing where the ground was soft. The
27397 two borzois of the huntsman who had sighted him, having been the
27398 nearest, were the first to see and pursue him, but they had not gone far
27399 before Ilagin's red-spotted Erza passed them, got within a length, flew
27400 at the hare with terrible swiftness aiming at his scut, and, thinking
27401 she had seized him, rolled over like a ball. The hare arched his back
27402 and bounded off yet more swiftly. From behind Erza rushed the broad-
27403 haunched, black-spotted Milka and began rapidly gaining on the hare.
27405 "Milashka, dear!" rose Nicholas' triumphant cry. It looked as if Milka
27406 would immediately pounce on the hare, but she overtook him and flew
27407 past. The hare had squatted. Again the beautiful Erza reached him, but
27408 when close to the hare's scut paused as if measuring the distance, so as
27409 not to make a mistake this time but seize his hind leg.
27411 "Erza, darling!" Ilagin wailed in a voice unlike his own. Erza did not
27412 hearken to his appeal. At the very moment when she would have seized her
27413 prey, the hare moved and darted along the balk between the winter rye
27414 and the stubble. Again Erza and Milka were abreast, running like a pair
27415 of carriage horses, and began to overtake the hare, but it was easier
27416 for the hare to run on the balk and the borzois did not overtake him so
27419 "Rugay, Rugayushka! That's it, come on!" came a third voice just then,
27420 and "Uncle's" red borzoi, straining and curving its back, caught up with
27421 the two foremost borzois, pushed ahead of them regardless of the
27422 terrible strain, put on speed close to the hare, knocked it off the balk
27423 onto the ryefield, again put on speed still more viciously, sinking to
27424 his knees in the muddy field, and all one could see was how, muddying
27425 his back, he rolled over with the hare. A ring of borzois surrounded
27426 him. A moment later everyone had drawn up round the crowd of dogs. Only
27427 the delighted "Uncle" dismounted, and cut off a pad, shaking the hare
27428 for the blood to drip off, and anxiously glancing round with restless
27429 eyes while his arms and legs twitched. He spoke without himself knowing
27430 whom to or what about. "That's it, come on! That's a dog!... There, it
27431 has beaten them all, the thousand-ruble as well as the one-ruble
27432 borzois. That's it, come on!" said he, panting and looking wrathfully
27433 around as if he were abusing someone, as if they were all his enemies
27434 and had insulted him, and only now had he at last succeeded in
27435 justifying himself. "There are your thousand-ruble ones.... That's it,
27438 "Rugay, here's a pad for you!" he said, throwing down the hare's muddy
27439 pad. "You've deserved it, that's it, come on!"
27441 "She'd tired herself out, she'd run it down three times by herself,"
27442 said Nicholas, also not listening to anyone and regardless of whether he
27445 "But what is there in running across it like that?" said Ilagin's groom.
27447 "Once she had missed it and turned it away, any mongrel could take it,"
27448 Ilagin was saying at the same time, breathless from his gallop and his
27449 excitement. At the same moment Natasha, without drawing breath, screamed
27450 joyously, ecstatically, and so piercingly that it set everyone's ear
27451 tingling. By that shriek she expressed what the others expressed by all
27452 talking at once, and it was so strange that she must herself have been
27453 ashamed of so wild a cry and everyone else would have been amazed at it
27454 at any other time. "Uncle" himself twisted up the hare, threw it neatly
27455 and smartly across his horse's back as if by that gesture he meant to
27456 rebuke everybody, and, with an air of not wishing to speak to anyone,
27457 mounted his bay and rode off. The others all followed, dispirited and
27458 shamefaced, and only much later were they able to regain their former
27459 affectation of indifference. For a long time they continued to look at
27460 red Rugay who, his arched back spattered with mud and clanking the ring
27461 of his leash, walked along just behind "Uncle's" horse with the serene
27462 air of a conqueror.
27464 "Well, I am like any other dog as long as it's not a question of
27465 coursing. But when it is, then look out!" his appearance seemed to
27466 Nicholas to be saying.
27468 When, much later, "Uncle" rode up to Nicholas and began talking to him,
27469 he felt flattered that, after what had happened, "Uncle" deigned to
27477 Toward evening Ilagin took leave of Nicholas, who found that they were
27478 so far from home that he accepted "Uncle's" offer that the hunting party
27479 should spend the night in his little village of Mikhaylovna.
27481 "And if you put up at my house that will be better still. That's it,
27482 come on!" said "Uncle." "You see it's damp weather, and you could rest,
27483 and the little countess could be driven home in a trap."
27485 "Uncle's" offer was accepted. A huntsman was sent to Otradnoe for a
27486 trap, while Nicholas rode with Natasha and Petya to "Uncle's" house.
27488 Some five male domestic serfs, big and little, rushed out to the front
27489 porch to meet their master. A score of women serfs, old and young, as
27490 well as children, popped out from the back entrance to have a look at
27491 the hunters who were arriving. The presence of Natasha--a woman, a lady,
27492 and on horseback--raised the curiosity of the serfs to such a degree
27493 that many of them came up to her, stared her in the face, and unabashed
27494 by her presence made remarks about her as though she were some prodigy
27495 on show and not a human being able to hear or understand what was said
27498 "Arinka! Look, she sits sideways! There she sits and her skirt
27499 dangles.... See, she's got a little hunting horn!"
27501 "Goodness gracious! See her knife?..."
27503 "Isn't she a Tartar!"
27505 "How is it you didn't go head over heels?" asked the boldest of all,
27506 addressing Natasha directly.
27508 "Uncle" dismounted at the porch of his little wooden house which stood
27509 in the midst of an overgrown garden and, after a glance at his
27510 retainers, shouted authoritatively that the superfluous ones should take
27511 themselves off and that all necessary preparations should be made to
27512 receive the guests and the visitors.
27514 The serfs all dispersed. "Uncle" lifted Natasha off her horse and taking
27515 her hand led her up the rickety wooden steps of the porch. The house,
27516 with its bare, unplastered log walls, was not overclean--it did not seem
27517 that those living in it aimed at keeping it spotless--but neither was it
27518 noticeably neglected. In the entry there was a smell of fresh apples,
27519 and wolf and fox skins hung about.
27521 "Uncle" led the visitors through the anteroom into a small hall with a
27522 folding table and red chairs, then into the drawing room with a round
27523 birchwood table and a sofa, and finally into his private room where
27524 there was a tattered sofa, a worn carpet, and portraits of Suvorov, of
27525 the host's father and mother, and of himself in military uniform. The
27526 study smelt strongly of tobacco and dogs. "Uncle" asked his visitors to
27527 sit down and make themselves at home, and then went out of the room.
27528 Rugay, his back still muddy, came into the room and lay down on the
27529 sofa, cleaning himself with his tongue and teeth. Leading from the study
27530 was a passage in which a partition with ragged curtains could be seen.
27531 From behind this came women's laughter and whispers. Natasha, Nicholas,
27532 and Petya took off their wraps and sat down on the sofa. Petya, leaning
27533 on his elbow, fell asleep at once. Natasha and Nicholas were silent.
27534 Their faces glowed, they were hungry and very cheerful. They looked at
27535 one another (now that the hunt was over and they were in the house,
27536 Nicholas no longer considered it necessary to show his manly superiority
27537 over his sister), Natasha gave him a wink, and neither refrained long
27538 from bursting into a peal of ringing laughter even before they had a
27539 pretext ready to account for it.
27541 After a while "Uncle" came in, in a Cossack coat, blue trousers, and
27542 small top boots. And Natasha felt that this costume, the very one she
27543 had regarded with surprise and amusement at Otradnoe, was just the right
27544 thing and not at all worse than a swallow-tail or frock coat. "Uncle"
27545 too was in high spirits and far from being offended by the brother's and
27546 sister's laughter (it could never enter his head that they might be
27547 laughing at his way of life) he himself joined in the merriment.
27549 "That's right, young countess, that's it, come on! I never saw anyone
27550 like her!" said he, offering Nicholas a pipe with a long stem and, with
27551 a practiced motion of three fingers, taking down another that had been
27552 cut short. "She's ridden all day like a man, and is as fresh as ever!"
27554 Soon after "Uncle's" reappearance the door was opened, evidently from
27555 the sound by a barefooted girl, and a stout, rosy, good-looking woman of
27556 about forty, with a double chin and full red lips, entered carrying a
27557 large loaded tray. With hospitable dignity and cordiality in her glance
27558 and in every motion, she looked at the visitors and, with a pleasant
27559 smile, bowed respectfully. In spite of her exceptional stoutness, which
27560 caused her to protrude her chest and stomach and throw back her head,
27561 this woman (who was "Uncle's" housekeeper) trod very lightly. She went
27562 to the table, set down the tray, and with her plump white hands deftly
27563 took from it the bottles and various hors d'oeuvres and dishes and
27564 arranged them on the table. When she had finished, she stepped aside and
27565 stopped at the door with a smile on her face. "Here I am. I am she! Now
27566 do you understand 'Uncle'?" her expression said to Rostov. How could one
27567 help understanding? Not only Nicholas, but even Natasha understood the
27568 meaning of his puckered brow and the happy complacent smile that
27569 slightly puckered his lips when Anisya Fedorovna entered. On the tray
27570 was a bottle of herb wine, different kinds of vodka, pickled mushrooms,
27571 rye cakes made with buttermilk, honey in the comb, still mead and
27572 sparkling mead, apples, nuts (raw and roasted), and nut-and-honey
27573 sweets. Afterwards she brought a freshly roasted chicken, ham, preserves
27574 made with honey, and preserves made with sugar.
27576 All this was the fruit of Anisya Fedorovna's housekeeping, gathered and
27577 prepared by her. The smell and taste of it all had a smack of Anisya
27578 Fedorovna herself: a savor of juiciness, cleanliness, whiteness, and
27581 "Take this, little Lady-Countess!" she kept saying, as she offered
27582 Natasha first one thing and then another.
27584 Natasha ate of everything and thought she had never seen or eaten such
27585 buttermilk cakes, such aromatic jam, such honey-and-nut sweets, or such
27586 a chicken anywhere. Anisya Fedorovna left the room.
27588 After supper, over their cherry brandy, Rostov and "Uncle" talked of
27589 past and future hunts, of Rugay and Ilagin's dogs, while Natasha sat
27590 upright on the sofa and listened with sparkling eyes. She tried several
27591 times to wake Petya that he might eat something, but he only muttered
27592 incoherent words without waking up. Natasha felt so lighthearted and
27593 happy in these novel surroundings that she only feared the trap would
27594 come for her too soon. After a casual pause, such as often occurs when
27595 receiving friends for the first time in one's own house, "Uncle,"
27596 answering a thought that was in his visitors' mind, said:
27598 "This, you see, is how I am finishing my days... Death will come. That's
27599 it, come on! Nothing will remain. Then why harm anyone?"
27601 "Uncle's" face was very significant and even handsome as he said this.
27602 Involuntarily Rostov recalled all the good he had heard about him from
27603 his father and the neighbors. Throughout the whole province "Uncle" had
27604 the reputation of being the most honorable and disinterested of cranks.
27605 They called him in to decide family disputes, chose him as executor,
27606 confided secrets to him, elected him to be a justice and to other posts;
27607 but he always persistently refused public appointments, passing the
27608 autumn and spring in the fields on his bay gelding, sitting at home in
27609 winter, and lying in his overgrown garden in summer.
27611 "Why don't you enter the service, Uncle?"
27613 "I did once, but gave it up. I am not fit for it. That's it, come on! I
27614 can't make head or tail of it. That's for you--I haven't brains enough.
27615 Now, hunting is another matter--that's it, come on! Open the door,
27616 there!" he shouted. "Why have you shut it?"
27618 The door at the end of the passage led to the huntsmen's room, as they
27619 called the room for the hunt servants.
27621 There was a rapid patter of bare feet, and an unseen hand opened the
27622 door into the huntsmen's room, from which came the clear sounds of a
27623 balalayka on which someone, who was evidently a master of the art, was
27624 playing. Natasha had been listening to those strains for some time and
27625 now went out into the passage to hear better.
27627 "That's Mitka, my coachman.... I have got him a good balalayka. I'm fond
27628 of it," said "Uncle."
27630 It was the custom for Mitka to play the balalayka in the huntsmen's room
27631 when "Uncle" returned from the chase. "Uncle" was fond of such music.
27633 "How good! Really very good!" said Nicholas with some unintentional
27634 superciliousness, as if ashamed to confess that the sounds pleased him
27637 "Very good?" said Natasha reproachfully, noticing her brother's tone.
27638 "Not 'very good' it's simply delicious!"
27640 Just as "Uncle's" pickled mushrooms, honey, and cherry brandy had seemed
27641 to her the best in the world, so also that song, at that moment, seemed
27642 to her the acme of musical delight.
27644 "More, please, more!" cried Natasha at the door as soon as the balalayka
27645 ceased. Mitka tuned up afresh, and recommenced thrumming the balalayka
27646 to the air of My Lady, with trills and variations. "Uncle" sat
27647 listening, slightly smiling, with his head on one side. The air was
27648 repeated a hundred times. The balalayka was retuned several times and
27649 the same notes were thrummed again, but the listeners did not grow weary
27650 of it and wished to hear it again and again. Anisya Fedorovna came in
27651 and leaned her portly person against the doorpost.
27653 "You like listening?" she said to Natasha, with a smile extremely like
27654 "Uncle's." "That's a good player of ours," she added.
27656 "He doesn't play that part right!" said "Uncle" suddenly, with an
27657 energetic gesture. "Here he ought to burst out--that's it, come on!--
27658 ought to burst out."
27660 "Do you play then?" asked Natasha.
27662 "Uncle" did not answer, but smiled.
27664 "Anisya, go and see if the strings of my guitar are all right. I haven't
27665 touched it for a long time. That's it--come on! I've given it up."
27667 Anisya Fedorovna, with her light step, willingly went to fulfill her
27668 errand and brought back the guitar.
27670 Without looking at anyone, "Uncle" blew the dust off it and, tapping the
27671 case with his bony fingers, tuned the guitar and settled himself in his
27672 armchair. He took the guitar a little above the fingerboard, arching his
27673 left elbow with a somewhat theatrical gesture, and, with a wink at
27674 Anisya Fedorovna, struck a single chord, pure and sonorous, and then
27675 quietly, smoothly, and confidently began playing in very slow time, not
27676 My Lady, but the well-known song: Came a maiden down the street. The
27677 tune, played with precision and in exact time, began to thrill in the
27678 hearts of Nicholas and Natasha, arousing in them the same kind of sober
27679 mirth as radiated from Anisya Fedorovna's whole being. Anisya Fedorovna
27680 flushed, and drawing her kerchief over her face went laughing out of the
27681 room. "Uncle" continued to play correctly, carefully, with energetic
27682 firmness, looking with a changed and inspired expression at the spot
27683 where Anisya Fedorovna had just stood. Something seemed to be laughing a
27684 little on one side of his face under his gray mustaches, especially as
27685 the song grew brisker and the time quicker and when, here and there, as
27686 he ran his fingers over the strings, something seemed to snap.
27688 "Lovely, lovely! Go on, Uncle, go on!" shouted Natasha as soon as he had
27689 finished. She jumped up and hugged and kissed him. "Nicholas, Nicholas!"
27690 she said, turning to her brother, as if asking him: "What is it moves me
27693 Nicholas too was greatly pleased by "Uncle's" playing, and "Uncle"
27694 played the piece over again. Anisya Fedorovna's smiling face reappeared
27695 in the doorway and behind hers other faces...
27698 Fetching water clear and sweet, Stop, dear maiden, I entreat--
27700 played "Uncle" once more, running his fingers skillfully over the
27701 strings, and then he stopped short and jerked his shoulders.
27703 "Go on, Uncle dear," Natasha wailed in an imploring tone as if her life
27706 "Uncle" rose, and it was as if there were two men in him: one of them
27707 smiled seriously at the merry fellow, while the merry fellow struck a
27708 naive and precise attitude preparatory to a folk dance.
27710 "Now then, niece!" he exclaimed, waving to Natasha the hand that had
27711 just struck a chord.
27713 Natasha threw off the shawl from her shoulders, ran forward to face
27714 "Uncle," and setting her arms akimbo also made a motion with her
27715 shoulders and struck an attitude.
27717 Where, how, and when had this young countess, educated by an emigree
27718 French governess, imbibed from the Russian air she breathed that spirit
27719 and obtained that manner which the pas de chale * would, one would have
27720 supposed, long ago have effaced? But the spirit and the movements were
27721 those inimitable and unteachable Russian ones that "Uncle" had expected
27722 of her. As soon as she had struck her pose, and smiled triumphantly,
27723 proudly, and with sly merriment, the fear that had at first seized
27724 Nicholas and the others that she might not do the right thing was at an
27725 end, and they were already admiring her.
27728 * The French shawl dance.
27730 She did the right thing with such precision, such complete precision,
27731 that Anisya Fedorovna, who had at once handed her the handkerchief she
27732 needed for the dance, had tears in her eyes, though she laughed as she
27733 watched this slim, graceful countess, reared in silks and velvets and so
27734 different from herself, who yet was able to understand all that was in
27735 Anisya and in Anisya's father and mother and aunt, and in every Russian
27738 "Well, little countess; that's it--come on!" cried "Uncle," with a
27739 joyous laugh, having finished the dance. "Well done, niece! Now a fine
27740 young fellow must be found as husband for you. That's it--come on!"
27742 "He's chosen already," said Nicholas smiling.
27744 "Oh?" said "Uncle" in surprise, looking inquiringly at Natasha, who
27745 nodded her head with a happy smile.
27747 "And such a one!" she said. But as soon as she had said it a new train
27748 of thoughts and feelings arose in her. "What did Nicholas' smile mean
27749 when he said 'chosen already'? Is he glad of it or not? It is as if he
27750 thought my Bolkonski would not approve of or understand our gaiety. But
27751 he would understand it all. Where is he now?" she thought, and her face
27752 suddenly became serious. But this lasted only a second. "Don't dare to
27753 think about it," she said to herself, and sat down again smilingly
27754 beside "Uncle," begging him to play something more.
27756 "Uncle" played another song and a valse; then after a pause he cleared
27757 his throat and sang his favorite hunting song:
27760 As 'twas growing dark last night Fell the snow so soft and light...
27762 "Uncle" sang as peasants sing, with full and naive conviction that the
27763 whole meaning of a song lies in the words and that the tune comes of
27764 itself, and that apart from the words there is no tune, which exists
27765 only to give measure to the words. As a result of this the unconsidered
27766 tune, like the song of a bird, was extraordinarily good. Natasha was in
27767 ecstasies over "Uncle's" singing. She resolved to give up learning the
27768 harp and to play only the guitar. She asked "Uncle" for his guitar and
27769 at once found the chords of the song.
27771 After nine o'clock two traps and three mounted men, who had been sent to
27772 look for them, arrived to fetch Natasha and Petya. The count and
27773 countess did not know where they were and were very anxious, said one of
27776 Petya was carried out like a log and laid in the larger of the two
27777 traps. Natasha and Nicholas got into the other. "Uncle" wrapped Natasha
27778 up warmly and took leave of her with quite a new tenderness. He
27779 accompanied them on foot as far as the bridge that could not be crossed,
27780 so that they had to go round by the ford, and he sent huntsmen to ride
27781 in front with lanterns.
27783 "Good-bye, dear niece," his voice called out of the darkness--not the
27784 voice Natasha had known previously, but the one that had sung As 'twas
27785 growing dark last night.
27787 In the village through which they passed there were red lights and a
27788 cheerful smell of smoke.
27790 "What a darling Uncle is!" said Natasha, when they had come out onto the
27793 "Yes," returned Nicholas. "You're not cold?"
27795 "No. I'm quite, quite all right. I feel so comfortable!" answered
27796 Natasha, almost perplexed by her feelings. They remained silent a long
27797 while. The night was dark and damp. They could not see the horses, but
27798 only heard them splashing through the unseen mud.
27800 What was passing in that receptive childlike soul that so eagerly caught
27801 and assimilated all the diverse impressions of life? How did they all
27802 find place in her? But she was very happy. As they were nearing home she
27803 suddenly struck up the air of As 'twas growing dark last night--the tune
27804 of which she had all the way been trying to get and had at last caught.
27806 "Got it?" said Nicholas.
27808 "What were you thinking about just now, Nicholas?" inquired Natasha.
27810 They were fond of asking one another that question.
27812 "I?" said Nicholas, trying to remember. "Well, you see, first I thought
27813 that Rugay, the red hound, was like Uncle, and that if he were a man he
27814 would always keep Uncle near him, if not for his riding, then for his
27815 manner. What a good fellow Uncle is! Don't you think so?... Well, and
27818 "I? Wait a bit, wait.... Yes, first I thought that we are driving along
27819 and imagining that we are going home, but that heaven knows where we are
27820 really going in the darkness, and that we shall arrive and suddenly find
27821 that we are not in Otradnoe, but in Fairyland. And then I thought... No,
27824 "I know, I expect you thought of him," said Nicholas, smiling as Natasha
27825 knew by the sound of his voice.
27827 "No," said Natasha, though she had in reality been thinking about Prince
27828 Andrew at the same time as of the rest, and of how he would have liked
27829 "Uncle." "And then I was saying to myself all the way, 'How well Anisya
27830 carried herself, how well!'" And Nicholas heard her spontaneous, happy,
27831 ringing laughter. "And do you know," she suddenly said, "I know that I
27832 shall never again be as happy and tranquil as I am now."
27834 "Rubbish, nonsense, humbug!" exclaimed Nicholas, and he thought: "How
27835 charming this Natasha of mine is! I have no other friend like her and
27836 never shall have. Why should she marry? We might always drive about
27839 "What a darling this Nicholas of mine is!" thought Natasha.
27841 "Ah, there are still lights in the drawing-room!" she said, pointing to
27842 the windows of the house that gleamed invitingly in the moist velvety
27843 darkness of the night.
27850 Count Ilya Rostov had resigned the position of Marshal of the Nobility
27851 because it involved him in too much expense, but still his affairs did
27852 not improve. Natasha and Nicholas often noticed their parents conferring
27853 together anxiously and privately and heard suggestions of selling the
27854 fine ancestral Rostov house and estate near Moscow. It was not necessary
27855 to entertain so freely as when the count had been Marshal, and life at
27856 Otradnoe was quieter than in former years, but still the enormous house
27857 and its lodges were full of people and more than twenty sat down to
27858 table every day. These were all their own people who had settled down in
27859 the house almost as members of the family, or persons who were, it
27860 seemed, obliged to live in the count's house. Such were Dimmler the
27861 musician and his wife, Vogel the dancing master and his family, Belova,
27862 an old maiden lady, an inmate of the house, and many others such as
27863 Petya's tutors, the girls' former governess, and other people who simply
27864 found it preferable and more advantageous to live in the count's house
27865 than at home. They had not as many visitors as before, but the old
27866 habits of life without which the count and countess could not conceive
27867 of existence remained unchanged. There was still the hunting
27868 establishment which Nicholas had even enlarged, the same fifty horses
27869 and fifteen grooms in the stables, the same expensive presents and
27870 dinner parties to the whole district on name days; there were still the
27871 count's games of whist and boston, at which--spreading out his cards so
27872 that everybody could see them--he let himself be plundered of hundreds
27873 of rubles every day by his neighbors, who looked upon an opportunity to
27874 play a rubber with Count Rostov as a most profitable source of income.
27876 The count moved in his affairs as in a huge net, trying not to believe
27877 that he was entangled but becoming more and more so at every step, and
27878 feeling too feeble to break the meshes or to set to work carefully and
27879 patiently to disentangle them. The countess, with her loving heart, felt
27880 that her children were being ruined, that it was not the count's fault
27881 for he could not help being what he was--that (though he tried to hide
27882 it) he himself suffered from the consciousness of his own and his
27883 children's ruin, and she tried to find means of remedying the position.
27884 From her feminine point of view she could see only one solution, namely,
27885 for Nicholas to marry a rich heiress. She felt this to be their last
27886 hope and that if Nicholas refused the match she had found for him, she
27887 would have to abandon the hope of ever getting matters right. This match
27888 was with Julie Karagina, the daughter of excellent and virtuous parents,
27889 a girl the Rostovs had known from childhood, and who had now become a
27890 wealthy heiress through the death of the last of her brothers.
27892 The countess had written direct to Julie's mother in Moscow suggesting a
27893 marriage between their children and had received a favorable answer from
27894 her. Karagina had replied that for her part she was agreeable, and
27895 everything depend on her daughter's inclination. She invited Nicholas to
27898 Several times the countess, with tears in her eyes, told her son that
27899 now both her daughters were settled, her only wish was to see him
27900 married. She said she could lie down in her grave peacefully if that
27901 were accomplished. Then she told him that she knew of a splendid girl
27902 and tried to discover what he thought about marriage.
27904 At other times she praised Julie to him and advised him to go to Moscow
27905 during the holidays to amuse himself. Nicholas guessed what his mother's
27906 remarks were leading to and during one of these conversations induced
27907 her to speak quite frankly. She told him that her only hope of getting
27908 their affairs disentangled now lay in his marrying Julie Karagina.
27910 "But, Mamma, suppose I loved a girl who has no fortune, would you expect
27911 me to sacrifice my feelings and my honor for the sake of money?" he
27912 asked his mother, not realizing the cruelty of his question and only
27913 wishing to show his noble-mindedness.
27915 "No, you have not understood me," said his mother, not knowing how to
27916 justify herself. "You have not understood me, Nikolenka. It is your
27917 happiness I wish for," she added, feeling that she was telling an
27918 untruth and was becoming entangled. She began to cry.
27920 "Mamma, don't cry! Only tell me that you wish it, and you know I will
27921 give my life, anything, to put you at ease," said Nicholas. "I would
27922 sacrifice anything for you--even my feelings."
27924 But the countess did not want the question put like that: she did not
27925 want a sacrifice from her son, she herself wished to make a sacrifice
27928 "No, you have not understood me, don't let us talk about it," she
27929 replied, wiping away her tears.
27931 "Maybe I do love a poor girl," said Nicholas to himself. "Am I to
27932 sacrifice my feelings and my honor for money? I wonder how Mamma could
27933 speak so to me. Because Sonya is poor I must not love her," he thought,
27934 "must not respond to her faithful, devoted love? Yet I should certainly
27935 be happier with her than with some doll-like Julie. I can always
27936 sacrifice my feelings for my family's welfare," he said to himself, "but
27937 I can't coerce my feelings. If I love Sonya, that feeling is for me
27938 stronger and higher than all else."
27940 Nicholas did not go to Moscow, and the countess did not renew the
27941 conversation with him about marriage. She saw with sorrow, and sometimes
27942 with exasperation, symptoms of a growing attachment between her son and
27943 the portionless Sonya. Though she blamed herself for it, she could not
27944 refrain from grumbling at and worrying Sonya, often pulling her up
27945 without reason, addressing her stiffly as "my dear," and using the
27946 formal "you" instead of the intimate "thou" in speaking to her. The
27947 kindhearted countess was the more vexed with Sonya because that poor,
27948 dark-eyed niece of hers was so meek, so kind, so devotedly grateful to
27949 her benefactors, and so faithfully, unchangingly, and unselfishly in
27950 love with Nicholas, that there were no grounds for finding fault with
27953 Nicholas was spending the last of his leave at home. A fourth letter had
27954 come from Prince Andrew, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have
27955 been on his way back to Russia long ago had not his wound unexpectedly
27956 reopened in the warm climate, which obliged him to defer his return till
27957 the beginning of the new year. Natasha was still as much in love with
27958 her betrothed, found the same comfort in that love, and was still as
27959 ready to throw herself into all the pleasures of life as before; but at
27960 the end of the fourth month of their separation she began to have fits
27961 of depression which she could not master. She felt sorry for herself:
27962 sorry that she was being wasted all this time and of no use to anyone--
27963 while she felt herself so capable of loving and being loved.
27965 Things were not cheerful in the Rostovs' home.
27972 Christmas came and except for the ceremonial Mass, the solemn and
27973 wearisome Christmas congratulations from neighbors and servants, and the
27974 new dresses everyone put on, there were no special festivities, though
27975 the calm frost of twenty degrees Reaumur, the dazzling sunshine by day,
27976 and the starlight of the winter nights seemed to call for some special
27977 celebration of the season.
27979 On the third day of Christmas week, after the midday dinner, all the
27980 inmates of the house dispersed to various rooms. It was the dullest time
27981 of the day. Nicholas, who had been visiting some neighbors that morning,
27982 was asleep on the sitting-room sofa. The old count was resting in his
27983 study. Sonya sat in the drawing room at the round table, copying a
27984 design for embroidery. The countess was playing patience. Nastasya
27985 Ivanovna the buffoon sat with a sad face at the window with two old
27986 ladies. Natasha came into the room, went up to Sonya, glanced at what
27987 she was doing, and then went up to her mother and stood without
27990 "Why are you wandering about like an outcast?" asked her mother. "What
27993 "Him... I want him... now, this minute! I want him!" said Natasha, with
27994 glittering eyes and no sign of a smile.
27996 The countess lifted her head and looked attentively at her daughter.
27998 "Don't look at me, Mamma! Don't look; I shall cry directly."
28000 "Sit down with me a little," said the countess.
28002 "Mamma, I want him. Why should I be wasted like this, Mamma?"
28004 Her voice broke, tears gushed from her eyes, and she turned quickly to
28005 hide them and left the room.
28007 She passed into the sitting room, stood there thinking awhile, and then
28008 went into the maids' room. There an old maidservant was grumbling at a
28009 young girl who stood panting, having just run in through the cold from
28010 the serfs' quarters.
28012 "Stop playing--there's a time for everything," said the old woman.
28014 "Let her alone, Kondratevna," said Natasha. "Go, Mavrushka, go."
28016 Having released Mavrushka, Natasha crossed the dancing hall and went to
28017 the vestibule. There an old footman and two young ones were playing
28018 cards. They broke off and rose as she entered.
28020 "What can I do with them?" thought Natasha.
28022 "Oh, Nikita, please go... where can I send him?... Yes, go to the yard
28023 and fetch a fowl, please, a cock, and you, Misha, bring me some oats."
28025 "Just a few oats?" said Misha, cheerfully and readily.
28027 "Go, go quickly," the old man urged him.
28029 "And you, Theodore, get me a piece of chalk."
28031 On her way past the butler's pantry she told them to set a samovar,
28032 though it was not at all the time for tea.
28034 Foka, the butler, was the most ill-tempered person in the house. Natasha
28035 liked to test her power over him. He distrusted the order and asked
28036 whether the samovar was really wanted.
28038 "Oh dear, what a young lady!" said Foka, pretending to frown at Natasha.
28040 No one in the house sent people about or gave them as much trouble as
28041 Natasha did. She could not see people unconcernedly, but had to send
28042 them on some errand. She seemed to be trying whether any of them would
28043 get angry or sulky with her; but the serfs fulfilled no one's orders so
28044 readily as they did hers. "What can I do, where can I go?" thought she,
28045 as she went slowly along the passage.
28047 "Nastasya Ivanovna, what sort of children shall I have?" she asked the
28048 buffoon, who was coming toward her in a woman's jacket.
28050 "Why, fleas, crickets, grasshoppers," answered the buffoon.
28052 "O Lord, O Lord, it's always the same! Oh, where am I to go? What am I
28053 to do with myself?" And tapping with her heels, she ran quickly upstairs
28054 to see Vogel and his wife who lived on the upper story.
28056 Two governesses were sitting with the Vogels at a table, on which were
28057 plates of raisins, walnuts, and almonds. The governesses were discussing
28058 whether it was cheaper to live in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down,
28059 listened to their talk with a serious and thoughtful air, and then got
28062 "The island of Madagascar," she said, "Ma-da-gas-car," she repeated,
28063 articulating each syllable distinctly, and, not replying to Madame
28064 Schoss who asked her what she was saying, she went out of the room.
28066 Her brother Petya was upstairs too; with the man in attendance on him he
28067 was preparing fireworks to let off that night.
28069 "Petya! Petya!" she called to him. "Carry me downstairs."
28071 Petya ran up and offered her his back. She jumped on it, putting her
28072 arms round his neck, and he pranced along with her.
28074 "No, don't... the island of Madagascar!" she said, and jumping off his
28075 back she went downstairs.
28077 Having as it were reviewed her kingdom, tested her power, and made sure
28078 that everyone was submissive, but that all the same it was dull, Natasha
28079 betook herself to the ballroom, picked up her guitar, sat down in a dark
28080 corner behind a bookcase, and began to run her fingers over the strings
28081 in the bass, picking out a passage she recalled from an opera she had
28082 heard in Petersburg with Prince Andrew. What she drew from the guitar
28083 would have had no meaning for other listeners, but in her imagination a
28084 whole series of reminiscences arose from those sounds. She sat behind
28085 the bookcase with her eyes fixed on a streak of light escaping from the
28086 pantry door and listened to herself and pondered. She was in a mood for
28087 brooding on the past.
28089 Sonya passed to the pantry with a glass in her hand. Natasha glanced at
28090 her and at the crack in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she
28091 remembered the light falling through that crack once before and Sonya
28092 passing with a glass in her hand. "Yes it was exactly the same," thought
28095 "Sonya, what is this?" she cried, twanging a thick string.
28097 "Oh, you are there!" said Sonya with a start, and came near and
28098 listened. "I don't know. A storm?" she ventured timidly, afraid of being
28101 "There! That's just how she started and just how she came up smiling
28102 timidly when all this happened before," thought Natasha, "and in just
28103 the same way I thought there was something lacking in her."
28105 "No, it's the chorus from The Water-Carrier, listen!" and Natasha sang
28106 the air of the chorus so that Sonya should catch it. "Where were you
28109 "To change the water in this glass. I am just finishing the design."
28111 "You always find something to do, but I can't," said Natasha. "And
28116 "Sonya, go and wake him," said Natasha. "Tell him I want him to come and
28119 She sat awhile, wondering what the meaning of it all having happened
28120 before could be, and without solving this problem, or at all regretting
28121 not having done so, she again passed in fancy to the time when she was
28122 with him and he was looking at her with a lover's eyes.
28124 "Oh, if only he would come quicker! I am so afraid it will never be!
28125 And, worst of all, I am growing old--that's the thing! There won't then
28126 be in me what there is now. But perhaps he'll come today, will come
28127 immediately. Perhaps he has come and is sitting in the drawing room.
28128 Perhaps he came yesterday and I have forgotten it." She rose, put down
28129 the guitar, and went to the drawing room.
28131 All the domestic circle, tutors, governesses, and guests, were already
28132 at the tea table. The servants stood round the table--but Prince Andrew
28133 was not there and life was going on as before.
28135 "Ah, here she is!" said the old count, when he saw Natasha enter. "Well,
28136 sit down by me." But Natasha stayed by her mother and glanced round as
28137 if looking for something.
28139 "Mamma!" she muttered, "give him to me, give him, Mamma, quickly,
28140 quickly!" and she again had difficulty in repressing her sobs.
28142 She sat down at the table and listened to the conversation between the
28143 elders and Nicholas, who had also come to the table. "My God, my God!
28144 The same faces, the same talk, Papa holding his cup and blowing in the
28145 same way!" thought Natasha, feeling with horror a sense of repulsion
28146 rising up in her for the whole household, because they were always the
28149 After tea, Nicholas, Sonya, and Natasha went to the sitting room, to
28150 their favorite corner where their most intimate talks always began.
28157 "Does it ever happen to you," said Natasha to her brother, when they
28158 settled down in the sitting room, "does it ever happen to you to feel as
28159 if there were nothing more to come--nothing; that everything good is
28160 past? And to feel not exactly dull, but sad?"
28162 "I should think so!" he replied. "I have felt like that when everything
28163 was all right and everyone was cheerful. The thought has come into my
28164 mind that I was already tired of it all, and that we must all die. Once
28165 in the regiment I had not gone to some merrymaking where there was
28166 music... and suddenly I felt so depressed..."
28168 "Oh yes, I know, I know, I know!" Natasha interrupted him. "When I was
28169 quite little that used to be so with me. Do you remember when I was
28170 punished once about some plums? You were all dancing, and I sat sobbing
28171 in the schoolroom? I shall never forget it: I felt sad and sorry for
28172 everyone, for myself, and for everyone. And I was innocent--that was the
28173 chief thing," said Natasha. "Do you remember?"
28175 "I remember," answered Nicholas. "I remember that I came to you
28176 afterwards and wanted to comfort you, but do you know, I felt ashamed
28177 to. We were terribly absurd. I had a funny doll then and wanted to give
28178 it to you. Do you remember?"
28180 "And do you remember," Natasha asked with a pensive smile, "how once,
28181 long, long ago, when we were quite little, Uncle called us into the
28182 study--that was in the old house--and it was dark--we went in and
28183 suddenly there stood..."
28185 "A Negro," chimed in Nicholas with a smile of delight. "Of course I
28186 remember. Even now I don't know whether there really was a Negro, or if
28187 we only dreamed it or were told about him."
28189 "He was gray, you remember, and had white teeth, and stood and looked at
28192 "Sonya, do you remember?" asked Nicholas.
28194 "Yes, yes, I do remember something too," Sonya answered timidly.
28196 "You know I have asked Papa and Mamma about that Negro," said Natasha,
28197 "and they say there was no Negro at all. But you see, you remember!"
28199 "Of course I do, I remember his teeth as if I had just seen them."
28201 "How strange it is! It's as if it were a dream! I like that."
28203 "And do you remember how we rolled hard-boiled eggs in the ballroom, and
28204 suddenly two old women began spinning round on the carpet? Was that real
28205 or not? Do you remember what fun it was?"
28207 "Yes, and you remember how Papa in his blue overcoat fired a gun in the
28210 So they went through their memories, smiling with pleasure: not the sad
28211 memories of old age, but poetic, youthful ones--those impressions of
28212 one's most distant past in which dreams and realities blend--and they
28213 laughed with quiet enjoyment.
28215 Sonya, as always, did not quite keep pace with them, though they shared
28216 the same reminiscences.
28218 Much that they remembered had slipped from her mind, and what she
28219 recalled did not arouse the same poetic feeling as they experienced. She
28220 simply enjoyed their pleasure and tried to fit in with it.
28222 She only really took part when they recalled Sonya's first arrival. She
28223 told them how afraid she had been of Nicholas because he had on a corded
28224 jacket and her nurse had told her that she, too, would be sewn up with
28227 "And I remember their telling me that you had been born under a
28228 cabbage," said Natasha, "and I remember that I dared not disbelieve it
28229 then, but knew that it was not true, and I felt so uncomfortable."
28231 While they were talking a maid thrust her head in at the other door of
28234 "They have brought the cock, Miss," she said in a whisper.
28236 "It isn't wanted, Petya. Tell them to take it away," replied Natasha.
28238 In the middle of their talk in the sitting room, Dimmler came in and
28239 went up to the harp that stood there in a corner. He took off its cloth
28240 covering, and the harp gave out a jarring sound.
28242 "Mr. Dimmler, please play my favorite nocturne by Field," came the old
28243 countess' voice from the drawing room.
28245 Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nicholas, and Sonya,
28246 remarked: "How quiet you young people are!"
28248 "Yes, we're philosophizing," said Natasha, glancing round for a moment
28249 and then continuing the conversation. They were now discussing dreams.
28251 Dimmler began to play; Natasha went on tiptoe noiselessly to the table,
28252 took up a candle, carried it out, and returned, seating herself quietly
28253 in her former place. It was dark in the room especially where they were
28254 sitting on the sofa, but through the big windows the silvery light of
28255 the full moon fell on the floor. Dimmler had finished the piece but
28256 still sat softly running his fingers over the strings, evidently
28257 uncertain whether to stop or to play something else.
28259 "Do you know," said Natasha in a whisper, moving closer to Nicholas and
28260 Sonya, "that when one goes on and on recalling memories, one at last
28261 begins to remember what happened before one was in the world..."
28263 "That is metempsychosis," said Sonya, who had always learned well, and
28264 remembered everything. "The Egyptians believed that our souls have lived
28265 in animals, and will go back into animals again."
28267 "No, I don't believe we ever were in animals," said Natasha, still in a
28268 whisper though the music had ceased. "But I am certain that we were
28269 angels somewhere there, and have been here, and that is why we
28272 "May I join you?" said Dimmler who had come up quietly, and he sat down
28275 "If we have been angels, why have we fallen lower?" said Nicholas. "No,
28278 "Not lower, who said we were lower?... How do I know what I was before?"
28279 Natasha rejoined with conviction. "The soul is immortal--well then, if I
28280 shall always live I must have lived before, lived for a whole eternity."
28282 "Yes, but it is hard for us to imagine eternity," remarked Dimmler, who
28283 had joined the young folk with a mildly condescending smile but now
28284 spoke as quietly and seriously as they.
28286 "Why is it hard to imagine eternity?" said Natasha. "It is now today,
28287 and it will be tomorrow, and always; and there was yesterday, and the
28290 "Natasha! Now it's your turn. Sing me something," they heard the
28291 countess say. "Why are you sitting there like conspirators?"
28293 "Mamma, I don't at all want to," replied Natasha, but all the same she
28296 None of them, not even the middle-aged Dimmler, wanted to break off
28297 their conversation and quit that corner in the sitting room, but Natasha
28298 got up and Nicholas sat down at the clavichord. Standing as usual in the
28299 middle of the hall and choosing the place where the resonance was best,
28300 Natasha began to sing her mother's favorite song.
28302 She had said she did not want to sing, but it was long since she had
28303 sung, and long before she again sang, as she did that evening. The
28304 count, from his study where he was talking to Mitenka, heard her and,
28305 like a schoolboy in a hurry to run out to play, blundered in his talk
28306 while giving orders to the steward, and at last stopped, while Mitenka
28307 stood in front of him also listening and smiling. Nicholas did not take
28308 his eyes off his sister and drew breath in time with her. Sonya, as she
28309 listened, thought of the immense difference there was between herself
28310 and her friend, and how impossible it was for her to be anything like as
28311 bewitching as her cousin. The old countess sat with a blissful yet sad
28312 smile and with tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She
28313 thought of Natasha and of her own youth, and of how there was something
28314 unnatural and dreadful in this impending marriage of Natasha and Prince
28317 Dimmler, who had seated himself beside the countess, listened with
28320 "Ah, Countess," he said at last, "that's a European talent, she has
28321 nothing to learn--what softness, tenderness, and strength...."
28323 "Ah, how afraid I am for her, how afraid I am!" said the countess, not
28324 realizing to whom she was speaking. Her maternal instinct told her that
28325 Natasha had too much of something, and that because of this she would
28326 not be happy. Before Natasha had finished singing, fourteen-year-old
28327 Petya rushed in delightedly, to say that some mummers had arrived.
28329 Natasha stopped abruptly.
28331 "Idiot!" she screamed at her brother and, running to a chair, threw
28332 herself on it, sobbing so violently that she could not stop for a long
28335 "It's nothing, Mamma, really it's nothing; only Petya startled me," she
28336 said, trying to smile, but her tears still flowed and sobs still choked
28339 The mummers (some of the house serfs) dressed up as bears, Turks,
28340 innkeepers, and ladies--frightening and funny--bringing in with them the
28341 cold from outside and a feeling of gaiety, crowded, at first timidly,
28342 into the anteroom, then hiding behind one another they pushed into the
28343 ballroom where, shyly at first and then more and more merrily and
28344 heartily, they started singing, dancing, and playing Christmas games.
28345 The countess, when she had identified them and laughed at their
28346 costumes, went into the drawing room. The count sat in the ballroom,
28347 smiling radiantly and applauding the players. The young people had
28350 Half an hour later there appeared among the other mummers in the
28351 ballroom an old lady in a hooped skirt--this was Nicholas. A Turkish
28352 girl was Petya. A clown was Dimmler. An hussar was Natasha, and a
28353 Circassian was Sonya with burnt-cork mustache and eyebrows.
28355 After the condescending surprise, nonrecognition, and praise, from those
28356 who were not themselves dressed up, the young people decided that their
28357 costumes were so good that they ought to be shown elsewhere.
28359 Nicholas, who, as the roads were in splendid condition, wanted to take
28360 them all for a drive in his troyka, proposed to take with them about a
28361 dozen of the serf mummers and drive to "Uncle's."
28363 "No, why disturb the old fellow?" said the countess. "Besides, you
28364 wouldn't have room to turn round there. If you must go, go to the
28367 Melyukova was a widow, who, with her family and their tutors and
28368 governesses, lived three miles from the Rostovs.
28370 "That's right, my dear," chimed in the old count, thoroughly aroused.
28371 "I'll dress up at once and go with them. I'll make Pashette open her
28374 But the countess would not agree to his going; he had had a bad leg all
28375 these last days. It was decided that the count must not go, but that if
28376 Louisa Ivanovna (Madame Schoss) would go with them, the young ladies
28377 might go to the Melyukovs', Sonya, generally so timid and shy, more
28378 urgently than anyone begging Louisa Ivanovna not to refuse.
28380 Sonya's costume was the best of all. Her mustache and eyebrows were
28381 extraordinarily becoming. Everyone told her she looked very handsome,
28382 and she was in a spirited and energetic mood unusual with her. Some
28383 inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and in
28384 her male attire she seemed quite a different person. Louisa Ivanovna
28385 consented to go, and in half an hour four troyka sleighs with large and
28386 small bells, their runners squeaking and whistling over the frozen snow,
28387 drove up to the porch.
28389 Natasha was foremost in setting a merry holiday tone, which, passing
28390 from one to another, grew stronger and reached its climax when they all
28391 came out into the frost and got into the sleighs, talking, calling to
28392 one another, laughing, and shouting.
28394 Two of the troykas were the usual household sleighs, the third was the
28395 old count's with a trotter from the Orlov stud as shaft horse, the
28396 fourth was Nicholas' own with a short shaggy black shaft horse.
28397 Nicholas, in his old lady's dress over which he had belted his hussar
28398 overcoat, stood in the middle of the sleigh, reins in hand.
28400 It was so light that he could see the moonlight reflected from the metal
28401 harness disks and from the eyes of the horses, who looked round in alarm
28402 at the noisy party under the shadow of the porch roof.
28404 Natasha, Sonya, Madame Schoss, and two maids got into Nicholas' sleigh;
28405 Dimmler, his wife, and Petya, into the old count's, and the rest of the
28406 mummers seated themselves in the other two sleighs.
28408 "You go ahead, Zakhar!" shouted Nicholas to his father's coachman,
28409 wishing for a chance to race past him.
28411 The old count's troyka, with Dimmler and his party, started forward,
28412 squeaking on its runners as though freezing to the snow, its deep-toned
28413 bell clanging. The side horses, pressing against the shafts of the
28414 middle horse, sank in the snow, which was dry and glittered like sugar,
28417 Nicholas set off, following the first sleigh; behind him the others
28418 moved noisily, their runners squeaking. At first they drove at a steady
28419 trot along the narrow road. While they drove past the garden the shadows
28420 of the bare trees often fell across the road and hid the brilliant
28421 moonlight, but as soon as they were past the fence, the snowy plain
28422 bathed in moonlight and motionless spread out before them glittering
28423 like diamonds and dappled with bluish shadows. Bang, bang! went the
28424 first sleigh over a cradle hole in the snow of the road, and each of the
28425 other sleighs jolted in the same way, and rudely breaking the frost-
28426 bound stillness, the troykas began to speed along the road, one after
28429 "A hare's track, a lot of tracks!" rang out Natasha's voice through the
28432 "How light it is, Nicholas!" came Sonya's voice.
28434 Nicholas glanced round at Sonya, and bent down to see her face closer.
28435 Quite a new, sweet face with black eyebrows and mustaches peeped up at
28436 him from her sable furs--so close and yet so distant--in the moonlight.
28438 "That used to be Sonya," thought he, and looked at her closer and
28441 "What is it, Nicholas?"
28443 "Nothing," said he and turned again to the horses.
28445 When they came out onto the beaten highroad--polished by sleigh runners
28446 and cut up by rough-shod hoofs, the marks of which were visible in the
28447 moonlight--the horses began to tug at the reins of their own accord and
28448 increased their pace. The near side horse, arching his head and breaking
28449 into a short canter, tugged at his traces. The shaft horse swayed from
28450 side to side, moving his ears as if asking: "Isn't it time to begin
28451 now?" In front, already far ahead the deep bell of the sleigh ringing
28452 farther and farther off, the black horses driven by Zakhar could be
28453 clearly seen against the white snow. From that sleigh one could hear the
28454 shouts, laughter, and voices of the mummers.
28456 "Gee up, my darlings!" shouted Nicholas, pulling the reins to one side
28457 and flourishing the whip.
28459 It was only by the keener wind that met them and the jerks given by the
28460 side horses who pulled harder--ever increasing their gallop--that one
28461 noticed how fast the troyka was flying. Nicholas looked back. With
28462 screams squeals, and waving of whips that caused even the shaft horses
28463 to gallop--the other sleighs followed. The shaft horse swung steadily
28464 beneath the bow over its head, with no thought of slackening pace and
28465 ready to put on speed when required.
28467 Nicholas overtook the first sleigh. They were driving downhill and
28468 coming out upon a broad trodden track across a meadow, near a river.
28470 "Where are we?" thought he. "It's the Kosoy meadow, I suppose. But no--
28471 this is something new I've never seen before. This isn't the Kosoy
28472 meadow nor the Demkin hill, and heaven only knows what it is! It is
28473 something new and enchanted. Well, whatever it may be..." And shouting
28474 to his horses, he began to pass the first sleigh.
28476 Zakhar held back his horses and turned his face, which was already
28477 covered with hoarfrost to his eyebrows.
28479 Nicholas gave the horses the rein, and Zakhar, stretching out his arms,
28480 clucked his tongue and let his horses go.
28482 "Now, look out, master!" he cried.
28484 Faster still the two troykas flew side by side, and faster moved the
28485 feet of the galloping side horses. Nicholas began to draw ahead. Zakhar,
28486 while still keeping his arms extended, raised one hand with the reins.
28488 "No you won't, master!" he shouted.
28490 Nicholas put all his horses to a gallop and passed Zakhar. The horses
28491 showered the fine dry snow on the faces of those in the sleigh--beside
28492 them sounded quick ringing bells and they caught confused glimpses of
28493 swiftly moving legs and the shadows of the troyka they were passing. The
28494 whistling sound of the runners on the snow and the voices of girls
28495 shrieking were heard from different sides.
28497 Again checking his horses, Nicholas looked around him. They were still
28498 surrounded by the magic plain bathed in moonlight and spangled with
28501 "Zakhar is shouting that I should turn to the left, but why to the
28502 left?" thought Nicholas. "Are we getting to the Melyukovs'? Is this
28503 Melyukovka? Heaven only knows where we are going, and heaven knows what
28504 is happening to us--but it is very strange and pleasant whatever it is."
28505 And he looked round in the sleigh.
28507 "Look, his mustache and eyelashes are all white!" said one of the
28508 strange, pretty, unfamiliar people--the one with fine eyebrows and
28511 "I think this used to be Natasha," thought Nicholas, "and that was
28512 Madame Schoss, but perhaps it's not, and this Circassian with the
28513 mustache I don't know, but I love her."
28515 "Aren't you cold?" he asked.
28517 They did not answer but began to laugh. Dimmler from the sleigh behind
28518 shouted something--probably something funny--but they could not make out
28521 "Yes, yes!" some voices answered, laughing.
28523 "But here was a fairy forest with black moving shadows, and a glitter of
28524 diamonds and a flight of marble steps and the silver roofs of fairy
28525 buildings and the shrill yells of some animals. And if this is really
28526 Melyukovka, it is still stranger that we drove heaven knows where and
28527 have come to Melyukovka," thought Nicholas.
28529 It really was Melyukovka, and maids and footmen with merry faces came
28530 running, out to the porch carrying candles.
28532 "Who is it?" asked someone in the porch.
28534 "The mummers from the count's. I know by the horses," replied some
28542 Pelageya Danilovna Melyukova, a broadly built, energetic woman wearing
28543 spectacles, sat in the drawing room in a loose dress, surrounded by her
28544 daughters whom she was trying to keep from feeling dull. They were
28545 quietly dropping melted wax into snow and looking at the shadows the wax
28546 figures would throw on the wall, when they heard the steps and voices of
28547 new arrivals in the vestibule.
28549 Hussars, ladies, witches, clowns, and bears, after clearing their
28550 throats and wiping the hoarfrost from their faces in the vestibule, came
28551 into the ballroom where candles were hurriedly lighted. The clown--
28552 Dimmler--and the lady--Nicholas--started a dance. Surrounded by the
28553 screaming children the mummers, covering their faces and disguising
28554 their voices, bowed to their hostess and arranged themselves about the
28557 "Dear me! there's no recognizing them! And Natasha! See whom she looks
28558 like! She really reminds me of somebody. But Herr Dimmler--isn't he
28559 good! I didn't know him! And how he dances. Dear me, there's a
28560 Circassian. Really, how becoming it is to dear Sonya. And who is that?
28561 Well, you have cheered us up! Nikita and Vanya--clear away the tables!
28562 And we were sitting so quietly. Ha, ha, ha!... The hussar, the hussar!
28563 Just like a boy! And the legs!... I can't look at him..." different
28564 voices were saying.
28566 Natasha, the young Melyukovs' favorite, disappeared with them into the
28567 back rooms where a cork and various dressing gowns and male garments
28568 were called for and received from the footman by bare girlish arms from
28569 behind the door. Ten minutes later, all the young Melyukovs joined the
28572 Pelageya Danilovna, having given orders to clear the rooms for the
28573 visitors and arranged about refreshments for the gentry and the serfs,
28574 went about among the mummers without removing her spectacles, peering
28575 into their faces with a suppressed smile and failing to recognize any of
28576 them. It was not merely Dimmler and the Rostovs she failed to recognize,
28577 she did not even recognize her own daughters, or her late husband's,
28578 dressing gowns and uniforms, which they had put on.
28580 "And who is this?" she asked her governess, peering into the face of her
28581 own daughter dressed up as a Kazan-Tartar. "I suppose it is one of the
28582 Rostovs! Well, Mr. Hussar, and what regiment do you serve in?" she asked
28583 Natasha. "Here, hand some fruit jelly to the Turk!" she ordered the
28584 butler who was handing things round. "That's not forbidden by his law."
28586 Sometimes, as she looked at the strange but amusing capers cut by the
28587 dancers, who--having decided once for all that being disguised, no one
28588 would recognize them--were not at all shy, Pelageya Danilovna hid her
28589 face in her handkerchief, and her whole stout body shook with
28590 irrepressible, kindly, elderly laughter.
28592 "My little Sasha! Look at Sasha!" she said.
28594 After Russian country dances and chorus dances, Pelageya Danilovna made
28595 the serfs and gentry join in one large circle: a ring, a string, and a
28596 silver ruble were fetched and they all played games together.
28598 In an hour, all the costumes were crumpled and disordered. The corked
28599 eyebrows and mustaches were smeared over the perspiring, flushed, and
28600 merry faces. Pelageya Danilovna began to recognize the mummers, admired
28601 their cleverly contrived costumes, and particularly how they suited the
28602 young ladies, and she thanked them all for having entertained her so
28603 well. The visitors were invited to supper in the drawing room, and the
28604 serfs had something served to them in the ballroom.
28606 "Now to tell one's fortune in the empty bathhouse is frightening!" said
28607 an old maid who lived with the Melyukovs, during supper.
28609 "Why?" said the eldest Melyukov girl.
28611 "You wouldn't go, it takes courage..."
28613 "I'll go," said Sonya.
28615 "Tell what happened to the young lady!" said the second Melyukov girl.
28617 "Well," began the old maid, "a young lady once went out, took a cock,
28618 laid the table for two, all properly, and sat down. After sitting a
28619 while, she suddenly hears someone coming... a sleigh drives up with
28620 harness bells; she hears him coming! He comes in, just in the shape of a
28621 man, like an officer--comes in and sits down to table with her."
28623 "Ah! ah!" screamed Natasha, rolling her eyes with horror.
28625 "Yes? And how... did he speak?"
28627 "Yes, like a man. Everything quite all right, and he began persuading
28628 her; and she should have kept him talking till cockcrow, but she got
28629 frightened, just got frightened and hid her face in her hands. Then he
28630 caught her up. It was lucky the maids ran in just then..."
28632 "Now, why frighten them?" said Pelageya Danilovna.
28634 "Mamma, you used to try your fate yourself..." said her daughter.
28636 "And how does one do it in a barn?" inquired Sonya.
28638 "Well, say you went to the barn now, and listened. It depends on what
28639 you hear; hammering and knocking--that's bad; but a sound of shifting
28640 grain is good and one sometimes hears that, too."
28642 "Mamma, tell us what happened to you in the barn."
28644 Pelageya Danilovna smiled.
28646 "Oh, I've forgotten..." she replied. "But none of you would go?"
28648 "Yes, I will; Pelageya Danilovna, let me! I'll go," said Sonya.
28650 "Well, why not, if you're not afraid?"
28652 "Louisa Ivanovna, may I?" asked Sonya.
28654 Whether they were playing the ring and string game or the ruble game or
28655 talking as now, Nicholas did not leave Sonya's side, and gazed at her
28656 with quite new eyes. It seemed to him that it was only today, thanks to
28657 that burnt-cork mustache, that he had fully learned to know her. And
28658 really, that evening, Sonya was brighter, more animated, and prettier
28659 than Nicholas had ever seen her before.
28661 "So that's what she is like; what a fool I have been!" he thought gazing
28662 at her sparkling eyes, and under the mustache a happy rapturous smile
28663 dimpled her cheeks, a smile he had never seen before.
28665 "I'm not afraid of anything," said Sonya. "May I go at once?" She got
28668 They told her where the barn was and how she should stand and listen,
28669 and they handed her a fur cloak. She threw this over her head and
28670 shoulders and glanced at Nicholas.
28672 "What a darling that girl is!" thought he. "And what have I been
28673 thinking of till now?"
28675 Sonya went out into the passage to go to the barn. Nicholas went hastily
28676 to the front porch, saying he felt too hot. The crowd of people really
28677 had made the house stuffy.
28679 Outside, there was the same cold stillness and the same moon, but even
28680 brighter than before. The light was so strong and the snow sparkled with
28681 so many stars that one did not wish to look up at the sky and the real
28682 stars were unnoticed. The sky was black and dreary, while the earth was
28685 "I am a fool, a fool! what have I been waiting for?" thought Nicholas,
28686 and running out from the porch he went round the corner of the house and
28687 along the path that led to the back porch. He knew Sonya would pass that
28688 way. Halfway lay some snow-covered piles of firewood and across and
28689 along them a network of shadows from the bare old lime trees fell on the
28690 snow and on the path. This path led to the barn. The log walls of the
28691 barn and its snow-covered roof, that looked as if hewn out of some
28692 precious stone, sparkled in the moonlight. A tree in the garden snapped
28693 with the frost, and then all was again perfectly silent. His bosom
28694 seemed to inhale not air but the strength of eternal youth and gladness.
28696 From the back porch came the sound of feet descending the steps, the
28697 bottom step upon which snow had fallen gave a ringing creak and he heard
28698 the voice of an old maidservant saying, "Straight, straight, along the
28699 path, Miss. Only, don't look back."
28701 "I am not afraid," answered Sonya's voice, and along the path toward
28702 Nicholas came the crunching, whistling sound of Sonya's feet in her thin
28705 Sonya came along, wrapped in her cloak. She was only a couple of paces
28706 away when she saw him, and to her too he was not the Nicholas she had
28707 known and always slightly feared. He was in a woman's dress, with
28708 tousled hair and a happy smile new to Sonya. She ran rapidly toward him.
28710 "Quite different and yet the same," thought Nicholas, looking at her
28711 face all lit up by the moonlight. He slipped his arms under the cloak
28712 that covered her head, embraced her, pressed her to him, and kissed her
28713 on the lips that wore a mustache and had a smell of burnt cork. Sonya
28714 kissed him full on the lips, and disengaging her little hands pressed
28715 them to his cheeks.
28717 "Sonya!... Nicholas!"... was all they said. They ran to the barn and
28718 then back again, re-entering, he by the front and she by the back porch.
28725 When they all drove back from Pelageya Danilovna's, Natasha, who always
28726 saw and noticed everything, arranged that she and Madame Schoss should
28727 go back in the sleigh with Dimmler, and Sonya with Nicholas and the
28730 On the way back Nicholas drove at a steady pace instead of racing and
28731 kept peering by that fantastic all-transforming light into Sonya's face
28732 and searching beneath the eyebrows and mustache for his former and his
28733 present Sonya from whom he had resolved never to be parted again. He
28734 looked and recognizing in her both the old and the new Sonya, and being
28735 reminded by the smell of burnt cork of the sensation of her kiss,
28736 inhaled the frosty air with a full breast and, looking at the ground
28737 flying beneath him and at the sparkling sky, felt himself again in
28740 "Sonya, is it well with thee?" he asked from time to time.
28742 "Yes!" she replied. "And with thee?"
28744 When halfway home Nicholas handed the reins to the coachman and ran for
28745 a moment to Natasha's sleigh and stood on its wing.
28747 "Natasha!" he whispered in French, "do you know I have made up my mind
28750 "Have you told her?" asked Natasha, suddenly beaming all over with joy.
28752 "Oh, how strange you are with that mustache and those eyebrows!...
28753 Natasha--are you glad?"
28755 "I am so glad, so glad! I was beginning to be vexed with you. I did not
28756 tell you, but you have been treating her badly. What a heart she has,
28757 Nicholas! I am horrid sometimes, but I was ashamed to be happy while
28758 Sonya was not," continued Natasha. "Now I am so glad! Well, run back to
28761 "No, wait a bit.... Oh, how funny you look!" cried Nicholas, peering
28762 into her face and finding in his sister too something new, unusual, and
28763 bewitchingly tender that he had not seen in her before. "Natasha, it's
28764 magical, isn't it?"
28766 "Yes," she replied. "You have done splendidly."
28768 "Had I seen her before as she is now," thought Nicholas, "I should long
28769 ago have asked her what to do and have done whatever she told me, and
28770 all would have been well."
28772 "So you are glad and I have done right?"
28774 "Oh, quite right! I had a quarrel with Mamma some time ago about it.
28775 Mamma said she was angling for you. How could she say such a thing! I
28776 nearly stormed at Mamma. I will never let anyone say anything bad of
28777 Sonya, for there is nothing but good in her."
28779 "Then it's all right?" said Nicholas, again scrutinizing the expression
28780 of his sister's face to see if she was in earnest. Then he jumped down
28781 and, his boots scrunching the snow, ran back to his sleigh. The same
28782 happy, smiling Circassian, with mustache and beaming eyes looking up
28783 from under a sable hood, was still sitting there, and that Circassian
28784 was Sonya, and that Sonya was certainly his future happy and loving
28787 When they reached home and had told their mother how they had spent the
28788 evening at the Melyukovs', the girls went to their bedroom. When they
28789 had undressed, but without washing off the cork mustaches, they sat a
28790 long time talking of their happiness. They talked of how they would live
28791 when they were married, how their husbands would be friends, and how
28792 happy they would be. On Natasha's table stood two looking glasses which
28793 Dunyasha had prepared beforehand.
28795 "Only when will all that be? I am afraid never.... It would be too
28796 good!" said Natasha, rising and going to the looking glasses.
28798 "Sit down, Natasha; perhaps you'll see him," said Sonya.
28800 Natasha lit the candles, one on each side of one of the looking glasses,
28803 "I see someone with a mustache," said Natasha, seeing her own face.
28805 "You mustn't laugh, Miss," said Dunyasha.
28807 With Sonya's help and the maid's, Natasha got the glass she held into
28808 the right position opposite the other; her face assumed a serious
28809 expression and she sat silent. She sat a long time looking at the
28810 receding line of candles reflected in the glasses and expecting (from
28811 tales she had heard) to see a coffin, or him, Prince Andrew, in that
28812 last dim, indistinctly outlined square. But ready as she was to take the
28813 smallest speck for the image of a man or of a coffin, she saw nothing.
28814 She began blinking rapidly and moved away from the looking glasses.
28816 "Why is it others see things and I don't?" she said. "You sit down now,
28817 Sonya. You absolutely must, tonight! Do it for me.... Today I feel so
28820 Sonya sat down before the glasses, got the right position, and began
28823 "Now, Miss Sonya is sure to see something," whispered Dunyasha; "while
28824 you do nothing but laugh."
28826 Sonya heard this and Natasha's whisper:
28828 "I know she will. She saw something last year."
28830 For about three minutes all were silent.
28832 "Of course she will!" whispered Natasha, but did not finish... suddenly
28833 Sonya pushed away the glass she was holding and covered her eyes with
28836 "Oh, Natasha!" she cried.
28838 "Did you see? Did you? What was it?" exclaimed Natasha, holding up the
28841 Sonya had not seen anything, she was just wanting to blink and to get up
28842 when she heard Natasha say, "Of course she will!" She did not wish to
28843 disappoint either Dunyasha or Natasha, but it was hard to sit still. She
28844 did not herself know how or why the exclamation escaped her when she
28847 "You saw him?" urged Natasha, seizing her hand.
28849 "Yes. Wait a bit... I... saw him," Sonya could not help saying, not yet
28850 knowing whom Natasha meant by him, Nicholas or Prince Andrew.
28852 "But why shouldn't I say I saw something? Others do see! Besides who can
28853 tell whether I saw anything or not?" flashed through Sonya's mind.
28855 "Yes, I saw him," she said.
28857 "How? Standing or lying?"
28859 "No, I saw... At first there was nothing, then I saw him lying down."
28861 "Andrew lying? Is he ill?" asked Natasha, her frightened eyes fixed on
28864 "No, on the contrary, on the contrary! His face was cheerful, and he
28865 turned to me." And when saying this she herself fancied she had really
28866 seen what she described.
28868 "Well, and then, Sonya?..."
28870 "After that, I could not make out what there was; something blue and
28873 "Sonya! When will he come back? When shall I see him! O, God, how afraid
28874 I am for him and for myself and about everything!..." Natasha began, and
28875 without replying to Sonya's words of comfort she got into bed, and long
28876 after her candle was out lay open-eyed and motionless, gazing at the
28877 moonlight through the frosty windowpanes.
28884 Soon after the Christmas holidays Nicholas told his mother of his love
28885 for Sonya and of his firm resolve to marry her. The countess, who had
28886 long noticed what was going on between them and was expecting this
28887 declaration, listened to him in silence and then told her son that he
28888 might marry whom he pleased, but that neither she nor his father would
28889 give their blessing to such a marriage. Nicholas, for the first time,
28890 felt that his mother was displeased with him and that, despite her love
28891 for him, she would not give way. Coldly, without looking at her son, she
28892 sent for her husband and, when he came, tried briefly and coldly to
28893 inform him of the facts, in her son's presence, but unable to restrain
28894 herself she burst into tears of vexation and left the room. The old
28895 count began irresolutely to admonish Nicholas and beg him to abandon his
28896 purpose. Nicholas replied that he could not go back on his word, and his
28897 father, sighing and evidently disconcerted, very soon became silent and
28898 went in to the countess. In all his encounters with his son, the count
28899 was always conscious of his own guilt toward him for having wasted the
28900 family fortune, and so he could not be angry with him for refusing to
28901 marry an heiress and choosing the dowerless Sonya. On this occasion, he
28902 was only more vividly conscious of the fact that if his affairs had not
28903 been in disorder, no better wife for Nicholas than Sonya could have been
28904 wished for, and that no one but himself with his Mitenka and his
28905 uncomfortable habits was to blame for the condition of the family
28908 The father and mother did not speak of the matter to their son again,
28909 but a few days later the countess sent for Sonya and, with a cruelty
28910 neither of them expected, reproached her niece for trying to catch
28911 Nicholas and for ingratitude. Sonya listened silently with downcast eyes
28912 to the countess' cruel words, without understanding what was required of
28913 her. She was ready to sacrifice everything for her benefactors. Self-
28914 sacrifice was her most cherished idea but in this case she could not see
28915 what she ought to sacrifice, or for whom. She could not help loving the
28916 countess and the whole Rostov family, but neither could she help loving
28917 Nicholas and knowing that his happiness depended on that love. She was
28918 silent and sad and did not reply. Nicholas felt the situation to be
28919 intolerable and went to have an explanation with his mother. He first
28920 implored her to forgive him and Sonya and consent to their marriage,
28921 then he threatened that if she molested Sonya he would at once marry her
28924 The countess, with a coldness her son had never seen in her before,
28925 replied that he was of age, that Prince Andrew was marrying without his
28926 father's consent, and he could do the same, but that she would never
28927 receive that intriguer as her daughter.
28929 Exploding at the word intriguer, Nicholas, raising his voice, told his
28930 mother he had never expected her to try to force him to sell his
28931 feelings, but if that were so, he would say for the last time.... But he
28932 had no time to utter the decisive word which the expression of his face
28933 caused his mother to await with terror, and which would perhaps have
28934 forever remained a cruel memory to them both. He had not time to say it,
28935 for Natasha, with a pale and set face, entered the room from the door at
28936 which she had been listening.
28938 "Nicholas, you are talking nonsense! Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, I
28939 tell you!..." she almost screamed, so as to drown his voice.
28941 "Mamma darling, it's not at all so... my poor, sweet darling," she said
28942 to her mother, who conscious that they had been on the brink of a
28943 rupture gazed at her son with terror, but in the obstinacy and
28944 excitement of the conflict could not and would not give way.
28946 "Nicholas, I'll explain to you. Go away! Listen, Mamma darling," said
28949 Her words were incoherent, but they attained the purpose at which she
28952 The countess, sobbing heavily, hid her face on her daughter's breast,
28953 while Nicholas rose, clutching his head, and left the room.
28955 Natasha set to work to effect a reconciliation, and so far succeeded
28956 that Nicholas received a promise from his mother that Sonya should not
28957 be troubled, while he on his side promised not to undertake anything
28958 without his parents' knowledge.
28960 Firmly resolved, after putting his affairs in order in the regiment, to
28961 retire from the army and return and marry Sonya, Nicholas, serious,
28962 sorrowful, and at variance with his parents, but, as it seemed to him,
28963 passionately in love, left at the beginning of January to rejoin his
28966 After Nicholas had gone things in the Rostov household were more
28967 depressing than ever, and the countess fell ill from mental agitation.
28969 Sonya was unhappy at the separation from Nicholas and still more so on
28970 account of the hostile tone the countess could not help adopting toward
28971 her. The count was more perturbed than ever by the condition of his
28972 affairs, which called for some decisive action. Their town house and
28973 estate near Moscow had inevitably to be sold, and for this they had to
28974 go to Moscow. But the countess' health obliged them to delay their
28975 departure from day to day.
28977 Natasha, who had borne the first period of separation from her betrothed
28978 lightly and even cheerfully, now grew more agitated and impatient every
28979 day. The thought that her best days, which she would have employed in
28980 loving him, were being vainly wasted, with no advantage to anyone,
28981 tormented her incessantly. His letters for the most part irritated her.
28982 It hurt her to think that while she lived only in the thought of him, he
28983 was living a real life, seeing new places and new people that interested
28984 him. The more interesting his letters were the more vexed she felt. Her
28985 letters to him, far from giving her any comfort, seemed to her a
28986 wearisome and artificial obligation. She could not write, because she
28987 could not conceive the possibility of expressing sincerely in a letter
28988 even a thousandth part of what she expressed by voice, smile, and
28989 glance. She wrote to him formal, monotonous, and dry letters, to which
28990 she attached no importance herself, and in the rough copies of which the
28991 countess corrected her mistakes in spelling.
28993 There was still no improvement in the countess' health, but it was
28994 impossible to defer the journey to Moscow any longer. Natasha's
28995 trousseau had to be ordered and the house sold. Moreover, Prince Andrew
28996 was expected in Moscow, where old Prince Bolkonski was spending the
28997 winter, and Natasha felt sure he had already arrived.
28999 So the countess remained in the country, and the count, taking Sonya and
29000 Natasha with him, went to Moscow at the end of January.
29002 BOOK EIGHT: 1811 - 12
29009 After Prince Andrew's engagement to Natasha, Pierre without any apparent
29010 cause suddenly felt it impossible to go on living as before. Firmly
29011 convinced as he was of the truths revealed to him by his benefactor, and
29012 happy as he had been in perfecting his inner man, to which he had
29013 devoted himself with such ardor--all the zest of such a life vanished
29014 after the engagement of Andrew and Natasha and the death of Joseph
29015 Alexeevich, the news of which reached him almost at the same time. Only
29016 the skeleton of life remained: his house, a brilliant wife who now
29017 enjoyed the favors of a very important personage, acquaintance with all
29018 Petersburg, and his court service with its dull formalities. And this
29019 life suddenly seemed to Pierre unexpectedly loathsome. He ceased keeping
29020 a diary, avoided the company of the Brothers, began going to the club
29021 again, drank a great deal, and came once more in touch with the bachelor
29022 sets, leading such a life that the Countess Helene thought it necessary
29023 to speak severely to him about it. Pierre felt that she was right, and
29024 to avoid compromising her went away to Moscow.
29026 In Moscow as soon as he entered his huge house in which the faded and
29027 fading princesses still lived, with its enormous retinue; as soon as,
29028 driving through the town, he saw the Iberian shrine with innumerable
29029 tapers burning before the golden covers of the icons, the Kremlin Square
29030 with its snow undisturbed by vehicles, the sleigh drivers and hovels of
29031 the Sivtsev Vrazhok, those old Moscovites who desired nothing, hurried
29032 nowhere, and were ending their days leisurely; when he saw those old
29033 Moscow ladies, the Moscow balls, and the English Club, he felt himself
29034 at home in a quiet haven. In Moscow he felt at peace, at home, warm and
29035 dirty as in an old dressing gown.
29037 Moscow society, from the old women down to the children, received Pierre
29038 like a long-expected guest whose place was always ready awaiting him.
29039 For Moscow society Pierre was the nicest, kindest, most intellectual,
29040 merriest, and most magnanimous of cranks, a heedless, genial nobleman of
29041 the old Russian type. His purse was always empty because it was open to
29044 Benefit performances, poor pictures, statues, benevolent societies,
29045 gypsy choirs, schools, subscription dinners, sprees, Freemasons,
29046 churches, and books--no one and nothing met with a refusal from him, and
29047 had it not been for two friends who had borrowed large sums from him and
29048 taken him under their protection, he would have given everything away.
29049 There was never a dinner or soiree at the club without him. As soon as
29050 he sank into his place on the sofa after two bottles of Margaux he was
29051 surrounded, and talking, disputing, and joking began. When there were
29052 quarrels, his kindly smile and well-timed jests reconciled the
29053 antagonists. The masonic dinners were dull and dreary when he was not
29056 When after a bachelor supper he rose with his amiable and kindly smile,
29057 yielding to the entreaties of the festive company to drive off somewhere
29058 with them, shouts of delight and triumph arose among the young men. At
29059 balls he danced if a partner was needed. Young ladies, married and
29060 unmarried, liked him because without making love to any of them, he was
29061 equally amiable to all, especially after supper. "Il est charmant; il
29062 n'a pas de sexe," * they said of him.
29065 * "He is charming; he has no sex."
29067 Pierre was one of those retired gentlemen-in-waiting of whom there were
29068 hundreds good-humoredly ending their days in Moscow.
29070 How horrified he would have been seven years before, when he first
29071 arrived from abroad, had he been told that there was no need for him to
29072 seek or plan anything, that his rut had long been shaped, eternally
29073 predetermined, and that wriggle as he might, he would be what all in his
29074 position were. He could not have believed it! Had he not at one time
29075 longed with all his heart to establish a republic in Russia; then
29076 himself to be a Napoleon; then to be a philosopher; and then a
29077 strategist and the conqueror of Napoleon? Had he not seen the
29078 possibility of, and passionately desired, the regeneration of the sinful
29079 human race, and his own progress to the highest degree of perfection?
29080 Had he not established schools and hospitals and liberated his serfs?
29082 But instead of all that--here he was, the wealthy husband of an
29083 unfaithful wife, a retired gentleman-in-waiting, fond of eating and
29084 drinking and, as he unbuttoned his waistcoat, of abusing the government
29085 a bit, a member of the Moscow English Club, and a universal favorite in
29086 Moscow society. For a long time he could not reconcile himself to the
29087 idea that he was one of those same retired Moscow gentlemen-in-waiting
29088 he had so despised seven years before.
29090 Sometimes he consoled himself with the thought that he was only living
29091 this life temporarily; but then he was shocked by the thought of how
29092 many, like himself, had entered that life and that club temporarily,
29093 with all their teeth and hair, and had only left it when not a single
29094 tooth or hair remained.
29096 In moments of pride, when he thought of his position it seemed to him
29097 that he was quite different and distinct from those other retired
29098 gentlemen-in-waiting he had formerly despised: they were empty, stupid,
29099 contented fellows, satisfied with their position, "while I am still
29100 discontented and want to do something for mankind. But perhaps all these
29101 comrades of mine struggled just like me and sought something new, a path
29102 in life of their own, and like me were brought by force of
29103 circumstances, society, and race--by that elemental force against which
29104 man is powerless--to the condition I am in," said he to himself in
29105 moments of humility; and after living some time in Moscow he no longer
29106 despised, but began to grow fond of, to respect, and to pity his
29107 comrades in destiny, as he pitied himself.
29109 Pierre no longer suffered moments of despair, hypochondria, and disgust
29110 with life, but the malady that had formerly found expression in such
29111 acute attacks was driven inwards and never left him for a moment. "What
29112 for? Why? What is going on in the world?" he would ask himself in
29113 perplexity several times a day, involuntarily beginning to reflect anew
29114 on the meaning of the phenomena of life; but knowing by experience that
29115 there were no answers to these questions he made haste to turn away from
29116 them, and took up a book, or hurried off to the club or to Apollon
29117 Nikolaevich's, to exchange the gossip of the town.
29119 "Helene, who has never cared for anything but her own body and is one of
29120 the stupidest women in the world," thought Pierre, "is regarded by
29121 people as the acme of intelligence and refinement, and they pay homage
29122 to her. Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by all as long as he was great,
29123 but now that he has become a wretched comedian the Emperor Francis wants
29124 to offer him his daughter in an illegal marriage. The Spaniards, through
29125 the Catholic clergy, offer praise to God for their victory over the
29126 French on the fourteenth of June, and the French, also through the
29127 Catholic clergy, offer praise because on that same fourteenth of June
29128 they defeated the Spaniards. My brother Masons swear by the blood that
29129 they are ready to sacrifice everything for their neighbor, but they do
29130 not give a ruble each to the collections for the poor, and they
29131 intrigue, the Astraea Lodge against the Manna Seekers, and fuss about an
29132 authentic Scotch carpet and a charter that nobody needs, and the meaning
29133 of which the very man who wrote it does not understand. We all profess
29134 the Christian law of forgiveness of injuries and love of our neighbors,
29135 the law in honor of which we have built in Moscow forty times forty
29136 churches--but yesterday a deserter was knouted to death and a minister
29137 of that same law of love and forgiveness, a priest, gave the soldier a
29138 cross to kiss before his execution." So thought Pierre, and the whole of
29139 this general deception which everyone accepts, accustomed as he was to
29140 it, astonished him each time as if it were something new. "I understand
29141 the deception and confusion," he thought, "but how am I to tell them all
29142 that I see? I have tried, and have always found that they too in the
29143 depths of their souls understand it as I do, and only try not to see it.
29144 So it appears that it must be so! But I--what is to become of me?"
29145 thought he. He had the unfortunate capacity many men, especially
29146 Russians, have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness
29147 and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to
29148 be able to take a serious part in it. Every sphere of work was
29149 connected, in his eyes, with evil and deception. Whatever he tried to
29150 be, whatever he engaged in, the evil and falsehood of it repulsed him
29151 and blocked every path of activity. Yet he had to live and to find
29152 occupation. It was too dreadful to be under the burden of these
29153 insoluble problems, so he abandoned himself to any distraction in order
29154 to forget them. He frequented every kind of society, drank much, bought
29155 pictures, engaged in building, and above all--read.
29157 He read, and read everything that came to hand. On coming home, while
29158 his valets were still taking off his things, he picked up a book and
29159 began to read. From reading he passed to sleeping, from sleeping to
29160 gossip in drawing rooms of the club, from gossip to carousals and women;
29161 from carousals back to gossip, reading, and wine. Drinking became more
29162 and more a physical and also a moral necessity. Though the doctors
29163 warned him that with his corpulence wine was dangerous for him, he drank
29164 a great deal. He was only quite at ease when having poured several
29165 glasses of wine mechanically into his large mouth he felt a pleasant
29166 warmth in his body, an amiability toward all his fellows, and a
29167 readiness to respond superficially to every idea without probing it
29168 deeply. Only after emptying a bottle or two did he feel dimly that the
29169 terribly tangled skein of life which previously had terrified him was
29170 not as dreadful as he had thought. He was always conscious of some
29171 aspect of that skein, as with a buzzing in his head after dinner or
29172 supper he chatted or listened to conversation or read. But under the
29173 influence of wine he said to himself: "It doesn't matter. I'll get it
29174 unraveled. I have a solution ready, but have no time now--I'll think it
29175 all out later on!" But the later on never came.
29177 In the morning, on an empty stomach, all the old questions appeared as
29178 insoluble and terrible as ever, and Pierre hastily picked up a book, and
29179 if anyone came to see him he was glad.
29181 Sometimes he remembered how he had heard that soldiers in war when
29182 entrenched under the enemy's fire, if they have nothing to do, try hard
29183 to find some occupation the more easily to bear the danger. To Pierre
29184 all men seemed like those soldiers, seeking refuge from life: some in
29185 ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in
29186 toys, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine, and
29187 some in governmental affairs. "Nothing is trivial, and nothing is
29188 important, it's all the same--only to save oneself from it as best one
29189 can," thought Pierre. "Only not to see it, that dreadful it!"
29196 At the beginning of winter Prince Nicholas Bolkonski and his daughter
29197 moved to Moscow. At that time enthusiasm for the Emperor Alexander's
29198 regime had weakened and a patriotic and anti-French tendency prevailed
29199 there, and this, together with his past and his intellect and his
29200 originality, at once made Prince Nicholas Bolkonski an object of
29201 particular respect to the Moscovites and the center of the Moscow
29202 opposition to the government.
29204 The prince had aged very much that year. He showed marked signs of
29205 senility by a tendency to fall asleep, forgetfulness of quite recent
29206 events, remembrance of remote ones, and the childish vanity with which
29207 he accepted the role of head of the Moscow opposition. In spite of this
29208 the old man inspired in all his visitors alike a feeling of respectful
29209 veneration--especially of an evening when he came in to tea in his old-
29210 fashioned coat and powdered wig and, aroused by anyone, told his abrupt
29211 stories of the past, or uttered yet more abrupt and scathing criticisms
29212 of the present. For them all, that old-fashioned house with its gigantic
29213 mirrors, pre-Revolution furniture, powdered footmen, and the stern
29214 shrewd old man (himself a relic of the past century) with his gentle
29215 daughter and the pretty Frenchwoman who were reverently devoted to him
29216 presented a majestic and agreeable spectacle. But the visitors did not
29217 reflect that besides the couple of hours during which they saw their
29218 host, there were also twenty-two hours in the day during which the
29219 private and intimate life of the house continued.
29221 Latterly that private life had become very trying for Princess Mary.
29222 There in Moscow she was deprived of her greatest pleasures--talks with
29223 the pilgrims and the solitude which refreshed her at Bald Hills--and she
29224 had none of the advantages and pleasures of city life. She did not go
29225 out into society; everyone knew that her father would not let her go
29226 anywhere without him, and his failing health prevented his going out
29227 himself, so that she was not invited to dinners and evening parties. She
29228 had quite abandoned the hope of getting married. She saw the coldness
29229 and malevolence with which the old prince received and dismissed the
29230 young men, possible suitors, who sometimes appeared at their house. She
29231 had no friends: during this visit to Moscow she had been disappointed in
29232 the two who had been nearest to her. Mademoiselle Bourienne, with whom
29233 she had never been able to be quite frank, had now become unpleasant to
29234 her, and for various reasons Princess Mary avoided her. Julie, with whom
29235 she had corresponded for the last five years, was in Moscow, but proved
29236 to be quite alien to her when they met. Just then Julie, who by the
29237 death of her brothers had become one of the richest heiresses in Moscow,
29238 was in the full whirl of society pleasures. She was surrounded by young
29239 men who, she fancied, had suddenly learned to appreciate her worth.
29240 Julie was at that stage in the life of a society woman when she feels
29241 that her last chance of marrying has come and that her fate must be
29242 decided now or never. On Thursdays Princess Mary remembered with a
29243 mournful smile that she now had no one to write to, since Julie--whose
29244 presence gave her no pleasure was here and they met every week. Like the
29245 old emigre who declined to marry the lady with whom he had spent his
29246 evenings for years, she regretted Julie's presence and having no one to
29247 write to. In Moscow Princess Mary had no one to talk to, no one to whom
29248 to confide her sorrow, and much sorrow fell to her lot just then. The
29249 time for Prince Andrew's return and marriage was approaching, but his
29250 request to her to prepare his father for it had not been carried out; in
29251 fact, it seemed as if matters were quite hopeless, for at every mention
29252 of the young Countess Rostova the old prince (who apart from that was
29253 usually in a bad temper) lost control of himself. Another lately added
29254 sorrow arose from the lessons she gave her six year-old nephew. To her
29255 consternation she detected in herself in relation to little Nicholas
29256 some symptoms of her father's irritability. However often she told
29257 herself that she must not get irritable when teaching her nephew, almost
29258 every time that, pointer in hand, she sat down to show him the French
29259 alphabet, she so longed to pour her own knowledge quickly and easily
29260 into the child--who was already afraid that Auntie might at any moment
29261 get angry--that at his slightest inattention she trembled, became
29262 flustered and heated, raised her voice, and sometimes pulled him by the
29263 arm and put him in the corner. Having put him in the corner she would
29264 herself begin to cry over her cruel, evil nature, and little Nicholas,
29265 following her example, would sob, and without permission would leave his
29266 corner, come to her, pull her wet hands from her face, and comfort her.
29267 But what distressed the princess most of all was her father's
29268 irritability, which was always directed against her and had of late
29269 amounted to cruelty. Had he forced her to prostrate herself to the
29270 ground all night, had he beaten her or made her fetch wood or water, it
29271 would never have entered her mind to think her position hard; but this
29272 loving despot--the more cruel because he loved her and for that reason
29273 tormented himself and her--knew how not merely to hurt and humiliate her
29274 deliberately, but to show her that she was always to blame for
29275 everything. Of late he had exhibited a new trait that tormented Princess
29276 Mary more than anything else; this was his ever-increasing intimacy with
29277 Mademoiselle Bourienne. The idea that at the first moment of receiving
29278 the news of his son's intentions had occurred to him in jest--that if
29279 Andrew got married he himself would marry Bourienne--had evidently
29280 pleased him, and latterly he had persistently, and as it seemed to
29281 Princess Mary merely to offend her, shown special endearments to the
29282 companion and expressed his dissatisfaction with his daughter by
29283 demonstrations of love of Bourienne.
29285 One day in Moscow in Princess Mary's presence (she thought her father
29286 did it purposely when she was there) the old prince kissed Mademoiselle
29287 Bourienne's hand and, drawing her to him, embraced her affectionately.
29288 Princess Mary flushed and ran out of the room. A few minutes later
29289 Mademoiselle Bourienne came into Princess Mary's room smiling and making
29290 cheerful remarks in her agreeable voice. Princess Mary hastily wiped
29291 away her tears, went resolutely up to Mademoiselle Bourienne, and
29292 evidently unconscious of what she was doing began shouting in angry
29293 haste at the Frenchwoman, her voice breaking: "It's horrible, vile,
29294 inhuman, to take advantage of the weakness..." She did not finish.
29295 "Leave my room," she exclaimed, and burst into sobs.
29297 Next day the prince did not say a word to his daughter, but she noticed
29298 that at dinner he gave orders that Mademoiselle Bourienne should be
29299 served first. After dinner, when the footman handed coffee and from
29300 habit began with the princess, the prince suddenly grew furious, threw
29301 his stick at Philip, and instantly gave instructions to have him
29302 conscripted for the army.
29304 "He doesn't obey... I said it twice... and he doesn't obey! She is the
29305 first person in this house; she's my best friend," cried the prince.
29306 "And if you allow yourself," he screamed in a fury, addressing Princess
29307 Mary for the first time, "to forget yourself again before her as you
29308 dared to do yesterday, I will show you who is master in this house. Go!
29309 Don't let me set eyes on you; beg her pardon!"
29311 Princess Mary asked Mademoiselle Bourienne's pardon, and also her
29312 father's pardon for herself and for Philip the footman, who had begged
29313 for her intervention.
29315 At such moments something like a pride of sacrifice gathered in her
29316 soul. And suddenly that father whom she had judged would look for his
29317 spectacles in her presence, fumbling near them and not seeing them, or
29318 would forget something that had just occurred, or take a false step with
29319 his failing legs and turn to see if anyone had noticed his feebleness,
29320 or, worst of all, at dinner when there were no visitors to excite him
29321 would suddenly fall asleep, letting his napkin drop and his shaking head
29322 sink over his plate. "He is old and feeble, and I dare to condemn him!"
29323 she thought at such moments, with a feeling of revulsion against
29331 In 1811 there was living in Moscow a French doctor--Metivier--who had
29332 rapidly become the fashion. He was enormously tall, handsome, amiable as
29333 Frenchmen are, and was, as all Moscow said, an extraordinarily clever
29334 doctor. He was received in the best houses not merely as a doctor, but
29337 Prince Nicholas had always ridiculed medicine, but latterly on
29338 Mademoiselle Bourienne's advice had allowed this doctor to visit him and
29339 had grown accustomed to him. Metivier came to see the prince about twice
29342 On December 6--St. Nicholas' Day and the prince's name day--all Moscow
29343 came to the prince's front door but he gave orders to admit no one and
29344 to invite to dinner only a small number, a list of whom he gave to
29347 Metivier, who came in the morning with his felicitations, considered it
29348 proper in his quality of doctor de forcer la consigne, * as he told
29349 Princess Mary, and went in to see the prince. It happened that on that
29350 morning of his name day the prince was in one of his worst moods. He had
29351 been going about the house all the morning finding fault with everyone
29352 and pretending not to understand what was said to him and not to be
29353 understood himself. Princess Mary well knew this mood of quiet absorbed
29354 querulousness, which generally culminated in a burst of rage, and she
29355 went about all that morning as though facing a cocked and loaded gun and
29356 awaited the inevitable explosion. Until the doctor's arrival the morning
29357 had passed off safely. After admitting the doctor, Princess Mary sat
29358 down with a book in the drawing room near the door through which she
29359 could hear all that passed in the study.
29362 * To force the guard.
29364 At first she heard only Metivier's voice, then her father's, then both
29365 voices began speaking at the same time, the door was flung open, and on
29366 the threshold appeared the handsome figure of the terrified Metivier
29367 with his shock of black hair, and the prince in his dressing gown and
29368 fez, his face distorted with fury and the pupils of his eyes rolled
29371 "You don't understand?" shouted the prince, "but I do! French spy, slave
29372 of Buonaparte, spy, get out of my house! Be off, I tell you..."
29374 Metivier, shrugging his shoulders, went up to Mademoiselle Bourienne who
29375 at the sound of shouting had run in from an adjoining room.
29377 "The prince is not very well: bile and rush of blood to the head. Keep
29378 calm, I will call again tomorrow," said Metivier; and putting his
29379 fingers to his lips he hastened away.
29381 Through the study door came the sound of slippered feet and the cry:
29382 "Spies, traitors, traitors everywhere! Not a moment's peace in my own
29385 After Metivier's departure the old prince called his daughter in, and
29386 the whole weight of his wrath fell on her. She was to blame that a spy
29387 had been admitted. Had he not told her, yes, told her to make a list,
29388 and not to admit anyone who was not on that list? Then why was that
29389 scoundrel admitted? She was the cause of it all. With her, he said, he
29390 could not have a moment's peace and could not die quietly.
29392 "No, ma'am! We must part, we must part! Understand that, understand it!
29393 I cannot endure any more," he said, and left the room. Then, as if
29394 afraid she might find some means of consolation, he returned and trying
29395 to appear calm added: "And don't imagine I have said this in a moment of
29396 anger. I am calm. I have thought it over, and it will be carried out--we
29397 must part; so find some place for yourself...." But he could not
29398 restrain himself and with the virulence of which only one who loves is
29399 capable, evidently suffering himself, he shook his fists at her and
29402 "If only some fool would marry her!" Then he slammed the door, sent for
29403 Mademoiselle Bourienne, and subsided into his study.
29405 At two o'clock the six chosen guests assembled for dinner.
29407 These guests--the famous Count Rostopchin, Prince Lopukhin with his
29408 nephew, General Chatrov an old war comrade of the prince's, and of the
29409 younger generation Pierre and Boris Drubetskoy--awaited the prince in
29412 Boris, who had come to Moscow on leave a few days before, had been
29413 anxious to be presented to Prince Nicholas Bolkonski, and had contrived
29414 to ingratiate himself so well that the old prince in his case made an
29415 exception to the rule of not receiving bachelors in his house.
29417 The prince's house did not belong to what is known as fashionable
29418 society, but his little circle--though not much talked about in town--
29419 was one it was more flattering to be received in than any other. Boris
29420 had realized this the week before when the commander-in-chief in his
29421 presence invited Rostopchin to dinner on St. Nicholas' Day, and
29422 Rostopchin had replied that he could not come:
29424 "On that day I always go to pay my devotions to the relics of Prince
29425 Nicholas Bolkonski."
29427 "Oh, yes, yes!" replied the commander-in-chief. "How is he?..."
29429 The small group that assembled before dinner in the lofty old-fashioned
29430 drawing room with its old furniture resembled the solemn gathering of a
29431 court of justice. All were silent or talked in low tones. Prince
29432 Nicholas came in serious and taciturn. Princess Mary seemed even quieter
29433 and more diffident than usual. The guests were reluctant to address her,
29434 feeling that she was in no mood for their conversation. Count Rostopchin
29435 alone kept the conversation going, now relating the latest town news,
29436 and now the latest political gossip.
29438 Lopukhin and the old general occasionally took part in the conversation.
29439 Prince Bolkonski listened as a presiding judge receives a report, only
29440 now and then, silently or by a brief word, showing that he took heed of
29441 what was being reported to him. The tone of the conversation was such as
29442 indicated that no one approved of what was being done in the political
29443 world. Incidents were related evidently confirming the opinion that
29444 everything was going from bad to worse, but whether telling a story or
29445 giving an opinion the speaker always stopped, or was stopped, at the
29446 point beyond which his criticism might touch the sovereign himself.
29448 At dinner the talk turned on the latest political news: Napoleon's
29449 seizure of the Duke of Oldenburg's territory, and the Russian Note,
29450 hostile to Napoleon, which had been sent to all the European courts.
29452 "Bonaparte treats Europe as a pirate does a captured vessel," said Count
29453 Rostopchin, repeating a phrase he had uttered several times before. "One
29454 only wonders at the long-suffering or blindness of the crowned heads.
29455 Now the Pope's turn has come and Bonaparte doesn't scruple to depose the
29456 head of the Catholic Church--yet all keep silent! Our sovereign alone
29457 has protested against the seizure of the Duke of Oldenburg's territory,
29458 and even..." Count Rostopchin paused, feeling that he had reached the
29459 limit beyond which censure was impossible.
29461 "Other territories have been offered in exchange for the Duchy of
29462 Oldenburg," said Prince Bolkonski. "He shifts the Dukes about as I might
29463 move my serfs from Bald Hills to Bogucharovo or my Ryazan estates."
29465 "The Duke of Oldenburg bears his misfortunes with admirable strength of
29466 character and resignation," remarked Boris, joining in respectfully.
29468 He said this because on his journey from Petersburg he had had the honor
29469 of being presented to the Duke. Prince Bolkonski glanced at the young
29470 man as if about to say something in reply, but changed his mind,
29471 evidently considering him too young.
29473 "I have read our protests about the Oldenburg affair and was surprised
29474 how badly the Note was worded," remarked Count Rostopchin in the casual
29475 tone of a man dealing with a subject quite familiar to him.
29477 Pierre looked at Rostopchin with naive astonishment, not understanding
29478 why he should be disturbed by the bad composition of the Note.
29480 "Does it matter, Count, how the Note is worded," he asked, "so long as
29481 its substance is forcible?"
29483 "My dear fellow, with our five hundred thousand troops it should be easy
29484 to have a good style," returned Count Rostopchin.
29486 Pierre now understood the count's dissatisfaction with the wording of
29489 "One would have thought quill drivers enough had sprung up," remarked
29490 the old prince. "There in Petersburg they are always writing--not notes
29491 only but even new laws. My Andrew there has written a whole volume of
29492 laws for Russia. Nowadays they are always writing!" and he laughed
29495 There was a momentary pause in the conversation; the old general cleared
29496 his throat to draw attention.
29498 "Did you hear of the last event at the review in Petersburg? The figure
29499 cut by the new French ambassador."
29501 "Eh? Yes, I heard something: he said something awkward in His Majesty's
29504 "His Majesty drew attention to the Grenadier division and to the march
29505 past," continued the general, "and it seems the ambassador took no
29506 notice and allowed himself to reply that: 'We in France pay no attention
29507 to such trifles!' The Emperor did not condescend to reply. At the next
29508 review, they say, the Emperor did not once deign to address him."
29510 All were silent. On this fact relating to the Emperor personally, it was
29511 impossible to pass any judgment.
29513 "Impudent fellows!" said the prince. "You know Metivier? I turned him
29514 out of my house this morning. He was here; they admitted him in spite of
29515 my request that they should let no one in," he went on, glancing angrily
29518 And he narrated his whole conversation with the French doctor and the
29519 reasons that convinced him that Metivier was a spy. Though these reasons
29520 were very insufficient and obscure, no one made any rejoinder.
29522 After the roast, champagne was served. The guests rose to congratulate
29523 the old prince. Princess Mary, too, went round to him.
29525 He gave her a cold, angry look and offered her his wrinkled, clean-
29526 shaven cheek to kiss. The whole expression of his face told her that he
29527 had not forgotten the morning's talk, that his decision remained in
29528 force, and only the presence of visitors hindered his speaking of it to
29531 When they went into the drawing room where coffee was served, the old
29534 Prince Nicholas grew more animated and expressed his views on the
29537 He said that our wars with Bonaparte would be disastrous so long as we
29538 sought alliances with the Germans and thrust ourselves into European
29539 affairs, into which we had been drawn by the Peace of Tilsit. "We ought
29540 not to fight either for or against Austria. Our political interests are
29541 all in the East, and in regard to Bonaparte the only thing is to have an
29542 armed frontier and a firm policy, and he will never dare to cross the
29543 Russian frontier, as was the case in 1807!"
29545 "How can we fight the French, Prince?" said Count Rostopchin. "Can we
29546 arm ourselves against our teachers and divinities? Look at our youths,
29547 look at our ladies! The French are our Gods: Paris is our Kingdom of
29550 He began speaking louder, evidently to be heard by everyone.
29552 "French dresses, French ideas, French feelings! There now, you turned
29553 Metivier out by the scruff of his neck because he is a Frenchman and a
29554 scoundrel, but our ladies crawl after him on their knees. I went to a
29555 party last night, and there out of five ladies three were Roman
29556 Catholics and had the Pope's indulgence for doing woolwork on Sundays.
29557 And they themselves sit there nearly naked, like the signboards at our
29558 Public Baths if I may say so. Ah, when one looks at our young people,
29559 Prince, one would like to take Peter the Great's old cudgel out of the
29560 museum and belabor them in the Russian way till all the nonsense jumps
29563 All were silent. The old prince looked at Rostopchin with a smile and
29564 wagged his head approvingly.
29566 "Well, good-by, your excellency, keep well!" said Rostopchin, getting up
29567 with characteristic briskness and holding out his hand to the prince.
29569 "Good-bye, my dear fellow.... His words are music, I never tire of
29570 hearing him!" said the old prince, keeping hold of the hand and offering
29571 his cheek to be kissed.
29573 Following Rostopchin's example the others also rose.
29580 Princess Mary as she sat listening to the old men's talk and
29581 faultfinding, understood nothing of what she heard; she only wondered
29582 whether the guests had all observed her father's hostile attitude toward
29583 her. She did not even notice the special attentions and amiabilities
29584 shown her during dinner by Boris Drubetskoy, who was visiting them for
29585 the third time already.
29587 Princess Mary turned with absent-minded questioning look to Pierre, who
29588 hat in hand and with a smile on his face was the last of the guests to
29589 approach her after the old prince had gone out and they were left alone
29590 in the drawing room.
29592 "May I stay a little longer?" he said, letting his stout body sink into
29593 an armchair beside her.
29595 "Oh yes," she answered. "You noticed nothing?" her look asked.
29597 Pierre was in an agreeable after-dinner mood. He looked straight before
29598 him and smiled quietly.
29600 "Have you known that young man long, Princess?" he asked.
29610 "Yes, he is an agreeable young man.... Why do you ask me that?" said
29611 Princess Mary, still thinking of that morning's conversation with her
29614 "Because I have noticed that when a young man comes on leave from
29615 Petersburg to Moscow it is usually with the object of marrying an
29618 "You have observed that?" said Princess Mary.
29620 "Yes," returned Pierre with a smile, "and this young man now manages
29621 matters so that where there is a wealthy heiress there he is too. I can
29622 read him like a book. At present he is hesitating whom to lay siege to--
29623 you or Mademoiselle Julie Karagina. He is very attentive to her."
29627 "Yes, very often. And do you know the new way of courting?" said Pierre
29628 with an amused smile, evidently in that cheerful mood of good humored
29629 raillery for which he so often reproached himself in his diary.
29631 "No," replied Princess Mary.
29633 "To please Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy. He is very
29634 melancholy with Mademoiselle Karagina," said Pierre.
29636 "Really?" asked Princess Mary, looking into Pierre's kindly face and
29637 still thinking of her own sorrow. "It would be a relief," thought she,
29638 "if I ventured to confide what I am feeling to someone. I should like to
29639 tell everything to Pierre. He is kind and generous. It would be a
29640 relief. He would give me advice."
29642 "Would you marry him?"
29644 "Oh, my God, Count, there are moments when I would marry anybody!" she
29645 cried suddenly to her own surprise and with tears in her voice. "Ah, how
29646 bitter it is to love someone near to you and to feel that..." she went
29647 on in a trembling voice, "that you can do nothing for him but grieve
29648 him, and to know that you cannot alter this. Then there is only one
29649 thing left--to go away, but where could I go?"
29651 "What is wrong? What is it, Princess?"
29653 But without finishing what she was saying, Princess Mary burst into
29656 "I don't know what is the matter with me today. Don't take any notice--
29657 forget what I have said!"
29659 Pierre's gaiety vanished completely. He anxiously questioned the
29660 princess, asked her to speak out fully and confide her grief to him; but
29661 she only repeated that she begged him to forget what she had said, that
29662 she did not remember what she had said, and that she had no trouble
29663 except the one he knew of--that Prince Andrew's marriage threatened to
29664 cause a rupture between father and son.
29666 "Have you any news of the Rostovs?" she asked, to change the subject. "I
29667 was told they are coming soon. I am also expecting Andrew any day. I
29668 should like them to meet here."
29670 "And how does he now regard the matter?" asked Pierre, referring to the
29673 Princess Mary shook her head.
29675 "What is to be done? In a few months the year will be up. The thing is
29676 impossible. I only wish I could spare my brother the first moments. I
29677 wish they would come sooner. I hope to be friends with her. You have
29678 known them a long time," said Princess Mary. "Tell me honestly the whole
29679 truth: what sort of girl is she, and what do you think of her?--The real
29680 truth, because you know Andrew is risking so much doing this against his
29681 father's will that I should like to know..."
29683 An undefined instinct told Pierre that these explanations, and repeated
29684 requests to be told the whole truth, expressed ill-will on the princess'
29685 part toward her future sister-in-law and a wish that he should
29686 disapprove of Andrew's choice; but in reply he said what he felt rather
29687 than what he thought.
29689 "I don't know how to answer your question," he said, blushing without
29690 knowing why. "I really don't know what sort of girl she is; I can't
29691 analyze her at all. She is enchanting, but what makes her so I don't
29692 know. That is all one can say about her."
29694 Princess Mary sighed, and the expression on her face said: "Yes, that's
29695 what I expected and feared."
29697 "Is she clever?" she asked.
29701 "I think not," he said, "and yet--yes. She does not deign to be
29702 clever.... Oh no, she is simply enchanting, and that is all."
29704 Princess Mary again shook her head disapprovingly.
29706 "Ah, I so long to like her! Tell her so if you see her before I do."
29708 "I hear they are expected very soon," said Pierre.
29710 Princess Mary told Pierre of her plan to become intimate with her future
29711 sister-in-law as soon as the Rostovs arrived and to try to accustom the
29719 Boris had not succeeded in making a wealthy match in Petersburg, so with
29720 the same object in view he came to Moscow. There he wavered between the
29721 two richest heiresses, Julie and Princess Mary. Though Princess Mary
29722 despite her plainness seemed to him more attractive than Julie, he,
29723 without knowing why, felt awkward about paying court to her. When they
29724 had last met on the old prince's name day, she had answered at random
29725 all his attempts to talk sentimentally, evidently not listening to what
29728 Julie on the contrary accepted his attentions readily, though in a
29729 manner peculiar to herself.
29731 She was twenty-seven. After the death of her brothers she had become
29732 very wealthy. She was by now decidedly plain, but thought herself not
29733 merely as good-looking as before but even far more attractive. She was
29734 confirmed in this delusion by the fact that she had become a very
29735 wealthy heiress and also by the fact that the older she grew the less
29736 dangerous she became to men, and the more freely they could associate
29737 with her and avail themselves of her suppers, soirees, and the animated
29738 company that assembled at her house, without incurring any obligation. A
29739 man who would have been afraid ten years before of going every day to
29740 the house when there was a girl of seventeen there, for fear of
29741 compromising her and committing himself, would now go boldly every day
29742 and treat her not as a marriageable girl but as a sexless acquaintance.
29744 That winter the Karagins' house was the most agreeable and hospitable in
29745 Moscow. In addition to the formal evening and dinner parties, a large
29746 company, chiefly of men, gathered there every day, supping at midnight
29747 and staying till three in the morning. Julie never missed a ball, a
29748 promenade, or a play. Her dresses were always of the latest fashion. But
29749 in spite of that she seemed to be disillusioned about everything and
29750 told everyone that she did not believe either in friendship or in love,
29751 or any of the joys of life, and expected peace only "yonder." She
29752 adopted the tone of one who has suffered a great disappointment, like a
29753 girl who has either lost the man she loved or been cruelly deceived by
29754 him. Though nothing of the kind had happened to her she was regarded in
29755 that light, and had even herself come to believe that she had suffered
29756 much in life. This melancholy, which did not prevent her amusing
29757 herself, did not hinder the young people who came to her house from
29758 passing the time pleasantly. Every visitor who came to the house paid
29759 his tribute to the melancholy mood of the hostess, and then amused
29760 himself with society gossip, dancing, intellectual games, and bouts
29761 rimes, which were in vogue at the Karagins'. Only a few of these young
29762 men, among them Boris, entered more deeply into Julie's melancholy, and
29763 with these she had prolonged conversations in private on the vanity of
29764 all worldly things, and to them she showed her albums filled with
29765 mournful sketches, maxims, and verses.
29767 To Boris, Julie was particularly gracious: she regretted his early
29768 disillusionment with life, offered him such consolation of friendship as
29769 she who had herself suffered so much could render, and showed him her
29770 album. Boris sketched two trees in the album and wrote: "Rustic trees,
29771 your dark branches shed gloom and melancholy upon me."
29773 On another page he drew a tomb, and wrote:
29776 La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille. Ah! contre les
29777 douleurs il n'y a pas d'autre asile. *
29780 * Death gives relief and death is peaceful.
29782 Ah! from suffering there is no other refuge.
29784 Julie said this was charming
29786 "There is something so enchanting in the smile of melancholy," she said
29787 to Boris, repeating word for word a passage she had copied from a book.
29788 "It is a ray of light in the darkness, a shade between sadness and
29789 despair, showing the possibility of consolation."
29791 In reply Boris wrote these lines:
29794 Aliment de poison d'une ame trop sensible, Toi, sans qui le bonheur me
29795 serait impossible, Tendre melancholie, ah, viens me consoler, Viens
29796 calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite, Et mele une douceur secrete
29797 A ces pleurs que je sens couler. *
29800 *Poisonous nourishment of a too sensitive soul, Thou, without whom
29801 happiness would for me be impossible, Tender melancholy, ah, come to
29802 console me, Come to calm the torments of my gloomy retreat, And mingle a
29803 secret sweetness With these tears that I feel to be flowing.
29805 For Boris, Julie played most doleful nocturnes on her harp. Boris read
29806 'Poor Liza' aloud to her, and more than once interrupted the reading
29807 because of the emotions that choked him. Meeting at large gatherings
29808 Julie and Boris looked on one another as the only souls who understood
29809 one another in a world of indifferent people.
29811 Anna Mikhaylovna, who often visited the Karagins, while playing cards
29812 with the mother made careful inquiries as to Julie's dowry (she was to
29813 have two estates in Penza and the Nizhegorod forests). Anna Mikhaylovna
29814 regarded the refined sadness that united her son to the wealthy Julie
29815 with emotion, and resignation to the Divine will.
29817 "You are always charming and melancholy, my dear Julie," she said to the
29818 daughter. "Boris says his soul finds repose at your house. He has
29819 suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive," said she to the
29820 mother. "Ah, my dear, I can't tell you how fond I have grown of Julie
29821 latterly," she said to her son. "But who could help loving her? She is
29822 an angelic being! Ah, Boris, Boris!"--she paused. "And how I pity her
29823 mother," she went on; "today she showed me her accounts and letters from
29824 Penza (they have enormous estates there), and she, poor thing, has no
29825 one to help her, and they do cheat her so!"
29827 Boris smiled almost imperceptibly while listening to his mother. He
29828 laughed blandly at her naive diplomacy but listened to what she had to
29829 say, and sometimes questioned her carefully about the Penza and
29830 Nizhegorod estates.
29832 Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholy adorer and
29833 was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of repulsion for her,
29834 for her passionate desire to get married, for her artificiality, and a
29835 feeling of horror at renouncing the possibility of real love still
29836 restrained Boris. His leave was expiring. He spent every day and whole
29837 days at the Karagins', and every day on thinking the matter over told
29838 himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in Julie's presence, looking
29839 at her red face and chin (nearly always powdered), her moist eyes, and
29840 her expression of continual readiness to pass at once from melancholy to
29841 an unnatural rapture of married bliss, Boris could not utter the
29842 decisive words, though in imagination he had long regarded himself as
29843 the possessor of those Penza and Nizhegorod estates and had apportioned
29844 the use of the income from them. Julie saw Boris' indecision, and
29845 sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was repulsive to him, but
29846 her feminine self-deception immediately supplied her with consolation,
29847 and she told herself that he was only shy from love. Her melancholy,
29848 however, began to turn to irritability, and not long before Boris'
29849 departure she formed a definite plan of action. Just as Boris' leave of
29850 absence was expiring, Anatole Kuragin made his appearance in Moscow, and
29851 of course in the Karagins' drawing room, and Julie, suddenly abandoning
29852 her melancholy, became cheerful and very attentive to Kuragin.
29854 "My dear," said Anna Mikhaylovna to her son, "I know from a reliable
29855 source that Prince Vasili has sent his son to Moscow to get him married
29856 to Julie. I am so fond of Julie that I should be sorry for her. What do
29857 you think of it, my dear?"
29859 The idea of being made a fool of and of having thrown away that whole
29860 month of arduous melancholy service to Julie, and of seeing all the
29861 revenue from the Penza estates which he had already mentally apportioned
29862 and put to proper use fall into the hands of another, and especially
29863 into the hands of that idiot Anatole, pained Boris. He drove to the
29864 Karagins' with the firm intention of proposing. Julie met him in a gay,
29865 careless manner, spoke casually of how she had enjoyed yesterday's ball,
29866 and asked when he was leaving. Though Boris had come intentionally to
29867 speak of his love and therefore meant to be tender, he began speaking
29868 irritably of feminine inconstancy, of how easily women can turn from
29869 sadness to joy, and how their moods depend solely on who happens to be
29870 paying court to them. Julie was offended and replied that it was true
29871 that a woman needs variety, and the same thing over and over again would
29874 "Then I should advise you..." Boris began, wishing to sting her; but at
29875 that instant the galling thought occurred to him that he might have to
29876 leave Moscow without having accomplished his aim, and have vainly wasted
29877 his efforts--which was a thing he never allowed to happen.
29879 He checked himself in the middle of the sentence, lowered his eyes to
29880 avoid seeing her unpleasantly irritated and irresolute face, and said:
29882 "I did not come here at all to quarrel with you. On the contrary..."
29884 He glanced at her to make sure that he might go on. Her irritability had
29885 suddenly quite vanished, and her anxious, imploring eyes were fixed on
29886 him with greedy expectation. "I can always arrange so as not to see her
29887 often," thought Boris. "The affair has been begun and must be finished!"
29888 He blushed hotly, raised his eyes to hers, and said:
29890 "You know my feelings for you!"
29892 There was no need to say more: Julie's face shone with triumph and self-
29893 satisfaction; but she forced Boris to say all that is said on such
29894 occasions--that he loved her and had never loved any other woman more
29895 than her. She knew that for the Penza estates and Nizhegorod forests she
29896 could demand this, and she received what she demanded.
29898 The affianced couple, no longer alluding to trees that shed gloom and
29899 melancholy upon them, planned the arrangements of a splendid house in
29900 Petersburg, paid calls, and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.
29907 At the end of January old Count Rostov went to Moscow with Natasha and
29908 Sonya. The countess was still unwell and unable to travel but it was
29909 impossible to wait for her recovery. Prince Andrew was expected in
29910 Moscow any day, the trousseau had to be ordered and the estate near
29911 Moscow had to be sold, besides which the opportunity of presenting his
29912 future daughter-in-law to old Prince Bolkonski while he was in Moscow
29913 could not be missed. The Rostovs' Moscow house had not been heated that
29914 winter and, as they had come only for a short time and the countess was
29915 not with them, the count decided to stay with Marya Dmitrievna
29916 Akhrosimova, who had long been pressing her hospitality on them.
29918 Late one evening the Rostovs' four sleighs drove into Marya Dmitrievna's
29919 courtyard in the old Konyusheny street. Marya Dmitrievna lived alone.
29920 She had already married off her daughter, and her sons were all in the
29923 She held herself as erect, told everyone her opinion as candidly,
29924 loudly, and bluntly as ever, and her whole bearing seemed a reproach to
29925 others for any weakness, passion, or temptation--the possibility of
29926 which she did not admit. From early in the morning, wearing a dressing
29927 jacket, she attended to her household affairs, and then she drove out:
29928 on holy days to church and after the service to jails and prisons on
29929 affairs of which she never spoke to anyone. On ordinary days, after
29930 dressing, she received petitioners of various classes, of whom there
29931 were always some. Then she had dinner, a substantial and appetizing meal
29932 at which there were always three or four guests; after dinner she played
29933 a game of boston, and at night she had the newspapers or a new book read
29934 to her while she knitted. She rarely made an exception and went out to
29935 pay visits, and then only to the most important persons in the town.
29937 She had not yet gone to bed when the Rostovs arrived and the pulley of
29938 the hall door squeaked from the cold as it let in the Rostovs and their
29939 servants. Marya Dmitrievna, with her spectacles hanging down on her nose
29940 and her head flung back, stood in the hall doorway looking with a stern,
29941 grim face at the new arrivals. One might have thought she was angry with
29942 the travelers and would immediately turn them out, had she not at the
29943 same time been giving careful instructions to the servants for the
29944 accommodation of the visitors and their belongings.
29946 "The count's things? Bring them here," she said, pointing to the
29947 portmanteaus and not greeting anyone. "The young ladies'? There to the
29948 left. Now what are you dawdling for?" she cried to the maids. "Get the
29949 samovar ready!... You've grown plumper and prettier," she remarked,
29950 drawing Natasha (whose cheeks were glowing from the cold) to her by the
29951 hood. "Foo! You are cold! Now take off your things, quick!" she shouted
29952 to the count who was going to kiss her hand. "You're half frozen, I'm
29953 sure! Bring some rum for tea!... Bonjour, Sonya dear!" she added,
29954 turning to Sonya and indicating by this French greeting her slightly
29955 contemptuous though affectionate attitude toward her.
29957 When they came in to tea, having taken off their outdoor things and
29958 tidied themselves up after their journey, Marya Dmitrievna kissed them
29961 "I'm heartily glad you have come and are staying with me. It was high
29962 time," she said, giving Natasha a significant look. "The old man is here
29963 and his son's expected any day. You'll have to make his acquaintance.
29964 But we'll speak of that later on," she added, glancing at Sonya with a
29965 look that showed she did not want to speak of it in her presence. "Now
29966 listen," she said to the count. "What do you want tomorrow? Whom will
29967 you send for? Shinshin?" she crooked one of her fingers. "The sniveling
29968 Anna Mikhaylovna? That's two. She's here with her son. The son is
29969 getting married! Then Bezukhov, eh? He is here too, with his wife. He
29970 ran away from her and she came galloping after him. He dined with me on
29971 Wednesday. As for them"--and she pointed to the girls--"tomorrow I'll
29972 take them first to the Iberian shrine of the Mother of God, and then
29973 we'll drive to the Super-Rogue's. I suppose you'll have everything new.
29974 Don't judge by me: sleeves nowadays are this size! The other day young
29975 Princess Irina Vasilevna came to see me; she was an awful sight--looked
29976 as if she had put two barrels on her arms. You know not a day passes now
29977 without some new fashion.... And what have you to do yourself?" she
29978 asked the count sternly.
29980 "One thing has come on top of another: her rags to buy, and now a
29981 purchaser has turned up for the Moscow estate and for the house. If you
29982 will be so kind, I'll fix a time and go down to the estate just for a
29983 day, and leave my lassies with you."
29985 "All right. All right. They'll be safe with me, as safe as in Chancery!
29986 I'll take them where they must go, scold them a bit, and pet them a
29987 bit," said Marya Dmitrievna, touching her goddaughter and favorite,
29988 Natasha, on the cheek with her large hand.
29990 Next morning Marya Dmitrievna took the young ladies to the Iberian
29991 shrine of the Mother of God and to Madame Suppert-Roguet, who was so
29992 afraid of Marya Dmitrievna that she always let her have costumes at a
29993 loss merely to get rid of her. Marya Dmitrievna ordered almost the whole
29994 trousseau. When they got home she turned everybody out of the room
29995 except Natasha, and then called her pet to her armchair.
29997 "Well, now we'll talk. I congratulate you on your betrothed. You've
29998 hooked a fine fellow! I am glad for your sake and I've known him since
29999 he was so high." She held her hand a couple of feet from the ground.
30000 Natasha blushed happily. "I like him and all his family. Now listen! You
30001 know that old Prince Nicholas much dislikes his son's marrying. The old
30002 fellow's crotchety! Of course Prince Andrew is not a child and can shift
30003 without him, but it's not nice to enter a family against a father's
30004 will. One wants to do it peacefully and lovingly. You're a clever girl
30005 and you'll know how to manage. Be kind, and use your wits. Then all will
30008 Natasha remained silent, from shyness Marya Dmitrievna supposed, but
30009 really because she disliked anyone interfering in what touched her love
30010 of Prince Andrew, which seemed to her so apart from all human affairs
30011 that no one could understand it. She loved and knew Prince Andrew, he
30012 loved her only, and was to come one of these days and take her. She
30013 wanted nothing more.
30015 "You see I have known him a long time and am also fond of Mary, your
30016 future sister-in-law. 'Husbands' sisters bring up blisters,' but this
30017 one wouldn't hurt a fly. She has asked me to bring you two together.
30018 Tomorrow you'll go with your father to see her. Be very nice and
30019 affectionate to her: you're younger than she. When he comes, he'll find
30020 you already know his sister and father and are liked by them. Am I right
30021 or not? Won't that be best?"
30023 "Yes, it will," Natasha answered reluctantly.
30030 Next day, by Marya Dmitrievna's advice, Count Rostov took Natasha to
30031 call on Prince Nicholas Bolkonski. The count did not set out cheerfully
30032 on this visit, at heart he felt afraid. He well remembered the last
30033 interview he had had with the old prince at the time of the enrollment,
30034 when in reply to an invitation to dinner he had had to listen to an
30035 angry reprimand for not having provided his full quota of men. Natasha,
30036 on the other hand, having put on her best gown, was in the highest
30037 spirits. "They can't help liking me," she thought. "Everybody always has
30038 liked me, and I am so willing to do anything they wish, so ready to be
30039 fond of him--for being his father--and of her--for being his sister--
30040 that there is no reason for them not to like me..."
30042 They drove up to the gloomy old house on the Vozdvizhenka and entered
30045 "Well, the Lord have mercy on us!" said the count, half in jest, half in
30046 earnest; but Natasha noticed that her father was flurried on entering
30047 the anteroom and inquired timidly and softly whether the prince and
30048 princess were at home.
30050 When they had been announced a perturbation was noticeable among the
30051 servants. The footman who had gone to announce them was stopped by
30052 another in the large hall and they whispered to one another. Then a
30053 maidservant ran into the hall and hurriedly said something, mentioning
30054 the princess. At last an old, cross looking footman came and announced
30055 to the Rostovs that the prince was not receiving, but that the princess
30056 begged them to walk up. The first person who came to meet the visitors
30057 was Mademoiselle Bourienne. She greeted the father and daughter with
30058 special politeness and showed them to the princess' room. The princess,
30059 looking excited and nervous, her face flushed in patches, ran in to meet
30060 the visitors, treading heavily, and vainly trying to appear cordial and
30061 at ease. From the first glance Princess Mary did not like Natasha. She
30062 thought her too fashionably dressed, frivolously gay and vain. She did
30063 not at all realize that before having seen her future sister-in-law she
30064 was prejudiced against her by involuntary envy of her beauty, youth, and
30065 happiness, as well as by jealousy of her brother's love for her. Apart
30066 from this insuperable antipathy to her, Princess Mary was agitated just
30067 then because on the Rostovs' being announced, the old prince had shouted
30068 that he did not wish to see them, that Princess Mary might do so if she
30069 chose, but they were not to be admitted to him. She had decided to
30070 receive them, but feared lest the prince might at any moment indulge in
30071 some freak, as he seemed much upset by the Rostovs' visit.
30073 "There, my dear princess, I've brought you my songstress," said the
30074 count, bowing and looking round uneasily as if afraid the old prince
30075 might appear. "I am so glad you should get to know one another... very
30076 sorry the prince is still ailing," and after a few more commonplace
30077 remarks he rose. "If you'll allow me to leave my Natasha in your hands
30078 for a quarter of an hour, Princess, I'll drive round to see Anna
30079 Semenovna, it's quite near in the Dogs' Square, and then I'll come back
30082 The count had devised this diplomatic ruse (as he afterwards told his
30083 daughter) to give the future sisters-in-law an opportunity to talk to
30084 one another freely, but another motive was to avoid the danger of
30085 encountering the old prince, of whom he was afraid. He did not mention
30086 this to his daughter, but Natasha noticed her father's nervousness and
30087 anxiety and felt mortified by it. She blushed for him, grew still
30088 angrier at having blushed, and looked at the princess with a bold and
30089 defiant expression which said that she was not afraid of anybody. The
30090 princess told the count that she would be delighted, and only begged him
30091 to stay longer at Anna Semenovna's, and he departed.
30093 Despite the uneasy glances thrown at her by Princess Mary--who wished to
30094 have a tete-a-tete with Natasha--Mademoiselle Bourienne remained in the
30095 room and persistently talked about Moscow amusements and theaters.
30096 Natasha felt offended by the hesitation she had noticed in the anteroom,
30097 by her father's nervousness, and by the unnatural manner of the princess
30098 who--she thought--was making a favor of receiving her, and so everything
30099 displeased her. She did not like Princess Mary, whom she thought very
30100 plain, affected, and dry. Natasha suddenly shrank into herself and
30101 involuntarily assumed an offhand air which alienated Princess Mary still
30102 more. After five minutes of irksome, constrained conversation, they
30103 heard the sound of slippered feet rapidly approaching. Princess Mary
30106 The door opened and the old prince, in a dressing gown and a white
30109 "Ah, madam!" he began. "Madam, Countess... Countess Rostova, if I am not
30110 mistaken... I beg you to excuse me, to excuse me... I did not know,
30111 madam. God is my witness, I did not know you had honored us with a
30112 visit, and I came in such a costume only to see my daughter. I beg you
30113 to excuse me... God is my witness, I didn't know-" he repeated,
30114 stressing the word "God" so unnaturally and so unpleasantly that
30115 Princess Mary stood with downcast eyes not daring to look either at her
30116 father or at Natasha.
30118 Nor did the latter, having risen and curtsied, know what to do.
30119 Mademoiselle Bourienne alone smiled agreeably.
30121 "I beg you to excuse me, excuse me! God is my witness, I did not know,"
30122 muttered the old man, and after looking Natasha over from head to foot
30125 Mademoiselle Bourienne was the first to recover herself after this
30126 apparition and began speaking about the prince's indisposition. Natasha
30127 and Princess Mary looked at one another in silence, and the longer they
30128 did so without saying what they wanted to say, the greater grew their
30129 antipathy to one another.
30131 When the count returned, Natasha was impolitely pleased and hastened to
30132 get away: at that moment she hated the stiff, elderly princess, who
30133 could place her in such an embarrassing position and had spent half an
30134 hour with her without once mentioning Prince Andrew. "I couldn't begin
30135 talking about him in the presence of that Frenchwoman," thought Natasha.
30136 The same thought was meanwhile tormenting Princess Mary. She knew what
30137 she ought to have said to Natasha, but she had been unable to say it
30138 because Mademoiselle Bourienne was in the way, and because, without
30139 knowing why, she felt it very difficult to speak of the marriage. When
30140 the count was already leaving the room, Princess Mary went up hurriedly
30141 to Natasha, took her by the hand, and said with a deep sigh:
30145 Natasha glanced at her ironically without knowing why.
30147 "Dear Natalie," said Princess Mary, "I want you to know that I am glad
30148 my brother has found happiness...."
30150 She paused, feeling that she was not telling the truth. Natasha noticed
30151 this and guessed its reason.
30153 "I think, Princess, it is not convenient to speak of that now," she said
30154 with external dignity and coldness, though she felt the tears choking
30157 "What have I said and what have I done?" thought she, as soon as she was
30160 They waited a long time for Natasha to come to dinner that day. She sat
30161 in her room crying like a child, blowing her nose and sobbing. Sonya
30162 stood beside her, kissing her hair.
30164 "Natasha, what is it about?" she asked. "What do they matter to you? It
30165 will all pass, Natasha."
30167 "But if you only knew how offensive it was... as if I..."
30169 "Don't talk about it, Natasha. It wasn't your fault so why should you
30170 mind? Kiss me," said Sonya.
30172 Natasha raised her head and, kissing her friend on the lips, pressed her
30173 wet face against her.
30175 "I can't tell you, I don't know. No one's to blame," said Natasha--"It's
30176 my fault. But it all hurts terribly. Oh, why doesn't he come?..."
30178 She came in to dinner with red eyes. Marya Dmitrievna, who knew how the
30179 prince had received the Rostovs, pretended not to notice how upset
30180 Natasha was and jested resolutely and loudly at table with the count and
30188 That evening the Rostovs went to the Opera, for which Marya Dmitrievna
30191 Natasha did not want to go, but could not refuse Marya Dmitrievna's kind
30192 offer which was intended expressly for her. When she came ready dressed
30193 into the ballroom to await her father, and looking in the large mirror
30194 there saw that she was pretty, very pretty, she felt even more sad, but
30195 it was a sweet, tender sadness.
30197 "O God, if he were here now I would not behave as I did then, but
30198 differently. I would not be silly and afraid of things, I would simply
30199 embrace him, cling to him, and make him look at me with those searching
30200 inquiring eyes with which he has so often looked at me, and then I would
30201 make him laugh as he used to laugh. And his eyes--how I see those eyes!"
30202 thought Natasha. "And what do his father and sister matter to me? I love
30203 him alone, him, him, with that face and those eyes, with his smile,
30204 manly and yet childlike.... No, I had better not think of him; not think
30205 of him but forget him, quite forget him for the present. I can't bear
30206 this waiting and I shall cry in a minute!" and she turned away from the
30207 glass, making an effort not to cry. "And how can Sonya love Nicholas so
30208 calmly and quietly and wait so long and so patiently?" thought she,
30209 looking at Sonya, who also came in quite ready, with a fan in her hand.
30210 "No, she's altogether different. I can't!"
30212 Natasha at that moment felt so softened and tender that it was not
30213 enough for her to love and know she was beloved, she wanted now, at
30214 once, to embrace the man she loved, to speak and hear from him words of
30215 love such as filled her heart. While she sat in the carriage beside her
30216 father, pensively watching the lights of the street lamps flickering on
30217 the frozen window, she felt still sadder and more in love, and forgot
30218 where she was going and with whom. Having fallen into the line of
30219 carriages, the Rostovs' carriage drove up to the theater, its wheels
30220 squeaking over the snow. Natasha and Sonya, holding up their dresses,
30221 jumped out quickly. The count got out helped by the footmen, and,
30222 passing among men and women who were entering and the program sellers,
30223 they all three went along the corridor to the first row of boxes.
30224 Through the closed doors the music was already audible.
30226 "Natasha, your hair!..." whispered Sonya.
30228 An attendant deferentially and quickly slipped before the ladies and
30229 opened the door of their box. The music sounded louder and through the
30230 door rows of brightly lit boxes in which ladies sat with bare arms and
30231 shoulders, and noisy stalls brilliant with uniforms, glittered before
30232 their eyes. A lady entering the next box shot a glance of feminine envy
30233 at Natasha. The curtain had not yet risen and the overture was being
30234 played. Natasha, smoothing her gown, went in with Sonya and sat down,
30235 scanning the brilliant tiers of boxes opposite. A sensation she had not
30236 experienced for a long time--that of hundreds of eyes looking at her
30237 bare arms and neck--suddenly affected her both agreeably and
30238 disagreeably and called up a whole crowd of memories, desires and
30239 emotions associated with that feeling.
30241 The two remarkably pretty girls, Natasha and Sonya, with Count Rostov
30242 who had not been seen in Moscow for a long time, attracted general
30243 attention. Moreover, everybody knew vaguely of Natasha's engagement to
30244 Prince Andrew, and knew that the Rostovs had lived in the country ever
30245 since, and all looked with curiosity at a fiancee who was making one of
30246 the best matches in Russia.
30248 Natasha's looks, as everyone told her, had improved in the country, and
30249 that evening thanks to her agitation she was particularly pretty. She
30250 struck those who saw her by her fullness of life and beauty, combined
30251 with her indifference to everything about her. Her black eyes looked at
30252 the crowd without seeking anyone, and her delicate arm, bare to above
30253 the elbow, lay on the velvet edge of the box, while, evidently
30254 unconsciously, she opened and closed her hand in time to the music,
30255 crumpling her program. "Look, there's Alenina," said Sonya, "with her
30258 "Dear me, Michael Kirilovich has grown still stouter!" remarked the
30261 "Look at our Anna Mikhaylovna--what a headdress she has on!"
30263 "The Karagins, Julie--and Boris with them. One can see at once that
30264 they're engaged...."
30266 "Drubetskoy has proposed?"
30268 "Oh yes, I heard it today," said Shinshin, coming into the Rostovs' box.
30270 Natasha looked in the direction in which her father's eyes were turned
30271 and saw Julie sitting beside her mother with a happy look on her face
30272 and a string of pearls round her thick red neck--which Natasha knew was
30273 covered with powder. Behind them, wearing a smile and leaning over with
30274 an ear to Julie's mouth, was Boris' handsome smoothly brushed head. He
30275 looked at the Rostovs from under his brows and said something, smiling,
30278 "They are talking about us, about me and him!" thought Natasha. "And he
30279 no doubt is calming her jealousy of me. They needn't trouble themselves!
30280 If only they knew how little I am concerned about any of them."
30282 Behind them sat Anna Mikhaylovna wearing a green headdress and with a
30283 happy look of resignation to the will of God on her face. Their box was
30284 pervaded by that atmosphere of an affianced couple which Natasha knew so
30285 well and liked so much. She turned away and suddenly remembered all that
30286 had been so humiliating in her morning's visit.
30288 "What right has he not to wish to receive me into his family? Oh, better
30289 not think of it--not till he comes back!" she told herself, and began
30290 looking at the faces, some strange and some familiar, in the stalls. In
30291 the front, in the very center, leaning back against the orchestra rail,
30292 stood Dolokhov in a Persian dress, his curly hair brushed up into a huge
30293 shock. He stood in full view of the audience, well aware that he was
30294 attracting everyone's attention, yet as much at ease as though he were
30295 in his own room. Around him thronged Moscow's most brilliant young men,
30296 whom he evidently dominated.
30298 The count, laughing, nudged the blushing Sonya and pointed to her former
30301 "Do you recognize him?" said he. "And where has he sprung from?" he
30302 asked, turning to Shinshin. "Didn't he vanish somewhere?"
30304 "He did," replied Shinshin. "He was in the Caucasus and ran away from
30305 there. They say he has been acting as minister to some ruling prince in
30306 Persia, where he killed the Shah's brother. Now all the Moscow ladies
30307 are mad about him! It's 'Dolokhov the Persian' that does it! We never
30308 hear a word but Dolokhov is mentioned. They swear by him, they offer him
30309 to you as they would a dish of choice sterlet. Dolokhov and Anatole
30310 Kuragin have turned all our ladies' heads."
30312 A tall, beautiful woman with a mass of plaited hair and much exposed
30313 plump white shoulders and neck, round which she wore a double string of
30314 large pearls, entered the adjoining box rustling her heavy silk dress
30315 and took a long time settling into her place.
30317 Natasha involuntarily gazed at that neck, those shoulders, and pearls
30318 and coiffure, and admired the beauty of the shoulders and the pearls.
30319 While Natasha was fixing her gaze on her for the second time the lady
30320 looked round and, meeting the count's eyes, nodded to him and smiled.
30321 She was the Countess Bezukhova, Pierre's wife, and the count, who knew
30322 everyone in society, leaned over and spoke to her.
30324 "Have you been here long, Countess?" he inquired. "I'll call, I'll call
30325 to kiss your hand. I'm here on business and have brought my girls with
30326 me. They say Semenova acts marvelously. Count Pierre never used to
30327 forget us. Is he here?"
30329 "Yes, he meant to look in," answered Helene, and glanced attentively at
30332 Count Rostov resumed his seat.
30334 "Handsome, isn't she?" he whispered to Natasha.
30336 "Wonderful!" answered Natasha. "She's a woman one could easily fall in
30339 Just then the last chords of the overture were heard and the conductor
30340 tapped with his stick. Some latecomers took their seats in the stalls,
30341 and the curtain rose.
30343 As soon as it rose everyone in the boxes and stalls became silent, and
30344 all the men, old and young, in uniform and evening dress, and all the
30345 women with gems on their bare flesh, turned their whole attention with
30346 eager curiosity to the stage. Natasha too began to look at it.
30353 The floor of the stage consisted of smooth boards, at the sides was some
30354 painted cardboard representing trees, and at the back was a cloth
30355 stretched over boards. In the center of the stage sat some girls in red
30356 bodices and white skirts. One very fat girl in a white silk dress sat
30357 apart on a low bench, to the back of which a piece of green cardboard
30358 was glued. They all sang something. When they had finished their song
30359 the girl in white went up to the prompter's box and a man with tight
30360 silk trousers over his stout legs, and holding a plume and a dagger,
30361 went up to her and began singing, waving his arms about.
30363 First the man in the tight trousers sang alone, then she sang, then they
30364 both paused while the orchestra played and the man fingered the hand of
30365 the girl in white, obviously awaiting the beat to start singing with
30366 her. They sang together and everyone in the theater began clapping and
30367 shouting, while the man and woman on the stage--who represented lovers--
30368 began smiling, spreading out their arms, and bowing.
30370 After her life in the country, and in her present serious mood, all this
30371 seemed grotesque and amazing to Natasha. She could not follow the opera
30372 nor even listen to the music; she saw only the painted cardboard and the
30373 queerly dressed men and women who moved, spoke, and sang so strangely in
30374 that brilliant light. She knew what it was all meant to represent, but
30375 it was so pretentiously false and unnatural that she first felt ashamed
30376 for the actors and then amused at them. She looked at the faces of the
30377 audience, seeking in them the same sense of ridicule and perplexity she
30378 herself experienced, but they all seemed attentive to what was happening
30379 on the stage, and expressed delight which to Natasha seemed feigned. "I
30380 suppose it has to be like this!" she thought. She kept looking round in
30381 turn at the rows of pomaded heads in the stalls and then at the seminude
30382 women in the boxes, especially at Helene in the next box, who--
30383 apparently quite unclothed--sat with a quiet tranquil smile, not taking
30384 her eyes off the stage. And feeling the bright light that flooded the
30385 whole place and the warm air heated by the crowd, Natasha little by
30386 little began to pass into a state of intoxication she had not
30387 experienced for a long while. She did not realize who and where she was,
30388 nor what was going on before her. As she looked and thought, the
30389 strangest fancies unexpectedly and disconnectedly passed through her
30390 mind: the idea occurred to her of jumping onto the edge of the box and
30391 singing the air the actress was singing, then she wished to touch with
30392 her fan an old gentleman sitting not far from her, then to lean over to
30393 Helene and tickle her.
30395 At a moment when all was quiet before the commencement of a song, a door
30396 leading to the stalls on the side nearest the Rostovs' box creaked, and
30397 the steps of a belated arrival were heard. "There's Kuragin!" whispered
30398 Shinshin. Countess Bezukhova turned smiling to the newcomer, and
30399 Natasha, following the direction of that look, saw an exceptionally
30400 handsome adjutant approaching their box with a self-assured yet
30401 courteous bearing. This was Anatole Kuragin whom she had seen and
30402 noticed long ago at the ball in Petersburg. He was now in an adjutant's
30403 uniform with one epaulet and a shoulder knot. He moved with a restrained
30404 swagger which would have been ridiculous had he not been so good-looking
30405 and had his handsome face not worn such an expression of good-humored
30406 complacency and gaiety. Though the performance was proceeding, he walked
30407 deliberately down the carpeted gangway, his sword and spurs slightly
30408 jingling and his handsome perfumed head held high. Having looked at
30409 Natasha he approached his sister, laid his well gloved hand on the edge
30410 of her box, nodded to her, and leaning forward asked a question, with a
30411 motion toward Natasha.
30413 "Mais charmante!" said he, evidently referring to Natasha, who did not
30414 exactly hear his words but understood them from the movement of his
30415 lips. Then he took his place in the first row of the stalls and sat down
30416 beside Dolokhov, nudging with his elbow in a friendly and offhand way
30417 that Dolokhov whom others treated so fawningly. He winked at him gaily,
30418 smiled, and rested his foot against the orchestra screen.
30420 "How like the brother is to the sister," remarked the count. "And how
30421 handsome they both are!"
30423 Shinshin, lowering his voice, began to tell the count of some intrigue
30424 of Kuragin's in Moscow, and Natasha tried to overhear it just because he
30425 had said she was "charmante."
30427 The first act was over. In the stalls everyone began moving about, going
30430 Boris came to the Rostovs' box, received their congratulations very
30431 simply, and raising his eyebrows with an absent-minded smile conveyed to
30432 Natasha and Sonya his fiancee's invitation to her wedding, and went
30433 away. Natasha with a gay, coquettish smile talked to him, and
30434 congratulated on his approaching wedding that same Boris with whom she
30435 had formerly been in love. In the state of intoxication she was in,
30436 everything seemed simple and natural.
30438 The scantily clad Helene smiled at everyone in the same way, and Natasha
30439 gave Boris a similar smile.
30441 Helene's box was filled and surrounded from the stalls by the most
30442 distinguished and intellectual men, who seemed to vie with one another
30443 in their wish to let everyone see that they knew her.
30445 During the whole of that entr'acte Kuragin stood with Dolokhov in front
30446 of the orchestra partition, looking at the Rostovs' box. Natasha knew he
30447 was talking about her and this afforded her pleasure. She even turned so
30448 that he should see her profile in what she thought was its most becoming
30449 aspect. Before the beginning of the second act Pierre appeared in the
30450 stalls. The Rostovs had not seen him since their arrival. His face
30451 looked sad, and he had grown still stouter since Natasha last saw him.
30452 He passed up to the front rows, not noticing anyone. Anatole went up to
30453 him and began speaking to him, looking at and indicating the Rostovs'
30454 box. On seeing Natasha Pierre grew animated and, hastily passing between
30455 the rows, came toward their box. When he got there he leaned on his
30456 elbows and, smiling, talked to her for a long time. While conversing
30457 with Pierre, Natasha heard a man's voice in Countess Bezukhova's box and
30458 something told her it was Kuragin. She turned and their eyes met. Almost
30459 smiling, he gazed straight into her eyes with such an enraptured
30460 caressing look that it seemed strange to be so near him, to look at him
30461 like that, to be so sure he admired her, and not to be acquainted with
30464 In the second act there was scenery representing tombstones, there was a
30465 round hole in the canvas to represent the moon, shades were raised over
30466 the footlights, and from horns and contrabass came deep notes while many
30467 people appeared from right and left wearing black cloaks and holding
30468 things like daggers in their hands. They began waving their arms. Then
30469 some other people ran in and began dragging away the maiden who had been
30470 in white and was now in light blue. They did not drag her away at once,
30471 but sang with her for a long time and then at last dragged her off, and
30472 behind the scenes something metallic was struck three times and everyone
30473 knelt down and sang a prayer. All these things were repeatedly
30474 interrupted by the enthusiastic shouts of the audience.
30476 During this act every time Natasha looked toward the stalls she saw
30477 Anatole Kuragin with an arm thrown across the back of his chair, staring
30478 at her. She was pleased to see that he was captivated by her and it did
30479 not occur to her that there was anything wrong in it.
30481 When the second act was over Countess Bezukhova rose, turned to the
30482 Rostovs' box--her whole bosom completely exposed--beckoned the old count
30483 with a gloved finger, and paying no attention to those who had entered
30484 her box began talking to him with an amiable smile.
30486 "Do make me acquainted with your charming daughters," said she. "The
30487 whole town is singing their praises and I don't even know them!"
30489 Natasha rose and curtsied to the splendid countess. She was so pleased
30490 by praise from this brilliant beauty that she blushed with pleasure.
30492 "I want to become a Moscovite too, now," said Helene. "How is it you're
30493 not ashamed to bury such pearls in the country?"
30495 Countess Bezukhova quite deserved her reputation of being a fascinating
30496 woman. She could say what she did not think--especially what was
30497 flattering--quite simply and naturally.
30499 "Dear count, you must let me look after your daughters! Though I am not
30500 staying here long this time--nor are you--I will try to amuse them. I
30501 have already heard much of you in Petersburg and wanted to get to know
30502 you," said she to Natasha with her stereotyped and lovely smile. "I had
30503 heard about you from my page, Drubetskoy. Have you heard he is getting
30504 married? And also from my husband's friend Bolkonski, Prince Andrew
30505 Bolkonski," she went on with special emphasis, implying that she knew of
30506 his relation to Natasha. To get better acquainted she asked that one of
30507 the young ladies should come into her box for the rest of the
30508 performance, and Natasha moved over to it.
30510 The scene of the third act represented a palace in which many candles
30511 were burning and pictures of knights with short beards hung on the
30512 walls. In the middle stood what were probably a king and a queen. The
30513 king waved his right arm and, evidently nervous, sang something badly
30514 and sat down on a crimson throne. The maiden who had been first in white
30515 and then in light blue, now wore only a smock, and stood beside the
30516 throne with her hair down. She sang something mournfully, addressing the
30517 queen, but the king waved his arm severely, and men and women with bare
30518 legs came in from both sides and began dancing all together. Then the
30519 violins played very shrilly and merrily and one of the women with thick
30520 bare legs and thin arms, separating from the others, went behind the
30521 wings, adjusted her bodice, returned to the middle of the stage, and
30522 began jumping and striking one foot rapidly against the other. In the
30523 stalls everyone clapped and shouted "bravo!" Then one of the men went
30524 into a corner of the stage. The cymbals and horns in the orchestra
30525 struck up more loudly, and this man with bare legs jumped very high and
30526 waved his feet about very rapidly. (He was Duport, who received sixty
30527 thousand rubles a year for this art.) Everybody in the stalls, boxes,
30528 and galleries began clapping and shouting with all their might, and the
30529 man stopped and began smiling and bowing to all sides. Then other men
30530 and women danced with bare legs. Then the king again shouted to the
30531 sound of music, and they all began singing. But suddenly a storm came
30532 on, chromatic scales and diminished sevenths were heard in the
30533 orchestra, everyone ran off, again dragging one of their number away,
30534 and the curtain dropped. Once more there was a terrible noise and
30535 clatter among the audience, and with rapturous faces everyone began
30536 shouting: "Duport! Duport! Duport!" Natasha no longer thought this
30537 strange. She looked about with pleasure, smiling joyfully.
30539 "Isn't Duport delightful?" Helene asked her.
30541 "Oh, yes," replied Natasha.
30548 During the entr'acte a whiff of cold air came into Helene's box, the
30549 door opened, and Anatole entered, stooping and trying not to brush
30552 "Let me introduce my brother to you," said Helene, her eyes shifting
30553 uneasily from Natasha to Anatole.
30555 Natasha turned her pretty little head toward the elegant young officer
30556 and smiled at him over her bare shoulder. Anatole, who was as handsome
30557 at close quarters as at a distance, sat down beside her and told her he
30558 had long wished to have this happiness--ever since the Naryshkins' ball
30559 in fact, at which he had had the well-remembered pleasure of seeing her.
30560 Kuragin was much more sensible and simple with women than among men. He
30561 talked boldly and naturally, and Natasha was strangely and agreeably
30562 struck by the fact that there was nothing formidable in this man about
30563 whom there was so much talk, but that on the contrary his smile was most
30564 naive, cheerful, and good-natured.
30566 Kuragin asked her opinion of the performance and told her how at a
30567 previous performance Semenova had fallen down on the stage.
30569 "And do you know, Countess," he said, suddenly addressing her as an old,
30570 familiar acquaintance, "we are getting up a costume tournament; you
30571 ought to take part in it! It will be great fun. We shall all meet at the
30572 Karagins'! Please come! No! Really, eh?" said he.
30574 While saying this he never removed his smiling eyes from her face, her
30575 neck, and her bare arms. Natasha knew for certain that he was enraptured
30576 by her. This pleased her, yet his presence made her feel constrained and
30577 oppressed. When she was not looking at him she felt that he was looking
30578 at her shoulders, and she involuntarily caught his eye so that he should
30579 look into hers rather than this. But looking into his eyes she was
30580 frightened, realizing that there was not that barrier of modesty she had
30581 always felt between herself and other men. She did not know how it was
30582 that within five minutes she had come to feel herself terribly near to
30583 this man. When she turned away she feared he might seize her from behind
30584 by her bare arm and kiss her on the neck. They spoke of most ordinary
30585 things, yet she felt that they were closer to one another than she had
30586 ever been to any man. Natasha kept turning to Helene and to her father,
30587 as if asking what it all meant, but Helene was engaged in conversation
30588 with a general and did not answer her look, and her father's eyes said
30589 nothing but what they always said: "Having a good time? Well, I'm glad
30592 During one of these moments of awkward silence when Anatole's prominent
30593 eyes were gazing calmly and fixedly at her, Natasha, to break the
30594 silence, asked him how he liked Moscow. She asked the question and
30595 blushed. She felt all the time that by talking to him she was doing
30596 something improper. Anatole smiled as though to encourage her.
30598 "At first I did not like it much, because what makes a town pleasant ce
30599 sont les jolies femmes, * isn't that so? But now I like it very much
30600 indeed," he said, looking at her significantly. "You'll come to the
30601 costume tournament, Countess? Do come!" and putting out his hand to her
30602 bouquet and dropping his voice, he added, "You will be the prettiest
30603 there. Do come, dear countess, and give me this flower as a pledge!"
30606 * Are the pretty women.
30608 Natasha did not understand what he was saying any more than he did
30609 himself, but she felt that his incomprehensible words had an improper
30610 intention. She did not know what to say and turned away as if she had
30611 not heard his remark. But as soon as she had turned away she felt that
30612 he was there, behind, so close behind her.
30614 "How is he now? Confused? Angry? Ought I to put it right?" she asked
30615 herself, and she could not refrain from turning round. She looked
30616 straight into his eyes, and his nearness, self-assurance, and the good-
30617 natured tenderness of his smile vanquished her. She smiled just as he
30618 was doing, gazing straight into his eyes. And again she felt with horror
30619 that no barrier lay between him and her.
30621 The curtain rose again. Anatole left the box, serene and gay. Natasha
30622 went back to her father in the other box, now quite submissive to the
30623 world she found herself in. All that was going on before her now seemed
30624 quite natural, but on the other hand all her previous thoughts of her
30625 betrothed, of Princess Mary, or of life in the country did not once
30626 recur to her mind and were as if belonging to a remote past.
30628 In the fourth act there was some sort of devil who sang waving his arm
30629 about, till the boards were withdrawn from under him and he disappeared
30630 down below. That was the only part of the fourth act that Natasha saw.
30631 She felt agitated and tormented, and the cause of this was Kuragin whom
30632 she could not help watching. As they were leaving the theater Anatole
30633 came up to them, called their carriage, and helped them in. As he was
30634 putting Natasha in he pressed her arm above the elbow. Agitated and
30635 flushed she turned round. He was looking at her with glittering eyes,
30638 Only after she had reached home was Natasha able clearly to think over
30639 what had happened to her, and suddenly remembering Prince Andrew she was
30640 horrified, and at tea to which all had sat down after the opera, she
30641 gave a loud exclamation, flushed, and ran out of the room.
30643 "O God! I am lost!" she said to herself. "How could I let him?" She sat
30644 for a long time hiding her flushed face in her hands trying to realize
30645 what had happened to her, but was unable either to understand what had
30646 happened or what she felt. Everything seemed dark, obscure, and
30647 terrible. There in that enormous, illuminated theater where the bare-
30648 legged Duport, in a tinsel-decorated jacket, jumped about to the music
30649 on wet boards, and young girls and old men, and the nearly naked Helene
30650 with her proud, calm smile, rapturously cried "bravo!"--there in the
30651 presence of that Helene it had all seemed clear and simple; but now,
30652 alone by herself, it was incomprehensible. "What is it? What was that
30653 terror I felt of him? What is this gnawing of conscience I am feeling
30656 Only to the old countess at night in bed could Natasha have told all she
30657 was feeling. She knew that Sonya with her severe and simple views would
30658 either not understand it at all or would be horrified at such a
30659 confession. So Natasha tried to solve what was torturing her by herself.
30661 "Am I spoiled for Andrew's love or not?" she asked herself, and with
30662 soothing irony replied: "What a fool I am to ask that! What did happen
30663 to me? Nothing! I have done nothing, I didn't lead him on at all. Nobody
30664 will know and I shall never see him again," she told herself. "So it is
30665 plain that nothing has happened and there is nothing to repent of, and
30666 Andrew can love me still. But why 'still?' O God, why isn't he here?"
30667 Natasha quieted herself for a moment, but again some instinct told her
30668 that though all this was true, and though nothing had happened, yet the
30669 former purity of her love for Prince Andrew had perished. And again in
30670 imagination she went over her whole conversation with Kuragin, and again
30671 saw the face, gestures, and tender smile of that bold handsome man when
30672 he pressed her arm.
30679 Anatole Kuragin was staying in Moscow because his father had sent him
30680 away from Petersburg, where he had been spending twenty thousand rubles
30681 a year in cash, besides running up debts for as much more, which his
30682 creditors demanded from his father.
30684 His father announced to him that he would now pay half his debts for the
30685 last time, but only on condition that he went to Moscow as adjutant to
30686 the commander-in-chief--a post his father had procured for him--and
30687 would at last try to make a good match there. He indicated to him
30688 Princess Mary and Julie Karagina.
30690 Anatole consented and went to Moscow, where he put up at Pierre's house.
30691 Pierre received him unwillingly at first, but got used to him after a
30692 while, sometimes even accompanied him on his carousals, and gave him
30693 money under the guise of loans.
30695 As Shinshin had remarked, from the time of his arrival Anatole had
30696 turned the heads of the Moscow ladies, especially by the fact that he
30697 slighted them and plainly preferred the gypsy girls and French
30698 actresses--with the chief of whom, Mademoiselle George, he was said to
30699 be on intimate relations. He had never missed a carousal at Danilov's or
30700 other Moscow revelers', drank whole nights through, outvying everyone
30701 else, and was at all the balls and parties of the best society. There
30702 was talk of his intrigues with some of the ladies, and he flirted with a
30703 few of them at the balls. But he did not run after the unmarried girls,
30704 especially the rich heiresses who were most of them plain. There was a
30705 special reason for this, as he had got married two years before--a fact
30706 known only to his most intimate friends. At that time while with his
30707 regiment in Poland, a Polish landowner of small means had forced him to
30708 marry his daughter. Anatole had very soon abandoned his wife and, for a
30709 payment which he agreed to send to his father-in-law, had arranged to be
30710 free to pass himself off as a bachelor.
30712 Anatole was always content with his position, with himself, and with
30713 others. He was instinctively and thoroughly convinced that it was
30714 impossible for him to live otherwise than as he did and that he had
30715 never in his life done anything base. He was incapable of considering
30716 how his actions might affect others or what the consequences of this or
30717 that action of his might be. He was convinced that, as a duck is so made
30718 that it must live in water, so God had made him such that he must spend
30719 thirty thousand rubles a year and always occupy a prominent position in
30720 society. He believed this so firmly that others, looking at him, were
30721 persuaded of it too and did not refuse him either a leading place in
30722 society or money, which he borrowed from anyone and everyone and
30723 evidently would not repay.
30725 He was not a gambler, at any rate he did not care about winning. He was
30726 not vain. He did not mind what people thought of him. Still less could
30727 he be accused of ambition. More than once he had vexed his father by
30728 spoiling his own career, and he laughed at distinctions of all kinds. He
30729 was not mean, and did not refuse anyone who asked of him. All he cared
30730 about was gaiety and women, and as according to his ideas there was
30731 nothing dishonorable in these tastes, and he was incapable of
30732 considering what the gratification of his tastes entailed for others, he
30733 honestly considered himself irreproachable, sincerely despised rogues
30734 and bad people, and with a tranquil conscience carried his head high.
30736 Rakes, those male Magdalenes, have a secret feeling of innocence similar
30737 to that which female Magdalenes have, based on the same hope of
30738 forgiveness. "All will be forgiven her, for she loved much; and all will
30739 be forgiven him, for he enjoyed much."
30741 Dolokhov, who had reappeared that year in Moscow after his exile and his
30742 Persian adventures, and was leading a life of luxury, gambling, and
30743 dissipation, associated with his old Petersburg comrade Kuragin and made
30744 use of him for his own ends.
30746 Anatole was sincerely fond of Dolokhov for his cleverness and audacity.
30747 Dolokhov, who needed Anatole Kuragin's name, position, and connections
30748 as a bait to draw rich young men into his gambling set, made use of him
30749 and amused himself at his expense without letting the other feel it.
30750 Apart from the advantage he derived from Anatole, the very process of
30751 dominating another's will was in itself a pleasure, a habit, and a
30752 necessity to Dolokhov.
30754 Natasha had made a strong impression on Kuragin. At supper after the
30755 opera he described to Dolokhov with the air of a connoisseur the
30756 attractions of her arms, shoulders, feet, and hair and expressed his
30757 intention of making love to her. Anatole had no notion and was incapable
30758 of considering what might come of such love-making, as he never had any
30759 notion of the outcome of any of his actions.
30761 "She's first-rate, my dear fellow, but not for us," replied Dolokhov.
30763 "I will tell my sister to ask her to dinner," said Anatole. "Eh?"
30765 "You'd better wait till she's married...."
30767 "You know, I adore little girls, they lose their heads at once," pursued
30770 "You have been caught once already by a 'little girl,'" said Dolokhov
30771 who knew of Kuragin's marriage. "Take care!"
30773 "Well, that can't happen twice! Eh?" said Anatole, with a good-humored
30781 The day after the opera the Rostovs went nowhere and nobody came to see
30782 them. Marya Dmitrievna talked to the count about something which they
30783 concealed from Natasha. Natasha guessed they were talking about the old
30784 prince and planning something, and this disquieted and offended her. She
30785 was expecting Prince Andrew any moment and twice that day sent a
30786 manservant to the Vozdvizhenka to ascertain whether he had come. He had
30787 not arrived. She suffered more now than during her first days in Moscow.
30788 To her impatience and pining for him were now added the unpleasant
30789 recollection of her interview with Princess Mary and the old prince, and
30790 a fear and anxiety of which she did not understand the cause. She
30791 continually fancied that either he would never come or that something
30792 would happen to her before he came. She could no longer think of him by
30793 herself calmly and continuously as she had done before. As soon as she
30794 began to think of him, the recollection of the old prince, of Princess
30795 Mary, of the theater, and of Kuragin mingled with her thoughts. The
30796 question again presented itself whether she was not guilty, whether she
30797 had not already broken faith with Prince Andrew, and again she found
30798 herself recalling to the minutest detail every word, every gesture, and
30799 every shade in the play of expression on the face of the man who had
30800 been able to arouse in her such an incomprehensible and terrifying
30801 feeling. To the family Natasha seemed livelier than usual, but she was
30802 far less tranquil and happy than before.
30804 On Sunday morning Marya Dmitrievna invited her visitors to Mass at her
30805 parish church--the Church of the Assumption built over the graves of
30806 victims of the plague.
30808 "I don't like those fashionable churches," she said, evidently priding
30809 herself on her independence of thought. "God is the same every where. We
30810 have an excellent priest, he conducts the service decently and with
30811 dignity, and the deacon is the same. What holiness is there in giving
30812 concerts in the choir? I don't like it, it's just self-indulgence!"
30814 Marya Dmitrievna liked Sundays and knew how to keep them. Her whole
30815 house was scrubbed and cleaned on Saturdays; neither she nor the
30816 servants worked, and they all wore holiday dress and went to church. At
30817 her table there were extra dishes at dinner, and the servants had vodka
30818 and roast goose or suckling pig. But in nothing in the house was the
30819 holiday so noticeable as in Marya Dmitrievna's broad, stern face, which
30820 on that day wore an invariable look of solemn festivity.
30822 After Mass, when they had finished their coffee in the dining room where
30823 the loose covers had been removed from the furniture, a servant
30824 announced that the carriage was ready, and Marya Dmitrievna rose with a
30825 stern air. She wore her holiday shawl, in which she paid calls, and
30826 announced that she was going to see Prince Nicholas Bolkonski to have an
30827 explanation with him about Natasha.
30829 After she had gone, a dressmaker from Madame Suppert-Roguet waited on
30830 the Rostovs, and Natasha, very glad of this diversion, having shut
30831 herself into a room adjoining the drawing room, occupied herself trying
30832 on the new dresses. Just as she had put on a bodice without sleeves and
30833 only tacked together, and was turning her head to see in the glass how
30834 the back fitted, she heard in the drawing room the animated sounds of
30835 her father's voice and another's--a woman's--that made her flush. It was
30836 Helene. Natasha had not time to take off the bodice before the door
30837 opened and Countess Bezukhova, dressed in a purple velvet gown with a
30838 high collar, came into the room beaming with good-humored amiable
30841 "Oh, my enchantress!" she cried to the blushing Natasha. "Charming! No,
30842 this is really beyond anything, my dear count," said she to Count Rostov
30843 who had followed her in. "How can you live in Moscow and go nowhere? No,
30844 I won't let you off! Mademoiselle George will recite at my house tonight
30845 and there'll be some people, and if you don't bring your lovely girls--
30846 who are prettier than Mademoiselle George--I won't know you! My husband
30847 is away in Tver or I would send him to fetch you. You must come. You
30848 positively must! Between eight and nine."
30850 She nodded to the dressmaker, whom she knew and who had curtsied
30851 respectfully to her, and seated herself in an armchair beside the
30852 looking glass, draping the folds of her velvet dress picturesquely. She
30853 did not cease chattering good-naturedly and gaily, continually praising
30854 Natasha's beauty. She looked at Natasha's dresses and praised them, as
30855 well as a new dress of her own made of "metallic gauze," which she had
30856 received from Paris, and advised Natasha to have one like it.
30858 "But anything suits you, my charmer!" she remarked.
30860 A smile of pleasure never left Natasha's face. She felt happy and as if
30861 she were blossoming under the praise of this dear Countess Bezukhova who
30862 had formerly seemed to her so unapproachable and important and was now
30863 so kind to her. Natasha brightened up and felt almost in love with this
30864 woman, who was so beautiful and so kind. Helene for her part was
30865 sincerely delighted with Natasha and wished to give her a good time.
30866 Anatole had asked her to bring him and Natasha together, and she was
30867 calling on the Rostovs for that purpose. The idea of throwing her
30868 brother and Natasha together amused her.
30870 Though at one time, in Petersburg, she had been annoyed with Natasha for
30871 drawing Boris away, she did not think of that now, and in her own way
30872 heartily wished Natasha well. As she was leaving the Rostovs she called
30873 her protegee aside.
30875 "My brother dined with me yesterday--we nearly died of laughter--he ate
30876 nothing and kept sighing for you, my charmer! He is madly, quite madly,
30877 in love with you, my dear."
30879 Natasha blushed scarlet when she heard this.
30881 "How she blushes, how she blushes, my pretty!" said Helene. "You must
30882 certainly come. If you love somebody, my charmer, that is not a reason
30883 to shut yourself up. Even if you are engaged, I am sure your fiance
30884 would wish you to go into society rather than be bored to death."
30886 "So she knows I am engaged, and she and her husband Pierre--that good
30887 Pierre--have talked and laughed about this. So it's all right." And
30888 again, under Helene's influence, what had seemed terrible now seemed
30889 simple and natural. "And she is such a grande dame, so kind, and
30890 evidently likes me so much. And why not enjoy myself?" thought Natasha,
30891 gazing at Helene with wide-open, wondering eyes.
30893 Marya Dmitrievna came back to dinner taciturn and serious, having
30894 evidently suffered a defeat at the old prince's. She was still too
30895 agitated by the encounter to be able to talk of the affair calmly. In
30896 answer to the count's inquiries she replied that things were all right
30897 and that she would tell about it next day. On hearing of Countess
30898 Bezukhova's visit and the invitation for that evening, Marya Dmitrievna
30901 "I don't care to have anything to do with Bezukhova and don't advise you
30902 to; however, if you've promised--go. It will divert your thoughts," she
30903 added, addressing Natasha.
30910 Count Rostov took the girls to Countess Bezukhova's. There were a good
30911 many people there, but nearly all strangers to Natasha. Count Rostov was
30912 displeased to see that the company consisted almost entirely of men and
30913 women known for the freedom of their conduct. Mademoiselle George was
30914 standing in a corner of the drawing room surrounded by young men. There
30915 were several Frenchmen present, among them Metivier who from the time
30916 Helene reached Moscow had been an intimate in her house. The count
30917 decided not to sit down to cards or let his girls out of his sight and
30918 to get away as soon as Mademoiselle George's performance was over.
30920 Anatole was at the door, evidently on the lookout for the Rostovs.
30921 Immediately after greeting the count he went up to Natasha and followed
30922 her. As soon as she saw him she was seized by the same feeling she had
30923 had at the opera--gratified vanity at his admiration of her and fear at
30924 the absence of a moral barrier between them.
30926 Helene welcomed Natasha delightedly and was loud in admiration of her
30927 beauty and her dress. Soon after their arrival Mademoiselle George went
30928 out of the room to change her costume. In the drawing room people began
30929 arranging the chairs and taking their seats. Anatole moved a chair for
30930 Natasha and was about to sit down beside her, but the count, who never
30931 lost sight of her, took the seat himself. Anatole sat down behind her.
30933 Mademoiselle George, with her bare, fat, dimpled arms, and a red shawl
30934 draped over one shoulder, came into the space left vacant for her, and
30935 assumed an unnatural pose. Enthusiastic whispering was audible.
30937 Mademoiselle George looked sternly and gloomily at the audience and
30938 began reciting some French verses describing her guilty love for her
30939 son. In some places she raised her voice, in others she whispered,
30940 lifting her head triumphantly; sometimes she paused and uttered hoarse
30941 sounds, rolling her eyes.
30943 "Adorable! divine! delicious!" was heard from every side.
30945 Natasha looked at the fat actress, but neither saw nor heard nor
30946 understood anything of what went on before her. She only felt herself
30947 again completely borne away into this strange senseless world--so remote
30948 from her old world--a world in which it was impossible to know what was
30949 good or bad, reasonable or senseless. Behind her sat Anatole, and
30950 conscious of his proximity she experienced a frightened sense of
30953 After the first monologue the whole company rose and surrounded
30954 Mademoiselle George, expressing their enthusiasm.
30956 "How beautiful she is!" Natasha remarked to her father who had also
30957 risen and was moving through the crowd toward the actress.
30959 "I don't think so when I look at you!" said Anatole, following Natasha.
30960 He said this at a moment when she alone could hear him. "You are
30961 enchanting... from the moment I saw you I have never ceased..."
30963 "Come, come, Natasha!" said the count, as he turned back for his
30964 daughter. "How beautiful she is!" Natasha without saying anything
30965 stepped up to her father and looked at him with surprised inquiring
30968 After giving several recitations, Mademoiselle George left, and Countess
30969 Bezukhova asked her visitors into the ballroom.
30971 The count wished to go home, but Helene entreated him not to spoil her
30972 improvised ball, and the Rostovs stayed on. Anatole asked Natasha for a
30973 valse and as they danced he pressed her waist and hand and told her she
30974 was bewitching and that he loved her. During the ecossaise, which she
30975 also danced with him, Anatole said nothing when they happened to be by
30976 themselves, but merely gazed at her. Natasha lifted her frightened eyes
30977 to him, but there was such confident tenderness in his affectionate look
30978 and smile that she could not, whilst looking at him, say what she had to
30979 say. She lowered her eyes.
30981 "Don't say such things to me. I am betrothed and love another," she said
30982 rapidly.... She glanced at him.
30984 Anatole was not upset or pained by what she had said.
30986 "Don't speak to me of that! What can I do?" said he. "I tell you I am
30987 madly, madly, in love with you! Is it my fault that you are
30988 enchanting?... It's our turn to begin."
30990 Natasha, animated and excited, looked about her with wide-open
30991 frightened eyes and seemed merrier than usual. She understood hardly
30992 anything that went on that evening. They danced the ecossaise and the
30993 Grossvater. Her father asked her to come home, but she begged to remain.
30994 Wherever she went and whomever she was speaking to, she felt his eyes
30995 upon her. Later on she recalled how she had asked her father to let her
30996 go to the dressing room to rearrange her dress, that Helene had followed
30997 her and spoken laughingly of her brother's love, and that she again met
30998 Anatole in the little sitting room. Helene had disappeared leaving them
30999 alone, and Anatole had taken her hand and said in a tender voice:
31001 "I cannot come to visit you but is it possible that I shall never see
31002 you? I love you madly. Can I never...?" and, blocking her path, he
31003 brought his face close to hers.
31005 His large, glittering, masculine eyes were so close to hers that she saw
31008 "Natalie?" he whispered inquiringly while she felt her hands being
31009 painfully pressed. "Natalie?"
31011 "I don't understand. I have nothing to say," her eyes replied.
31013 Burning lips were pressed to hers, and at the same instant she felt
31014 herself released, and Helene's footsteps and the rustle of her dress
31015 were heard in the room. Natasha looked round at her, and then, red and
31016 trembling, threw a frightened look of inquiry at Anatole and moved
31019 "One word, just one, for God's sake!" cried Anatole.
31021 She paused. She so wanted a word from him that would explain to her what
31022 had happened and to which she could find no answer.
31024 "Natalie, just a word, only one!" he kept repeating, evidently not
31025 knowing what to say and he repeated it till Helene came up to them.
31027 Helene returned with Natasha to the drawing room. The Rostovs went away
31028 without staying for supper.
31030 After reaching home Natasha did not sleep all night. She was tormented
31031 by the insoluble question whether she loved Anatole or Prince Andrew.
31032 She loved Prince Andrew--she remembered distinctly how deeply she loved
31033 him. But she also loved Anatole, of that there was no doubt. "Else how
31034 could all this have happened?" thought she. "If, after that, I could
31035 return his smile when saying good-by, if I was able to let it come to
31036 that, it means that I loved him from the first. It means that he is
31037 kind, noble, and splendid, and I could not help loving him. What am I to
31038 do if I love him and the other one too?" she asked herself, unable to
31039 find an answer to these terrible questions.
31046 Morning came with its cares and bustle. Everyone got up and began to
31047 move about and talk, dressmakers came again. Marya Dmitrievna appeared,
31048 and they were called to breakfast. Natasha kept looking uneasily at
31049 everybody with wide-open eyes, as if wishing to intercept every glance
31050 directed toward her, and tried to appear the same as usual.
31052 After breakfast, which was her best time, Marya Dmitrievna sat down in
31053 her armchair and called Natasha and the count to her.
31055 "Well, friends, I have now thought the whole matter over and this is my
31056 advice," she began. "Yesterday, as you know, I went to see Prince
31057 Bolkonski. Well, I had a talk with him.... He took it into his head to
31058 begin shouting, but I am not one to be shouted down. I said what I had
31061 "Well, and he?" asked the count.
31063 "He? He's crazy... he did not want to listen. But what's the use of
31064 talking? As it is we have worn the poor girl out," said Marya
31065 Dmitrievna. "My advice to you is finish your business and go back home
31066 to Otradnoe... and wait there."
31068 "Oh, no!" exclaimed Natasha.
31070 "Yes, go back," said Marya Dmitrievna, "and wait there. If your
31071 betrothed comes here now--there will be no avoiding a quarrel; but alone
31072 with the old man he will talk things over and then come on to you."
31074 Count Rostov approved of this suggestion, appreciating its
31075 reasonableness. If the old man came round it would be all the better to
31076 visit him in Moscow or at Bald Hills later on; and if not, the wedding,
31077 against his wishes, could only be arranged at Otradnoe.
31079 "That is perfectly true. And I am sorry I went to see him and took her,"
31080 said the old count.
31082 "No, why be sorry? Being here, you had to pay your respects. But if he
31083 won't--that's his affair," said Marya Dmitrievna, looking for something
31084 in her reticule. "Besides, the trousseau is ready, so there is nothing
31085 to wait for; and what is not ready I'll send after you. Though I don't
31086 like letting you go, it is the best way. So go, with God's blessing!"
31088 Having found what she was looking for in the reticule she handed it to
31089 Natasha. It was a letter from Princess Mary.
31091 "She has written to you. How she torments herself, poor thing! She's
31092 afraid you might think that she does not like you."
31094 "But she doesn't like me," said Natasha.
31096 "Don't talk nonsense!" cried Marya Dmitrievna.
31098 "I shan't believe anyone, I know she doesn't like me," replied Natasha
31099 boldly as she took the letter, and her face expressed a cold and angry
31100 resolution that caused Marya Dmitrievna to look at her more intently and
31103 "Don't answer like that, my good girl!" she said. "What I say is true!
31104 Write an answer!" Natasha did not reply and went to her own room to read
31105 Princess Mary's letter.
31107 Princess Mary wrote that she was in despair at the misunderstanding that
31108 had occurred between them. Whatever her father's feelings might be, she
31109 begged Natasha to believe that she could not help loving her as the one
31110 chosen by her brother, for whose happiness she was ready to sacrifice
31113 "Do not think, however," she wrote, "that my father is ill-disposed
31114 toward you. He is an invalid and an old man who must be forgiven; but he
31115 is good and magnanimous and will love her who makes his son happy."
31116 Princess Mary went on to ask Natasha to fix a time when she could see
31119 After reading the letter Natasha sat down at the writing table to answer
31120 it. "Dear Princess," she wrote in French quickly and mechanically, and
31121 then paused. What more could she write after all that had happened the
31122 evening before? "Yes, yes! All that has happened, and now all is
31123 changed," she thought as she sat with the letter she had begun before
31124 her. "Must I break off with him? Must I really? That's awful..." and to
31125 escape from these dreadful thoughts she went to Sonya and began sorting
31128 After dinner Natasha went to her room and again took up Princess Mary's
31129 letter. "Can it be that it is all over?" she thought. "Can it be that
31130 all this has happened so quickly and has destroyed all that went
31131 before?" She recalled her love for Prince Andrew in all its former
31132 strength, and at the same time felt that she loved Kuragin. She vividly
31133 pictured herself as Prince Andrew's wife, and the scenes of happiness
31134 with him she had so often repeated in her imagination, and at the same
31135 time, aglow with excitement, recalled every detail of yesterday's
31136 interview with Anatole.
31138 "Why could that not be as well?" she sometimes asked herself in complete
31139 bewilderment. "Only so could I be completely happy; but now I have to
31140 choose, and I can't be happy without either of them. Only," she thought,
31141 "to tell Prince Andrew what has happened or to hide it from him are both
31142 equally impossible. But with that one nothing is spoiled. But am I
31143 really to abandon forever the joy of Prince Andrew's love, in which I
31144 have lived so long?"
31146 "Please, Miss!" whispered a maid entering the room with a mysterious
31147 air. "A man told me to give you this-" and she handed Natasha a letter.
31149 "Only, for Christ's sake..." the girl went on, as Natasha, without
31150 thinking, mechanically broke the seal and read a love letter from
31151 Anatole, of which, without taking in a word, she understood only that it
31152 was a letter from him--from the man she loved. Yes, she loved him, or
31153 else how could that have happened which had happened? And how could she
31154 have a love letter from him in her hand?
31156 With trembling hands Natasha held that passionate love letter which
31157 Dolokhov had composed for Anatole, and as she read it she found in it an
31158 echo of all that she herself imagined she was feeling.
31160 "Since yesterday evening my fate has been sealed; to be loved by you or
31161 to die. There is no other way for me," the letter began. Then he went on
31162 to say that he knew her parents would not give her to him--for this
31163 there were secret reasons he could reveal only to her--but that if she
31164 loved him she need only say the word yes, and no human power could
31165 hinder their bliss. Love would conquer all. He would steal her away and
31166 carry her off to the ends of the earth.
31168 "Yes, yes! I love him!" thought Natasha, reading the letter for the
31169 twentieth time and finding some peculiarly deep meaning in each word of
31172 That evening Marya Dmitrievna was going to the Akharovs' and proposed to
31173 take the girls with her. Natasha, pleading a headache, remained at home.
31180 On returning late in the evening Sonya went to Natasha's room, and to
31181 her surprise found her still dressed and asleep on the sofa. Open on the
31182 table, beside her lay Anatole's letter. Sonya picked it up and read it.
31184 As she read she glanced at the sleeping Natasha, trying to find in her
31185 face an explanation of what she was reading, but did not find it. Her
31186 face was calm, gentle, and happy. Clutching her breast to keep herself
31187 from choking, Sonya, pale and trembling with fear and agitation, sat
31188 down in an armchair and burst into tears.
31190 "How was it I noticed nothing? How could it go so far? Can she have left
31191 off loving Prince Andrew? And how could she let Kuragin go to such
31192 lengths? He is a deceiver and a villain, that's plain! What will
31193 Nicholas, dear noble Nicholas, do when he hears of it? So this is the
31194 meaning of her excited, resolute, unnatural look the day before
31195 yesterday, yesterday, and today," thought Sonya. "But it can't be that
31196 she loves him! She probably opened the letter without knowing who it was
31197 from. Probably she is offended by it. She could not do such a thing!"
31199 Sonya wiped away her tears and went up to Natasha, again scanning her
31202 "Natasha!" she said, just audibly.
31204 Natasha awoke and saw Sonya.
31208 And with the decision and tenderness that often come at the moment of
31209 awakening, she embraced her friend, but noticing Sonya's look of
31210 embarrassment, her own face expressed confusion and suspicion.
31212 "Sonya, you've read that letter?" she demanded.
31214 "Yes," answered Sonya softly.
31216 Natasha smiled rapturously.
31218 "No, Sonya, I can't any longer!" she said. "I can't hide it from you any
31219 longer. You know, we love one another! Sonya, darling, he writes...
31222 Sonya stared open-eyed at Natasha, unable to believe her ears.
31224 "And Bolkonski?" she asked.
31226 "Ah, Sonya, if you only knew how happy I am!" cried Natasha. "You don't
31227 know what love is...."
31229 "But, Natasha, can that be all over?"
31231 Natasha looked at Sonya with wide-open eyes as if she could not grasp
31234 "Well, then, are you refusing Prince Andrew?" said Sonya.
31236 "Oh, you don't understand anything! Don't talk nonsense, just listen!"
31237 said Natasha, with momentary vexation.
31239 "But I can't believe it," insisted Sonya. "I don't understand. How is it
31240 you have loved a man for a whole year and suddenly... Why, you have only
31241 seen him three times! Natasha, I don't believe you, you're joking! In
31242 three days to forget everything and so..."
31244 "Three days?" said Natasha. "It seems to me I've loved him a hundred
31245 years. It seems to me that I have never loved anyone before. You can't
31246 understand it.... Sonya, wait a bit, sit here," and Natasha embraced and
31249 "I had heard that it happens like this, and you must have heard it too,
31250 but it's only now that I feel such love. It's not the same as before. As
31251 soon as I saw him I felt he was my master and I his slave, and that I
31252 could not help loving him. Yes, his slave! Whatever he orders I shall
31253 do. You don't understand that. What can I do? What can I do, Sonya?"
31254 cried Natasha with a happy yet frightened expression.
31256 "But think what you are doing," cried Sonya. "I can't leave it like
31257 this. This secret correspondence... How could you let him go so far?"
31258 she went on, with a horror and disgust she could hardly conceal.
31260 "I told you that I have no will," Natasha replied. "Why can't you
31261 understand? I love him!"
31263 "Then I won't let it come to that... I shall tell!" cried Sonya,
31264 bursting into tears.
31266 "What do you mean? For God's sake... If you tell, you are my enemy!"
31267 declared Natasha. "You want me to be miserable, you want us to be
31270 When she saw Natasha's fright, Sonya shed tears of shame and pity for
31273 "But what has happened between you?" she asked. "What has he said to
31274 you? Why doesn't he come to the house?"
31276 Natasha did not answer her questions.
31278 "For God's sake, Sonya, don't tell anyone, don't torture me," Natasha
31279 entreated. "Remember no one ought to interfere in such matters! I have
31280 confided in you...."
31282 "But why this secrecy? Why doesn't he come to the house?" asked Sonya.
31283 "Why doesn't he openly ask for your hand? You know Prince Andrew gave
31284 you complete freedom--if it is really so; but I don't believe it!
31285 Natasha, have you considered what these secret reasons can be?"
31287 Natasha looked at Sonya with astonishment. Evidently this question
31288 presented itself to her mind for the first time and she did not know how
31291 "I don't know what the reasons are. But there must be reasons!"
31293 Sonya sighed and shook her head incredulously.
31295 "If there were reasons..." she began.
31297 But Natasha, guessing her doubts, interrupted her in alarm.
31299 "Sonya, one can't doubt him! One can't, one can't! Don't you
31300 understand?" she cried.
31302 "Does he love you?"
31304 "Does he love me?" Natasha repeated with a smile of pity at her friend's
31305 lack of comprehension. "Why, you have read his letter and you have seen
31308 "But if he is dishonorable?"
31310 "He! dishonorable? If you only knew!" exclaimed Natasha.
31312 "If he is an honorable man he should either declare his intentions or
31313 cease seeing you; and if you won't do this, I will. I will write to him,
31314 and I will tell Papa!" said Sonya resolutely.
31316 "But I can't live without him!" cried Natasha.
31318 "Natasha, I don't understand you. And what are you saying! Think of your
31319 father and of Nicholas."
31321 "I don't want anyone, I don't love anyone but him. How dare you say he
31322 is dishonorable? Don't you know that I love him?" screamed Natasha. "Go
31323 away, Sonya! I don't want to quarrel with you, but go, for God's sake
31324 go! You see how I am suffering!" Natasha cried angrily, in a voice of
31325 despair and repressed irritation. Sonya burst into sobs and ran from the
31328 Natasha went to the table and without a moment's reflection wrote that
31329 answer to Princess Mary which she had been unable to write all the
31330 morning. In this letter she said briefly that all their
31331 misunderstandings were at an end; that availing herself of the
31332 magnanimity of Prince Andrew who when he went abroad had given her her
31333 freedom, she begged Princess Mary to forget everything and forgive her
31334 if she had been to blame toward her, but that she could not be his wife.
31335 At that moment this all seemed quite easy, simple, and clear to Natasha.
31337 On Friday the Rostovs were to return to the country, but on Wednesday
31338 the count went with the prospective purchaser to his estate near Moscow.
31340 On the day the count left, Sonya and Natasha were invited to a big
31341 dinner party at the Karagins', and Marya Dmitrievna took them there. At
31342 that party Natasha again met Anatole, and Sonya noticed that she spoke
31343 to him, trying not to be overheard, and that all through dinner she was
31344 more agitated than ever. When they got home Natasha was the first to
31345 begin the explanation Sonya expected.
31347 "There, Sonya, you were talking all sorts of nonsense about him,"
31348 Natasha began in a mild voice such as children use when they wish to be
31349 praised. "We have had an explanation today."
31351 "Well, what happened? What did he say? Natasha, how glad I am you're not
31352 angry with me! Tell me everything--the whole truth. What did he say?"
31354 Natasha became thoughtful.
31356 "Oh, Sonya, if you knew him as I do! He said... He asked me what I had
31357 promised Bolkonski. He was glad I was free to refuse him."
31359 Sonya sighed sorrowfully.
31361 "But you haven't refused Bolkonski?" said she.
31363 "Perhaps I have. Perhaps all is over between me and Bolkonski. Why do
31364 you think so badly of me?"
31366 "I don't think anything, only I don't understand this..."
31368 "Wait a bit, Sonya, you'll understand everything. You'll see what a man
31369 he is! Now don't think badly of me or of him. I don't think badly of
31370 anyone: I love and pity everybody. But what am I to do?"
31372 Sonya did not succumb to the tender tone Natasha used toward her. The
31373 more emotional and ingratiating the expression of Natasha's face became,
31374 the more serious and stern grew Sonya's.
31376 "Natasha," said she, "you asked me not to speak to you, and I haven't
31377 spoken, but now you yourself have begun. I don't trust him, Natasha. Why
31380 "Again, again!" interrupted Natasha.
31382 "Natasha, I am afraid for you!"
31386 "I am afraid you're going to your ruin," said Sonya resolutely, and was
31387 herself horrified at what she had said.
31389 Anger again showed in Natasha's face.
31391 "And I'll go to my ruin, I will, as soon as possible! It's not your
31392 business! It won't be you, but I, who'll suffer. Leave me alone, leave
31393 me alone! I hate you!"
31395 "Natasha!" moaned Sonya, aghast.
31397 "I hate you, I hate you! You're my enemy forever!" And Natasha ran out
31400 Natasha did not speak to Sonya again and avoided her. With the same
31401 expression of agitated surprise and guilt she went about the house,
31402 taking up now one occupation, now another, and at once abandoning them.
31404 Hard as it was for Sonya, she watched her friend and did not let her out
31407 The day before the count was to return, Sonya noticed that Natasha sat
31408 by the drawing-room window all the morning as if expecting something and
31409 that she made a sign to an officer who drove past, whom Sonya took to be
31412 Sonya began watching her friend still more attentively and noticed that
31413 at dinner and all that evening Natasha was in a strange and unnatural
31414 state. She answered questions at random, began sentences she did not
31415 finish, and laughed at everything.
31417 After tea Sonya noticed a housemaid at Natasha's door timidly waiting to
31418 let her pass. She let the girl go in, and then listening at the door
31419 learned that another letter had been delivered.
31421 Then suddenly it became clear to Sonya that Natasha had some dreadful
31422 plan for that evening. Sonya knocked at her door. Natasha did not let
31425 "She will run away with him!" thought Sonya. "She is capable of
31426 anything. There was something particularly pathetic and resolute in her
31427 face today. She cried as she said good-by to Uncle," Sonya remembered.
31428 "Yes, that's it, she means to elope with him, but what am I to do?"
31429 thought she, recalling all the signs that clearly indicated that Natasha
31430 had some terrible intention. "The count is away. What am I to do? Write
31431 to Kuragin demanding an explanation? But what is there to oblige him to
31432 reply? Write to Pierre, as Prince Andrew asked me to in case of some
31433 misfortune?... But perhaps she really has already refused Bolkonski--she
31434 sent a letter to Princess Mary yesterday. And Uncle is away...." To tell
31435 Marya Dmitrievna who had such faith in Natasha seemed to Sonya terrible.
31436 "Well, anyway," thought Sonya as she stood in the dark passage, "now or
31437 never I must prove that I remember the family's goodness to me and that
31438 I love Nicholas. Yes! If I don't sleep for three nights I'll not leave
31439 this passage and will hold her back by force and will and not let the
31440 family be disgraced," thought she.
31447 Anatole had lately moved to Dolokhov's. The plan for Natalie Rostova's
31448 abduction had been arranged and the preparations made by Dolokhov a few
31449 days before, and on the day that Sonya, after listening at Natasha's
31450 door, resolved to safeguard her, it was to have been put into execution.
31451 Natasha had promised to come out to Kuragin at the back porch at ten
31452 that evening. Kuragin was to put her into a troyka he would have ready
31453 and to drive her forty miles to the village of Kamenka, where an
31454 unfrocked priest was in readiness to perform a marriage ceremony over
31455 them. At Kamenka a relay of horses was to wait which would take them to
31456 the Warsaw highroad, and from there they would hasten abroad with post
31459 Anatole had a passport, an order for post horses, ten thousand rubles he
31460 had taken from his sister and another ten thousand borrowed with
31463 Two witnesses for the mock marriage--Khvostikov, a retired petty
31464 official whom Dolokhov made use of in his gambling transactions, and
31465 Makarin, a retired hussar, a kindly, weak fellow who had an unbounded
31466 affection for Kuragin--were sitting at tea in Dolokhov's front room.
31468 In his large study, the walls of which were hung to the ceiling with
31469 Persian rugs, bearskins, and weapons, sat Dolokhov in a traveling cloak
31470 and high boots, at an open desk on which lay abacus and some bundles of
31471 paper money. Anatole, with uniform unbuttoned, walked to and fro from
31472 the room where the witnesses were sitting, through the study to the room
31473 behind, where his French valet and others were packing the last of his
31474 things. Dolokhov was counting the money and noting something down.
31476 "Well," he said, "Khvostikov must have two thousand."
31478 "Give it to him, then," said Anatole.
31480 "Makarka" (their name for Makarin) "will go through fire and water for
31481 you for nothing. So here are our accounts all settled," said Dolokhov,
31482 showing him the memorandum. "Is that right?"
31484 "Yes, of course," returned Anatole, evidently not listening to Dolokhov
31485 and looking straight before him with a smile that did not leave his
31488 Dolokhov banged down the lid of his desk and turned to Anatole with an
31491 "Do you know? You'd really better drop it all. There's still time!"
31493 "Fool," retorted Anatole. "Don't talk nonsense! If you only knew... it's
31494 the devil knows what!"
31496 "No, really, give it up!" said Dolokhov. "I am speaking seriously. It's
31497 no joke, this plot you've hatched."
31499 "What, teasing again? Go to the devil! Eh?" said Anatole, making a
31500 grimace. "Really it's no time for your stupid jokes," and he left the
31503 Dolokhov smiled contemptuously and condescendingly when Anatole had gone
31506 "You wait a bit," he called after him. "I'm not joking, I'm talking
31507 sense. Come here, come here!"
31509 Anatole returned and looked at Dolokhov, trying to give him his
31510 attention and evidently submitting to him involuntarily.
31512 "Now listen to me. I'm telling you this for the last time. Why should I
31513 joke about it? Did I hinder you? Who arranged everything for you? Who
31514 found the priest and got the passport? Who raised the money? I did it
31517 "Well, thank you for it. Do you think I am not grateful?" And Anatole
31518 sighed and embraced Dolokhov.
31520 "I helped you, but all the same I must tell you the truth; it is a
31521 dangerous business, and if you think about it--a stupid business. Well,
31522 you'll carry her off--all right! Will they let it stop at that? It will
31523 come out that you're already married. Why, they'll have you in the
31524 criminal court...."
31526 "Oh, nonsense, nonsense!" Anatole ejaculated and again made a grimace.
31527 "Didn't I explain to you? What?" And Anatole, with the partiality dull-
31528 witted people have for any conclusion they have reached by their own
31529 reasoning, repeated the argument he had already put to Dolokhov a
31530 hundred times. "Didn't I explain to you that I have come to this
31531 conclusion: if this marriage is invalid," he went on, crooking one
31532 finger, "then I have nothing to answer for; but if it is valid, no
31533 matter! Abroad no one will know anything about it. Isn't that so? And
31534 don't talk to me, don't, don't."
31536 "Seriously, you'd better drop it! You'll only get yourself into a mess!"
31538 "Go to the devil!" cried Anatole and, clutching his hair, left the room,
31539 but returned at once and dropped into an armchair in front of Dolokhov
31540 with his feet turned under him. "It's the very devil! What? Feel how it
31541 beats!" He took Dolokhov's hand and put it on his heart. "What a foot,
31542 my dear fellow! What a glance! A goddess!" he added in French. "What?"
31544 Dolokhov with a cold smile and a gleam in his handsome insolent eyes
31545 looked at him--evidently wishing to get some more amusement out of him.
31547 "Well and when the money's gone, what then?"
31549 "What then? Eh?" repeated Anatole, sincerely perplexed by a thought of
31550 the future. "What then?... Then, I don't know.... But why talk
31551 nonsense!" He glanced at his watch. "It's time!"
31553 Anatole went into the back room.
31555 "Now then! Nearly ready? You're dawdling!" he shouted to the servants.
31557 Dolokhov put away the money, called a footman whom he ordered to bring
31558 something for them to eat and drink before the journey, and went into
31559 the room where Khvostikov and Makarin were sitting.
31561 Anatole lay on the sofa in the study leaning on his elbow and smiling
31562 pensively, while his handsome lips muttered tenderly to himself.
31564 "Come and eat something. Have a drink!" Dolokhov shouted to him from the
31567 "I don't want to," answered Anatole continuing to smile.
31569 "Come! Balaga is here."
31571 Anatole rose and went into the dining room. Balaga was a famous troyka
31572 driver who had known Dolokhov and Anatole some six years and had given
31573 them good service with his troykas. More than once when Anatole's
31574 regiment was stationed at Tver he had taken him from Tver in the
31575 evening, brought him to Moscow by daybreak, and driven him back again
31576 the next night. More than once he had enabled Dolokhov to escape when
31577 pursued. More than once he had driven them through the town with gypsies
31578 and "ladykins" as he called the cocottes. More than once in their
31579 service he had run over pedestrians and upset vehicles in the streets of
31580 Moscow and had always been protected from the consequences by "my
31581 gentlemen" as he called them. He had ruined more than one horse in their
31582 service. More than once they had beaten him, and more than once they had
31583 made him drunk on champagne and Madeira, which he loved; and he knew
31584 more than one thing about each of them which would long ago have sent an
31585 ordinary man to Siberia. They often called Balaga into their orgies and
31586 made him drink and dance at the gypsies', and more than one thousand
31587 rubles of their money had passed through his hands. In their service he
31588 risked his skin and his life twenty times a year, and in their service
31589 had lost more horses than the money he had from them would buy. But he
31590 liked them; liked that mad driving at twelve miles an hour, liked
31591 upsetting a driver or running down a pedestrian, and flying at full
31592 gallop through the Moscow streets. He liked to hear those wild, tipsy
31593 shouts behind him: "Get on! Get on!" when it was impossible to go any
31594 faster. He liked giving a painful lash on the neck to some peasant who,
31595 more dead than alive, was already hurrying out of his way. "Real
31596 gentlemen!" he considered them.
31598 Anatole and Dolokhov liked Balaga too for his masterly driving and
31599 because he liked the things they liked. With others Balaga bargained,
31600 charging twenty-five rubles for a two hours' drive, and rarely drove
31601 himself, generally letting his young men do so. But with "his gentlemen"
31602 he always drove himself and never demanded anything for his work. Only a
31603 couple of times a year--when he knew from their valets that they had
31604 money in hand--he would turn up of a morning quite sober and with a deep
31605 bow would ask them to help him. The gentlemen always made him sit down.
31607 "Do help me out, Theodore Ivanych, sir," or "your excellency," he would
31608 say. "I am quite out of horses. Let me have what you can to go to the
31611 And Anatole and Dolokhov, when they had money, would give him a thousand
31612 or a couple of thousand rubles.
31614 Balaga was a fair-haired, short, and snub-nosed peasant of about twenty-
31615 seven; red-faced, with a particularly red thick neck, glittering little
31616 eyes, and a small beard. He wore a fine, dark-blue, silk-lined cloth
31617 coat over a sheepskin.
31619 On entering the room now he crossed himself, turning toward the front
31620 corner of the room, and went up to Dolokhov, holding out a small, black
31623 "Theodore Ivanych!" he said, bowing.
31625 "How d'you do, friend? Well, here he is!"
31627 "Good day, your excellency!" he said, again holding out his hand to
31628 Anatole who had just come in.
31630 "I say, Balaga," said Anatole, putting his hands on the man's shoulders,
31631 "do you care for me or not? Eh? Now, do me a service.... What horses
31632 have you come with? Eh?"
31634 "As your messenger ordered, your special beasts," replied Balaga.
31636 "Well, listen, Balaga! Drive all three to death but get me there in
31639 "When they are dead, what shall I drive?" said Balaga with a wink.
31641 "Mind, I'll smash your face in! Don't make jokes!" cried Anatole,
31642 suddenly rolling his eyes.
31644 "Why joke?" said the driver, laughing. "As if I'd grudge my gentlemen
31645 anything! As fast as ever the horses can gallop, so fast we'll go!"
31647 "Ah!" said Anatole. "Well, sit down."
31649 "Yes, sit down!" said Dolokhov.
31651 "I'll stand, Theodore Ivanych."
31653 "Sit down; nonsense! Have a drink!" said Anatole, and filled a large
31654 glass of Madeira for him.
31656 The driver's eyes sparkled at the sight of the wine. After refusing it
31657 for manners' sake, he drank it and wiped his mouth with a red silk
31658 handkerchief he took out of his cap.
31660 "And when are we to start, your excellency?"
31662 "Well..." Anatole looked at his watch. "We'll start at once. Mind,
31663 Balaga! You'll get there in time? Eh?"
31665 "That depends on our luck in starting, else why shouldn't we be there in
31666 time?" replied Balaga. "Didn't we get you to Tver in seven hours? I
31667 think you remember that, your excellency?"
31669 "Do you know, one Christmas I drove from Tver," said Anatole, smilingly
31670 at the recollection and turning to Makarin who gazed rapturously at him
31671 with wide-open eyes. "Will you believe it, Makarka, it took one's breath
31672 away, the rate we flew. We came across a train of loaded sleighs and
31673 drove right over two of them. Eh?"
31675 "Those were horses!" Balaga continued the tale. "That time I'd harnessed
31676 two young side horses with the bay in the shafts," he went on, turning
31677 to Dolokhov. "Will you believe it, Theodore Ivanych, those animals flew
31678 forty miles? I couldn't hold them in, my hands grew numb in the sharp
31679 frost so that I threw down the reins--'Catch hold yourself, your
31680 excellency!' says I, and I just tumbled on the bottom of the sleigh and
31681 sprawled there. It wasn't a case of urging them on, there was no holding
31682 them in till we reached the place. The devils took us there in three
31683 hours! Only the near one died of it."
31690 Anatole went out of the room and returned a few minutes later wearing a
31691 fur coat girt with a silver belt, and a sable cap jauntily set on one
31692 side and very becoming to his handsome face. Having looked in a mirror,
31693 and standing before Dolokhov in the same pose he had assumed before it,
31694 he lifted a glass of wine.
31696 "Well, good-by, Theodore. Thank you for everything and farewell!" said
31697 Anatole. "Well, comrades and friends..." he considered for a moment
31698 "...of my youth, farewell!" he said, turning to Makarin and the others.
31700 Though they were all going with him, Anatole evidently wished to make
31701 something touching and solemn out of this address to his comrades. He
31702 spoke slowly in a loud voice and throwing out his chest slightly swayed
31705 "All take glasses; you too, Balaga. Well, comrades and friends of my
31706 youth, we've had our fling and lived and reveled. Eh? And now, when
31707 shall we meet again? I am going abroad. We have had a good time--now
31708 farewell, lads! To our health! Hurrah!..." he cried, and emptying his
31709 glass flung it on the floor.
31711 "To your health!" said Balaga who also emptied his glass, and wiped his
31712 mouth with his handkerchief.
31714 Makarin embraced Anatole with tears in his eyes.
31716 "Ah, Prince, how sorry I am to part from you!
31718 "Let's go. Let's go!" cried Anatole.
31720 Balaga was about to leave the room.
31722 "No, stop!" said Anatole. "Shut the door; we have first to sit down.
31725 They shut the door and all sat down.
31727 "Now, quick march, lads!" said Anatole, rising.
31729 Joseph, his valet, handed him his sabretache and saber, and they all
31730 went out into the vestibule.
31732 "And where's the fur cloak?" asked Dolokhov. "Hey, Ignatka! Go to
31733 Matrena Matrevna and ask her for the sable cloak. I have heard what
31734 elopements are like," continued Dolokhov with a wink. "Why, she'll rush
31735 out more dead than alive just in the things she is wearing; if you delay
31736 at all there'll be tears and 'Papa' and 'Mamma,' and she's frozen in a
31737 minute and must go back--but you wrap the fur cloak round her first
31738 thing and carry her to the sleigh."
31740 The valet brought a woman's fox-lined cloak.
31742 "Fool, I told you the sable one! Hey, Matrena, the sable!" he shouted so
31743 that his voice rang far through the rooms.
31745 A handsome, slim, and pale-faced gypsy girl with glittering black eyes
31746 and curly blue-black hair, wearing a red shawl, ran out with a sable
31749 "Here, I don't grudge it--take it!" she said, evidently afraid of her
31750 master and yet regretful of her cloak.
31752 Dolokhov, without answering, took the cloak, threw it over Matrena, and
31753 wrapped her up in it.
31755 "That's the way," said Dolokhov, "and then so!" and he turned the collar
31756 up round her head, leaving only a little of the face uncovered. "And
31757 then so, do you see?" and he pushed Anatole's head forward to meet the
31758 gap left by the collar, through which Matrena's brilliant smile was
31761 "Well, good-by, Matrena," said Anatole, kissing her. "Ah, my revels here
31762 are over. Remember me to Steshka. There, good-by! Good-bye, Matrena,
31765 "Well, Prince, may God give you great luck!" said Matrena in her gypsy
31768 Two troykas were standing before the porch and two young drivers were
31769 holding the horses. Balaga took his seat in the front one and holding
31770 his elbows high arranged the reins deliberately. Anatole and Dolokhov
31771 got in with him. Makarin, Khvostikov, and a valet seated themselves in
31774 "Well, are you ready?" asked Balaga.
31776 "Go!" he cried, twisting the reins round his hands, and the troyka tore
31777 down the Nikitski Boulevard.
31779 "Tproo! Get out of the way! Hi!... Tproo!..." The shouting of Balaga and
31780 of the sturdy young fellow seated on the box was all that could be
31781 heard. On the Arbat Square the troyka caught against a carriage;
31782 something cracked, shouts were heard, and the troyka flew along the
31785 After taking a turn along the Podnovinski Boulevard, Balaga began to
31786 rein in, and turning back drew up at the crossing of the old Konyusheny
31789 The young fellow on the box jumped down to hold the horses and Anatole
31790 and Dolokhov went along the pavement. When they reached the gate
31791 Dolokhov whistled. The whistle was answered, and a maidservant ran out.
31793 "Come into the courtyard or you'll be seen; she'll come out directly,"
31796 Dolokhov stayed by the gate. Anatole followed the maid into the
31797 courtyard, turned the corner, and ran up into the porch.
31799 He was met by Gabriel, Marya Dmitrievna's gigantic footman.
31801 "Come to the mistress, please," said the footman in his deep bass,
31802 intercepting any retreat.
31804 "To what Mistress? Who are you?" asked Anatole in a breathless whisper.
31806 "Kindly step in, my orders are to bring you in."
31808 "Kuragin! Come back!" shouted Dolokhov. "Betrayed! Back!"
31810 Dolokhov, after Anatole entered, had remained at the wicket gate and was
31811 struggling with the yard porter who was trying to lock it. With a last
31812 desperate effort Dolokhov pushed the porter aside, and when Anatole ran
31813 back seized him by the arm, pulled him through the wicket, and ran back
31814 with him to the troyka.
31821 Marya Dmitrievna, having found Sonya weeping in the corridor, made her
31822 confess everything, and intercepting the note to Natasha she read it and
31823 went into Natasha's room with it in her hand.
31825 "You shameless good-for-nothing!" said she. "I won't hear a word."
31827 Pushing back Natasha who looked at her with astonished but tearless
31828 eyes, she locked her in; and having given orders to the yard porter to
31829 admit the persons who would be coming that evening, but not to let them
31830 out again, and having told the footman to bring them up to her, she
31831 seated herself in the drawing room to await the abductors.
31833 When Gabriel came to inform her that the men who had come had run away
31834 again, she rose frowning, and clasping her hands behind her paced
31835 through the rooms a long time considering what she should do. Toward
31836 midnight she went to Natasha's room fingering the key in her pocket.
31837 Sonya was sitting sobbing in the corridor. "Marya Dmitrievna, for God's
31838 sake let me in to her!" she pleaded, but Marya Dmitrievna unlocked the
31839 door and went in without giving her an answer.... "Disgusting,
31840 abominable... In my house... horrid girl, hussy! I'm only sorry for her
31841 father!" thought she, trying to restrain her wrath. "Hard as it may be,
31842 I'll tell them all to hold their tongues and will hide it from the
31843 count." She entered the room with resolute steps. Natasha lying on the
31844 sofa, her head hidden in her hands, and she did not stir. She was in
31845 just the same position in which Marya Dmitrievna had left her.
31847 "A nice girl! Very nice!" said Marya Dmitrievna. "Arranging meetings
31848 with lovers in my house! It's no use pretending: you listen when I speak
31849 to you!" And Marya Dmitrievna touched her arm. "Listen when I speak!
31850 You've disgraced yourself like the lowest of hussies. I'd treat you
31851 differently, but I'm sorry for your father, so I will conceal it."
31853 Natasha did not change her position, but her whole body heaved with
31854 noiseless, convulsive sobs which choked her. Marya Dmitrievna glanced
31855 round at Sonya and seated herself on the sofa beside Natasha.
31857 "It's lucky for him that he escaped me; but I'll find him!" she said in
31858 her rough voice. "Do you hear what I am saying or not?" she added.
31860 She put her large hand under Natasha's face and turned it toward her.
31861 Both Marya Dmitrievna and Sonya were amazed when they saw how Natasha
31862 looked. Her eyes were dry and glistening, her lips compressed, her
31865 "Let me be!... What is it to me?... I shall die!" she muttered,
31866 wrenching herself from Marya Dmitrievna's hands with a vicious effort
31867 and sinking down again into her former position.
31869 "Natalie!" said Marya Dmitrievna. "I wish for your good. Lie still, stay
31870 like that then, I won't touch you. But listen. I won't tell you how
31871 guilty you are. You know that yourself. But when your father comes back
31872 tomorrow what am I to tell him? Eh?"
31874 Again Natasha's body shook with sobs.
31876 "Suppose he finds out, and your brother, and your betrothed?"
31878 "I have no betrothed: I have refused him!" cried Natasha.
31880 "That's all the same," continued Marya Dmitrievna. "If they hear of
31881 this, will they let it pass? He, your father, I know him... if he
31882 challenges him to a duel will that be all right? Eh?"
31884 "Oh, let me be! Why have you interfered at all? Why? Why? Who asked you
31885 to?" shouted Natasha, raising herself on the sofa and looking
31886 malignantly at Marya Dmitrievna.
31888 "But what did you want?" cried Marya Dmitrievna, growing angry again.
31889 "Were you kept under lock and key? Who hindered his coming to the house?
31890 Why carry you off as if you were some gypsy singing girl?... Well, if he
31891 had carried you off... do you think they wouldn't have found him? Your
31892 father, or brother, or your betrothed? And he's a scoundrel, a wretch--
31895 "He is better than any of you!" exclaimed Natasha getting up. "If you
31896 hadn't interfered... Oh, my God! What is it all? What is it? Sonya,
31899 And she burst into sobs with the despairing vehemence with which people
31900 bewail disasters they feel they have themselves occasioned. Marya
31901 Dmitrievna was to speak again but Natasha cried out:
31903 "Go away! Go away! You all hate and despise me!" and she threw herself
31906 Marya Dmitrievna went on admonishing her for some time, enjoining on her
31907 that it must all be kept from her father and assuring her that nobody
31908 would know anything about it if only Natasha herself would undertake to
31909 forget it all and not let anyone see that something had happened.
31910 Natasha did not reply, nor did she sob any longer, but she grew cold and
31911 had a shivering fit. Marya Dmitrievna put a pillow under her head,
31912 covered her with two quilts, and herself brought her some lime-flower
31913 water, but Natasha did not respond to her.
31915 "Well, let her sleep," said Marya Dmitrievna as she went out of the room
31916 supposing Natasha to be asleep.
31918 But Natasha was not asleep; with pale face and fixed wide-open eyes she
31919 looked straight before her. All that night she did not sleep or weep and
31920 did not speak to Sonya who got up and went to her several times.
31922 Next day Count Rostov returned from his estate near Moscow in time for
31923 lunch as he had promised. He was in very good spirits; the affair with
31924 the purchaser was going on satisfactorily, and there was nothing to keep
31925 him any longer in Moscow, away from the countess whom he missed. Marya
31926 Dmitrievna met him and told him that Natasha had been very unwell the
31927 day before and that they had sent for the doctor, but that she was
31928 better now. Natasha had not left her room that morning. With compressed
31929 and parched lips and dry fixed eyes, she sat at the window, uneasily
31930 watching the people who drove past and hurriedly glancing round at
31931 anyone who entered the room. She was evidently expecting news of him and
31932 that he would come or would write to her.
31934 When the count came to see her she turned anxiously round at the sound
31935 of a man's footstep, and then her face resumed its cold and malevolent
31936 expression. She did not even get up to greet him. "What is the matter
31937 with you, my angel? Are you ill?" asked the count.
31939 After a moment's silence Natasha answered: "Yes, ill."
31941 In reply to the count's anxious inquiries as to why she was so dejected
31942 and whether anything had happened to her betrothed, she assured him that
31943 nothing had happened and asked him not to worry. Marya Dmitrievna
31944 confirmed Natasha's assurances that nothing had happened. From the
31945 pretense of illness, from his daughter's distress, and by the
31946 embarrassed faces of Sonya and Marya Dmitrievna, the count saw clearly
31947 that something had gone wrong during his absence, but it was so terrible
31948 for him to think that anything disgraceful had happened to his beloved
31949 daughter, and he so prized his own cheerful tranquillity, that he
31950 avoided inquiries and tried to assure himself that nothing particularly
31951 had happened; and he was only dissatisfied that her indisposition
31952 delayed their return to the country.
31959 From the day his wife arrived in Moscow Pierre had been intending to go
31960 away somewhere, so as not to be near her. Soon after the Rostovs came to
31961 Moscow the effect Natasha had on him made him hasten to carry out his
31962 intention. He went to Tver to see Joseph Alexeevich's widow, who had
31963 long since promised to hand over to him some papers of her deceased
31966 When he returned to Moscow Pierre was handed a letter from Marya
31967 Dmitrievna asking him to come and see her on a matter of great
31968 importance relating to Andrew Bolkonski and his betrothed. Pierre had
31969 been avoiding Natasha because it seemed to him that his feeling for her
31970 was stronger than a married man's should be for his friend's fiancee.
31971 Yet some fate constantly threw them together.
31973 "What can have happened? And what can they want with me?" thought he as
31974 he dressed to go to Marya Dmitrievna's. "If only Prince Andrew would
31975 hurry up and come and marry her!" thought he on his way to the house.
31977 On the Tverskoy Boulevard a familiar voice called to him.
31979 "Pierre! Been back long?" someone shouted. Pierre raised his head. In a
31980 sleigh drawn by two gray trotting-horses that were bespattering the
31981 dashboard with snow, Anatole and his constant companion Makarin dashed
31982 past. Anatole was sitting upright in the classic pose of military
31983 dandies, the lower part of his face hidden by his beaver collar and his
31984 head slightly bent. His face was fresh and rosy, his white-plumed hat,
31985 tilted to one side, disclosed his curled and pomaded hair besprinkled
31988 "Yes, indeed, that's a true sage," thought Pierre. "He sees nothing
31989 beyond the pleasure of the moment, nothing troubles him and so he is
31990 always cheerful, satisfied, and serene. What wouldn't I give to be like
31991 him!" he thought enviously.
31993 In Marya Dmitrievna's anteroom the footman who helped him off with his
31994 fur coat said that the mistress asked him to come to her bedroom.
31996 When he opened the ballroom door Pierre saw Natasha sitting at the
31997 window, with a thin, pale, and spiteful face. She glanced round at him,
31998 frowned, and left the room with an expression of cold dignity.
32000 "What has happened?" asked Pierre, entering Marya Dmitrievna's room.
32002 "Fine doings!" answered Dmitrievna. "For fifty-eight years have I lived
32003 in this world and never known anything so disgraceful!"
32005 And having put him on his honor not to repeat anything she told him,
32006 Marya Dmitrievna informed him that Natasha had refused Prince Andrew
32007 without her parents' knowledge and that the cause of this was Anatole
32008 Kuragin into whose society Pierre's wife had thrown her and with whom
32009 Natasha had tried to elope during her father's absence, in order to be
32012 Pierre raised his shoulders and listened open-mouthed to what was told
32013 him, scarcely able to believe his own ears. That Prince Andrew's deeply
32014 loved affianced wife--the same Natasha Rostova who used to be so
32015 charming--should give up Bolkonski for that fool Anatole who was already
32016 secretly married (as Pierre knew), and should be so in love with him as
32017 to agree to run away with him, was something Pierre could not conceive
32018 and could not imagine.
32020 He could not reconcile the charming impression he had of Natasha, whom
32021 he had known from a child, with this new conception of her baseness,
32022 folly, and cruelty. He thought of his wife. "They are all alike!" he
32023 said to himself, reflecting that he was not the only man unfortunate
32024 enough to be tied to a bad woman. But still he pitied Prince Andrew to
32025 the point of tears and sympathized with his wounded pride, and the more
32026 he pitied his friend the more did he think with contempt and even with
32027 disgust of that Natasha who had just passed him in the ballroom with
32028 such a look of cold dignity. He did not know that Natasha's soul was
32029 overflowing with despair, shame, and humiliation, and that it was not
32030 her fault that her face happened to assume an expression of calm dignity
32033 "But how get married?" said Pierre, in answer to Marya Dmitrievna. "He
32034 could not marry--he is married!"
32036 "Things get worse from hour to hour!" ejaculated Marya Dmitrievna. "A
32037 nice youth! What a scoundrel! And she's expecting him--expecting him
32038 since yesterday. She must be told! Then at least she won't go on
32041 After hearing the details of Anatole's marriage from Pierre, and giving
32042 vent to her anger against Anatole in words of abuse, Marya Dmitrievna
32043 told Pierre why she had sent for him. She was afraid that the count or
32044 Bolkonski, who might arrive at any moment, if they knew of this affair
32045 (which she hoped to hide from them) might challenge Anatole to a duel,
32046 and she therefore asked Pierre to tell his brother-in-law in her name to
32047 leave Moscow and not dare to let her set eyes on him again. Pierre--only
32048 now realizing the danger to the old count, Nicholas, and Prince Andrew--
32049 promised to do as she wished. Having briefly and exactly explained her
32050 wishes to him, she let him go to the drawing room.
32052 "Mind, the count knows nothing. Behave as if you know nothing either,"
32053 she said. "And I will go and tell her it is no use expecting him! And
32054 stay to dinner if you care to!" she called after Pierre.
32056 Pierre met the old count, who seemed nervous and upset. That morning
32057 Natasha had told him that she had rejected Bolkonski.
32059 "Troubles, troubles, my dear fellow!" he said to Pierre. "What troubles
32060 one has with these girls without their mother! I do so regret having
32061 come here.... I will be frank with you. Have you heard she has broken
32062 off her engagement without consulting anybody? It's true this engagement
32063 never was much to my liking. Of course he is an excellent man, but
32064 still, with his father's disapproval they wouldn't have been happy, and
32065 Natasha won't lack suitors. Still, it has been going on so long, and to
32066 take such a step without father's or mother's consent! And now she's
32067 ill, and God knows what! It's hard, Count, hard to manage daughters in
32068 their mother's absence...."
32070 Pierre saw that the count was much upset and tried to change the
32071 subject, but the count returned to his troubles.
32073 Sonya entered the room with an agitated face.
32075 "Natasha is not quite well; she's in her room and would like to see you.
32076 Marya Dmitrievna is with her and she too asks you to come."
32078 "Yes, you are a great friend of Bolkonski's, no doubt she wants to send
32079 him a message," said the count. "Oh dear! Oh dear! How happy it all
32082 And clutching the spare gray locks on his temples the count left the
32085 When Marya Dmitrievna told Natasha that Anatole was married, Natasha did
32086 not wish to believe it and insisted on having it confirmed by Pierre
32087 himself. Sonya told Pierre this as she led him along the corridor to
32090 Natasha, pale and stern, was sitting beside Marya Dmitrievna, and her
32091 eyes, glittering feverishly, met Pierre with a questioning look the
32092 moment he entered. She did not smile or nod, but only gazed fixedly at
32093 him, and her look asked only one thing: was he a friend, or like the
32094 others an enemy in regard to Anatole? As for Pierre, he evidently did
32097 "He knows all about it," said Marya Dmitrievna pointing to Pierre and
32098 addressing Natasha. "Let him tell you whether I have told the truth."
32100 Natasha looked from one to the other as a hunted and wounded animal
32101 looks at the approaching dogs and sportsmen.
32103 "Natalya Ilynichna," Pierre began, dropping his eyes with a feeling of
32104 pity for her and loathing for the thing he had to do, "whether it is
32105 true or not should make no difference to you, because..."
32107 "Then it is not true that he's married!"
32111 "Has he been married long?" she asked. "On your honor?..."
32113 Pierre gave his word of honor.
32115 "Is he still here?" she asked, quickly.
32117 "Yes, I have just seen him."
32119 She was evidently unable to speak and made a sign with her hands that
32120 they should leave her alone.
32127 Pierre did not stay for dinner, but left the room and went away at once.
32128 He drove through the town seeking Anatole Kuragin, at the thought of
32129 whom now the blood rushed to his heart and he felt a difficulty in
32130 breathing. He was not at the ice hills, nor at the gypsies', nor at
32131 Komoneno's. Pierre drove to the club. In the club all was going on as
32132 usual. The members who were assembling for dinner were sitting about in
32133 groups; they greeted Pierre and spoke of the town news. The footman
32134 having greeted him, knowing his habits and his acquaintances, told him
32135 there was a place left for him in the small dining room and that Prince
32136 Michael Zakharych was in the library, but Paul Timofeevich had not yet
32137 arrived. One of Pierre's acquaintances, while they were talking about
32138 the weather, asked if he had heard of Kuragin's abduction of Rostova
32139 which was talked of in the town, and was it true? Pierre laughed and
32140 said it was nonsense for he had just come from the Rostovs'. He asked
32141 everyone about Anatole. One man told him he had not come yet, and
32142 another that he was coming to dinner. Pierre felt it strange to see this
32143 calm, indifferent crowd of people unaware of what was going on in his
32144 soul. He paced through the ballroom, waited till everyone had come, and
32145 as Anatole had not turned up did not stay for dinner but drove home.
32147 Anatole, for whom Pierre was looking, dined that day with Dolokhov,
32148 consulting him as to how to remedy this unfortunate affair. It seemed to
32149 him essential to see Natasha. In the evening he drove to his sister's to
32150 discuss with her how to arrange a meeting. When Pierre returned home
32151 after vainly hunting all over Moscow, his valet informed him that Prince
32152 Anatole was with the countess. The countess' drawing room was full of
32155 Pierre without greeting his wife whom he had not seen since his return--
32156 at that moment she was more repulsive to him than ever--entered the
32157 drawing room and seeing Anatole went up to him.
32159 "Ah, Pierre," said the countess going up to her husband. "You don't know
32160 what a plight our Anatole..."
32162 She stopped, seeing in the forward thrust of her husband's head, in his
32163 glowing eyes and his resolute gait, the terrible indications of that
32164 rage and strength which she knew and had herself experienced after his
32165 duel with Dolokhov.
32167 "Where you are, there is vice and evil!" said Pierre to his wife.
32168 "Anatole, come with me! I must speak to you," he added in French.
32170 Anatole glanced round at his sister and rose submissively, ready to
32171 follow Pierre. Pierre, taking him by the arm, pulled him toward himself
32172 and was leading him from the room.
32174 "If you allow yourself in my drawing room..." whispered Helene, but
32175 Pierre did not reply and went out of the room.
32177 Anatole followed him with his usual jaunty step but his face betrayed
32180 Having entered his study Pierre closed the door and addressed Anatole
32181 without looking at him.
32183 "You promised Countess Rostova to marry her and were about to elope with
32186 "Mon cher," answered Anatole (their whole conversation was in French),
32187 "I don't consider myself bound to answer questions put to me in that
32190 Pierre's face, already pale, became distorted by fury. He seized Anatole
32191 by the collar of his uniform with his big hand and shook him from side
32192 to side till Anatole's face showed a sufficient degree of terror.
32194 "When I tell you that I must talk to you!..." repeated Pierre.
32196 "Come now, this is stupid. What?" said Anatole, fingering a button of
32197 his collar that had been wrenched loose with a bit of the cloth.
32199 "You're a scoundrel and a blackguard, and I don't know what deprives me
32200 from the pleasure of smashing your head with this!" said Pierre,
32201 expressing himself so artificially because he was talking French.
32203 He took a heavy paperweight and lifted it threateningly, but at once put
32204 it back in its place.
32206 "Did you promise to marry her?"
32208 "I... I didn't think of it. I never promised, because..."
32210 Pierre interrupted him.
32212 "Have you any letters of hers? Any letters?" he said, moving toward
32215 Anatole glanced at him and immediately thrust his hand into his pocket
32216 and drew out his pocketbook.
32218 Pierre took the letter Anatole handed him and, pushing aside a table
32219 that stood in his way, threw himself on the sofa.
32221 "I shan't be violent, don't be afraid!" said Pierre in answer to a
32222 frightened gesture of Anatole's. "First, the letters," said he, as if
32223 repeating a lesson to himself. "Secondly," he continued after a short
32224 pause, again rising and again pacing the room, "tomorrow you must get
32227 "But how can I?..."
32229 "Thirdly," Pierre continued without listening to him, "you must never
32230 breathe a word of what has passed between you and Countess Rostova. I
32231 know I can't prevent your doing so, but if you have a spark of
32232 conscience..." Pierre paced the room several times in silence.
32234 Anatole sat at a table frowning and biting his lips.
32236 "After all, you must understand that besides your pleasure there is such
32237 a thing as other people's happiness and peace, and that you are ruining
32238 a whole life for the sake of amusing yourself! Amuse yourself with women
32239 like my wife--with them you are within your rights, for they know what
32240 you want of them. They are armed against you by the same experience of
32241 debauchery; but to promise a maid to marry her... to deceive, to
32242 kidnap.... Don't you understand that it is as mean as beating an old man
32245 Pierre paused and looked at Anatole no longer with an angry but with a
32248 "I don't know about that, eh?" said Anatole, growing more confident as
32249 Pierre mastered his wrath. "I don't know that and don't want to," he
32250 said, not looking at Pierre and with a slight tremor of his lower jaw,
32251 "but you have used such words to me--'mean' and so on--which as a man of
32252 honor I can't allow anyone to use."
32254 Pierre glanced at him with amazement, unable to understand what he
32257 "Though it was tete-a-tete," Anatole continued, "still I can't..."
32259 "Is it satisfaction you want?" said Pierre ironically.
32261 "You could at least take back your words. What? If you want me to do as
32264 "I take them back, I take them back!" said Pierre, "and I ask you to
32265 forgive me." Pierre involuntarily glanced at the loose button. "And if
32266 you require money for your journey..."
32268 Anatole smiled. The expression of that base and cringing smile, which
32269 Pierre knew so well in his wife, revolted him.
32271 "Oh, vile and heartless brood!" he exclaimed, and left the room.
32273 Next day Anatole left for Petersburg.
32280 Pierre drove to Marya Dmitrievna's to tell her of the fulfillment of her
32281 wish that Kuragin should be banished from Moscow. The whole house was in
32282 a state of alarm and commotion. Natasha was very ill, having, as Marya
32283 Dmitrievna told him in secret, poisoned herself the night after she had
32284 been told that Anatole was married, with some arsenic she had stealthily
32285 procured. After swallowing a little she had been so frightened that she
32286 woke Sonya and told her what she had done. The necessary antidotes had
32287 been administered in time and she was now out of danger, though still so
32288 weak that it was out of the question to move her to the country, and so
32289 the countess had been sent for. Pierre saw the distracted count, and
32290 Sonya, who had a tear-stained face, but he could not see Natasha.
32292 Pierre dined at the club that day and heard on all sides gossip about
32293 the attempted abduction of Rostova. He resolutely denied these rumors,
32294 assuring everyone that nothing had happened except that his brother-in-
32295 law had proposed to her and been refused. It seemed to Pierre that it
32296 was his duty to conceal the whole affair and re-establish Natasha's
32299 He was awaiting Prince Andrew's return with dread and went every day to
32300 the old prince's for news of him.
32302 Old Prince Bolkonski heard all the rumors current in the town from
32303 Mademoiselle Bourienne and had read the note to Princess Mary in which
32304 Natasha had broken off her engagement. He seemed in better spirits than
32305 usual and awaited his son with great impatience.
32307 Some days after Anatole's departure Pierre received a note from Prince
32308 Andrew, informing him of his arrival and asking him to come to see him.
32310 As soon as he reached Moscow, Prince Andrew had received from his father
32311 Natasha's note to Princess Mary breaking off her engagement
32312 (Mademoiselle Bourienne had purloined it from Princess Mary and given it
32313 to the old prince), and he heard from him the story of Natasha's
32314 elopement, with additions.
32316 Prince Andrew had arrived in the evening and Pierre came to see him next
32317 morning. Pierre expected to find Prince Andrew in almost the same state
32318 as Natasha and was therefore surprised on entering the drawing room to
32319 hear him in the study talking in a loud animated voice about some
32320 intrigue going on in Petersburg. The old prince's voice and another now
32321 and then interrupted him. Princess Mary came out to meet Pierre. She
32322 sighed, looking toward the door of the room where Prince Andrew was,
32323 evidently intending to express her sympathy with his sorrow, but Pierre
32324 saw by her face that she was glad both at what had happened and at the
32325 way her brother had taken the news of Natasha's faithlessness.
32327 "He says he expected it," she remarked. "I know his pride will not let
32328 him express his feelings, but still he has taken it better, far better,
32329 than I expected. Evidently it had to be...."
32331 "But is it possible that all is really ended?" asked Pierre.
32333 Princess Mary looked at him with astonishment. She did not understand
32334 how he could ask such a question. Pierre went into the study. Prince
32335 Andrew, greatly changed and plainly in better health, but with a fresh
32336 horizontal wrinkle between his brows, stood in civilian dress facing his
32337 father and Prince Meshcherski, warmly disputing and vigorously
32338 gesticulating. The conversation was about Speranski--the news of whose
32339 sudden exile and alleged treachery had just reached Moscow.
32341 "Now he is censured and accused by all who were enthusiastic about him a
32342 month ago," Prince Andrew was saying, "and by those who were unable to
32343 understand his aims. To judge a man who is in disfavor and to throw on
32344 him all the blame of other men's mistakes is very easy, but I maintain
32345 that if anything good has been accomplished in this reign it was done by
32346 him, by him alone."
32348 He paused at the sight of Pierre. His face quivered and immediately
32349 assumed a vindictive expression.
32351 "Posterity will do him justice," he concluded, and at once turned to
32354 "Well, how are you? Still getting stouter?" he said with animation, but
32355 the new wrinkle on his forehead deepened. "Yes, I am well," he said in
32356 answer to Pierre's question, and smiled.
32358 To Pierre that smile said plainly: "I am well, but my health is now of
32361 After a few words to Pierre about the awful roads from the Polish
32362 frontier, about people he had met in Switzerland who knew Pierre, and
32363 about M. Dessalles, whom he had brought from abroad to be his son's
32364 tutor, Prince Andrew again joined warmly in the conversation about
32365 Speranski which was still going on between the two old men.
32367 "If there were treason, or proofs of secret relations with Napoleon,
32368 they would have been made public," he said with warmth and haste. "I do
32369 not, and never did, like Speranski personally, but I like justice!"
32371 Pierre now recognized in his friend a need with which he was only too
32372 familiar, to get excited and to have arguments about extraneous matters
32373 in order to stifle thoughts that were too oppressive and too intimate.
32374 When Prince Meshcherski had left, Prince Andrew took Pierre's arm and
32375 asked him into the room that had been assigned him. A bed had been made
32376 up there, and some open portmanteaus and trunks stood about. Prince
32377 Andrew went to one and took out a small casket, from which he drew a
32378 packet wrapped in paper. He did it all silently and very quickly. He
32379 stood up and coughed. His face was gloomy and his lips compressed.
32381 "Forgive me for troubling you..."
32383 Pierre saw that Prince Andrew was going to speak of Natasha, and his
32384 broad face expressed pity and sympathy. This expression irritated Prince
32385 Andrew, and in a determined, ringing, and unpleasant tone he continued:
32387 "I have received a refusal from Countess Rostova and have heard reports
32388 of your brother-in-law having sought her hand, or something of that
32389 kind. Is that true?"
32391 "Both true and untrue," Pierre began; but Prince Andrew interrupted him.
32393 "Here are her letters and her portrait," said he.
32395 He took the packet from the table and handed it to Pierre.
32397 "Give this to the countess... if you see her."
32399 "She is very ill," said Pierre.
32401 "Then she is here still?" said Prince Andrew. "And Prince Kuragin?" he
32404 "He left long ago. She has been at death's door."
32406 "I much regret her illness," said Prince Andrew; and he smiled like his
32407 father, coldly, maliciously, and unpleasantly.
32409 "So Monsieur Kuragin has not honored Countess Rostova with his hand?"
32410 said Prince Andrew, and he snorted several times.
32412 "He could not marry, for he was married already," said Pierre.
32414 Prince Andrew laughed disagreeably, again reminding one of his father.
32416 "And where is your brother-in-law now, if I may ask?" he said.
32418 "He has gone to Peters... But I don't know," said Pierre.
32420 "Well, it doesn't matter," said Prince Andrew. "Tell Countess Rostova
32421 that she was and is perfectly free and that I wish her all that is
32424 Pierre took the packet. Prince Andrew, as if trying to remember whether
32425 he had something more to say, or waiting to see if Pierre would say
32426 anything, looked fixedly at him.
32428 "I say, do you remember our discussion in Petersburg?" asked Pierre,
32431 "Yes," returned Prince Andrew hastily. "I said that a fallen woman
32432 should be forgiven, but I didn't say I could forgive her. I can't."
32434 "But can this be compared...?" said Pierre.
32436 Prince Andrew interrupted him and cried sharply: "Yes, ask her hand
32437 again, be magnanimous, and so on?... Yes, that would be very noble, but
32438 I am unable to follow in that gentleman's footsteps. If you wish to be
32439 my friend never speak to me of that... of all that! Well, good-by. So
32440 you'll give her the packet?"
32442 Pierre left the room and went to the old prince and Princess Mary.
32444 The old man seemed livelier than usual. Princess Mary was the same as
32445 always, but beneath her sympathy for her brother, Pierre noticed her
32446 satisfaction that the engagement had been broken off. Looking at them
32447 Pierre realized what contempt and animosity they all felt for the
32448 Rostovs, and that it was impossible in their presence even to mention
32449 the name of her who could give up Prince Andrew for anyone else.
32451 At dinner the talk turned on the war, the approach of which was becoming
32452 evident. Prince Andrew talked incessantly, arguing now with his father,
32453 now with the Swiss tutor Dessalles, and showing an unnatural animation,
32454 the cause of which Pierre so well understood.
32461 That same evening Pierre went to the Rostovs' to fulfill the commission
32462 entrusted to him. Natasha was in bed, the count at the club, and Pierre,
32463 after giving the letters to Sonya, went to Marya Dmitrievna who was
32464 interested to know how Prince Andrew had taken the news. Ten minutes
32465 later Sonya came to Marya Dmitrievna.
32467 "Natasha insists on seeing Count Peter Kirilovich," said she.
32469 "But how? Are we to take him up to her? The room there has not been
32472 "No, she has dressed and gone into the drawing room," said Sonya.
32474 Marya Dmitrievna only shrugged her shoulders.
32476 "When will her mother come? She has worried me to death! Now mind, don't
32477 tell her everything!" said she to Pierre. "One hasn't the heart to scold
32478 her, she is so much to be pitied, so much to be pitied."
32480 Natasha was standing in the middle of the drawing room, emaciated, with
32481 a pale set face, but not at all shamefaced as Pierre expected to find
32482 her. When he appeared at the door she grew flurried, evidently undecided
32483 whether to go to meet him or to wait till he came up.
32485 Pierre hastened to her. He thought she would give him her hand as usual;
32486 but she, stepping up to him, stopped, breathing heavily, her arms
32487 hanging lifelessly just in the pose she used to stand in when she went
32488 to the middle of the ballroom to sing, but with quite a different
32489 expression of face.
32491 "Peter Kirilovich," she began rapidly, "Prince Bolkonski was your
32492 friend--is your friend," she corrected herself. (It seemed to her that
32493 everything that had once been must now be different.) "He told me once
32494 to apply to you..."
32496 Pierre sniffed as he looked at her, but did not speak. Till then he had
32497 reproached her in his heart and tried to despise her, but he now felt so
32498 sorry for her that there was no room in his soul for reproach.
32500 "He is here now: tell him... to for... forgive me!" She stopped and
32501 breathed still more quickly, but did not shed tears.
32503 "Yes... I will tell him," answered Pierre; "but..."
32505 He did not know what to say.
32507 Natasha was evidently dismayed at the thought of what he might think she
32510 "No, I know all is over," she said hurriedly. "No, that can never be.
32511 I'm only tormented by the wrong I have done him. Tell him only that I
32512 beg him to forgive, forgive, forgive me for everything...."
32514 She trembled all over and sat down on a chair.
32516 A sense of pity he had never before known overflowed Pierre's heart.
32518 "I will tell him, I will tell him everything once more," said Pierre.
32519 "But... I should like to know one thing...."
32521 "Know what?" Natasha's eyes asked.
32523 "I should like to know, did you love..." Pierre did not know how to
32524 refer to Anatole and flushed at the thought of him--"did you love that
32527 "Don't call him bad!" said Natasha. "But I don't know, don't know at
32530 She began to cry and a still greater sense of pity, tenderness, and love
32531 welled up in Pierre. He felt the tears trickle under his spectacles and
32532 hoped they would not be noticed.
32534 "We won't speak of it any more, my dear," said Pierre, and his gentle,
32535 cordial tone suddenly seemed very strange to Natasha.
32537 "We won't speak of it, my dear--I'll tell him everything; but one thing
32538 I beg of you, consider me your friend and if you want help, advice, or
32539 simply to open your heart to someone--not now, but when your mind is
32540 clearer think of me!" He took her hand and kissed it. "I shall be happy
32541 if it's in my power..."
32543 Pierre grew confused.
32545 "Don't speak to me like that. I am not worth it!" exclaimed Natasha and
32546 turned to leave the room, but Pierre held her hand.
32548 He knew he had something more to say to her. But when he said it he was
32549 amazed at his own words.
32551 "Stop, stop! You have your whole life before you," said he to her.
32554 "Before me? No! All is over for me," she replied with shame and self-
32557 "All over?" he repeated. "If I were not myself, but the handsomest,
32558 cleverest, and best man in the world, and were free, I would this moment
32559 ask on my knees for your hand and your love!"
32561 For the first time for many days Natasha wept tears of gratitude and
32562 tenderness, and glancing at Pierre she went out of the room.
32564 Pierre too when she had gone almost ran into the anteroom, restraining
32565 tears of tenderness and joy that choked him, and without finding the
32566 sleeves of his fur cloak threw it on and got into his sleigh.
32568 "Where to now, your excellency?" asked the coachman.
32570 "Where to?" Pierre asked himself. "Where can I go now? Surely not to the
32571 club or to pay calls?" All men seemed so pitiful, so poor, in comparison
32572 with this feeling of tenderness and love he experienced: in comparison
32573 with that softened, grateful, last look she had given him through her
32576 "Home!" said Pierre, and despite twenty-two degrees of frost Fahrenheit
32577 he threw open the bearskin cloak from his broad chest and inhaled the
32580 It was clear and frosty. Above the dirty, ill-lit streets, above the
32581 black roofs, stretched the dark starry sky. Only looking up at the sky
32582 did Pierre cease to feel how sordid and humiliating were all mundane
32583 things compared with the heights to which his soul had just been raised.
32584 At the entrance to the Arbat Square an immense expanse of dark starry
32585 sky presented itself to his eyes. Almost in the center of it, above the
32586 Prechistenka Boulevard, surrounded and sprinkled on all sides by stars
32587 but distinguished from them all by its nearness to the earth, its white
32588 light, and its long uplifted tail, shone the enormous and brilliant
32589 comet of 1812--the comet which was said to portend all kinds of woes and
32590 the end of the world. In Pierre, however, that comet with its long
32591 luminous tail aroused no feeling of fear. On the contrary he gazed
32592 joyfully, his eyes moist with tears, at this bright comet which, having
32593 traveled in its orbit with inconceivable velocity through immeasurable
32594 space, seemed suddenly--like an arrow piercing the earth--to remain
32595 fixed in a chosen spot, vigorously holding its tail erect, shining and
32596 displaying its white light amid countless other scintillating stars. It
32597 seemed to Pierre that this comet fully responded to what was passing in
32598 his own softened and uplifted soul, now blossoming into a new life.
32607 From the close of the year 1811 intensified arming and concentrating of
32608 the forces of Western Europe began, and in 1812 these forces--millions
32609 of men, reckoning those transporting and feeding the army--moved from
32610 the west eastwards to the Russian frontier, toward which since 1811
32611 Russian forces had been similarly drawn. On the twelfth of June, 1812,
32612 the forces of Western Europe crossed the Russian frontier and war began,
32613 that is, an event took place opposed to human reason and to human
32614 nature. Millions of men perpetrated against one another such innumerable
32615 crimes, frauds, treacheries, thefts, forgeries, issues of false money,
32616 burglaries, incendiarisms, and murders as in whole centuries are not
32617 recorded in the annals of all the law courts of the world, but which
32618 those who committed them did not at the time regard as being crimes.
32620 What produced this extraordinary occurrence? What were its causes? The
32621 historians tell us with naive assurance that its causes were the wrongs
32622 inflicted on the Duke of Oldenburg, the nonobservance of the Continental
32623 System, the ambition of Napoleon, the firmness of Alexander, the
32624 mistakes of the diplomatists, and so on.
32626 Consequently, it would only have been necessary for Metternich,
32627 Rumyantsev, or Talleyrand, between a levee and an evening party, to have
32628 taken proper pains and written a more adroit note, or for Napoleon to
32629 have written to Alexander: "My respected Brother, I consent to restore
32630 the duchy to the Duke of Oldenburg"--and there would have been no war.
32632 We can understand that the matter seemed like that to contemporaries. It
32633 naturally seemed to Napoleon that the war was caused by England's
32634 intrigues (as in fact he said on the island of St. Helena). It naturally
32635 seemed to members of the English Parliament that the cause of the war
32636 was Napoleon's ambition; to the Duke of Oldenburg, that the cause of the
32637 war was the violence done to him; to businessmen that the cause of the
32638 war was the Continental System which was ruining Europe; to the generals
32639 and old soldiers that the chief reason for the war was the necessity of
32640 giving them employment; to the legitimists of that day that it was the
32641 need of re-establishing les bons principes, and to the diplomatists of
32642 that time that it all resulted from the fact that the alliance between
32643 Russia and Austria in 1809 had not been sufficiently well concealed from
32644 Napoleon, and from the awkward wording of Memorandum No. 178. It is
32645 natural that these and a countless and infinite quantity of other
32646 reasons, the number depending on the endless diversity of points of
32647 view, presented themselves to the men of that day; but to us, to
32648 posterity who view the thing that happened in all its magnitude and
32649 perceive its plain and terrible meaning, these causes seem insufficient.
32650 To us it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and
32651 tortured each other either because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander
32652 was firm, or because England's policy was astute or the Duke of
32653 Oldenburg wronged. We cannot grasp what connection such circumstances
32654 have with the actual fact of slaughter and violence: why because the
32655 Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed
32656 and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them.
32658 To us, their descendants, who are not historians and are not carried
32659 away by the process of research and can therefore regard the event with
32660 unclouded common sense, an incalculable number of causes present
32661 themselves. The deeper we delve in search of these causes the more of
32662 them we find; and each separate cause or whole series of causes appears
32663 to us equally valid in itself and equally false by its insignificance
32664 compared to the magnitude of the events, and by its impotence--apart
32665 from the cooperation of all the other coincident causes--to occasion the
32666 event. To us, the wish or objection of this or that French corporal to
32667 serve a second term appears as much a cause as Napoleon's refusal to
32668 withdraw his troops beyond the Vistula and to restore the duchy of
32669 Oldenburg; for had he not wished to serve, and had a second, a third,
32670 and a thousandth corporal and private also refused, there would have
32671 been so many less men in Napoleon's army and the war could not have
32674 Had Napoleon not taken offense at the demand that he should withdraw
32675 beyond the Vistula, and not ordered his troops to advance, there would
32676 have been no war; but had all his sergeants objected to serving a second
32677 term then also there could have been no war. Nor could there have been a
32678 war had there been no English intrigues and no Duke of Oldenburg, and
32679 had Alexander not felt insulted, and had there not been an autocratic
32680 government in Russia, or a Revolution in France and a subsequent
32681 dictatorship and Empire, or all the things that produced the French
32682 Revolution, and so on. Without each of these causes nothing could have
32683 happened. So all these causes--myriads of causes--coincided to bring it
32684 about. And so there was no one cause for that occurrence, but it had to
32685 occur because it had to. Millions of men, renouncing their human
32686 feelings and reason, had to go from west to east to slay their fellows,
32687 just as some centuries previously hordes of men had come from the east
32688 to the west, slaying their fellows.
32690 The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words the event seemed
32691 to hang, were as little voluntary as the actions of any soldier who was
32692 drawn into the campaign by lot or by conscription. This could not be
32693 otherwise, for in order that the will of Napoleon and Alexander (on whom
32694 the event seemed to depend) should be carried out, the concurrence of
32695 innumerable circumstances was needed without any one of which the event
32696 could not have taken place. It was necessary that millions of men in
32697 whose hands lay the real power--the soldiers who fired, or transported
32698 provisions and guns--should consent to carry out the will of these weak
32699 individuals, and should have been induced to do so by an infinite number
32700 of diverse and complex causes.
32702 We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational
32703 events (that is to say, events the reasonableness of which we do not
32704 understand). The more we try to explain such events in history
32705 reasonably, the more unreasonable and incomprehensible do they become to
32708 Each man lives for himself, using his freedom to attain his personal
32709 aims, and feels with his whole being that he can now do or abstain from
32710 doing this or that action; but as soon as he has done it, that action
32711 performed at a certain moment in time becomes irrevocable and belongs to
32712 history, in which it has not a free but a predestined significance.
32714 There are two sides to the life of every man, his individual life, which
32715 is the more free the more abstract its interests, and his elemental hive
32716 life in which he inevitably obeys laws laid down for him.
32718 Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in
32719 the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. A deed done
32720 is irrevocable, and its result coinciding in time with the actions of
32721 millions of other men assumes an historic significance. The higher a man
32722 stands on the social ladder, the more people he is connected with and
32723 the more power he has over others, the more evident is the
32724 predestination and inevitability of his every action.
32726 "The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord."
32728 A king is history's slave.
32730 History, that is, the unconscious, general, hive life of mankind, uses
32731 every moment of the life of kings as a tool for its own purposes.
32733 Though Napoleon at that time, in 1812, was more convinced than ever that
32734 it depended on him, verser (ou ne pas verser) le sang de ses peuples *--
32735 as Alexander expressed it in the last letter he wrote him--he had never
32736 been so much in the grip of inevitable laws, which compelled him, while
32737 thinking that he was acting on his own volition, to perform for the hive
32738 life--that is to say, for history--whatever had to be performed.
32741 * "To shed (or not to shed) the blood of his peoples."
32743 The people of the west moved eastwards to slay their fellow men, and by
32744 the law of coincidence thousands of minute causes fitted in and co-
32745 ordinated to produce that movement and war: reproaches for the
32746 nonobservance of the Continental System, the Duke of Oldenburg's wrongs,
32747 the movement of troops into Prussia--undertaken (as it seemed to
32748 Napoleon) only for the purpose of securing an armed peace, the French
32749 Emperor's love and habit of war coinciding with his people's
32750 inclinations, allurement by the grandeur of the preparations, and the
32751 expenditure on those preparations and the need of obtaining advantages
32752 to compensate for that expenditure, the intoxicating honors he received
32753 in Dresden, the diplomatic negotiations which, in the opinion of
32754 contemporaries, were carried on with a sincere desire to attain peace,
32755 but which only wounded the self-love of both sides, and millions of
32756 other causes that adapted themselves to the event that was happening or
32759 When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its
32760 attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried
32761 by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or
32762 because the boy standing below wants to eat it?
32764 Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in
32765 which all vital organic and elemental events occur. And the botanist who
32766 finds that the apple falls because the cellular tissue decays and so
32767 forth is equally right with the child who stands under the tree and says
32768 the apple fell because he wanted to eat it and prayed for it. Equally
32769 right or wrong is he who says that Napoleon went to Moscow because he
32770 wanted to, and perished because Alexander desired his destruction, and
32771 he who says that an undermined hill weighing a million tons fell because
32772 the last navvy struck it for the last time with his mattock. In historic
32773 events the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and
32774 like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself.
32776 Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is
32777 in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of
32778 history and predestined from eternity.
32785 On the twenty-ninth of May Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent
32786 three weeks surrounded by a court that included princes, dukes, kings,
32787 and even an emperor. Before leaving, Napoleon showed favor to the
32788 emperor, kings, and princes who had deserved it, reprimanded the kings
32789 and princes with whom he was dissatisfied, presented pearls and diamonds
32790 of his own--that is, which he had taken from other kings--to the Empress
32791 of Austria, and having, as his historian tells us, tenderly embraced the
32792 Empress Marie Louise--who regarded him as her husband, though he had
32793 left another wife in Paris--left her grieved by the parting which she
32794 seemed hardly able to bear. Though the diplomatists still firmly
32795 believed in the possibility of peace and worked zealously to that end,
32796 and though the Emperor Napoleon himself wrote a letter to Alexander,
32797 calling him Monsieur mon frere, and sincerely assured him that he did
32798 not want war and would always love and honor him--yet he set off to join
32799 his army, and at every station gave fresh orders to accelerate the
32800 movement of his troops from west to east. He went in a traveling coach
32801 with six horses, surrounded by pages, aides-de-camp, and an escort,
32802 along the road to Posen, Thorn, Danzig, and Konigsberg. At each of these
32803 towns thousands of people met him with excitement and enthusiasm.
32805 The army was moving from west to east, and relays of six horses carried
32806 him in the same direction. On the tenth of June, * coming up with the
32807 army, he spent the night in apartments prepared for him on the estate of
32808 a Polish count in the Vilkavisski forest.
32813 Next day, overtaking the army, he went in a carriage to the Niemen, and,
32814 changing into a Polish uniform, he drove to the riverbank in order to
32815 select a place for the crossing.
32817 Seeing, on the other side, some Cossacks (les Cosaques) and the wide-
32818 spreading steppes in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow
32819 (Moscou, la ville sainte), the capital of a realm such as the Scythia
32820 into which Alexander the Great had marched--Napoleon unexpectedly, and
32821 contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered an
32822 advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Niemen.
32824 Early in the morning of the twelfth of June he came out of his tent,
32825 which was pitched that day on the steep left bank of the Niemen, and
32826 looked through a spyglass at the streams of his troops pouring out of
32827 the Vilkavisski forest and flowing over the three bridges thrown across
32828 the river. The troops, knowing of the Emperor's presence, were on the
32829 lookout for him, and when they caught sight of a figure in an overcoat
32830 and a cocked hat standing apart from his suite in front of his tent on
32831 the hill, they threw up their caps and shouted: "Vive l'Empereur!" and
32832 one after another poured in a ceaseless stream out of the vast forest
32833 that had concealed them and, separating, flowed on and on by the three
32834 bridges to the other side.
32836 "Now we'll go into action. Oh, when he takes it in hand himself, things
32837 get hot... by heaven!... There he is!... Vive l'Empereur! So these are
32838 the steppes of Asia! It's a nasty country all the same. Au revoir,
32839 Beauche; I'll keep the best palace in Moscow for you! Au revoir. Good
32840 luck!... Did you see the Emperor? Vive l'Empereur!... preur!--If they
32841 make me Governor of India, Gerard, I'll make you Minister of Kashmir--
32842 that's settled. Vive l'Empereur! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! The Cossacks--
32843 those rascals--see how they run! Vive l'Empereur! There he is, do you
32844 see him? I've seen him twice, as I see you now. The little corporal... I
32845 saw him give the cross to one of the veterans.... Vive l'Empereur!" came
32846 the voices of men, old and young, of most diverse characters and social
32847 positions. On the faces of all was one common expression of joy at the
32848 commencement of the long-expected campaign and of rapture and devotion
32849 to the man in the gray coat who was standing on the hill.
32851 On the thirteenth of June a rather small, thoroughbred Arab horse was
32852 brought to Napoleon. He mounted it and rode at a gallop to one of the
32853 bridges over the Niemen, deafened continually by incessant and rapturous
32854 acclamations which he evidently endured only because it was impossible
32855 to forbid the soldiers to express their love of him by such shouting,
32856 but the shouting which accompanied him everywhere disturbed him and
32857 distracted him from the military cares that had occupied him from the
32858 time he joined the army. He rode across one of the swaying pontoon
32859 bridges to the farther side, turned sharply to the left, and galloped in
32860 the direction of Kovno, preceded by enraptured, mounted chasseurs of the
32861 Guard who, breathless with delight, galloped ahead to clear a path for
32862 him through the troops. On reaching the broad river Viliya, he stopped
32863 near a regiment of Polish uhlans stationed by the river.
32865 "Vivat!" shouted the Poles, ecstatically, breaking their ranks and
32866 pressing against one another to see him.
32868 Napoleon looked up and down the river, dismounted, and sat down on a log
32869 that lay on the bank. At a mute sign from him, a telescope was handed
32870 him which he rested on the back of a happy page who had run up to him,
32871 and he gazed at the opposite bank. Then he became absorbed in a map laid
32872 out on the logs. Without lifting his head he said something, and two of
32873 his aides-de-camp galloped off to the Polish uhlans.
32875 "What? What did he say?" was heard in the ranks of the Polish uhlans
32876 when one of the aides-de-camp rode up to them.
32878 The order was to find a ford and to cross the river. The colonel of the
32879 Polish uhlans, a handsome old man, flushed and, fumbling in his speech
32880 from excitement, asked the aide-de-camp whether he would be permitted to
32881 swim the river with his uhlans instead of seeking a ford. In evident
32882 fear of refusal, like a boy asking for permission to get on a horse, he
32883 begged to be allowed to swim across the river before the Emperor's eyes.
32884 The aide-de-camp replied that probably the Emperor would not be
32885 displeased at this excess of zeal.
32887 As soon as the aide-de-camp had said this, the old mustached officer,
32888 with happy face and sparkling eyes, raised his saber, shouted "Vivat!"
32889 and, commanding the uhlans to follow him, spurred his horse and galloped
32890 into the river. He gave an angry thrust to his horse, which had grown
32891 restive under him, and plunged into the water, heading for the deepest
32892 part where the current was swift. Hundreds of uhlans galloped in after
32893 him. It was cold and uncanny in the rapid current in the middle of the
32894 stream, and the uhlans caught hold of one another as they fell off their
32895 horses. Some of the horses were drowned and some of the men; the others
32896 tried to swim on, some in the saddle and some clinging to their horses'
32897 manes. They tried to make their way forward to the opposite bank and,
32898 though there was a ford one third of a mile away, were proud that they
32899 were swimming and drowning in this river under the eyes of the man who
32900 sat on the log and was not even looking at what they were doing. When
32901 the aide-de-camp, having returned and choosing an opportune moment,
32902 ventured to draw the Emperor's attention to the devotion of the Poles to
32903 his person, the little man in the gray overcoat got up and, having
32904 summoned Berthier, began pacing up and down the bank with him, giving
32905 him instructions and occasionally glancing disapprovingly at the
32906 drowning uhlans who distracted his attention.
32908 For him it was no new conviction that his presence in any part of the
32909 world, from Africa to the steppes of Muscovy alike, was enough to
32910 dumfound people and impel them to insane self-oblivion. He called for
32911 his horse and rode to his quarters.
32913 Some forty uhlans were drowned in the river, though boats were sent to
32914 their assistance. The majority struggled back to the bank from which
32915 they had started. The colonel and some of his men got across and with
32916 difficulty clambered out on the further bank. And as soon as they had
32917 got out, in their soaked and streaming clothes, they shouted "Vivat!"
32918 and looked ecstatically at the spot where Napoleon had been but where he
32919 no longer was and at that moment considered themselves happy.
32921 That evening, between issuing one order that the forged Russian paper
32922 money prepared for use in Russia should be delivered as quickly as
32923 possible and another that a Saxon should be shot, on whom a letter
32924 containing information about the orders to the French army had been
32925 found, Napoleon also gave instructions that the Polish colonel who had
32926 needlessly plunged into the river should be enrolled in the Legion
32927 d'honneur of which Napoleon was himself the head.
32929 Quos vult perdere dementat. *
32932 * Those whom (God) wishes to destroy he drives mad.
32939 The Emperor of Russia had, meanwhile, been in Vilna for more than a
32940 month, reviewing troops and holding maneuvers. Nothing was ready for the
32941 war that everyone expected and to prepare for which the Emperor had come
32942 from Petersburg. There was no general plan of action. The vacillation
32943 between the various plans that were proposed had even increased after
32944 the Emperor had been at headquarters for a month. Each of the three
32945 armies had its own commander-in-chief, but there was no supreme
32946 commander of all the forces, and the Emperor did not assume that
32947 responsibility himself.
32949 The longer the Emperor remained in Vilna the less did everybody--tired
32950 of waiting--prepare for the war. All the efforts of those who surrounded
32951 the sovereign seemed directed merely to making him spend his time
32952 pleasantly and forget that war was impending.
32954 In June, after many balls and fetes given by the Polish magnates, by the
32955 courtiers, and by the Emperor himself, it occurred to one of the Polish
32956 aides-de-camp in attendance that a dinner and ball should be given for
32957 the Emperor by his aides-de-camp. This idea was eagerly received. The
32958 Emperor gave his consent. The aides-de-camp collected money by
32959 subscription. The lady who was thought to be most pleasing to the
32960 Emperor was invited to act as hostess. Count Bennigsen, being a
32961 landowner in the Vilna province, offered his country house for the fete,
32962 and the thirteenth of June was fixed for a ball, dinner, regatta, and
32963 fireworks at Zakret, Count Bennigsen's country seat.
32965 The very day that Napoleon issued the order to cross the Niemen, and his
32966 vanguard, driving off the Cossacks, crossed the Russian frontier,
32967 Alexander spent the evening at the entertainment given by his aides-de-
32968 camp at Bennigsen's country house.
32970 It was a gay and brilliant fete. Connoisseurs of such matters declared
32971 that rarely had so many beautiful women been assembled in one place.
32972 Countess Bezukhova was present among other Russian ladies who had
32973 followed the sovereign from Petersburg to Vilna and eclipsed the refined
32974 Polish ladies by her massive, so-called Russian type of beauty. The
32975 Emperor noticed her and honored her with a dance.
32977 Boris Drubetskoy, having left his wife in Moscow and being for the
32978 present en garcon (as he phrased it), was also there and, though not an
32979 aide-de-camp, had subscribed a large sum toward the expenses. Boris was
32980 now a rich man who had risen to high honors and no longer sought
32981 patronage but stood on an equal footing with the highest of those of his
32982 own age. He was meeting Helene in Vilna after not having seen her for a
32983 long time and did not recall the past, but as Helene was enjoying the
32984 favors of a very important personage and Boris had only recently
32985 married, they met as good friends of long standing.
32987 At midnight dancing was still going on. Helene, not having a suitable
32988 partner, herself offered to dance the mazurka with Boris. They were the
32989 third couple. Boris, coolly looking at Helene's dazzling bare shoulders
32990 which emerged from a dark, gold-embroidered, gauze gown, talked to her
32991 of old acquaintances and at the same time, unaware of it himself and
32992 unnoticed by others, never for an instant ceased to observe the Emperor
32993 who was in the same room. The Emperor was not dancing, he stood in the
32994 doorway, stopping now one pair and now another with gracious words which
32995 he alone knew how to utter.
32997 As the mazurka began, Boris saw that Adjutant General Balashev, one of
32998 those in closest attendance on the Emperor, went up to him and contrary
32999 to court etiquette stood near him while he was talking to a Polish lady.
33000 Having finished speaking to her, the Emperor looked inquiringly at
33001 Balashev and, evidently understanding that he only acted thus because
33002 there were important reasons for so doing, nodded slightly to the lady
33003 and turned to him. Hardly had Balashev begun to speak before a look of
33004 amazement appeared on the Emperor's face. He took Balashev by the arm
33005 and crossed the room with him, unconsciously clearing a path seven yards
33006 wide as the people on both sides made way for him. Boris noticed
33007 Arakcheev's excited face when the sovereign went out with Balashev.
33008 Arakcheev looked at the Emperor from under his brow and, sniffing with
33009 his red nose, stepped forward from the crowd as if expecting the Emperor
33010 to address him. (Boris understood that Arakcheev envied Balashev and was
33011 displeased that evidently important news had reached the Emperor
33012 otherwise than through himself.)
33014 But the Emperor and Balashev passed out into the illuminated garden
33015 without noticing Arakcheev who, holding his sword and glancing
33016 wrathfully around, followed some twenty paces behind them.
33018 All the time Boris was going through the figures of the mazurka, he was
33019 worried by the question of what news Balashev had brought and how he
33020 could find it out before others. In the figure in which he had to choose
33021 two ladies, he whispered to Helene that he meant to choose Countess
33022 Potocka who, he thought, had gone out onto the veranda, and glided over
33023 the parquet to the door opening into the garden, where, seeing Balashev
33024 and the Emperor returning to the veranda, he stood still. They were
33025 moving toward the door. Boris, fluttering as if he had not had time to
33026 withdraw, respectfully pressed close to the doorpost with bowed head.
33028 The Emperor, with the agitation of one who has been personally
33029 affronted, was finishing with these words:
33031 "To enter Russia without declaring war! I will not make peace as long as
33032 a single armed enemy remains in my country!" It seemed to Boris that it
33033 gave the Emperor pleasure to utter these words. He was satisfied with
33034 the form in which he had expressed his thoughts, but displeased that
33035 Boris had overheard it.
33037 "Let no one know of it!" the Emperor added with a frown.
33039 Boris understood that this was meant for him and, closing his eyes,
33040 slightly bowed his head. The Emperor re-entered the ballroom and
33041 remained there about another half-hour.
33043 Boris was thus the first to learn the news that the French army had
33044 crossed the Niemen and, thanks to this, was able to show certain
33045 important personages that much that was concealed from others was
33046 usually known to him, and by this means he rose higher in their
33049 The unexpected news of the French having crossed the Niemen was
33050 particularly startling after a month of unfulfilled expectations, and at
33051 a ball. On first receiving the news, under the influence of indignation
33052 and resentment the Emperor had found a phrase that pleased him, fully
33053 expressed his feelings, and has since become famous. On returning home
33054 at two o'clock that night he sent for his secretary, Shishkov, and told
33055 him to write an order to the troops and a rescript to Field Marshal
33056 Prince Saltykov, in which he insisted on the words being inserted that
33057 he would not make peace so long as a single armed Frenchman remained on
33060 Next day the following letter was sent to Napoleon:
33062 Monsieur mon frere,
33064 Yesterday I learned that, despite the loyalty with which I have kept my
33065 engagements with Your Majesty, your troops have crossed the Russian
33066 frontier, and I have this moment received from Petersburg a note, in
33067 which Count Lauriston informs me, as a reason for this aggression, that
33068 Your Majesty has considered yourself to be in a state of war with me
33069 from the time Prince Kuragin asked for his passports. The reasons on
33070 which the Duc de Bassano based his refusal to deliver them to him would
33071 never have led me to suppose that that could serve as a pretext for
33072 aggression. In fact, the ambassador, as he himself has declared, was
33073 never authorized to make that demand, and as soon as I was informed of
33074 it I let him know how much I disapproved of it and ordered him to remain
33075 at his post. If Your Majesty does not intend to shed the blood of our
33076 peoples for such a misunderstanding, and consents to withdraw your
33077 troops from Russian territory, I will regard what has passed as not
33078 having occurred and an understanding between us will be possible. In the
33079 contrary case, Your Majesty, I shall see myself forced to repel an
33080 attack that nothing on my part has provoked. It still depends on Your
33081 Majesty to preserve humanity from the calamity of another war. I am,
33084 (signed) Alexander.
33091 At two in the morning of the fourteenth of June, the Emperor, having
33092 sent for Balashev and read him his letter to Napoleon, ordered him to
33093 take it and hand it personally to the French Emperor. When dispatching
33094 Balashev, the Emperor repeated to him the words that he would not make
33095 peace so long as a single armed enemy remained on Russian soil and told
33096 him to transmit those words to Napoleon. Alexander did not insert them
33097 in his letter to Napoleon, because with his characteristic tact he felt
33098 it would be injudicious to use them at a moment when a last attempt at
33099 reconciliation was being made, but he definitely instructed Balashev to
33100 repeat them personally to Napoleon.
33102 Having set off in the small hours of the fourteenth, accompanied by a
33103 bugler and two Cossacks, Balashev reached the French outposts at the
33104 village of Rykonty, on the Russian side of the Niemen, by dawn. There he
33105 was stopped by French cavalry sentinels.
33107 A French noncommissioned officer of hussars, in crimson uniform and a
33108 shaggy cap, shouted to the approaching Balashev to halt. Balashev did
33109 not do so at once, but continued to advance along the road at a walking
33112 The noncommissioned officer frowned and, muttering words of abuse,
33113 advanced his horse's chest against Balashev, put his hand to his saber,
33114 and shouted rudely at the Russian general, asking: was he deaf that he
33115 did not do as he was told? Balashev mentioned who he was. The
33116 noncommissioned officer began talking with his comrades about regimental
33117 matters without looking at the Russian general.
33119 After living at the seat of the highest authority and power, after
33120 conversing with the Emperor less than three hours before, and in general
33121 being accustomed to the respect due to his rank in the service, Balashev
33122 found it very strange here on Russian soil to encounter this hostile,
33123 and still more this disrespectful, application of brute force to
33126 The sun was only just appearing from behind the clouds, the air was
33127 fresh and dewy. A herd of cattle was being driven along the road from
33128 the village, and over the fields the larks rose trilling, one after
33129 another, like bubbles rising in water.
33131 Balashev looked around him, awaiting the arrival of an officer from the
33132 village. The Russian Cossacks and bugler and the French hussars looked
33133 silently at one another from time to time.
33135 A French colonel of hussars, who had evidently just left his bed, came
33136 riding from the village on a handsome sleek gray horse, accompanied by
33137 two hussars. The officer, the soldiers, and their horses all looked
33138 smart and well kept.
33140 It was that first period of a campaign when troops are still in full
33141 trim, almost like that of peacetime maneuvers, but with a shade of
33142 martial swagger in their clothes, and a touch of the gaiety and spirit
33143 of enterprise which always accompany the opening of a campaign.
33145 The French colonel with difficulty repressed a yawn, but was polite and
33146 evidently understood Balashev's importance. He led him past his soldiers
33147 and behind the outposts and told him that his wish to be presented to
33148 the Emperor would most likely be satisfied immediately, as the Emperor's
33149 quarters were, he believed, not far off.
33151 They rode through the village of Rykonty, past tethered French hussar
33152 horses, past sentinels and men who saluted their colonel and stared with
33153 curiosity at a Russian uniform, and came out at the other end of the
33154 village. The colonel said that the commander of the division was a mile
33155 and a quarter away and would receive Balashev and conduct him to his
33158 The sun had by now risen and shone gaily on the bright verdure.
33160 They had hardly ridden up a hill, past a tavern, before they saw a group
33161 of horsemen coming toward them. In front of the group, on a black horse
33162 with trappings that glittered in the sun, rode a tall man with plumes in
33163 his hat and black hair curling down to his shoulders. He wore a red
33164 mantle, and stretched his long legs forward in French fashion. This man
33165 rode toward Balashev at a gallop, his plumes flowing and his gems and
33166 gold lace glittering in the bright June sunshine.
33168 Balashev was only two horses' length from the equestrian with the
33169 bracelets, plumes, necklaces, and gold embroidery, who was galloping
33170 toward him with a theatrically solemn countenance, when Julner, the
33171 French colonel, whispered respectfully: "The King of Naples!" It was, in
33172 fact, Murat, now called "King of Naples." Though it was quite
33173 incomprehensible why he should be King of Naples, he was called so, and
33174 was himself convinced that he was so, and therefore assumed a more
33175 solemn and important air than formerly. He was so sure that he really
33176 was the King of Naples that when, on the eve of his departure from that
33177 city, while walking through the streets with his wife, some Italians
33178 called out to him: "Viva il re!" * he turned to his wife with a pensive
33179 smile and said: "Poor fellows, they don't know that I am leaving them
33183 * "Long live the king."
33185 But though he firmly believed himself to be King of Naples and pitied
33186 the grief felt by the subjects he was abandoning, latterly, after he had
33187 been ordered to return to military service--and especially since his
33188 last interview with Napoleon in Danzig, when his august brother-in-law
33189 had told him: "I made you King that you should reign in my way, but not
33190 in yours!"--he had cheerfully taken up his familiar business, and--like
33191 a well-fed but not overfat horse that feels himself in harness and grows
33192 skittish between the shafts--he dressed up in clothes as variegated and
33193 expensive as possible, and gaily and contentedly galloped along the
33194 roads of Poland, without himself knowing why or whither.
33196 On seeing the Russian general he threw back his head, with its long hair
33197 curling to his shoulders, in a majestically royal manner, and looked
33198 inquiringly at the French colonel. The colonel respectfully informed His
33199 Majesty of Balashev's mission, whose name he could not pronounce.
33201 "De Bal-macheve!" said the King (overcoming by his assurance the
33202 difficulty that had presented itself to the colonel). "Charmed to make
33203 your acquaintance, General!" he added, with a gesture of kingly
33206 As soon as the King began to speak loud and fast his royal dignity
33207 instantly forsook him, and without noticing it he passed into his
33208 natural tone of good-natured familiarity. He laid his hand on the
33209 withers of Balashev's horse and said:
33211 "Well, General, it all looks like war," as if regretting a circumstance
33212 of which he was unable to judge.
33214 "Your Majesty," replied Balashev, "my master, the Emperor, does not
33215 desire war and as Your Majesty sees..." said Balashev, using the words
33216 Your Majesty at every opportunity, with the affectation unavoidable in
33217 frequently addressing one to whom the title was still a novelty.
33219 Murat's face beamed with stupid satisfaction as he listened to "Monsieur
33220 de Bal-macheve." But royaute oblige! * and he felt it incumbent on him,
33221 as a king and an ally, to confer on state affairs with Alexander's
33222 envoy. He dismounted, took Balashev's arm, and moving a few steps away
33223 from his suite, which waited respectfully, began to pace up and down
33224 with him, trying to speak significantly. He referred to the fact that
33225 the Emperor Napoleon had resented the demand that he should withdraw his
33226 troops from Prussia, especially when that demand became generally known
33227 and the dignity of France was thereby offended.
33230 * "Royalty has its obligations."
33232 Balashev replied that there was "nothing offensive in the demand,
33233 because..." but Murat interrupted him.
33235 "Then you don't consider the Emperor Alexander the aggressor?" he asked
33236 unexpectedly, with a kindly and foolish smile.
33238 Balashev told him why he considered Napoleon to be the originator of the
33241 "Oh, my dear general!" Murat again interrupted him, "with all my heart I
33242 wish the Emperors may arrange the affair between them, and that the war
33243 begun by no wish of mine may finish as quickly as possible!" said he, in
33244 the tone of a servant who wants to remain good friends with another
33245 despite a quarrel between their masters.
33247 And he went on to inquiries about the Grand Duke and the state of his
33248 health, and to reminiscences of the gay and amusing times he had spent
33249 with him in Naples. Then suddenly, as if remembering his royal dignity,
33250 Murat solemnly drew himself up, assumed the pose in which he had stood
33251 at his coronation, and, waving his right arm, said:
33253 "I won't detain you longer, General. I wish success to your mission,"
33254 and with his embroidered red mantle, his flowing feathers, and his
33255 glittering ornaments, he rejoined his suite who were respectfully
33258 Balashev rode on, supposing from Murat's words that he would very soon
33259 be brought before Napoleon himself. But instead of that, at the next
33260 village the sentinels of Davout's infantry corps detained him as the
33261 pickets of the vanguard had done, and an adjutant of the corps
33262 commander, who was fetched, conducted him into the village to Marshal
33270 Davout was to Napoleon what Arakcheev was to Alexander--though not a
33271 coward like Arakcheev, he was as precise, as cruel, and as unable to
33272 express his devotion to his monarch except by cruelty.
33274 In the organism of states such men are necessary, as wolves are
33275 necessary in the organism of nature, and they always exist, always
33276 appear and hold their own, however incongruous their presence and their
33277 proximity to the head of the government may be. This inevitability alone
33278 can explain how the cruel Arakcheev, who tore out a grenadier's mustache
33279 with his own hands, whose weak nerves rendered him unable to face
33280 danger, and who was neither an educated man nor a courtier, was able to
33281 maintain his powerful position with Alexander, whose own character was
33282 chivalrous, noble, and gentle.
33284 Balashev found Davout seated on a barrel in the shed of a peasant's hut,
33285 writing--he was auditing accounts. Better quarters could have been found
33286 him, but Marshal Davout was one of those men who purposely put
33287 themselves in most depressing conditions to have a justification for
33288 being gloomy. For the same reason they are always hard at work and in a
33289 hurry. "How can I think of the bright side of life when, as you see, I
33290 am sitting on a barrel and working in a dirty shed?" the expression of
33291 his face seemed to say. The chief pleasure and necessity of such men,
33292 when they encounter anyone who shows animation, is to flaunt their own
33293 dreary, persistent activity. Davout allowed himself that pleasure when
33294 Balashev was brought in. He became still more absorbed in his task when
33295 the Russian general entered, and after glancing over his spectacles at
33296 Balashev's face, which was animated by the beauty of the morning and by
33297 his talk with Murat, he did not rise or even stir, but scowled still
33298 more and sneered malevolently.
33300 When he noticed in Balashev's face the disagreeable impression this
33301 reception produced, Davout raised his head and coldly asked what he
33304 Thinking he could have been received in such a manner only because
33305 Davout did not know that he was adjutant general to the Emperor
33306 Alexander and even his envoy to Napoleon, Balashev hastened to inform
33307 him of his rank and mission. Contrary to his expectation, Davout, after
33308 hearing him, became still surlier and ruder.
33310 "Where is your dispatch?" he inquired. "Give it to me. I will send it to
33313 Balashev replied that he had been ordered to hand it personally to the
33316 "Your Emperor's orders are obeyed in your army, but here," said Davout,
33317 "you must do as you're told."
33319 And, as if to make the Russian general still more conscious of his
33320 dependence on brute force, Davout sent an adjutant to call the officer
33323 Balashev took out the packet containing the Emperor's letter and laid it
33324 on the table (made of a door with its hinges still hanging on it, laid
33325 across two barrels). Davout took the packet and read the inscription.
33327 "You are perfectly at liberty to treat me with respect or not,"
33328 protested Balashev, "but permit me to observe that I have the honor to
33329 be adjutant general to His Majesty...."
33331 Davout glanced at him silently and plainly derived pleasure from the
33332 signs of agitation and confusion which appeared on Balashev's face.
33334 "You will be treated as is fitting," said he and, putting the packet in
33335 his pocket, left the shed.
33337 A minute later the marshal's adjutant, de Castres, came in and conducted
33338 Balashev to the quarters assigned him.
33340 That day he dined with the marshal, at the same board on the barrels.
33342 Next day Davout rode out early and, after asking Balashev to come to
33343 him, peremptorily requested him to remain there, to move on with the
33344 baggage train should orders come for it to move, and to talk to no one
33345 except Monsieur de Castres.
33347 After four days of solitude, ennui, and consciousness of his impotence
33348 and insignificance--particularly acute by contrast with the sphere of
33349 power in which he had so lately moved--and after several marches with
33350 the marshal's baggage and the French army, which occupied the whole
33351 district, Balashev was brought to Vilna--now occupied by the French--
33352 through the very gate by which he had left it four days previously.
33354 Next day the imperial gentleman-in-waiting, the Comte de Turenne, came
33355 to Balashev and informed him of the Emperor Napoleon's wish to honor him
33358 Four days before, sentinels of the Preobrazhensk regiment had stood in
33359 front of the house to which Balashev was conducted, and now two French
33360 grenadiers stood there in blue uniforms unfastened in front and with
33361 shaggy caps on their heads, and an escort of hussars and uhlans and a
33362 brilliant suite of aides-de-camp, pages, and generals, who were waiting
33363 for Napoleon to come out, were standing at the porch, round his saddle
33364 horse and his Mameluke, Rustan. Napoleon received Balashev in the very
33365 house in Vilna from which Alexander had dispatched him on his mission.
33372 Though Balashev was used to imperial pomp, he was amazed at the luxury
33373 and magnificence of Napoleon's court.
33375 The Comte de Turenne showed him into a big reception room where many
33376 generals, gentlemen-in-waiting, and Polish magnates--several of whom
33377 Balashev had seen at the court of the Emperor of Russia--were waiting.
33378 Duroc said that Napoleon would receive the Russian general before going
33381 After some minutes, the gentleman-in-waiting who was on duty came into
33382 the great reception room and, bowing politely, asked Balashev to follow
33385 Balashev went into a small reception room, one door of which led into a
33386 study, the very one from which the Russian Emperor had dispatched him on
33387 his mission. He stood a minute or two, waiting. He heard hurried
33388 footsteps beyond the door, both halves of it were opened rapidly; all
33389 was silent and then from the study the sound was heard of other steps,
33390 firm and resolute--they were those of Napoleon. He had just finished
33391 dressing for his ride, and wore a blue uniform, opening in front over a
33392 white waistcoat so long that it covered his rotund stomach, white
33393 leather breeches tightly fitting the fat thighs of his short legs, and
33394 Hessian boots. His short hair had evidently just been brushed, but one
33395 lock hung down in the middle of his broad forehead. His plump white neck
33396 stood out sharply above the black collar of his uniform, and he smelled
33397 of Eau de Cologne. His full face, rather young-looking, with its
33398 prominent chin, wore a gracious and majestic expression of imperial
33401 He entered briskly, with a jerk at every step and his head slightly
33402 thrown back. His whole short corpulent figure with broad thick
33403 shoulders, and chest and stomach involuntarily protruding, had that
33404 imposing and stately appearance one sees in men of forty who live in
33405 comfort. It was evident, too, that he was in the best of spirits that
33408 He nodded in answer to Balashav's low and respectful bow, and coming up
33409 to him at once began speaking like a man who values every moment of his
33410 time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say but is sure
33411 he will always say the right thing and say it well.
33413 "Good day, General!" said he. "I have received the letter you brought
33414 from the Emperor Alexander and am very glad to see you." He glanced with
33415 his large eyes into Balashav's face and immediately looked past him.
33417 It was plain that Balashev's personality did not interest him at all.
33418 Evidently only what took place within his own mind interested him.
33419 Nothing outside himself had any significance for him, because everything
33420 in the world, it seemed to him, depended entirely on his will.
33422 "I do not, and did not, desire war," he continued, "but it has been
33423 forced on me. Even now" (he emphasized the word) "I am ready to receive
33424 any explanations you can give me."
33426 And he began clearly and concisely to explain his reasons for
33427 dissatisfaction with the Russian government. Judging by the calmly
33428 moderate and amicable tone in which the French Emperor spoke, Balashev
33429 was firmly persuaded that he wished for peace and intended to enter into
33432 When Napoleon, having finished speaking, looked inquiringly at the
33433 Russian envoy, Balashev began a speech he had prepared long before:
33434 "Sire! The Emperor, my master..." but the sight of the Emperor's eyes
33435 bent on him confused him. "You are flurried--compose yourself!" Napoleon
33436 seemed to say, as with a scarcely perceptible smile he looked at
33437 Balashev's uniform and sword.
33439 Balashev recovered himself and began to speak. He said that the Emperor
33440 Alexander did not consider Kurakin's demand for his passports a
33441 sufficient cause for war; that Kurakin had acted on his own initiative
33442 and without his sovereign's assent, that the Emperor Alexander did not
33443 desire war, and had no relations with England.
33445 "Not yet!" interposed Napoleon, and, as if fearing to give vent to his
33446 feelings, he frowned and nodded slightly as a sign that Balashev might
33449 After saying all he had been instructed to say, Balashev added that the
33450 Emperor Alexander wished for peace, but would not enter into
33451 negotiations except on condition that... Here Balashev hesitated: he
33452 remembered the words the Emperor Alexander had not written in his
33453 letter, but had specially inserted in the rescript to Saltykov and had
33454 told Balashev to repeat to Napoleon. Balashev remembered these words,
33455 "So long as a single armed foe remains on Russian soil," but some
33456 complex feeling restrained him. He could not utter them, though he
33457 wished to do so. He grew confused and said: "On condition that the
33458 French army retires beyond the Niemen."
33460 Napoleon noticed Balashev's embarrassment when uttering these last
33461 words; his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began to quiver
33462 rhythmically. Without moving from where he stood he began speaking in a
33463 louder tone and more hurriedly than before. During the speech that
33464 followed, Balashev, who more than once lowered his eyes, involuntarily
33465 noticed the quivering of Napoleon's left leg which increased the more
33466 Napoleon raised his voice.
33468 "I desire peace, no less than the Emperor Alexander," he began. "Have I
33469 not for eighteen months been doing everything to obtain it? I have
33470 waited eighteen months for explanations. But in order to begin
33471 negotiations, what is demanded of me?" he said, frowning and making an
33472 energetic gesture of inquiry with his small white plump hand.
33474 "The withdrawal of your army beyond the Niemen, sire," replied Balashev.
33476 "The Niemen?" repeated Napoleon. "So now you want me to retire beyond
33477 the Niemen--only the Niemen?" repeated Napoleon, looking straight at
33480 The latter bowed his head respectfully.
33482 Instead of the demand of four months earlier to withdraw from Pomerania,
33483 only a withdrawal beyond the Niemen was now demanded. Napoleon turned
33484 quickly and began to pace the room.
33486 "You say the demand now is that I am to withdraw beyond the Niemen
33487 before commencing negotiations, but in just the same way two months ago
33488 the demand was that I should withdraw beyond the Vistula and the Oder,
33489 and yet you are willing to negotiate."
33491 He went in silence from one corner of the room to the other and again
33492 stopped in front of Balashev. Balashev noticed that his left leg was
33493 quivering faster than before and his face seemed petrified in its stern
33494 expression. This quivering of his left leg was a thing Napoleon was
33495 conscious of. "The vibration of my left calf is a great sign with me,"
33496 he remarked at a later date.
33498 "Such demands as to retreat beyond the Vistula and Oder may be made to a
33499 Prince of Baden, but not to me!" Napoleon almost screamed, quite to his
33500 own surprise. "If you gave me Petersburg and Moscow I could not accept
33501 such conditions. You say I have begun this war! But who first joined his
33502 army? The Emperor Alexander, not I! And you offer me negotiations when I
33503 have expended millions, when you are in alliance with England, and when
33504 your position is a bad one. You offer me negotiations! But what is the
33505 aim of your alliance with England? What has she given you?" he continued
33506 hurriedly, evidently no longer trying to show the advantages of peace
33507 and discuss its possibility, but only to prove his own rectitude and
33508 power and Alexander's errors and duplicity.
33510 The commencement of his speech had obviously been made with the
33511 intention of demonstrating the advantages of his position and showing
33512 that he was nevertheless willing to negotiate. But he had begun talking,
33513 and the more he talked the less could he control his words.
33515 The whole purport of his remarks now was evidently to exalt himself and
33516 insult Alexander--just what he had least desired at the commencement of
33519 "I hear you have made peace with Turkey?"
33521 Balashev bowed his head affirmatively.
33523 "Peace has been concluded..." he began.
33525 But Napoleon did not let him speak. He evidently wanted to do all the
33526 talking himself, and continued to talk with the sort of eloquence and
33527 unrestrained irritability to which spoiled people are so prone.
33529 "Yes, I know you have made peace with the Turks without obtaining
33530 Moldavia and Wallachia; I would have given your sovereign those
33531 provinces as I gave him Finland. Yes," he went on, "I promised and would
33532 have given the Emperor Alexander Moldavia and Wallachia, and now he
33533 won't have those splendid provinces. Yet he might have united them to
33534 his empire and in a single reign would have extended Russia from the
33535 Gulf of Bothnia to the mouths of the Danube. Catherine the Great could
33536 not have done more," said Napoleon, growing more and more excited as he
33537 paced up and down the room, repeating to Balashev almost the very words
33538 he had used to Alexander himself at Tilsit. "All that, he would have
33539 owed to my friendship. Oh, what a splendid reign!" he repeated several
33540 times, then paused, drew from his pocket a gold snuffbox, lifted it to
33541 his nose, and greedily sniffed at it.
33543 "What a splendid reign the Emperor Alexander's might have been!"
33545 He looked compassionately at Balashev, and as soon as the latter tried
33546 to make some rejoinder hastily interrupted him.
33548 "What could he wish or look for that he would not have obtained through
33549 my friendship?" demanded Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders in
33550 perplexity. "But no, he has preferred to surround himself with my
33551 enemies, and with whom? With Steins, Armfeldts, Bennigsens, and
33552 Wintzingerodes! Stein, a traitor expelled from his own country;
33553 Armfeldt, a rake and an intriguer; Wintzingerode, a fugitive French
33554 subject; Bennigsen, rather more of a soldier than the others, but all
33555 the same an incompetent who was unable to do anything in 1807 and who
33556 should awaken terrible memories in the Emperor Alexander's mind....
33557 Granted that were they competent they might be made use of," continued
33558 Napoleon--hardly able to keep pace in words with the rush of thoughts
33559 that incessantly sprang up, proving how right and strong he was (in his
33560 perception the two were one and the same)--"but they are not even that!
33561 They are neither fit for war nor peace! Barclay is said to be the most
33562 capable of them all, but I cannot say so, judging by his first
33563 movements. And what are they doing, all these courtiers? Pfuel proposes,
33564 Armfeldt disputes, Bennigsen considers, and Barclay, called on to act,
33565 does not know what to decide on, and time passes bringing no result.
33566 Bagration alone is a military man. He's stupid, but he has experience, a
33567 quick eye, and resolution.... And what role is your young monarch
33568 playing in that monstrous crowd? They compromise him and throw on him
33569 the responsibility for all that happens. A sovereign should not be with
33570 the army unless he is a general!" said Napoleon, evidently uttering
33571 these words as a direct challenge to the Emperor. He knew how Alexander
33572 desired to be a military commander.
33574 "The campaign began only a week ago, and you haven't even been able to
33575 defend Vilna. You are cut in two and have been driven out of the Polish
33576 provinces. Your army is grumbling."
33578 "On the contrary, Your Majesty," said Balashev, hardly able to remember
33579 what had been said to him and following these verbal fireworks with
33580 difficulty, "the troops are burning with eagerness..."
33582 "I know everything!" Napoleon interrupted him. "I know everything. I
33583 know the number of your battalions as exactly as I know my own. You have
33584 not two hundred thousand men, and I have three times that number. I give
33585 you my word of honor," said Napoleon, forgetting that his word of honor
33586 could carry no weight--"I give you my word of honor that I have five
33587 hundred and thirty thousand men this side of the Vistula. The Turks will
33588 be of no use to you; they are worth nothing and have shown it by making
33589 peace with you. As for the Swedes--it is their fate to be governed by
33590 mad kings. Their king was insane and they changed him for another--
33591 Bernadotte, who promptly went mad--for no Swede would ally himself with
33592 Russia unless he were mad."
33594 Napoleon grinned maliciously and again raised his snuffbox to his nose.
33596 Balashev knew how to reply to each of Napoleon's remarks, and would have
33597 done so; he continually made the gesture of a man wishing to say
33598 something, but Napoleon always interrupted him. To the alleged insanity
33599 of the Swedes, Balashev wished to reply that when Russia is on her side
33600 Sweden is practically an island: but Napoleon gave an angry exclamation
33601 to drown his voice. Napoleon was in that state of irritability in which
33602 a man has to talk, talk, and talk, merely to convince himself that he is
33603 in the right. Balashev began to feel uncomfortable: as envoy he feared
33604 to demean his dignity and felt the necessity of replying; but, as a man,
33605 he shrank before the transport of groundless wrath that had evidently
33606 seized Napoleon. He knew that none of the words now uttered by Napoleon
33607 had any significance, and that Napoleon himself would be ashamed of them
33608 when he came to his senses. Balashev stood with downcast eyes, looking
33609 at the movements of Napoleon's stout legs and trying to avoid meeting
33612 "But what do I care about your allies?" said Napoleon. "I have allies--
33613 the Poles. There are eighty thousand of them and they fight like lions.
33614 And there will be two hundred thousand of them."
33616 And probably still more perturbed by the fact that he had uttered this
33617 obvious falsehood, and that Balashev still stood silently before him in
33618 the same attitude of submission to fate, Napoleon abruptly turned round,
33619 drew close to Balashev's face, and, gesticulating rapidly and
33620 energetically with his white hands, almost shouted:
33622 "Know that if you stir up Prussia against me, I'll wipe it off the map
33623 of Europe!" he declared, his face pale and distorted by anger, and he
33624 struck one of his small hands energetically with the other. "Yes, I will
33625 throw you back beyond the Dvina and beyond the Dnieper, and will re-
33626 erect against you that barrier which it was criminal and blind of Europe
33627 to allow to be destroyed. Yes, that is what will happen to you. That is
33628 what you have gained by alienating me!" And he walked silently several
33629 times up and down the room, his fat shoulders twitching.
33631 He put his snuffbox into his waistcoat pocket, took it out again, lifted
33632 it several times to his nose, and stopped in front of Balashev. He
33633 paused, looked ironically straight into Balashev's eyes, and said in a
33636 "And yet what a splendid reign your master might have had!"
33638 Balashev, feeling it incumbent on him to reply, said that from the
33639 Russian side things did not appear in so gloomy a light. Napoleon was
33640 silent, still looking derisively at him and evidently not listening to
33641 him. Balashev said that in Russia the best results were expected from
33642 the war. Napoleon nodded condescendingly, as if to say, "I know it's
33643 your duty to say that, but you don't believe it yourself. I have
33646 When Balashev had ended, Napoleon again took out his snuffbox, sniffed
33647 at it, and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal. The door
33648 opened, a gentleman-in-waiting, bending respectfully, handed the Emperor
33649 his hat and gloves; another brought him a pocket handkerchief. Napoleon,
33650 without giving them a glance, turned to Balashev:
33652 "Assure the Emperor Alexander from me," said he, taking his hat, "that I
33653 am as devoted to him as before: I know him thoroughly and very highly
33654 esteem his lofty qualities. I will detain you no longer, General; you
33655 shall receive my letter to the Emperor."
33657 And Napoleon went quickly to the door. Everyone in the reception room
33658 rushed forward and descended the staircase.
33665 After all that Napoleon had said to him--those bursts of anger and the
33666 last dryly spoken words: "I will detain you no longer, General; you
33667 shall receive my letter," Balashev felt convinced that Napoleon would
33668 not wish to see him, and would even avoid another meeting with him--an
33669 insulted envoy--especially as he had witnessed his unseemly anger. But,
33670 to his surprise, Balashev received, through Duroc, an invitation to dine
33671 with the Emperor that day.
33673 Bessieres, Caulaincourt, and Berthier were present at that dinner.
33675 Napoleon met Balashev cheerfully and amiably. He not only showed no sign
33676 of constraint or self-reproach on account of his outburst that morning,
33677 but, on the contrary, tried to reassure Balashev. It was evident that he
33678 had long been convinced that it was impossible for him to make a
33679 mistake, and that in his perception whatever he did was right, not
33680 because it harmonized with any idea of right and wrong, but because he
33683 The Emperor was in very good spirits after his ride through Vilna, where
33684 crowds of people had rapturously greeted and followed him. From all the
33685 windows of the streets through which he rode, rugs, flags, and his
33686 monogram were displayed, and the Polish ladies, welcoming him, waved
33687 their handkerchiefs to him.
33689 At dinner, having placed Balashev beside him, Napoleon not only treated
33690 him amiably but behaved as if Balashev were one of his own courtiers,
33691 one of those who sympathized with his plans and ought to rejoice at his
33692 success. In the course of conversation he mentioned Moscow and
33693 questioned Balashev about the Russian capital, not merely as an
33694 interested traveler asks about a new city he intends to visit, but as if
33695 convinced that Balashev, as a Russian, must be flattered by his
33698 "How many inhabitants are there in Moscow? How many houses? Is it true
33699 that Moscow is called 'Holy Moscow'? How many churches are there in
33702 And receiving the reply that there were more than two hundred churches,
33705 "Why such a quantity of churches?"
33707 "The Russians are very devout," replied Balashev.
33709 "But a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the
33710 backwardness of a people," said Napoleon, turning to Caulaincourt for
33711 appreciation of this remark.
33713 Balashev respectfully ventured to disagree with the French Emperor.
33715 "Every country has its own character," said he.
33717 "But nowhere in Europe is there anything like that," said Napoleon.
33719 "I beg your Majesty's pardon," returned Balashev, "besides Russia there
33720 is Spain, where there are also many churches and monasteries."
33722 This reply of Balashev's, which hinted at the recent defeats of the
33723 French in Spain, was much appreciated when he related it at Alexander's
33724 court, but it was not much appreciated at Napoleon's dinner, where it
33727 The uninterested and perplexed faces of the marshals showed that they
33728 were puzzled as to what Balashev's tone suggested. "If there is a point
33729 we don't see it, or it is not at all witty," their expressions seemed to
33730 say. So little was his rejoinder appreciated that Napoleon did not
33731 notice it at all and naively asked Balashev through what towns the
33732 direct road from there to Moscow passed. Balashev, who was on the alert
33733 all through the dinner, replied that just as "all roads lead to Rome,"
33734 so all roads lead to Moscow: there were many roads, and "among them the
33735 road through Poltava, which Charles XII chose." Balashev involuntarily
33736 flushed with pleasure at the aptitude of this reply, but hardly had he
33737 uttered the word Poltava before Caulaincourt began speaking of the
33738 badness of the road from Petersburg to Moscow and of his Petersburg
33741 After dinner they went to drink coffee in Napoleon's study, which four
33742 days previously had been that of the Emperor Alexander. Napoleon sat
33743 down, toying with his Sevres coffee cup, and motioned Balashev to a
33746 Napoleon was in that well-known after-dinner mood which, more than any
33747 reasoned cause, makes a man contented with himself and disposed to
33748 consider everyone his friend. It seemed to him that he was surrounded by
33749 men who adored him: and he felt convinced that, after his dinner,
33750 Balashev too was his friend and worshiper. Napoleon turned to him with a
33751 pleasant, though slightly ironic, smile.
33753 "They tell me this is the room the Emperor Alexander occupied? Strange,
33754 isn't it, General?" he said, evidently not doubting that this remark
33755 would be agreeable to his hearer since it went to prove his, Napoleon's,
33756 superiority to Alexander.
33758 Balashev made no reply and bowed his head in silence.
33760 "Yes. Four days ago in this room, Wintzingerode and Stein were
33761 deliberating," continued Napoleon with the same derisive and self-
33762 confident smile. "What I can't understand," he went on, "is that the
33763 Emperor Alexander has surrounded himself with my personal enemies. That
33764 I do not... understand. Has he not thought that I may do the same?" and
33765 he turned inquiringly to Balashev, and evidently this thought turned him
33766 back on to the track of his morning's anger, which was still fresh in
33769 "And let him know that I will do so!" said Napoleon, rising and pushing
33770 his cup away with his hand. "I'll drive all his Wurttemberg, Baden, and
33771 Weimar relations out of Germany.... Yes. I'll drive them out. Let him
33772 prepare an asylum for them in Russia!"
33774 Balashev bowed his head with an air indicating that he would like to
33775 make his bow and leave, and only listened because he could not help
33776 hearing what was said to him. Napoleon did not notice this expression;
33777 he treated Balashev not as an envoy from his enemy, but as a man now
33778 fully devoted to him and who must rejoice at his former master's
33781 "And why has the Emperor Alexander taken command of the armies? What is
33782 the good of that? War is my profession, but his business is to reign and
33783 not to command armies! Why has he taken on himself such a
33786 Again Napoleon brought out his snuffbox, paced several times up and down
33787 the room in silence, and then, suddenly and unexpectedly, went up to
33788 Balashev and with a slight smile, as confidently, quickly, and simply as
33789 if he were doing something not merely important but pleasing to
33790 Balashev, he raised his hand to the forty-year-old Russian general's
33791 face and, taking him by the ear, pulled it gently, smiling with his lips
33794 To have one's ear pulled by the Emperor was considered the greatest
33795 honor and mark of favor at the French court.
33797 "Well, adorer and courtier of the Emperor Alexander, why don't you say
33798 anything?" said he, as if it was ridiculous, in his presence, to be the
33799 adorer and courtier of anyone but himself, Napoleon. "Are the horses
33800 ready for the general?" he added, with a slight inclination of his head
33801 in reply to Balashev's bow. "Let him have mine, he has a long way to
33804 The letter taken by Balashev was the last Napoleon sent to Alexander.
33805 Every detail of the interview was communicated to the Russian monarch,
33806 and the war began...
33813 After his interview with Pierre in Moscow, Prince Andrew went to
33814 Petersburg, on business as he told his family, but really to meet
33815 Anatole Kuragin whom he felt it necessary to encounter. On reaching
33816 Petersburg he inquired for Kuragin but the latter had already left the
33817 city. Pierre had warned his brother-in-law that Prince Andrew was on his
33818 track. Anatole Kuragin promptly obtained an appointment from the
33819 Minister of War and went to join the army in Moldavia. While in
33820 Petersburg Prince Andrew met Kutuzov, his former commander who was
33821 always well disposed toward him, and Kutuzov suggested that he should
33822 accompany him to the army in Moldavia, to which the old general had been
33823 appointed commander-in-chief. So Prince Andrew, having received an
33824 appointment on the headquarters staff, left for Turkey.
33826 Prince Andrew did not think it proper to write and challenge Kuragin. He
33827 thought that if he challenged him without some fresh cause it might
33828 compromise the young Countess Rostova and so he wanted to meet Kuragin
33829 personally in order to find a fresh pretext for a duel. But he again
33830 failed to meet Kuragin in Turkey, for soon after Prince Andrew arrived,
33831 the latter returned to Russia. In a new country, amid new conditions,
33832 Prince Andrew found life easier to bear. After his betrothed had broken
33833 faith with him--which he felt the more acutely the more he tried to
33834 conceal its effects--the surroundings in which he had been happy became
33835 trying to him, and the freedom and independence he had once prized so
33836 highly were still more so. Not only could he no longer think the
33837 thoughts that had first come to him as he lay gazing at the sky on the
33838 field of Austerlitz and had later enlarged upon with Pierre, and which
33839 had filled his solitude at Bogucharovo and then in Switzerland and Rome,
33840 but he even dreaded to recall them and the bright and boundless horizons
33841 they had revealed. He was now concerned only with the nearest practical
33842 matters unrelated to his past interests, and he seized on these the more
33843 eagerly the more those past interests were closed to him. It was as if
33844 that lofty, infinite canopy of heaven that had once towered above him
33845 had suddenly turned into a low, solid vault that weighed him down, in
33846 which all was clear, but nothing eternal or mysterious.
33848 Of the activities that presented themselves to him, army service was the
33849 simplest and most familiar. As a general on duty on Kutuzov's staff, he
33850 applied himself to business with zeal and perseverance and surprised
33851 Kutuzov by his willingness and accuracy in work. Not having found
33852 Kuragin in Turkey, Prince Andrew did not think it necessary to rush back
33853 to Russia after him, but all the same he knew that however long it might
33854 be before he met Kuragin, despite his contempt for him and despite all
33855 the proofs he deduced to convince himself that it was not worth stooping
33856 to a conflict with him--he knew that when he did meet him he would not
33857 be able to resist calling him out, any more than a ravenous man can help
33858 snatching at food. And the consciousness that the insult was not yet
33859 avenged, that his rancor was still unspent, weighed on his heart and
33860 poisoned the artificial tranquillity which he managed to obtain in
33861 Turkey by means of restless, plodding, and rather vainglorious and
33862 ambitious activity.
33864 In the year 1812, when news of the war with Napoleon reached Bucharest--
33865 where Kutuzov had been living for two months, passing his days and
33866 nights with a Wallachian woman--Prince Andrew asked Kutuzov to transfer
33867 him to the Western Army. Kutuzov, who was already weary of Bolkonski's
33868 activity which seemed to reproach his own idleness, very readily let him
33869 go and gave him a mission to Barclay de Tolly.
33871 Before joining the Western Army which was then, in May, encamped at
33872 Drissa, Prince Andrew visited Bald Hills which was directly on his way,
33873 being only two miles off the Smolensk highroad. During the last three
33874 years there had been so many changes in his life, he had thought, felt,
33875 and seen so much (having traveled both in the east and the west), that
33876 on reaching Bald Hills it struck him as strange and unexpected to find
33877 the way of life there unchanged and still the same in every detail. He
33878 entered through the gates with their stone pillars and drove up the
33879 avenue leading to the house as if he were entering an enchanted,
33880 sleeping castle. The same old stateliness, the same cleanliness, the
33881 same stillness reigned there, and inside there was the same furniture,
33882 the same walls, sounds, and smell, and the same timid faces, only
33883 somewhat older. Princess Mary was still the same timid, plain maiden
33884 getting on in years, uselessly and joylessly passing the best years of
33885 her life in fear and constant suffering. Mademoiselle Bourienne was the
33886 same coquettish, self-satisfied girl, enjoying every moment of her
33887 existence and full of joyous hopes for the future. She had merely become
33888 more self-confident, Prince Andrew thought. Dessalles, the tutor he had
33889 brought from Switzerland, was wearing a coat of Russian cut and talking
33890 broken Russian to the servants, but was still the same narrowly
33891 intelligent, conscientious, and pedantic preceptor. The old prince had
33892 changed in appearance only by the loss of a tooth, which left a
33893 noticeable gap on one side of his mouth; in character he was the same as
33894 ever, only showing still more irritability and skepticism as to what was
33895 happening in the world. Little Nicholas alone had changed. He had grown,
33896 become rosier, had curly dark hair, and, when merry and laughing, quite
33897 unconsciously lifted the upper lip of his pretty little mouth just as
33898 the little princess used to do. He alone did not obey the law of
33899 immutability in the enchanted, sleeping castle. But though externally
33900 all remained as of old, the inner relations of all these people had
33901 changed since Prince Andrew had seen them last. The household was
33902 divided into two alien and hostile camps, who changed their habits for
33903 his sake and only met because he was there. To the one camp belonged the
33904 old prince, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and the architect; to the other
33905 Princess Mary, Dessalles, little Nicholas, and all the old nurses and
33908 During his stay at Bald Hills all the family dined together, but they
33909 were ill at ease and Prince Andrew felt that he was a visitor for whose
33910 sake an exception was being made and that his presence made them all
33911 feel awkward. Involuntarily feeling this at dinner on the first day, he
33912 was taciturn, and the old prince noticing this also became morosely dumb
33913 and retired to his apartments directly after dinner. In the evening,
33914 when Prince Andrew went to him and, trying to rouse him, began to tell
33915 him of the young Count Kamensky's campaign, the old prince began
33916 unexpectedly to talk about Princess Mary, blaming her for her
33917 superstitions and her dislike of Mademoiselle Bourienne, who, he said,
33918 was the only person really attached to him.
33920 The old prince said that if he was ill it was only because of Princess
33921 Mary: that she purposely worried and irritated him, and that by
33922 indulgence and silly talk she was spoiling little Prince Nicholas. The
33923 old prince knew very well that he tormented his daughter and that her
33924 life was very hard, but he also knew that he could not help tormenting
33925 her and that she deserved it. "Why does Prince Andrew, who sees this,
33926 say nothing to me about his sister? Does he think me a scoundrel, or an
33927 old fool who, without any reason, keeps his own daughter at a distance
33928 and attaches this Frenchwoman to himself? He doesn't understand, so I
33929 must explain it, and he must hear me out," thought the old prince. And
33930 he began explaining why he could not put up with his daughter's
33931 unreasonable character.
33933 "If you ask me," said Prince Andrew, without looking up (he was
33934 censuring his father for the first time in his life), "I did not wish to
33935 speak about it, but as you ask me I will give you my frank opinion. If
33936 there is any misunderstanding and discord between you and Mary, I can't
33937 blame her for it at all. I know how she loves and respects you. Since
33938 you ask me," continued Prince Andrew, becoming irritable--as he was
33939 always liable to do of late--"I can only say that if there are any
33940 misunderstandings they are caused by that worthless woman, who is not
33941 fit to be my sister's companion."
33943 The old man at first stared fixedly at his son, and an unnatural smile
33944 disclosed the fresh gap between his teeth to which Prince Andrew could
33945 not get accustomed.
33947 "What companion, my dear boy? Eh? You've already been talking it over!
33950 "Father, I did not want to judge," said Prince Andrew, in a hard and
33951 bitter tone, "but you challenged me, and I have said, and always shall
33952 say, that Mary is not to blame, but those to blame--the one to blame--is
33955 "Ah, he has passed judgment... passed judgement!" said the old man in a
33956 low voice and, as it seemed to Prince Andrew, with some embarrassment,
33957 but then he suddenly jumped up and cried: "Be off, be off! Let not a
33958 trace of you remain here!..."
33960 Prince Andrew wished to leave at once, but Princess Mary persuaded him
33961 to stay another day. That day he did not see his father, who did not
33962 leave his room and admitted no one but Mademoiselle Bourienne and
33963 Tikhon, but asked several times whether his son had gone. Next day,
33964 before leaving, Prince Andrew went to his son's rooms. The boy, curly-
33965 headed like his mother and glowing with health, sat on his knee, and
33966 Prince Andrew began telling him the story of Bluebeard, but fell into a
33967 reverie without finishing the story. He thought not of this pretty
33968 child, his son whom he held on his knee, but of himself. He sought in
33969 himself either remorse for having angered his father or regret at
33970 leaving home for the first time in his life on bad terms with him, and
33971 was horrified to find neither. What meant still more to him was that he
33972 sought and did not find in himself the former tenderness for his son
33973 which he had hoped to reawaken by caressing the boy and taking him on
33976 "Well, go on!" said his son.
33978 Prince Andrew, without replying, put him down from his knee and went out
33981 As soon as Prince Andrew had given up his daily occupations, and
33982 especially on returning to the old conditions of life amid which he had
33983 been happy, weariness of life overcame him with its former intensity,
33984 and he hastened to escape from these memories and to find some work as
33987 "So you've decided to go, Andrew?" asked his sister.
33989 "Thank God that I can," replied Prince Andrew. "I am very sorry you
33992 "Why do you say that?" replied Princess Mary. "Why do you say that, when
33993 you are going to this terrible war, and he is so old? Mademoiselle
33994 Bourienne says he has been asking about you...."
33996 As soon as she began to speak of that, her lips trembled and her tears
33997 began to fall. Prince Andrew turned away and began pacing the room.
33999 "Ah, my God! my God! When one thinks who and what--what trash--can cause
34000 people misery!" he said with a malignity that alarmed Princess Mary.
34002 She understood that when speaking of "trash" he referred not only to
34003 Mademoiselle Bourienne, the cause of her misery, but also to the man who
34004 had ruined his own happiness.
34006 "Andrew! One thing I beg, I entreat of you!" she said, touching his
34007 elbow and looking at him with eyes that shone through her tears. "I
34008 understand you" (she looked down). "Don't imagine that sorrow is the
34009 work of men. Men are His tools." She looked a little above Prince
34010 Andrew's head with the confident, accustomed look with which one looks
34011 at the place where a familiar portrait hangs. "Sorrow is sent by Him,
34012 not by men. Men are His instruments, they are not to blame. If you think
34013 someone has wronged you, forget it and forgive! We have no right to
34014 punish. And then you will know the happiness of forgiving."
34016 "If I were a woman I would do so, Mary. That is a woman's virtue. But a
34017 man should not and cannot forgive and forget," he replied, and though
34018 till that moment he had not been thinking of Kuragin, all his unexpended
34019 anger suddenly swelled up in his heart.
34021 "If Mary is already persuading me to forgive, it means that I ought long
34022 ago to have punished him," he thought. And giving her no further reply,
34023 he began thinking of the glad vindictive moment when he would meet
34024 Kuragin who he knew was now in the army.
34026 Princess Mary begged him to stay one day more, saying that she knew how
34027 unhappy her father would be if Andrew left without being reconciled to
34028 him, but Prince Andrew replied that he would probably soon be back again
34029 from the army and would certainly write to his father, but that the
34030 longer he stayed now the more embittered their differences would become.
34032 "Good-bye, Andrew! Remember that misfortunes come from God, and men are
34033 never to blame," were the last words he heard from his sister when he
34036 "Then it must be so!" thought Prince Andrew as he drove out of the
34037 avenue from the house at Bald Hills. "She, poor innocent creature, is
34038 left to be victimized by an old man who has outlived his wits. The old
34039 man feels he is guilty, but cannot change himself. My boy is growing up
34040 and rejoices in life, in which like everybody else he will deceive or be
34041 deceived. And I am off to the army. Why? I myself don't know. I want to
34042 meet that man whom I despise, so as to give him a chance to kill and
34045 These conditions of life had been the same before, but then they were
34046 all connected, while now they had all tumbled to pieces. Only senseless
34047 things, lacking coherence, presented themselves one after another to
34048 Prince Andrew's mind.
34055 Prince Andrew reached the general headquarters of the army at the end of
34056 June. The first army, with which was the Emperor, occupied the fortified
34057 camp at Drissa; the second army was retreating, trying to effect a
34058 junction with the first one from which it was said to be cut off by
34059 large French forces. Everyone was dissatisfied with the general course
34060 of affairs in the Russian army, but no one anticipated any danger of
34061 invasion of the Russian provinces, and no one thought the war would
34062 extend farther than the western, the Polish, provinces.
34064 Prince Andrew found Barclay de Tolly, to whom he had been assigned, on
34065 the bank of the Drissa. As there was not a single town or large village
34066 in the vicinity of the camp, the immense number of generals and
34067 courtiers accompanying the army were living in the best houses of the
34068 villages on both sides of the river, over a radius of six miles. Barclay
34069 de Tolly was quartered nearly three miles from the Emperor. He received
34070 Bolkonski stiffly and coldly and told him in his foreign accent that he
34071 would mention him to the Emperor for a decision as to his employment,
34072 but asked him meanwhile to remain on his staff. Anatole Kuragin, whom
34073 Prince Andrew had hoped to find with the army, was not there. He had
34074 gone to Petersburg, but Prince Andrew was glad to hear this. His mind
34075 was occupied by the interests of the center that was conducting a
34076 gigantic war, and he was glad to be free for a while from the
34077 distraction caused by the thought of Kuragin. During the first four
34078 days, while no duties were required of him, Prince Andrew rode round the
34079 whole fortified camp and, by the aid of his own knowledge and by talks
34080 with experts, tried to form a definite opinion about it. But the
34081 question whether the camp was advantageous or disadvantageous remained
34082 for him undecided. Already from his military experience and what he had
34083 seen in the Austrian campaign, he had come to the conclusion that in war
34084 the most deeply considered plans have no significance and that all
34085 depends on the way unexpected movements of the enemy--that cannot be
34086 foreseen--are met, and on how and by whom the whole matter is handled.
34087 To clear up this last point for himself, Prince Andrew, utilizing his
34088 position and acquaintances, tried to fathom the character of the control
34089 of the army and of the men and parties engaged in it, and he deduced for
34090 himself the following of the state of affairs.
34092 While the Emperor had still been at Vilna, the forces had been divided
34093 into three armies. First, the army under Barclay de Tolly, secondly, the
34094 army under Bagration, and thirdly, the one commanded by Tormasov. The
34095 Emperor was with the first army, but not as commander-in-chief. In the
34096 orders issued it was stated, not that the Emperor would take command,
34097 but only that he would be with the army. The Emperor, moreover, had with
34098 him not a commander-in-chief's staff but the imperial headquarters
34099 staff. In attendance on him was the head of the imperial staff,
34100 Quartermaster General Prince Volkonski, as well as generals, imperial
34101 aides-de-camp, diplomatic officials, and a large number of foreigners,
34102 but not the army staff. Besides these, there were in attendance on the
34103 Emperor without any definite appointments: Arakcheev, the ex-Minister of
34104 War; Count Bennigsen, the senior general in rank; the Grand Duke
34105 Tsarevich Constantine Pavlovich; Count Rumyantsev, the Chancellor;
34106 Stein, a former Prussian minister; Armfeldt, a Swedish general; Pfuel,
34107 the chief author of the plan of campaign; Paulucci, an adjutant general
34108 and Sardinian emigre; Wolzogen--and many others. Though these men had no
34109 military appointment in the army, their position gave them influence,
34110 and often a corps commander, or even the commander-in-chief, did not
34111 know in what capacity he was questioned by Bennigsen, the Grand Duke,
34112 Arakcheev, or Prince Volkonski, or was given this or that advice and did
34113 not know whether a certain order received in the form of advice emanated
34114 from the man who gave it or from the Emperor and whether it had to be
34115 executed or not. But this was only the external condition; the essential
34116 significance of the presence of the Emperor and of all these people,
34117 from a courtier's point of view (and in an Emperor's vicinity all became
34118 courtiers), was clear to everyone. It was this: the Emperor did not
34119 assume the title of commander-in-chief, but disposed of all the armies;
34120 the men around him were his assistants. Arakcheev was a faithful
34121 custodian to enforce order and acted as the sovereign's bodyguard.
34122 Bennigsen was a landlord in the Vilna province who appeared to be doing
34123 the honors of the district, but was in reality a good general, useful as
34124 an adviser and ready at hand to replace Barclay. The Grand Duke was
34125 there because it suited him to be. The ex-Minister Stein was there
34126 because his advice was useful and the Emperor Alexander held him in high
34127 esteem personally. Armfeldt virulently hated Napoleon and was a general
34128 full of self-confidence, a quality that always influenced Alexander.
34129 Paulucci was there because he was bold and decided in speech. The
34130 adjutants general were there because they always accompanied the
34131 Emperor, and lastly and chiefly Pfuel was there because he had drawn up
34132 the plan of campaign against Napoleon and, having induced Alexander to
34133 believe in the efficacy of that plan, was directing the whole business
34134 of the war. With Pfuel was Wolzogen, who expressed Pfuel's thoughts in a
34135 more comprehensible way than Pfuel himself (who was a harsh, bookish
34136 theorist, self-confident to the point of despising everyone else) was
34139 Besides these Russians and foreigners who propounded new and unexpected
34140 ideas every day--especially the foreigners, who did so with a boldness
34141 characteristic of people employed in a country not their own--there were
34142 many secondary personages accompanying the army because their principals
34145 Among the opinions and voices in this immense, restless, brilliant, and
34146 proud sphere, Prince Andrew noticed the following sharply defined
34147 subdivisions of tendencies and parties:
34149 The first party consisted of Pfuel and his adherents--military theorists
34150 who believed in a science of war with immutable laws--laws of oblique
34151 movements, outflankings, and so forth. Pfuel and his adherents demanded
34152 a retirement into the depths of the country in accordance with precise
34153 laws defined by a pseudo-theory of war, and they saw only barbarism,
34154 ignorance, or evil intention in every deviation from that theory. To
34155 this party belonged the foreign nobles, Wolzogen, Wintzingerode, and
34156 others, chiefly Germans.
34158 The second party was directly opposed to the first; one extreme, as
34159 always happens, was met by representatives of the other. The members of
34160 this party were those who had demanded an advance from Vilna into Poland
34161 and freedom from all prearranged plans. Besides being advocates of bold
34162 action, this section also represented nationalism, which made them still
34163 more one-sided in the dispute. They were Russians: Bagration, Ermolov
34164 (who was beginning to come to the front), and others. At that time a
34165 famous joke of Ermolov's was being circulated, that as a great favor he
34166 had petitioned the Emperor to make him a German. The men of that party,
34167 remembering Suvorov, said that what one had to do was not to reason, or
34168 stick pins into maps, but to fight, beat the enemy, keep him out of
34169 Russia, and not let the army get discouraged.
34171 To the third party--in which the Emperor had most confidence--belonged
34172 the courtiers who tried to arrange compromises between the other two.
34173 The members of this party, chiefly civilians and to whom Arakcheev
34174 belonged, thought and said what men who have no convictions but wish to
34175 seem to have some generally say. They said that undoubtedly war,
34176 particularly against such a genius as Bonaparte (they called him
34177 Bonaparte now), needs most deeply devised plans and profound scientific
34178 knowledge and in that respect Pfuel was a genius, but at the same time
34179 it had to be acknowledged that the theorists are often one-sided, and
34180 therefore one should not trust them absolutely, but should also listen
34181 to what Pfuel's opponents and practical men of experience in warfare had
34182 to say, and then choose a middle course. They insisted on the retention
34183 of the camp at Drissa, according to Pfuel's plan, but on changing the
34184 movements of the other armies. Though, by this course, neither one aim
34185 nor the other could be attained, yet it seemed best to the adherents of
34188 Of a fourth opinion the most conspicuous representative was the
34189 Tsarevich, who could not forget his disillusionment at Austerlitz, where
34190 he had ridden out at the head of the Guards, in his casque and cavalry
34191 uniform as to a review, expecting to crush the French gallantly; but
34192 unexpectedly finding himself in the front line had narrowly escaped amid
34193 the general confusion. The men of this party had both the quality and
34194 the defect of frankness in their opinions. They feared Napoleon,
34195 recognized his strength and their own weakness, and frankly said so.
34196 They said: "Nothing but sorrow, shame, and ruin will come of all this!
34197 We have abandoned Vilna and Vitebsk and shall abandon Drissa. The only
34198 reasonable thing left to do is to conclude peace as soon as possible,
34199 before we are turned out of Petersburg."
34201 This view was very general in the upper army circles and found support
34202 also in Petersburg and from the chancellor, Rumyantsev, who, for other
34203 reasons of state, was in favor of peace.
34205 The fifth party consisted of those who were adherents of Barclay de
34206 Tolly, not so much as a man but as minister of war and commander-in-
34207 chief. "Be he what he may" (they always began like that), "he is an
34208 honest, practical man and we have nobody better. Give him real power,
34209 for war cannot be conducted successfully without unity of command, and
34210 he will show what he can do, as he did in Finland. If our army is well
34211 organized and strong and has withdrawn to Drissa without suffering any
34212 defeats, we owe this entirely to Barclay. If Barclay is now to be
34213 superseded by Bennigsen all will be lost, for Bennigsen showed his
34214 incapacity already in 1807."
34216 The sixth party, the Bennigsenites, said, on the contrary, that at any
34217 rate there was no one more active and experienced than Bennigsen: "and
34218 twist about as you may, you will have to come to Bennigsen eventually.
34219 Let the others make mistakes now!" said they, arguing that our
34220 retirement to Drissa was a most shameful reverse and an unbroken series
34221 of blunders. "The more mistakes that are made the better. It will at any
34222 rate be understood all the sooner that things cannot go on like this.
34223 What is wanted is not some Barclay or other, but a man like Bennigsen,
34224 who made his mark in 1807, and to whom Napoleon himself did justice--a
34225 man whose authority would be willingly recognized, and Bennigsen is the
34228 The seventh party consisted of the sort of people who are always to be
34229 found, especially around young sovereigns, and of whom there were
34230 particularly many round Alexander--generals and imperial aides-de-camp
34231 passionately devoted to the Emperor, not merely as a monarch but as a
34232 man, adoring him sincerely and disinterestedly, as Rostov had done in
34233 1805, and who saw in him not only all the virtues but all human
34234 capabilities as well. These men, though enchanted with the sovereign for
34235 refusing the command of the army, yet blamed him for such excessive
34236 modesty, and only desired and insisted that their adored sovereign
34237 should abandon his diffidence and openly announce that he would place
34238 himself at the head of the army, gather round him a commander-in-chief's
34239 staff, and, consulting experienced theoreticians and practical men where
34240 necessary, would himself lead the troops, whose spirits would thereby be
34241 raised to the highest pitch.
34243 The eighth and largest group, which in its enormous numbers was to the
34244 others as ninety-nine to one, consisted of men who desired neither peace
34245 nor war, neither an advance nor a defensive camp at the Drissa or
34246 anywhere else, neither Barclay nor the Emperor, neither Pfuel nor
34247 Bennigsen, but only the one most essential thing--as much advantage and
34248 pleasure for themselves as possible. In the troubled waters of
34249 conflicting and intersecting intrigues that eddied about the Emperor's
34250 headquarters, it was possible to succeed in many ways unthinkable at
34251 other times. A man who simply wished to retain his lucrative post would
34252 today agree with Pfuel, tomorrow with his opponent, and the day after,
34253 merely to avoid responsibility or to please the Emperor, would declare
34254 that he had no opinion at all on the matter. Another who wished to gain
34255 some advantage would attract the Emperor's attention by loudly
34256 advocating the very thing the Emperor had hinted at the day before, and
34257 would dispute and shout at the council, beating his breast and
34258 challenging those who did not agree with him to duels, thereby proving
34259 that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the common good. A third,
34260 in the absence of opponents, between two councils would simply solicit a
34261 special gratuity for his faithful services, well knowing that at that
34262 moment people would be too busy to refuse him. A fourth while seemingly
34263 overwhelmed with work would often come accidentally under the Emperor's
34264 eye. A fifth, to achieve his long-cherished aim of dining with the
34265 Emperor, would stubbornly insist on the correctness or falsity of some
34266 newly emerging opinion and for this object would produce arguments more
34267 or less forcible and correct.
34269 All the men of this party were fishing for rubles, decorations, and
34270 promotions, and in this pursuit watched only the weathercock of imperial
34271 favor, and directly they noticed it turning in any direction, this whole
34272 drone population of the army began blowing hard that way, so that it was
34273 all the harder for the Emperor to turn it elsewhere. Amid the
34274 uncertainties of the position, with the menace of serious danger giving
34275 a peculiarly threatening character to everything, amid this vortex of
34276 intrigue, egotism, conflict of views and feelings, and the diversity of
34277 race among these people--this eighth and largest party of those
34278 preoccupied with personal interests imparted great confusion and
34279 obscurity to the common task. Whatever question arose, a swarm of these
34280 drones, without having finished their buzzing on a previous theme, flew
34281 over to the new one and by their hum drowned and obscured the voices of
34282 those who were disputing honestly.
34284 From among all these parties, just at the time Prince Andrew reached the
34285 army, another, a ninth party, was being formed and was beginning to
34286 raise its voice. This was the party of the elders, reasonable men
34287 experienced and capable in state affairs, who, without sharing any of
34288 those conflicting opinions, were able to take a detached view of what
34289 was going on at the staff at headquarters and to consider means of
34290 escape from this muddle, indecision, intricacy, and weakness.
34292 The men of this party said and thought that what was wrong resulted
34293 chiefly from the Emperor's presence in the army with his military court
34294 and from the consequent presence there of an indefinite, conditional,
34295 and unsteady fluctuation of relations, which is in place at court but
34296 harmful in an army; that a sovereign should reign but not command the
34297 army, and that the only way out of the position would be for the Emperor
34298 and his court to leave the army; that the mere presence of the Emperor
34299 paralyzed the action of fifty thousand men required to secure his
34300 personal safety, and that the worst commander-in-chief, if independent,
34301 would be better than the very best one trammeled by the presence and
34302 authority of the monarch.
34304 Just at the time Prince Andrew was living unoccupied at Drissa,
34305 Shishkov, the Secretary of State and one of the chief representatives of
34306 this party, wrote a letter to the Emperor which Arakcheev and Balashev
34307 agreed to sign. In this letter, availing himself of permission given him
34308 by the Emperor to discuss the general course of affairs, he respectfully
34309 suggested--on the plea that it was necessary for the sovereign to arouse
34310 a warlike spirit in the people of the capital--that the Emperor should
34313 That arousing of the people by their sovereign and his call to them to
34314 defend their country--the very incitement which was the chief cause of
34315 Russia's triumph in so far as it was produced by the Tsar's personal
34316 presence in Moscow--was suggested to the Emperor, and accepted by him,
34317 as a pretext for quitting the army.
34324 This letter had not yet been presented to the Emperor when Barclay, one
34325 day at dinner, informed Bolkonski that the sovereign wished to see him
34326 personally, to question him about Turkey, and that Prince Andrew was to
34327 present himself at Bennigsen's quarters at six that evening.
34329 News was received at the Emperor's quarters that very day of a fresh
34330 movement by Napoleon which might endanger the army--news subsequently
34331 found to be false. And that morning Colonel Michaud had ridden round the
34332 Drissa fortifications with the Emperor and had pointed out to him that
34333 this fortified camp constructed by Pfuel, and till then considered a
34334 chef-d'oeuvre of tactical science which would ensure Napoleon's
34335 destruction, was an absurdity, threatening the destruction of the
34338 Prince Andrew arrived at Bennigsen's quarters--a country gentleman's
34339 house of moderate size, situated on the very banks of the river. Neither
34340 Bennigsen nor the Emperor was there, but Chernyshev, the Emperor's aide-
34341 de-camp, received Bolkonski and informed him that the Emperor,
34342 accompanied by General Bennigsen and Marquis Paulucci, had gone a second
34343 time that day to inspect the fortifications of the Drissa camp, of the
34344 suitability of which serious doubts were beginning to be felt.
34346 Chernyshev was sitting at a window in the first room with a French novel
34347 in his hand. This room had probably been a music room; there was still
34348 an organ in it on which some rugs were piled, and in one corner stood
34349 the folding bedstead of Bennigsen's adjutant. This adjutant was also
34350 there and sat dozing on the rolled-up bedding, evidently exhausted by
34351 work or by feasting. Two doors led from the room, one straight on into
34352 what had been the drawing room, and another, on the right, to the study.
34353 Through the first door came the sound of voices conversing in German and
34354 occasionally in French. In that drawing room were gathered, by the
34355 Emperor's wish, not a military council (the Emperor preferred
34356 indefiniteness), but certain persons whose opinions he wished to know in
34357 view of the impending difficulties. It was not a council of war, but, as
34358 it were, a council to elucidate certain questions for the Emperor
34359 personally. To this semicouncil had been invited the Swedish General
34360 Armfeldt, Adjutant General Wolzogen, Wintzingerode (whom Napoleon had
34361 referred to as a renegade French subject), Michaud, Toll, Count Stein
34362 who was not a military man at all, and Pfuel himself, who, as Prince
34363 Andrew had heard, was the mainspring of the whole affair. Prince Andrew
34364 had an opportunity of getting a good look at him, for Pfuel arrived soon
34365 after himself and, in passing through to the drawing room, stopped a
34366 minute to speak to Chernyshev.
34368 At first sight, Pfuel, in his ill-made uniform of a Russian general,
34369 which fitted him badly like a fancy costume, seemed familiar to Prince
34370 Andrew, though he saw him now for the first time. There was about him
34371 something of Weyrother, Mack, and Schmidt, and many other German
34372 theorist-generals whom Prince Andrew had seen in 1805, but he was more
34373 typical than any of them. Prince Andrew had never yet seen a German
34374 theorist in whom all the characteristics of those others were united to
34377 Pfuel was short and very thin but broad-boned, of coarse, robust build,
34378 broad in the hips, and with prominent shoulder blades. His face was much
34379 wrinkled and his eyes deep set. His hair had evidently been hastily
34380 brushed smooth in front of the temples, but stuck up behind in quaint
34381 little tufts. He entered the room, looking restlessly and angrily
34382 around, as if afraid of everything in that large apartment. Awkwardly
34383 holding up his sword, he addressed Chernyshev and asked in German where
34384 the Emperor was. One could see that he wished to pass through the rooms
34385 as quickly as possible, finish with the bows and greetings, and sit down
34386 to business in front of a map, where he would feel at home. He nodded
34387 hurriedly in reply to Chernyshev, and smiled ironically on hearing that
34388 the sovereign was inspecting the fortifications that he, Pfuel, had
34389 planned in accord with his theory. He muttered something to himself
34390 abruptly and in a bass voice, as self-assured Germans do--it might have
34391 been "stupid fellow"... or "the whole affair will be ruined," or
34392 "something absurd will come of it."... Prince Andrew did not catch what
34393 he said and would have passed on, but Chernyshev introduced him to
34394 Pfuel, remarking that Prince Andrew was just back from Turkey where the
34395 war had terminated so fortunately. Pfuel barely glanced--not so much at
34396 Prince Andrew as past him--and said, with a laugh: "That must have been
34397 a fine tactical war"; and, laughing contemptuously, went on into the
34398 room from which the sound of voices was heard.
34400 Pfuel, always inclined to be irritably sarcastic, was particularly
34401 disturbed that day, evidently by the fact that they had dared to inspect
34402 and criticize his camp in his absence. From this short interview with
34403 Pfuel, Prince Andrew, thanks to his Austerlitz experiences, was able to
34404 form a clear conception of the man. Pfuel was one of those hopelessly
34405 and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of
34406 martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident
34407 on the basis of an abstract notion--science, that is, the supposed
34408 knowledge of absolute truth. A Frenchman is self-assured because he
34409 regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly
34410 attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured, as being a
34411 citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore as an
34412 Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as
34413 an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because
34414 he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian
34415 is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know
34416 anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known. The
34417 German's self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive
34418 than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth--science--
34419 which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.
34421 Pfuel was evidently of that sort. He had a science--the theory of
34422 oblique movements deduced by him from the history of Frederick the
34423 Great's wars, and all he came across in the history of more recent
34424 warfare seemed to him absurd and barbarous--monstrous collisions in
34425 which so many blunders were committed by both sides that these wars
34426 could not be called wars, they did not accord with the theory, and
34427 therefore could not serve as material for science.
34429 In 1806 Pfuel had been one of those responsible, for the plan of
34430 campaign that ended in Jena and Auerstadt, but he did not see the least
34431 proof of the fallibility of his theory in the disasters of that war. On
34432 the contrary, the deviations made from his theory were, in his opinion,
34433 the sole cause of the whole disaster, and with characteristically
34434 gleeful sarcasm he would remark, "There, I said the whole affair would
34435 go to the devil!" Pfuel was one of those theoreticians who so love their
34436 theory that they lose sight of the theory's object--its practical
34437 application. His love of theory made him hate everything practical, and
34438 he would not listen to it. He was even pleased by failures, for failures
34439 resulting from deviations in practice from the theory only proved to him
34440 the accuracy of his theory.
34442 He said a few words to Prince Andrew and Chernyshev about the present
34443 war, with the air of a man who knows beforehand that all will go wrong,
34444 and who is not displeased that it should be so. The unbrushed tufts of
34445 hair sticking up behind and the hastily brushed hair on his temples
34446 expressed this most eloquently.
34448 He passed into the next room, and the deep, querulous sounds of his
34449 voice were at once heard from there.
34456 Prince Andrew's eyes were still following Pfuel out of the room when
34457 Count Bennigsen entered hurriedly, and nodding to Bolkonski, but not
34458 pausing, went into the study, giving instructions to his adjutant as he
34459 went. The Emperor was following him, and Bennigsen had hastened on to
34460 make some preparations and to be ready to receive the sovereign.
34461 Chernyshev and Prince Andrew went out into the porch, where the Emperor,
34462 who looked fatigued, was dismounting. Marquis Paulucci was talking to
34463 him with particular warmth and the Emperor, with his head bent to the
34464 left, was listening with a dissatisfied air. The Emperor moved forward
34465 evidently wishing to end the conversation, but the flushed and excited
34466 Italian, oblivious of decorum, followed him and continued to speak.
34468 "And as for the man who advised forming this camp--the Drissa camp,"
34469 said Paulucci, as the Emperor mounted the steps and noticing Prince
34470 Andrew scanned his unfamiliar face, "as to that person, sire..."
34471 continued Paulucci, desperately, apparently unable to restrain himself,
34472 "the man who advised the Drissa camp--I see no alternative but the
34473 lunatic asylum or the gallows!"
34475 Without heeding the end of the Italian's remarks, and as though not
34476 hearing them, the Emperor, recognizing Bolkonski, addressed him
34479 "I am very glad to see you! Go in there where they are meeting, and wait
34482 The Emperor went into the study. He was followed by Prince Peter
34483 Mikhaylovich Volkonski and Baron Stein, and the door closed behind them.
34484 Prince Andrew, taking advantage of the Emperor's permission, accompanied
34485 Paulucci, whom he had known in Turkey, into the drawing room where the
34486 council was assembled.
34488 Prince Peter Mikhaylovich Volkonski occupied the position, as it were,
34489 of chief of the Emperor's staff. He came out of the study into the
34490 drawing room with some maps which he spread on a table, and put
34491 questions on which he wished to hear the opinion of the gentlemen
34492 present. What had happened was that news (which afterwards proved to be
34493 false) had been received during the night of a movement by the French to
34494 outflank the Drissa camp.
34496 The first to speak was General Armfeldt who, to meet the difficulty that
34497 presented itself, unexpectedly proposed a perfectly new position away
34498 from the Petersburg and Moscow roads. The reason for this was
34499 inexplicable (unless he wished to show that he, too, could have an
34500 opinion), but he urged that at this point the army should unite and
34501 there await the enemy. It was plain that Armfeldt had thought out that
34502 plan long ago and now expounded it not so much to answer the questions
34503 put--which, in fact, his plan did not answer--as to avail himself of the
34504 opportunity to air it. It was one of the millions of proposals, one as
34505 good as another, that could be made as long as it was quite unknown what
34506 character the war would take. Some disputed his arguments, others
34507 defended them. Young Count Toll objected to the Swedish general's views
34508 more warmly than anyone else, and in the course of the dispute drew from
34509 his side pocket a well-filled notebook, which he asked permission to
34510 read to them. In these voluminous notes Toll suggested another scheme,
34511 totally different from Armfeldt's or Pfuel's plan of campaign. In answer
34512 to Toll, Paulucci suggested an advance and an attack, which, he urged,
34513 could alone extricate us from the present uncertainty and from the trap
34514 (as he called the Drissa camp) in which we were situated.
34516 During all these discussions Pfuel and his interpreter, Wolzogen (his
34517 "bridge" in court relations), were silent. Pfuel only snorted
34518 contemptuously and turned away, to show that he would never demean
34519 himself by replying to such nonsense as he was now hearing. So when
34520 Prince Volkonski, who was in the chair, called on him to give his
34521 opinion, he merely said:
34523 "Why ask me? General Armfeldt has proposed a splendid position with an
34524 exposed rear, or why not this Italian gentleman's attack--very fine, or
34525 a retreat, also good! Why ask me?" said he. "Why, you yourselves know
34526 everything better than I do."
34528 But when Volkonski said, with a frown, that it was in the Emperor's name
34529 that he asked his opinion, Pfuel rose and, suddenly growing animated,
34532 "Everything has been spoiled, everything muddled, everybody thought they
34533 knew better than I did, and now you come to me! How mend matters? There
34534 is nothing to mend! The principles laid down by me must be strictly
34535 adhered to," said he, drumming on the table with his bony fingers. "What
34536 is the difficulty? Nonsense, childishness!"
34538 He went up to the map and speaking rapidly began proving that no
34539 eventuality could alter the efficiency of the Drissa camp, that
34540 everything had been foreseen, and that if the enemy were really going to
34541 outflank it, the enemy would inevitably be destroyed.
34543 Paulucci, who did not know German, began questioning him in French.
34544 Wolzogen came to the assistance of his chief, who spoke French badly,
34545 and began translating for him, hardly able to keep pace with Pfuel, who
34546 was rapidly demonstrating that not only all that had happened, but all
34547 that could happen, had been foreseen in his scheme, and that if there
34548 were now any difficulties the whole fault lay in the fact that his plan
34549 had not been precisely executed. He kept laughing sarcastically, he
34550 demonstrated, and at last contemptuously ceased to demonstrate, like a
34551 mathematician who ceases to prove in various ways the accuracy of a
34552 problem that has already been proved. Wolzogen took his place and
34553 continued to explain his views in French, every now and then turning to
34554 Pfuel and saying, "Is it not so, your excellency?" But Pfuel, like a man
34555 heated in a fight who strikes those on his own side, shouted angrily at
34556 his own supporter, Wolzogen:
34558 "Well, of course, what more is there to explain?"
34560 Paulucci and Michaud both attacked Wolzogen simultaneously in French.
34561 Armfeldt addressed Pfuel in German. Toll explained to Volkonski in
34562 Russian. Prince Andrew listened and observed in silence.
34564 Of all these men Prince Andrew sympathized most with Pfuel, angry,
34565 determined, and absurdly self-confident as he was. Of all those present,
34566 evidently he alone was not seeking anything for himself, nursed no
34567 hatred against anyone, and only desired that the plan, formed on a
34568 theory arrived at by years of toil, should be carried out. He was
34569 ridiculous, and unpleasantly sarcastic, but yet he inspired involuntary
34570 respect by his boundless devotion to an idea. Besides this, the remarks
34571 of all except Pfuel had one common trait that had not been noticeable at
34572 the council of war in 1805: there was now a panic fear of Napoleon's
34573 genius, which, though concealed, was noticeable in every rejoinder.
34574 Everything was assumed to be possible for Napoleon, they expected him
34575 from every side, and invoked his terrible name to shatter each other's
34576 proposals. Pfuel alone seemed to consider Napoleon a barbarian like
34577 everyone else who opposed his theory. But besides this feeling of
34578 respect, Pfuel evoked pity in Prince Andrew. From the tone in which the
34579 courtiers addressed him and the way Paulucci had allowed himself to
34580 speak of him to the Emperor, but above all from a certain desperation in
34581 Pfuel's own expressions, it was clear that the others knew, and Pfuel
34582 himself felt, that his fall was at hand. And despite his self-confidence
34583 and grumpy German sarcasm he was pitiable, with his hair smoothly
34584 brushed on the temples and sticking up in tufts behind. Though he
34585 concealed the fact under a show of irritation and contempt, he was
34586 evidently in despair that the sole remaining chance of verifying his
34587 theory by a huge experiment and proving its soundness to the whole world
34588 was slipping away from him.
34590 The discussions continued a long time, and the longer they lasted the
34591 more heated became the disputes, culminating in shouts and
34592 personalities, and the less was it possible to arrive at any general
34593 conclusion from all that had been said. Prince Andrew, listening to this
34594 polyglot talk and to these surmises, plans, refutations, and shouts,
34595 felt nothing but amazement at what they were saying. A thought that had
34596 long since and often occurred to him during his military activities--the
34597 idea that there is not and cannot be any science of war, and that
34598 therefore there can be no such thing as a military genius--now appeared
34599 to him an obvious truth. "What theory and science is possible about a
34600 matter the conditions and circumstances of which are unknown and cannot
34601 be defined, especially when the strength of the acting forces cannot be
34602 ascertained? No one was or is able to foresee in what condition our or
34603 the enemy's armies will be in a day's time, and no one can gauge the
34604 force of this or that detachment. Sometimes--when there is not a coward
34605 at the front to shout, 'We are cut off!' and start running, but a brave
34606 and jolly lad who shouts, 'Hurrah!'--a detachment of five thousand is
34607 worth thirty thousand, as at Schon Grabern, while at times fifty
34608 thousand run from eight thousand, as at Austerlitz. What science can
34609 there be in a matter in which, as in all practical matters, nothing can
34610 be defined and everything depends on innumerable conditions, the
34611 significance of which is determined at a particular moment which arrives
34612 no one knows when? Armfeldt says our army is cut in half, and Paulucci
34613 says we have got the French army between two fires; Michaud says that
34614 the worthlessness of the Drissa camp lies in having the river behind it,
34615 and Pfuel says that is what constitutes its strength; Toll proposes one
34616 plan, Armfeldt another, and they are all good and all bad, and the
34617 advantages of any suggestions can be seen only at the moment of trial.
34618 And why do they all speak of a 'military genius'? Is a man a genius who
34619 can order bread to be brought up at the right time and say who is to go
34620 to the right and who to the left? It is only because military men are
34621 invested with pomp and power and crowds of sychophants flatter power,
34622 attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess. The best
34623 generals I have known were, on the contrary, stupid or absent-minded
34624 men. Bagration was the best, Napoleon himself admitted that. And of
34625 Bonaparte himself! I remember his limited, self-satisfied face on the
34626 field of Austerlitz. Not only does a good army commander not need any
34627 special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest
34628 and best human attributes--love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic
34629 inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is
34630 doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient
34631 patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he
34632 should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and
34633 unjust. It is understandable that a theory of their 'genius' was
34634 invented for them long ago because they have power! The success of a
34635 military action depends not on them, but on the man in the ranks who
34636 shouts, 'We are lost!' or who shouts, 'Hurrah!' And only in the ranks
34637 can one serve with assurance of being useful."
34639 So thought Prince Andrew as he listened to the talking, and he roused
34640 himself only when Paulucci called him and everyone was leaving.
34642 At the review next day the Emperor asked Prince Andrew where he would
34643 like to serve, and Prince Andrew lost his standing in court circles
34644 forever by not asking to remain attached to the sovereign's person, but
34645 for permission to serve in the army.
34652 Before the beginning of the campaign, Rostov had received a letter from
34653 his parents in which they told him briefly of Natasha's illness and the
34654 breaking off of her engagement to Prince Andrew (which they explained by
34655 Natasha's having rejected him) and again asked Nicholas to retire from
34656 the army and return home. On receiving this letter, Nicholas did not
34657 even make any attempt to get leave of absence or to retire from the
34658 army, but wrote to his parents that he was sorry Natasha was ill and her
34659 engagement broken off, and that he would do all he could to meet their
34660 wishes. To Sonya he wrote separately.
34662 "Adored friend of my soul!" he wrote. "Nothing but honor could keep me
34663 from returning to the country. But now, at the commencement of the
34664 campaign, I should feel dishonored, not only in my comrades' eyes but in
34665 my own, if I preferred my own happiness to my love and duty to the
34666 Fatherland. But this shall be our last separation. Believe me, directly
34667 the war is over, if I am still alive and still loved by you, I will
34668 throw up everything and fly to you, to press you forever to my ardent
34671 It was, in fact, only the commencement of the campaign that prevented
34672 Rostov from returning home as he had promised and marrying Sonya. The
34673 autumn in Otradnoe with the hunting, and the winter with the Christmas
34674 holidays and Sonya's love, had opened out to him a vista of tranquil
34675 rural joys and peace such as he had never known before, and which now
34676 allured him. "A splendid wife, children, a good pack of hounds, a dozen
34677 leashes of smart borzois, agriculture, neighbors, service by
34678 election..." thought he. But now the campaign was beginning, and he had
34679 to remain with his regiment. And since it had to be so, Nicholas Rostov,
34680 as was natural to him, felt contented with the life he led in the
34681 regiment and was able to find pleasure in that life.
34683 On his return from his furlough Nicholas, having been joyfully welcomed
34684 by his comrades, was sent to obtain remounts and brought back from the
34685 Ukraine excellent horses which pleased him and earned him commendation
34686 from his commanders. During his absence he had been promoted captain,
34687 and when the regiment was put on war footing with an increase in
34688 numbers, he was again allotted his old squadron.
34690 The campaign began, the regiment was moved into Poland on double pay,
34691 new officers arrived, new men and horses, and above all everybody was
34692 infected with the merrily excited mood that goes with the commencement
34693 of a war, and Rostov, conscious of his advantageous position in the
34694 regiment, devoted himself entirely to the pleasures and interests of
34695 military service, though he knew that sooner or later he would have to
34698 The troops retired from Vilna for various complicated reasons of state,
34699 political and strategic. Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a
34700 complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at
34701 headquarters. For the Pavlograd hussars, however, the whole of this
34702 retreat during the finest period of summer and with sufficient supplies
34703 was a very simple and agreeable business.
34705 It was only at headquarters that there was depression, uneasiness, and
34706 intriguing; in the body of the army they did not ask themselves where
34707 they were going or why. If they regretted having to retreat, it was only
34708 because they had to leave billets they had grown accustomed to, or some
34709 pretty young Polish lady. If the thought that things looked bad chanced
34710 to enter anyone's head, he tried to be as cheerful as befits a good
34711 soldier and not to think of the general trend of affairs, but only of
34712 the task nearest to hand. First they camped gaily before Vilna, making
34713 acquaintance with the Polish landowners, preparing for reviews and being
34714 reviewed by the Emperor and other high commanders. Then came an order to
34715 retreat to Sventsyani and destroy any provisions they could not carry
34716 away with them. Sventsyani was remembered by the hussars only as the
34717 drunken camp, a name the whole army gave to their encampment there, and
34718 because many complaints were made against the troops, who, taking
34719 advantage of the order to collect provisions, took also horses,
34720 carriages, and carpets from the Polish proprietors. Rostov remembered
34721 Sventsyani, because on the first day of their arrival at that small town
34722 he changed his sergeant major and was unable to manage all the drunken
34723 men of his squadron who, unknown to him, had appropriated five barrels
34724 of old beer. From Sventsyani they retired farther and farther to Drissa,
34725 and thence again beyond Drissa, drawing near to the frontier of Russia
34728 On the thirteenth of July the Pavlograds took part in a serious action
34729 for the first time.
34731 On the twelfth of July, on the eve of that action, there was a heavy
34732 storm of rain and hail. In general, the summer of 1812 was remarkable
34735 The two Pavlograd squadrons were bivouacking on a field of rye, which
34736 was already in ear but had been completely trodden down by cattle and
34737 horses. The rain was descending in torrents, and Rostov, with a young
34738 officer named Ilyin, his protege, was sitting in a hastily constructed
34739 shelter. An officer of their regiment, with long mustaches extending
34740 onto his cheeks, who after riding to the staff had been overtaken by the
34741 rain, entered Rostov's shelter.
34743 "I have come from the staff, Count. Have you heard of Raevski's
34746 And the officer gave them details of the Saltanov battle, which he had
34747 heard at the staff.
34749 Rostov, smoking his pipe and turning his head about as the water
34750 trickled down his neck, listened inattentively, with an occasional
34751 glance at Ilyin, who was pressing close to him. This officer, a lad of
34752 sixteen who had recently joined the regiment, was now in the same
34753 relation to Nicholas that Nicholas had been to Denisov seven years
34754 before. Ilyin tried to imitate Rostov in everything and adored him as a
34755 girl might have done.
34757 Zdrzhinski, the officer with the long mustache, spoke grandiloquently of
34758 the Saltanov dam being "a Russian Thermopylae," and of how a deed worthy
34759 of antiquity had been performed by General Raevski. He recounted how
34760 Raevski had led his two sons onto the dam under terrific fire and had
34761 charged with them beside him. Rostov heard the story and not only said
34762 nothing to encourage Zdrzhinski's enthusiasm but, on the contrary,
34763 looked like a man ashamed of what he was hearing, though with no
34764 intention of contradicting it. Since the campaigns of Austerlitz and of
34765 1807 Rostov knew by experience that men always lie when describing
34766 military exploits, as he himself had done when recounting them; besides
34767 that, he had experience enough to know that nothing happens in war at
34768 all as we can imagine or relate it. And so he did not like Zdrzhinski's
34769 tale, nor did he like Zdrzhinski himself who, with his mustaches
34770 extending over his cheeks, bent low over the face of his hearer, as was
34771 his habit, and crowded Rostov in the narrow shanty. Rostov looked at him
34772 in silence. "In the first place, there must have been such a confusion
34773 and crowding on the dam that was being attacked that if Raevski did lead
34774 his sons there, it could have had no effect except perhaps on some dozen
34775 men nearest to him," thought he, "the rest could not have seen how or
34776 with whom Raevski came onto the dam. And even those who did see it would
34777 not have been much stimulated by it, for what had they to do with
34778 Raevski's tender paternal feelings when their own skins were in danger?
34779 And besides, the fate of the Fatherland did not depend on whether they
34780 took the Saltanov dam or not, as we are told was the case at
34781 Thermopylae. So why should he have made such a sacrifice? And why expose
34782 his own children in the battle? I would not have taken my brother Petya
34783 there, or even Ilyin, who's a stranger to me but a nice lad, but would
34784 have tried to put them somewhere under cover," Nicholas continued to
34785 think, as he listened to Zdrzhinski. But he did not express his
34786 thoughts, for in such matters, too, he had gained experience. He knew
34787 that this tale redounded to the glory of our arms and so one had to
34788 pretend not to doubt it. And he acted accordingly.
34790 "I can't stand this any more," said Ilyin, noticing that Rostov did not
34791 relish Zdrzhinski's conversation. "My stockings and shirt... and the
34792 water is running on my seat! I'll go and look for shelter. The rain
34795 Ilyin went out and Zdrzhinski rode away.
34797 Five minutes later Ilyin, splashing through the mud, came running back
34800 "Hurrah! Rostov, come quick! I've found it! About two hundred yards away
34801 there's a tavern where ours have already gathered. We can at least get
34802 dry there, and Mary Hendrikhovna's there."
34804 Mary Hendrikhovna was the wife of the regimental doctor, a pretty young
34805 German woman he had married in Poland. The doctor, whether from lack of
34806 means or because he did not like to part from his young wife in the
34807 early days of their marriage, took her about with him wherever the
34808 hussar regiment went and his jealousy had become a standing joke among
34809 the hussar officers.
34811 Rostov threw his cloak over his shoulders, shouted to Lavrushka to
34812 follow with the things, and--now slipping in the mud, now splashing
34813 right through it--set off with Ilyin in the lessening rain and the
34814 darkness that was occasionally rent by distant lightning.
34816 "Rostov, where are you?"
34818 "Here. What lightning!" they called to one another.
34825 In the tavern, before which stood the doctor's covered cart, there were
34826 already some five officers. Mary Hendrikhovna, a plump little blonde
34827 German, in a dressing jacket and nightcap, was sitting on a broad bench
34828 in the front corner. Her husband, the doctor, lay asleep behind her.
34829 Rostov and Ilyin, on entering the room, were welcomed with merry shouts
34832 "Dear me, how jolly we are!" said Rostov laughing.
34834 "And why do you stand there gaping?"
34836 "What swells they are! Why, the water streams from them! Don't make our
34837 drawing room so wet."
34839 "Don't mess Mary Hendrikhovna's dress!" cried other voices.
34841 Rostov and Ilyin hastened to find a corner where they could change into
34842 dry clothes without offending Mary Hendrikhovna's modesty. They were
34843 going into a tiny recess behind a partition to change, but found it
34844 completely filled by three officers who sat playing cards by the light
34845 of a solitary candle on an empty box, and these officers would on no
34846 account yield their position. Mary Hendrikhovna obliged them with the
34847 loan of a petticoat to be used as a curtain, and behind that screen
34848 Rostov and Ilyin, helped by Lavrushka who had brought their kits,
34849 changed their wet things for dry ones.
34851 A fire was made up in the dilapidated brick stove. A board was found,
34852 fixed on two saddles and covered with a horsecloth, a small samovar was
34853 produced and a cellaret and half a bottle of rum, and having asked Mary
34854 Hendrikhovna to preside, they all crowded round her. One offered her a
34855 clean handkerchief to wipe her charming hands, another spread a jacket
34856 under her little feet to keep them from the damp, another hung his coat
34857 over the window to keep out the draft, and yet another waved the flies
34858 off her husband's face, lest he should wake up.
34860 "Leave him alone," said Mary Hendrikhovna, smiling timidly and happily.
34861 "He is sleeping well as it is, after a sleepless night."
34863 "Oh, no, Mary Hendrikhovna," replied the officer, "one must look after
34864 the doctor. Perhaps he'll take pity on me someday, when it comes to
34865 cutting off a leg or an arm for me."
34867 There were only three tumblers, the water was so muddy that one could
34868 not make out whether the tea was strong or weak, and the samovar held
34869 only six tumblers of water, but this made it all the pleasanter to take
34870 turns in order of seniority to receive one's tumbler from Mary
34871 Hendrikhovna's plump little hands with their short and not overclean
34872 nails. All the officers appeared to be, and really were, in love with
34873 her that evening. Even those playing cards behind the partition soon
34874 left their game and came over to the samovar, yielding to the general
34875 mood of courting Mary Hendrikhovna. She, seeing herself surrounded by
34876 such brilliant and polite young men, beamed with satisfaction, try as
34877 she might to hide it, and perturbed as she evidently was each time her
34878 husband moved in his sleep behind her.
34880 There was only one spoon, sugar was more plentiful than anything else,
34881 but it took too long to dissolve, so it was decided that Mary
34882 Hendrikhovna should stir the sugar for everyone in turn. Rostov received
34883 his tumbler, and adding some rum to it asked Mary Hendrikhovna to stir
34886 "But you take it without sugar?" she said, smiling all the time, as if
34887 everything she said and everything the others said was very amusing and
34888 had a double meaning.
34890 "It is not the sugar I want, but only that your little hand should stir
34893 Mary Hendrikhovna assented and began looking for the spoon which someone
34894 meanwhile had pounced on.
34896 "Use your finger, Mary Hendrikhovna, it will be still nicer," said
34899 "Too hot!" she replied, blushing with pleasure.
34901 Ilyin put a few drops of rum into the bucket of water and brought it to
34902 Mary Hendrikhovna, asking her to stir it with her finger.
34904 "This is my cup," said he. "Only dip your finger in it and I'll drink it
34907 When they had emptied the samovar, Rostov took a pack of cards and
34908 proposed that they should play "Kings" with Mary Hendrikhovna. They drew
34909 lots to settle who should make up her set. At Rostov's suggestion it was
34910 agreed that whoever became "King" should have the right to kiss Mary
34911 Hendrikhovna's hand, and that the "Booby" should go to refill and reheat
34912 the samovar for the doctor when the latter awoke.
34914 "Well, but supposing Mary Hendrikhovna is 'King'?" asked Ilyin.
34916 "As it is, she is Queen, and her word is law!"
34918 They had hardly begun to play before the doctor's disheveled head
34919 suddenly appeared from behind Mary Hendrikhovna. He had been awake for
34920 some time, listening to what was being said, and evidently found nothing
34921 entertaining or amusing in what was going on. His face was sad and
34922 depressed. Without greeting the officers, he scratched himself and asked
34923 to be allowed to pass as they were blocking the way. As soon as he had
34924 left the room all the officers burst into loud laughter and Mary
34925 Hendrikhovna blushed till her eyes filled with tears and thereby became
34926 still more attractive to them. Returning from the yard, the doctor told
34927 his wife (who had ceased to smile so happily, and looked at him in
34928 alarm, awaiting her sentence) that the rain had ceased and they must go
34929 to sleep in their covered cart, or everything in it would be stolen.
34931 "But I'll send an orderly.... Two of them!" said Rostov. "What an idea,
34934 "I'll stand guard on it myself!" said Ilyin.
34936 "No, gentlemen, you have had your sleep, but I have not slept for two
34937 nights," replied the doctor, and he sat down morosely beside his wife,
34938 waiting for the game to end.
34940 Seeing his gloomy face as he frowned at his wife, the officers grew
34941 still merrier, and some of them could not refrain from laughter, for
34942 which they hurriedly sought plausible pretexts. When he had gone, taking
34943 his wife with him, and had settled down with her in their covered cart,
34944 the officers lay down in the tavern, covering themselves with their wet
34945 cloaks, but they did not sleep for a long time; now they exchanged
34946 remarks, recalling the doctor's uneasiness and his wife's delight, now
34947 they ran out into the porch and reported what was taking place in the
34948 covered trap. Several times Rostov, covering his head, tried to go to
34949 sleep, but some remark would arouse him and conversation would be
34950 resumed, to the accompaniment of unreasoning, merry, childlike laughter.
34957 It was nearly three o'clock but no one was yet asleep, when the
34958 quartermaster appeared with an order to move on to the little town of
34959 Ostrovna. Still laughing and talking, the officers began hurriedly
34960 getting ready and again boiled some muddy water in the samovar. But
34961 Rostov went off to his squadron without waiting for tea. Day was
34962 breaking, the rain had ceased, and the clouds were dispersing. It felt
34963 damp and cold, especially in clothes that were still moist. As they left
34964 the tavern in the twilight of the dawn, Rostov and Ilyin both glanced
34965 under the wet and glistening leather hood of the doctor's cart, from
34966 under the apron of which his feet were sticking out, and in the middle
34967 of which his wife's nightcap was visible and her sleepy breathing
34970 "She really is a dear little thing," said Rostov to Ilyin, who was
34973 "A charming woman!" said Ilyin, with all the gravity of a boy of
34976 Half an hour later the squadron was lined up on the road. The command
34977 was heard to "mount" and the soldiers crossed themselves and mounted.
34978 Rostov riding in front gave the order "Forward!" and the hussars, with
34979 clanking sabers and subdued talk, their horses' hoofs splashing in the
34980 mud, defiled in fours and moved along the broad road planted with birch
34981 trees on each side, following the infantry and a battery that had gone
34984 Tattered, blue-purple clouds, reddening in the east, were scudding
34985 before the wind. It was growing lighter and lighter. That curly grass
34986 which always grows by country roadsides became clearly visible, still
34987 wet with the night's rain; the drooping branches of the birches, also
34988 wet, swayed in the wind and flung down bright drops of water to one
34989 side. The soldiers' faces were more and more clearly visible. Rostov,
34990 always closely followed by Ilyin, rode along the side of the road
34991 between two rows of birch trees.
34993 When campaigning, Rostov allowed himself the indulgence of riding not a
34994 regimental but a Cossack horse. A judge of horses and a sportsman, he
34995 had lately procured himself a large, fine, mettlesome, Donets horse,
34996 dun-colored, with light mane and tail, and when he rode it no one could
34997 outgallop him. To ride this horse was a pleasure to him, and he thought
34998 of the horse, of the morning, of the doctor's wife, but not once of the
35001 Formerly, when going into action, Rostov had felt afraid; now he had not
35002 the least feeling of fear. He was fearless, not because he had grown
35003 used to being under fire (one cannot grow used to danger), but because
35004 he had learned how to manage his thoughts when in danger. He had grown
35005 accustomed when going into action to think about anything but what would
35006 seem most likely to interest him--the impending danger. During the first
35007 period of his service, hard as he tried and much as he reproached
35008 himself with cowardice, he had not been able to do this, but with time
35009 it had come of itself. Now he rode beside Ilyin under the birch trees,
35010 occasionally plucking leaves from a branch that met his hand, sometimes
35011 touching his horse's side with his foot, or, without turning round,
35012 handing a pipe he had finished to an hussar riding behind him, with as
35013 calm and careless an air as though he were merely out for a ride. He
35014 glanced with pity at the excited face of Ilyin, who talked much and in
35015 great agitation. He knew from experience the tormenting expectation of
35016 terror and death the cornet was suffering and knew that only time could
35019 As soon as the sun appeared in a clear strip of sky beneath the clouds,
35020 the wind fell, as if it dared not spoil the beauty of the summer morning
35021 after the storm; drops still continued to fall, but vertically now, and
35022 all was still. The whole sun appeared on the horizon and disappeared
35023 behind a long narrow cloud that hung above it. A few minutes later it
35024 reappeared brighter still from behind the top of the cloud, tearing its
35025 edge. Everything grew bright and glittered. And with that light, and as
35026 if in reply to it, came the sound of guns ahead of them.
35028 Before Rostov had had time to consider and determine the distance of
35029 that firing, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy's adjutant came galloping from
35030 Vitebsk with orders to advance at a trot along the road.
35032 The squadron overtook and passed the infantry and the battery--which had
35033 also quickened their pace--rode down a hill, and passing through an
35034 empty and deserted village again ascended. The horses began to lather
35035 and the men to flush.
35037 "Halt! Dress your ranks!" the order of the regimental commander was
35038 heard ahead. "Forward by the left. Walk, march!" came the order from in
35041 And the hussars, passing along the line of troops on the left flank of
35042 our position, halted behind our uhlans who were in the front line. To
35043 the right stood our infantry in a dense column: they were the reserve.
35044 Higher up the hill, on the very horizon, our guns were visible through
35045 the wonderfully clear air, brightly illuminated by slanting morning
35046 sunbeams. In front, beyond a hollow dale, could be seen the enemy's
35047 columns and guns. Our advanced line, already in action, could be heard
35048 briskly exchanging shots with the enemy in the dale.
35050 At these sounds, long unheard, Rostov's spirits rose, as at the strains
35051 of the merriest music. Trap-ta-ta-tap! cracked the shots, now together,
35052 now several quickly one after another. Again all was silent and then
35053 again it sounded as if someone were walking on detonators and exploding
35056 The hussars remained in the same place for about an hour. A cannonade
35057 began. Count Ostermann with his suite rode up behind the squadron,
35058 halted, spoke to the commander of the regiment, and rode up the hill to
35061 After Ostermann had gone, a command rang out to the uhlans.
35063 "Form column! Prepare to charge!"
35065 The infantry in front of them parted into platoons to allow the cavalry
35066 to pass. The uhlans started, the streamers on their spears fluttering,
35067 and trotted downhill toward the French cavalry which was seen below to
35070 As soon as the uhlans descended the hill, the hussars were ordered up
35071 the hill to support the battery. As they took the places vacated by the
35072 uhlans, bullets came from the front, whining and whistling, but fell
35073 spent without taking effect.
35075 The sounds, which he had not heard for so long, had an even more
35076 pleasurable and exhilarating effect on Rostov than the previous sounds
35077 of firing. Drawing himself up, he viewed the field of battle opening out
35078 before him from the hill, and with his whole soul followed the movement
35079 of the uhlans. They swooped down close to the French dragoons, something
35080 confused happened there amid the smoke, and five minutes later our
35081 uhlans were galloping back, not to the place they had occupied but more
35082 to the left, and among the orange-colored uhlans on chestnut horses and
35083 behind them, in a large group, blue French dragoons on gray horses could
35091 Rostov, with his keen sportsman's eye, was one of the first to catch
35092 sight of these blue French dragoons pursuing our uhlans. Nearer and
35093 nearer in disorderly crowds came the uhlans and the French dragoons
35094 pursuing them. He could already see how these men, who looked so small
35095 at the foot of the hill, jostled and overtook one another, waving their
35096 arms and their sabers in the air.
35098 Rostov gazed at what was happening before him as at a hunt. He felt
35099 instinctively that if the hussars struck at the French dragoons now, the
35100 latter could not withstand them, but if a charge was to be made it must
35101 be done now, at that very moment, or it would be too late. He looked
35102 around. A captain, standing beside him, was gazing like himself with
35103 eyes fixed on the cavalry below them.
35105 "Andrew Sevastyanych!" said Rostov. "You know, we could crush them...."
35107 "A fine thing too!" replied the captain, "and really..."
35109 Rostov, without waiting to hear him out, touched his horse, galloped to
35110 the front of his squadron, and before he had time to finish giving the
35111 word of command, the whole squadron, sharing his feeling, was following
35112 him. Rostov himself did not know how or why he did it. He acted as he
35113 did when hunting, without reflecting or considering. He saw the dragoons
35114 near and that they were galloping in disorder; he knew they could not
35115 withstand an attack--knew there was only that moment and that if he let
35116 it slip it would not return. The bullets were whining and whistling so
35117 stimulatingly around him and his horse was so eager to go that he could
35118 not restrain himself. He touched his horse, gave the word of command,
35119 and immediately, hearing behind him the tramp of the horses of his
35120 deployed squadron, rode at full trot downhill toward the dragoons.
35121 Hardly had they reached the bottom of the hill before their pace
35122 instinctively changed to a gallop, which grew faster and faster as they
35123 drew nearer to our uhlans and the French dragoons who galloped after
35124 them. The dragoons were now close at hand. On seeing the hussars, the
35125 foremost began to turn, while those behind began to halt. With the same
35126 feeling with which he had galloped across the path of a wolf, Rostov
35127 gave rein to his Donets horse and galloped to intersect the path of the
35128 dragoons' disordered lines. One Uhlan stopped, another who was on foot
35129 flung himself to the ground to avoid being knocked over, and a riderless
35130 horse fell in among the hussars. Nearly all the French dragoons were
35131 galloping back. Rostov, picking out one on a gray horse, dashed after
35132 him. On the way he came upon a bush, his gallant horse cleared it, and
35133 almost before he had righted himself in his saddle he saw that he would
35134 immediately overtake the enemy he had selected. That Frenchman, by his
35135 uniform an officer, was going at a gallop, crouching on his gray horse
35136 and urging it on with his saber. In another moment Rostov's horse dashed
35137 its breast against the hindquarters of the officer's horse, almost
35138 knocking it over, and at the same instant Rostov, without knowing why,
35139 raised his saber and struck the Frenchman with it.
35141 The instant he had done this, all Rostov's animation vanished. The
35142 officer fell, not so much from the blow--which had but slightly cut his
35143 arm above the elbow--as from the shock to his horse and from fright.
35144 Rostov reined in his horse, and his eyes sought his foe to see whom he
35145 had vanquished. The French dragoon officer was hopping with one foot on
35146 the ground, the other being caught in the stirrup. His eyes, screwed up
35147 with fear as if he every moment expected another blow, gazed up at
35148 Rostov with shrinking terror. His pale and mud-stained face--fair and
35149 young, with a dimple in the chin and light-blue eyes--was not an enemy's
35150 face at all suited to a battlefield, but a most ordinary, homelike face.
35151 Before Rostov had decided what to do with him, the officer cried, "I
35152 surrender!" He hurriedly but vainly tried to get his foot out of the
35153 stirrup and did not remove his frightened blue eyes from Rostov's face.
35154 Some hussars who galloped up disengaged his foot and helped him into the
35155 saddle. On all sides, the hussars were busy with the dragoons; one was
35156 wounded, but though his face was bleeding, he would not give up his
35157 horse; another was perched up behind an hussar with his arms round him;
35158 a third was being helped by an hussar to mount his horse. In front, the
35159 French infantry were firing as they ran. The hussars galloped hastily
35160 back with their prisoners. Rostov galloped back with the rest, aware of
35161 an unpleasant feeling of depression in his heart. Something vague and
35162 confused, which he could not at all account for, had come over him with
35163 the capture of that officer and the blow he had dealt him.
35165 Count Ostermann-Tolstoy met the returning hussars, sent for Rostov,
35166 thanked him, and said he would report his gallant deed to the Emperor
35167 and would recommend him for a St. George's Cross. When sent for by Count
35168 Ostermann, Rostov, remembering that he had charged without orders, felt
35169 sure his commander was sending for him to punish him for breach of
35170 discipline. Ostermann's flattering words and promise of a reward should
35171 therefore have struck him all the more pleasantly, but he still felt
35172 that same vaguely disagreeable feeling of moral nausea. "But what on
35173 earth is worrying me?" he asked himself as he rode back from the
35174 general. "Ilyin? No, he's safe. Have I disgraced myself in any way? No,
35175 that's not it." Something else, resembling remorse, tormented him. "Yes,
35176 oh yes, that French officer with the dimple. And I remember how my arm
35177 paused when I raised it."
35179 Rostov saw the prisoners being led away and galloped after them to have
35180 a look at his Frenchman with the dimple on his chin. He was sitting in
35181 his foreign uniform on an hussar packhorse and looked anxiously about
35182 him; The sword cut on his arm could scarcely be called a wound. He
35183 glanced at Rostov with a feigned smile and waved his hand in greeting.
35184 Rostov still had the same indefinite feeling, as of shame.
35186 All that day and the next his friends and comrades noticed that Rostov,
35187 without being dull or angry, was silent, thoughtful, and preoccupied. He
35188 drank reluctantly, tried to remain alone, and kept turning something
35191 Rostov was always thinking about that brilliant exploit of his, which to
35192 his amazement had gained him the St. George's Cross and even given him a
35193 reputation for bravery, and there was something he could not at all
35194 understand. "So others are even more afraid than I am!" he thought. "So
35195 that's all there is in what is called heroism! And did I do it for my
35196 country's sake? And how was he to blame, with his dimple and blue eyes?
35197 And how frightened he was! He thought that I should kill him. Why should
35198 I kill him? My hand trembled. And they have given me a St. George's
35199 Cross.... I can't make it out at all."
35201 But while Nicholas was considering these questions and still could reach
35202 no clear solution of what puzzled him so, the wheel of fortune in the
35203 service, as often happens, turned in his favor. After the affair at
35204 Ostrovna he was brought into notice, received command of an hussar
35205 battalion, and when a brave officer was needed he was chosen.
35212 On receiving news of Natasha's illness, the countess, though not quite
35213 well yet and still weak, went to Moscow with Petya and the rest of the
35214 household, and the whole family moved from Marya Dmitrievna's house to
35215 their own and settled down in town.
35217 Natasha's illness was so serious that, fortunately for her and for her
35218 parents, the consideration of all that had caused the illness, her
35219 conduct and the breaking off of her engagement, receded into the
35220 background. She was so ill that it was impossible for them to consider
35221 in how far she was to blame for what had happened. She could not eat or
35222 sleep, grew visibly thinner, coughed, and, as the doctors made them
35223 feel, was in danger. They could not think of anything but how to help
35224 her. Doctors came to see her singly and in consultation, talked much in
35225 French, German, and Latin, blamed one another, and prescribed a great
35226 variety of medicines for all the diseases known to them, but the simple
35227 idea never occurred to any of them that they could not know the disease
35228 Natasha was suffering from, as no disease suffered by a live man can be
35229 known, for every living person has his own peculiarities and always has
35230 his own peculiar, personal, novel, complicated disease, unknown to
35231 medicine--not a disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart, nerves, and so
35232 on mentioned in medical books, but a disease consisting of one of the
35233 innumerable combinations of the maladies of those organs. This simple
35234 thought could not occur to the doctors (as it cannot occur to a wizard
35235 that he is unable to work his charms) because the business of their
35236 lives was to cure, and they received money for it and had spent the best
35237 years of their lives on that business. But, above all, that thought was
35238 kept out of their minds by the fact that they saw they were really
35239 useful, as in fact they were to the whole Rostov family. Their
35240 usefulness did not depend on making the patient swallow substances for
35241 the most part harmful (the harm was scarcely perceptible, as they were
35242 given in small doses), but they were useful, necessary, and
35243 indispensable because they satisfied a mental need of the invalid and of
35244 those who loved her--and that is why there are, and always will be,
35245 pseudo-healers, wise women, homeopaths, and allopaths. They satisfied
35246 that eternal human need for hope of relief, for sympathy, and that
35247 something should be done, which is felt by those who are suffering. They
35248 satisfied the need seen in its most elementary form in a child, when it
35249 wants to have a place rubbed that has been hurt. A child knocks itself
35250 and runs at once to the arms of its mother or nurse to have the aching
35251 spot rubbed or kissed, and it feels better when this is done. The child
35252 cannot believe that the strongest and wisest of its people have no
35253 remedy for its pain, and the hope of relief and the expression of its
35254 mother's sympathy while she rubs the bump comforts it. The doctors were
35255 of use to Natasha because they kissed and rubbed her bump, assuring her
35256 that it would soon pass if only the coachman went to the chemist's in
35257 the Arbat and got a powder and some pills in a pretty box for a ruble
35258 and seventy kopeks, and if she took those powders in boiled water at
35259 intervals of precisely two hours, neither more nor less.
35261 What would Sonya and the count and countess have done, how would they
35262 have looked, if nothing had been done, if there had not been those pills
35263 to give by the clock, the warm drinks, the chicken cutlets, and all the
35264 other details of life ordered by the doctors, the carrying out of which
35265 supplied an occupation and consolation to the family circle? How would
35266 the count have borne his dearly loved daughter's illness had he not
35267 known that it was costing him a thousand rubles, and that he would not
35268 grudge thousands more to benefit her, or had he not known that if her
35269 illness continued he would not grudge yet other thousands and would take
35270 her abroad for consultations there, and had he not been able to explain
35271 the details of how Metivier and Feller had not understood the symptoms,
35272 but Frise had, and Mudrov had diagnosed them even better? What would the
35273 countess have done had she not been able sometimes to scold the invalid
35274 for not strictly obeying the doctor's orders?
35276 "You'll never get well like that," she would say, forgetting her grief
35277 in her vexation, "if you won't obey the doctor and take your medicine at
35278 the right time! You mustn't trifle with it, you know, or it may turn to
35279 pneumonia," she would go on, deriving much comfort from the utterance of
35280 that foreign word, incomprehensible to others as well as to herself.
35282 What would Sonya have done without the glad consciousness that she had
35283 not undressed during the first three nights, in order to be ready to
35284 carry out all the doctor's injunctions with precision, and that she
35285 still kept awake at night so as not to miss the proper time when the
35286 slightly harmful pills in the little gilt box had to be administered?
35287 Even to Natasha herself it was pleasant to see that so many sacrifices
35288 were being made for her sake, and to know that she had to take medicine
35289 at certain hours, though she declared that no medicine would cure her
35290 and that it was all nonsense. And it was even pleasant to be able to
35291 show, by disregarding the orders, that she did not believe in medical
35292 treatment and did not value her life.
35294 The doctor came every day, felt her pulse, looked at her tongue, and
35295 regardless of her grief-stricken face joked with her. But when he had
35296 gone into another room, to which the countess hurriedly followed him, he
35297 assumed a grave air and thoughtfully shaking his head said that though
35298 there was danger, he had hopes of the effect of this last medicine and
35299 one must wait and see, that the malady was chiefly mental, but... And
35300 the countess, trying to conceal the action from herself and from him,
35301 slipped a gold coin into his hand and always returned to the patient
35302 with a more tranquil mind.
35304 The symptoms of Natasha's illness were that she ate little, slept
35305 little, coughed, and was always low-spirited. The doctors said that she
35306 could not get on without medical treatment, so they kept her in the
35307 stifling atmosphere of the town, and the Rostovs did not move to the
35308 country that summer of 1812.
35310 In spite of the many pills she swallowed and the drops and powders out
35311 of the little bottles and boxes of which Madame Schoss who was fond of
35312 such things made a large collection, and in spite of being deprived of
35313 the country life to which she was accustomed, youth prevailed. Natasha's
35314 grief began to be overlaid by the impressions of daily life, it ceased
35315 to press so painfully on her heart, it gradually faded into the past,
35316 and she began to recover physically.
35323 Natasha was calmer but no happier. She not merely avoided all external
35324 forms of pleasure--balls, promenades, concerts, and theaters--but she
35325 never laughed without a sound of tears in her laughter. She could not
35326 sing. As soon as she began to laugh, or tried to sing by herself, tears
35327 choked her: tears of remorse, tears at the recollection of those pure
35328 times which could never return, tears of vexation that she should so
35329 uselessly have ruined her young life which might have been so happy.
35330 Laughter and singing in particular seemed to her like a blasphemy, in
35331 face of her sorrow. Without any need of self-restraint, no wish to
35332 coquet ever entered her head. She said and felt at that time that no man
35333 was more to her than Nastasya Ivanovna, the buffoon. Something stood
35334 sentinel within her and forbade her every joy. Besides, she had lost all
35335 the old interests of her carefree girlish life that had been so full of
35336 hope. The previous autumn, the hunting, "Uncle," and the Christmas
35337 holidays spent with Nicholas at Otradnoe were what she recalled oftenest
35338 and most painfully. What would she not have given to bring back even a
35339 single day of that time! But it was gone forever. Her presentiment at
35340 the time had not deceived her--that that state of freedom and readiness
35341 for any enjoyment would not return again. Yet it was necessary to live
35344 It comforted her to reflect that she was not better as she had formerly
35345 imagined, but worse, much worse, than anybody else in the world. But
35346 this was not enough. She knew that, and asked herself, "What next?" But
35347 there was nothing to come. There was no joy in life, yet life was
35348 passing. Natasha apparently tried not to be a burden or a hindrance to
35349 anyone, but wanted nothing for herself. She kept away from everyone in
35350 the house and felt at ease only with her brother Petya. She liked to be
35351 with him better than with the others, and when alone with him she
35352 sometimes laughed. She hardly ever left the house and of those who came
35353 to see them was glad to see only one person, Pierre. It would have been
35354 impossible to treat her with more delicacy, greater care, and at the
35355 same time more seriously than did Count Bezukhov. Natasha unconsciously
35356 felt this delicacy and so found great pleasure in his society. But she
35357 was not even grateful to him for it; nothing good on Pierre's part
35358 seemed to her to be an effort, it seemed so natural for him to be kind
35359 to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness. Sometimes Natasha
35360 noticed embarrassment and awkwardness on his part in her presence,
35361 especially when he wanted to do something to please her, or feared that
35362 something they spoke of would awaken memories distressing to her. She
35363 noticed this and attributed it to his general kindness and shyness,
35364 which she imagined must be the same toward everyone as it was to her.
35365 After those involuntary words--that if he were free he would have asked
35366 on his knees for her hand and her love--uttered at a moment when she was
35367 so strongly agitated, Pierre never spoke to Natasha of his feelings; and
35368 it seemed plain to her that those words, which had then so comforted
35369 her, were spoken as all sorts of meaningless words are spoken to comfort
35370 a crying child. It was not because Pierre was a married man, but because
35371 Natasha felt very strongly with him that moral barrier the absence of
35372 which she had experienced with Kuragin that it never entered her head
35373 that the relations between him and herself could lead to love on her
35374 part, still less on his, or even to the kind of tender, self-conscious,
35375 romantic friendship between a man and a woman of which she had known
35378 Before the end of the fast of St. Peter, Agrafena Ivanovna Belova, a
35379 country neighbor of the Rostovs, came to Moscow to pay her devotions at
35380 the shrines of the Moscow saints. She suggested that Natasha should fast
35381 and prepare for Holy Communion, and Natasha gladly welcomed the idea.
35382 Despite the doctor's orders that she should not go out early in the
35383 morning, Natasha insisted on fasting and preparing for the sacrament,
35384 not as they generally prepared for it in the Rostov family by attending
35385 three services in their own house, but as Agrafena Ivanovna did, by
35386 going to church every day for a week and not once missing Vespers,
35389 The countess was pleased with Natasha's zeal; after the poor results of
35390 the medical treatment, in the depths of her heart she hoped that prayer
35391 might help her daughter more than medicines and, though not without fear
35392 and concealing it from the doctor, she agreed to Natasha's wish and
35393 entrusted her to Belova. Agrafena Ivanovna used to come to wake Natasha
35394 at three in the morning, but generally found her already awake. She was
35395 afraid of being late for Matins. Hastily washing, and meekly putting on
35396 her shabbiest dress and an old mantilla, Natasha, shivering in the fresh
35397 air, went out into the deserted streets lit by the clear light of dawn.
35398 By Agrafena Ivanovna's advice Natasha prepared herself not in their own
35399 parish, but at a church where, according to the devout Agrafena
35400 Ivanovna, the priest was a man of very severe and lofty life. There were
35401 never many people in the church; Natasha always stood beside Belova in
35402 the customary place before an icon of the Blessed Virgin, let into the
35403 screen before the choir on the left side, and a feeling, new to her, of
35404 humility before something great and incomprehensible, seized her when at
35405 that unusual morning hour, gazing at the dark face of the Virgin
35406 illuminated by the candles burning before it and by the morning light
35407 falling from the window, she listened to the words of the service which
35408 she tried to follow with understanding. When she understood them her
35409 personal feeling became interwoven in the prayers with shades of its
35410 own. When she did not understand, it was sweeter still to think that the
35411 wish to understand everything is pride, that it is impossible to
35412 understand all, that it is only necessary to believe and to commit
35413 oneself to God, whom she felt guiding her soul at those moments. She
35414 crossed herself, bowed low, and when she did not understand, in horror
35415 at her own vileness, simply asked God to forgive her everything,
35416 everything, to have mercy upon her. The prayers to which she surrendered
35417 herself most of all were those of repentance. On her way home at an
35418 early hour when she met no one but bricklayers going to work or men
35419 sweeping the street, and everybody within the houses was still asleep,
35420 Natasha experienced a feeling new to her, a sense of the possibility of
35421 correcting her faults, the possibility of a new, clean life, and of
35424 During the whole week she spent in this way, that feeling grew every
35425 day. And the happiness of taking communion, or "communing" as Agrafena
35426 Ivanovna, joyously playing with the word, called it, seemed to Natasha
35427 so great that she felt she should never live till that blessed Sunday.
35429 But the happy day came, and on that memorable Sunday, when, dressed in
35430 white muslin, she returned home after communion, for the first time for
35431 many months she felt calm and not oppressed by the thought of the life
35432 that lay before her.
35434 The doctor who came to see her that day ordered her to continue the
35435 powders he had prescribed a fortnight previously.
35437 "She must certainly go on taking them morning and evening," said he,
35438 evidently sincerely satisfied with his success. "Only, please be
35439 particular about it.
35441 "Be quite easy," he continued playfully, as he adroitly took the gold
35442 coin in his palm. "She will soon be singing and frolicking about. The
35443 last medicine has done her a very great deal of good. She has freshened
35446 The countess, with a cheerful expression on her face, looked down at her
35447 nails and spat a little for luck as she returned to the drawing room.
35454 At the beginning of July more and more disquieting reports about the war
35455 began to spread in Moscow; people spoke of an appeal by the Emperor to
35456 the people, and of his coming himself from the army to Moscow. And as up
35457 to the eleventh of July no manifesto or appeal had been received,
35458 exaggerated reports became current about them and about the position of
35459 Russia. It was said that the Emperor was leaving the army because it was
35460 in danger, it was said that Smolensk had surrendered, that Napoleon had
35461 an army of a million and only a miracle could save Russia.
35463 On the eleventh of July, which was Saturday, the manifesto was received
35464 but was not yet in print, and Pierre, who was at the Rostovs', promised
35465 to come to dinner next day, Sunday, and bring a copy of the manifesto
35466 and appeal, which he would obtain from Count Rostopchin.
35468 That Sunday, the Rostovs went to Mass at the Razumovskis' private chapel
35469 as usual. It was a hot July day. Even at ten o'clock, when the Rostovs
35470 got out of their carriage at the chapel, the sultry air, the shouts of
35471 hawkers, the light and gay summer clothes of the crowd, the dusty leaves
35472 of the trees on the boulevard, the sounds of the band and the white
35473 trousers of a battalion marching to parade, the rattling of wheels on
35474 the cobblestones, and the brilliant, hot sunshine were all full of that
35475 summer languor, that content and discontent with the present, which is
35476 most strongly felt on a bright, hot day in town. All the Moscow
35477 notabilities, all the Rostovs' acquaintances, were at the Razumovskis'
35478 chapel, for, as if expecting something to happen, many wealthy families
35479 who usually left town for their country estates had not gone away that
35480 summer. As Natasha, at her mother's side, passed through the crowd
35481 behind a liveried footman who cleared the way for them, she heard a
35482 young man speaking about her in too loud a whisper.
35484 "That's Rostova, the one who..."
35486 "She's much thinner, but all the same she's pretty!"
35488 She heard, or thought she heard, the names of Kuragin and Bolkonski. But
35489 she was always imagining that. It always seemed to her that everyone who
35490 looked at her was thinking only of what had happened to her. With a
35491 sinking heart, wretched as she always was now when she found herself in
35492 a crowd, Natasha in her lilac silk dress trimmed with black lace walked-
35493 -as women can walk--with the more repose and stateliness the greater the
35494 pain and shame in her soul. She knew for certain that she was pretty,
35495 but this no longer gave her satisfaction as it used to. On the contrary
35496 it tormented her more than anything else of late, and particularly so on
35497 this bright, hot summer day in town. "It's Sunday again--another week
35498 past," she thought, recalling that she had been here the Sunday before,
35499 "and always the same life that is no life, and the same surroundings in
35500 which it used to be so easy to live. I'm pretty, I'm young, and I know
35501 that now I am good. I used to be bad, but now I know I am good," she
35502 thought, "but yet my best years are slipping by and are no good to
35503 anyone." She stood by her mother's side and exchanged nods with
35504 acquaintances near her. From habit she scrutinized the ladies' dresses,
35505 condemned the bearing of a lady standing close by who was not crossing
35506 herself properly but in a cramped manner, and again she thought with
35507 vexation that she was herself being judged and was judging others, and
35508 suddenly, at the sound of the service, she felt horrified at her own
35509 vileness, horrified that the former purity of her soul was again lost to
35512 A comely, fresh-looking old man was conducting the service with that
35513 mild solemnity which has so elevating and soothing an effect on the
35514 souls of the worshipers. The gates of the sanctuary screen were closed,
35515 the curtain was slowly drawn, and from behind it a soft mysterious voice
35516 pronounced some words. Tears, the cause of which she herself did not
35517 understand, made Natasha's breast heave, and a joyous but oppressive
35518 feeling agitated her.
35520 "Teach me what I should do, how to live my life, how I may grow good
35521 forever, forever!" she pleaded.
35523 The deacon came out onto the raised space before the altar screen and,
35524 holding his thumb extended, drew his long hair from under his dalmatic
35525 and, making the sign of the cross on his breast, began in a loud and
35526 solemn voice to recite the words of the prayer...
35528 "In peace let us pray unto the Lord."
35530 "As one community, without distinction of class, without enmity, united
35531 by brotherly love--let us pray!" thought Natasha.
35533 "For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of our souls."
35535 "For the world of angels and all the spirits who dwell above us," prayed
35538 When they prayed for the warriors, she thought of her brother and
35539 Denisov. When they prayed for all traveling by land and sea, she
35540 remembered Prince Andrew, prayed for him, and asked God to forgive her
35541 all the wrongs she had done him. When they prayed for those who love us,
35542 she prayed for the members of her own family, her father and mother and
35543 Sonya, realizing for the first time how wrongly she had acted toward
35544 them, and feeling all the strength of her love for them. When they
35545 prayed for those who hate us, she tried to think of her enemies and
35546 people who hated her, in order to pray for them. She included among her
35547 enemies the creditors and all who had business dealings with her father,
35548 and always at the thought of enemies and those who hated her she
35549 remembered Anatole who had done her so much harm--and though he did not
35550 hate her she gladly prayed for him as for an enemy. Only at prayer did
35551 she feel able to think clearly and calmly of Prince Andrew and Anatole,
35552 as men for whom her feelings were as nothing compared with her awe and
35553 devotion to God. When they prayed for the Imperial family and the Synod,
35554 she bowed very low and made the sign of the cross, saying to herself
35555 that even if she did not understand, still she could not doubt, and at
35556 any rate loved the governing Synod and prayed for it.
35558 When he had finished the Litany the deacon crossed the stole over his
35559 breast and said, "Let us commit ourselves and our whole lives to Christ
35562 "Commit ourselves to God," Natasha inwardly repeated. "Lord God, I
35563 submit myself to Thy will!" she thought. "I want nothing, wish for
35564 nothing; teach me what to do and how to use my will! Take me, take me!"
35565 prayed Natasha, with impatient emotion in her heart, not crossing
35566 herself but letting her slender arms hang down as if expecting some
35567 invisible power at any moment to take her and deliver her from herself,
35568 from her regrets, desires, remorse, hopes, and sins.
35570 The countess looked round several times at her daughter's softened face
35571 and shining eyes and prayed God to help her.
35573 Unexpectedly, in the middle of the service, and not in the usual order
35574 Natasha knew so well, the deacon brought out a small stool, the one he
35575 knelt on when praying on Trinity Sunday, and placed it before the doors
35576 of the sanctuary screen. The priest came out with his purple velvet
35577 biretta on his head, adjusted his hair, and knelt down with an effort.
35578 Everybody followed his example and they looked at one another in
35579 surprise. Then came the prayer just received from the Synod--a prayer
35580 for the deliverance of Russia from hostile invasion.
35582 "Lord God of might, God of our salvation!" began the priest in that
35583 voice, clear, not grandiloquent but mild, in which only the Slav clergy
35584 read and which acts so irresistibly on a Russian heart.
35586 "Lord God of might, God of our salvation! Look this day in mercy and
35587 blessing on Thy humble people, and graciously hear us, spare us, and
35588 have mercy upon us! This foe confounding Thy land, desiring to lay waste
35589 the whole world, rises against us; these lawless men are gathered
35590 together to overthrow Thy kingdom, to destroy Thy dear Jerusalem, Thy
35591 beloved Russia; to defile Thy temples, to overthrow Thine altars, and to
35592 desecrate our holy shrines. How long, O Lord, how long shall the wicked
35593 triumph? How long shall they wield unlawful power?
35595 "Lord God! Hear us when we pray to Thee; strengthen with Thy might our
35596 most gracious sovereign lord, the Emperor Alexander Pavlovich; be
35597 mindful of his uprightness and meekness, reward him according to his
35598 righteousness, and let it preserve us, Thy chosen Israel! Bless his
35599 counsels, his undertakings, and his work; strengthen his kingdom by
35600 Thine almighty hand, and give him victory over his enemy, even as Thou
35601 gavest Moses the victory over Amalek, Gideon over Midian, and David over
35602 Goliath. Preserve his army, put a bow of brass in the hands of those who
35603 have armed themselves in Thy Name, and gird their loins with strength
35604 for the fight. Take up the spear and shield and arise to help us;
35605 confound and put to shame those who have devised evil against us, may
35606 they be before the faces of Thy faithful warriors as dust before the
35607 wind, and may Thy mighty Angel confound them and put them to flight; may
35608 they be ensnared when they know it not, and may the plots they have laid
35609 in secret be turned against them; let them fall before Thy servants'
35610 feet and be laid low by our hosts! Lord, Thou art able to save both
35611 great and small; Thou art God, and man cannot prevail against Thee!
35613 "God of our fathers! Remember Thy bounteous mercy and loving-kindness
35614 which are from of old; turn not Thy face from us, but be gracious to our
35615 unworthiness, and in Thy great goodness and Thy many mercies regard not
35616 our transgressions and iniquities! Create in us a clean heart and renew
35617 a right spirit within us, strengthen us all in Thy faith, fortify our
35618 hope, inspire us with true love one for another, arm us with unity of
35619 spirit in the righteous defense of the heritage Thou gavest to us and to
35620 our fathers, and let not the scepter of the wicked be exalted against
35621 the destiny of those Thou hast sanctified.
35623 "O Lord our God, in whom we believe and in whom we put our trust, let us
35624 not be confounded in our hope of Thy mercy, and give us a token of Thy
35625 blessing, that those who hate us and our Orthodox faith may see it and
35626 be put to shame and perish, and may all the nations know that Thou art
35627 the Lord and we are Thy people. Show Thy mercy upon us this day, O Lord,
35628 and grant us Thy salvation; make the hearts of Thy servants to rejoice
35629 in Thy mercy; smite down our enemies and destroy them swiftly beneath
35630 the feet of Thy faithful servants! For Thou art the defense, the succor,
35631 and the victory of them that put their trust in Thee, and to Thee be all
35632 glory, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and forever, world without
35635 In Natasha's receptive condition of soul this prayer affected her
35636 strongly. She listened to every word about the victory of Moses over
35637 Amalek, of Gideon over Midian, and of David over Goliath, and about the
35638 destruction of "Thy Jerusalem," and she prayed to God with the
35639 tenderness and emotion with which her heart was overflowing, but without
35640 fully understanding what she was asking of God in that prayer. She
35641 shared with all her heart in the prayer for the spirit of righteousness,
35642 for the strengthening of the heart by faith and hope, and its animation
35643 by love. But she could not pray that her enemies might be trampled under
35644 foot when but a few minutes before she had been wishing she had more of
35645 them that she might pray for them. But neither could she doubt the
35646 righteousness of the prayer that was being read on bended knees. She
35647 felt in her heart a devout and tremulous awe at the thought of the
35648 punishment that overtakes men for their sins, and especially of her own
35649 sins, and she prayed to God to forgive them all, and her too, and to
35650 give them all, and her too, peace and happiness. And it seemed to her
35651 that God heard her prayer.
35658 From the day when Pierre, after leaving the Rostovs' with Natasha's
35659 grateful look fresh in his mind, had gazed at the comet that seemed to
35660 be fixed in the sky and felt that something new was appearing on his own
35661 horizon--from that day the problem of the vanity and uselessness of all
35662 earthly things, that had incessantly tormented him, no longer presented
35663 itself. That terrible question "Why?" "Wherefore?" which had come to him
35664 amid every occupation, was now replaced, not by another question or by a
35665 reply to the former question, but by her image. When he listened to, or
35666 himself took part in, trivial conversations, when he read or heard of
35667 human baseness or folly, he was not horrified as formerly, and did not
35668 ask himself why men struggled so about these things when all is so
35669 transient and incomprehensible--but he remembered her as he had last
35670 seen her, and all his doubts vanished--not because she had answered the
35671 questions that had haunted him, but because his conception of her
35672 transferred him instantly to another, a brighter, realm of spiritual
35673 activity in which no one could be justified or guilty--a realm of beauty
35674 and love which it was worth living for. Whatever worldly baseness
35675 presented itself to him, he said to himself:
35677 "Well, supposing N. N. swindled the country and the Tsar, and the
35678 country and the Tsar confer honors upon him, what does that matter? She
35679 smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her, and
35680 no one will ever know it." And his soul felt calm and peaceful.
35682 Pierre still went into society, drank as much and led the same idle and
35683 dissipated life, because besides the hours he spent at the Rostovs'
35684 there were other hours he had to spend somehow, and the habits and
35685 acquaintances he had made in Moscow formed a current that bore him along
35686 irresistibly. But latterly, when more and more disquieting reports came
35687 from the seat of war and Natasha's health began to improve and she no
35688 longer aroused in him the former feeling of careful pity, an ever-
35689 increasing restlessness, which he could not explain, took possession of
35690 him. He felt that the condition he was in could not continue long, that
35691 a catastrophe was coming which would change his whole life, and he
35692 impatiently sought everywhere for signs of that approaching catastrophe.
35693 One of his brother Masons had revealed to Pierre the following prophecy
35694 concerning Napoleon, drawn from the Revelation of St. John.
35696 In chapter 13, verse 18, of the Apocalypse, it is said:
35698 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
35699 beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
35700 threescore and six.
35702 And in the fifth verse of the same chapter:
35704 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and
35705 blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two
35708 The French alphabet, written out with the same numerical values as the
35709 Hebrew, in which the first nine letters denote units and the others
35710 tens, will have the following significance:
35713 a b c d e f g h i k 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
35714 10 l m n o p q r s 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
35715 90 t u v w x y 100 110 120 130 140 150 z 160
35717 Writing the words L'Empereur Napoleon in numbers, it appears that the
35718 sum of them is 666, and that Napoleon was therefore the beast foretold
35719 in the Apocalypse. Moreover, by applying the same system to the words
35720 quarante-deux, * which was the term allowed to the beast that "spoke
35721 great things and blasphemies," the same number 666 was obtained; from
35722 which it followed that the limit fixed for Napoleon's power had come in
35723 the year 1812 when the French emperor was forty-two. This prophecy
35724 pleased Pierre very much and he often asked himself what would put an
35725 end to the power of the beast, that is, of Napoleon, and tried by the
35726 same system of using letters as numbers and adding them up, to find an
35727 answer to the question that engrossed him. He wrote the words L'Empereur
35728 Alexandre, La nation russe and added up their numbers, but the sums were
35729 either more or less than 666. Once when making such calculations he
35730 wrote down his own name in French, Comte Pierre Besouhoff, but the sum
35731 of the numbers did not come right. Then he changed the spelling,
35732 substituting a z for the s and adding de and the article le, still
35733 without obtaining the desired result. Then it occurred to him: if the
35734 answer to the question were contained in his name, his nationality would
35735 also be given in the answer. So he wrote Le russe Besuhof and adding up
35736 the numbers got 671. This was only five too much, and five was
35737 represented by e, the very letter elided from the article le before the
35738 word Empereur. By omitting the e, though incorrectly, Pierre got the
35739 answer he sought. L'russe Besuhof made 666. This discovery excited him.
35740 How, or by what means, he was connected with the great event foretold in
35741 the Apocalypse he did not know, but he did not doubt that connection for
35742 a moment. His love for Natasha, Antichrist, Napoleon, the invasion, the
35743 comet, 666, L'Empereur Napoleon, and L'russe Besuhof--all this had to
35744 mature and culminate, to lift him out of that spellbound, petty sphere
35745 of Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive and lead him to a
35746 great achievement and great happiness.
35751 On the eve of the Sunday when the special prayer was read, Pierre had
35752 promised the Rostovs to bring them, from Count Rostopchin whom he knew
35753 well, both the appeal to the people and the news from the army. In the
35754 morning, when he went to call at Rostopchin's he met there a courier
35755 fresh from the army, an acquaintance of his own, who often danced at
35758 "Do, please, for heaven's sake, relieve me of something!" said the
35759 courier. "I have a sackful of letters to parents."
35761 Among these letters was one from Nicholas Rostov to his father. Pierre
35762 took that letter, and Rostopchin also gave him the Emperor's appeal to
35763 Moscow, which had just been printed, the last army orders, and his own
35764 most recent bulletin. Glancing through the army orders, Pierre found in
35765 one of them, in the lists of killed, wounded, and rewarded, the name of
35766 Nicholas Rostov, awarded a St. George's Cross of the Fourth Class for
35767 courage shown in the Ostrovna affair, and in the same order the name of
35768 Prince Andrew Bolkonski, appointed to the command of a regiment of
35769 Chasseurs. Though he did not want to remind the Rostovs of Bolkonski,
35770 Pierre could not refrain from making them happy by the news of their
35771 son's having received a decoration, so he sent that printed army order
35772 and Nicholas' letter to the Rostovs, keeping the appeal, the bulletin,
35773 and the other orders to take with him when he went to dinner.
35775 His conversation with Count Rostopchin and the latter's tone of anxious
35776 hurry, the meeting with the courier who talked casually of how badly
35777 things were going in the army, the rumors of the discovery of spies in
35778 Moscow and of a leaflet in circulation stating that Napoleon promised to
35779 be in both the Russian capitals by the autumn, and the talk of the
35780 Emperor's being expected to arrive next day--all aroused with fresh
35781 force that feeling of agitation and expectation in Pierre which he had
35782 been conscious of ever since the appearance of the comet, and especially
35783 since the beginning of the war.
35785 He had long been thinking of entering the army and would have done so
35786 had he not been hindered, first, by his membership of the Society of
35787 Freemasons to which he was bound by oath and which preached perpetual
35788 peace and the abolition of war, and secondly, by the fact that when he
35789 saw the great mass of Muscovites who had donned uniform and were talking
35790 patriotism, he somehow felt ashamed to take the step. But the chief
35791 reason for not carrying out his intention to enter the army lay in the
35792 vague idea that he was L'russe Besuhof who had the number of the beast,
35793 666; that his part in the great affair of setting a limit to the power
35794 of the beast that spoke great and blasphemous things had been
35795 predestined from eternity, and that therefore he ought not to undertake
35796 anything, but wait for what was bound to come to pass.
35803 A few intimate friends were dining with the Rostovs that day, as usual
35806 Pierre came early so as to find them alone.
35808 He had grown so stout this year that he would have been abnormal had he
35809 not been so tall, so broad of limb, and so strong that he carried his
35810 bulk with evident ease.
35812 He went up the stairs, puffing and muttering something. His coachman did
35813 not even ask whether he was to wait. He knew that when his master was at
35814 the Rostovs' he stayed till midnight. The Rostovs' footman rushed
35815 eagerly forward to help him off with his cloak and take his hat and
35816 stick. Pierre, from club habit, always left both hat and stick in the
35819 The first person he saw in the house was Natasha. Even before he saw
35820 her, while taking off his cloak, he heard her. She was practicing solfa
35821 exercises in the music room. He knew that she had not sung since her
35822 illness, and so the sound of her voice surprised and delighted him. He
35823 opened the door softly and saw her, in the lilac dress she had worn at
35824 church, walking about the room singing. She had her back to him when he
35825 opened the door, but when, turning quickly, she saw his broad, surprised
35826 face, she blushed and came rapidly up to him.
35828 "I want to try to sing again," she said, adding as if by way of excuse,
35829 "it is, at least, something to do."
35833 "How glad I am you've come! I am so happy today," she said, with the old
35834 animation Pierre had not seen in her for a long time. "You know Nicholas
35835 has received a St. George's Cross? I am so proud of him."
35837 "Oh yes, I sent that announcement. But I don't want to interrupt you,"
35838 he added, and was about to go to the drawing room.
35840 Natasha stopped him.
35842 "Count, is it wrong of me to sing?" she said blushing, and fixing her
35843 eyes inquiringly on him.
35845 "No... Why should it be? On the contrary... But why do you ask me?"
35847 "I don't know myself," Natasha answered quickly, "but I should not like
35848 to do anything you disapproved of. I believe in you completely. You
35849 don't know how important you are to me, how much you've done for me...."
35850 She spoke rapidly and did not notice how Pierre flushed at her words. "I
35851 saw in that same army order that he, Bolkonski" (she whispered the name
35852 hastily), "is in Russia, and in the army again. What do you think?"--she
35853 was speaking hurriedly, evidently afraid her strength might fail her--
35854 "Will he ever forgive me? Will he not always have a bitter feeling
35855 toward me? What do you think? What do you think?"
35857 "I think..." Pierre replied, "that he has nothing to forgive.... If I
35858 were in his place..."
35860 By association of ideas, Pierre was at once carried back to the day
35861 when, trying to comfort her, he had said that if he were not himself but
35862 the best man in the world and free, he would ask on his knees for her
35863 hand; and the same feeling of pity, tenderness, and love took possession
35864 of him and the same words rose to his lips. But she did not give him
35867 "Yes, you... you..." she said, uttering the word you rapturously--
35868 "that's a different thing. I know no one kinder, more generous, or
35869 better than you; nobody could be! Had you not been there then, and now
35870 too, I don't know what would have become of me, because..."
35872 Tears suddenly rose in her eyes, she turned away, lifted her music
35873 before her eyes, began singing again, and again began walking up and
35876 Just then Petya came running in from the drawing room.
35878 Petya was now a handsome rosy lad of fifteen with full red lips and
35879 resembled Natasha. He was preparing to enter the university, but he and
35880 his friend Obolenski had lately, in secret, agreed to join the hussars.
35882 Petya had come rushing out to talk to his namesake about this affair. He
35883 had asked Pierre to find out whether he would be accepted in the
35886 Pierre walked up and down the drawing room, not listening to what Petya
35889 Petya pulled him by the arm to attract his attention.
35891 "Well, what about my plan? Peter Kirilych, for heaven's sake! You are my
35892 only hope," said Petya.
35894 "Oh yes, your plan. To join the hussars? I'll mention it, I'll bring it
35897 "Well, mon cher, have you got the manifesto?" asked the old count. "The
35898 countess has been to Mass at the Razumovskis' and heard the new prayer.
35899 She says it's very fine."
35901 "Yes, I've got it," said Pierre. "The Emperor is to be here tomorrow...
35902 there's to be an Extraordinary Meeting of the nobility, and they are
35903 talking of a levy of ten men per thousand. Oh yes, let me congratulate
35906 "Yes, yes, thank God! Well, and what news from the army?"
35908 "We are again retreating. They say we're already near Smolensk," replied
35911 "O Lord, O Lord!" exclaimed the count. "Where is the manifesto?"
35913 "The Emperor's appeal? Oh yes!"
35915 Pierre began feeling in his pockets for the papers, but could not find
35916 them. Still slapping his pockets, he kissed the hand of the countess who
35917 entered the room and glanced uneasily around, evidently expecting
35918 Natasha, who had left off singing but had not yet come into the drawing
35921 "On my word, I don't know what I've done with it," he said.
35923 "There he is, always losing everything!" remarked the countess.
35925 Natasha entered with a softened and agitated expression of face and sat
35926 down looking silently at Pierre. As soon as she entered, Pierre's
35927 features, which had been gloomy, suddenly lighted up, and while still
35928 searching for the papers he glanced at her several times.
35930 "No, really! I'll drive home, I must have left them there. I'll
35933 "But you'll be late for dinner."
35935 "Oh! And my coachman has gone."
35937 But Sonya, who had gone to look for the papers in the anteroom, had
35938 found them in Pierre's hat, where he had carefully tucked them under the
35939 lining. Pierre was about to begin reading.
35941 "No, after dinner," said the old count, evidently expecting much
35942 enjoyment from that reading.
35944 At dinner, at which champagne was drunk to the health of the new
35945 chevalier of St. George, Shinshin told them the town news, of the
35946 illness of the old Georgian princess, of Metivier's disappearance from
35947 Moscow, and of how some German fellow had been brought to Rostopchin and
35948 accused of being a French "spyer" (so Count Rostopchin had told the
35949 story), and how Rostopchin let him go and assured the people that he was
35950 "not a spire at all, but only an old German ruin."
35952 "People are being arrested..." said the count. "I've told the countess
35953 she should not speak French so much. It's not the time for it now."
35955 "And have you heard?" Shinshin asked. "Prince Golitsyn has engaged a
35956 master to teach him Russian. It is becoming dangerous to speak French in
35959 "And how about you, Count Peter Kirilych? If they call up the militia,
35960 you too will have to mount a horse," remarked the old count, addressing
35963 Pierre had been silent and preoccupied all through dinner, seeming not
35964 to grasp what was said. He looked at the count.
35966 "Oh yes, the war," he said. "No! What sort of warrior should I make? And
35967 yet everything is so strange, so strange! I can't make it out. I don't
35968 know, I am very far from having military tastes, but in these times no
35969 one can answer for himself."
35971 After dinner the count settled himself comfortably in an easy chair and
35972 with a serious face asked Sonya, who was considered an excellent reader,
35973 to read the appeal.
35975 "To Moscow, our ancient Capital!
35977 "The enemy has entered the borders of Russia with immense forces. He
35978 comes to despoil our beloved country."
35980 Sonya read painstakingly in her high-pitched voice. The count listened
35981 with closed eyes, heaving abrupt sighs at certain passages.
35983 Natasha sat erect, gazing with a searching look now at her father and
35986 Pierre felt her eyes on him and tried not to look round. The countess
35987 shook her head disapprovingly and angrily at every solemn expression in
35988 the manifesto. In all these words she saw only that the danger
35989 threatening her son would not soon be over. Shinshin, with a sarcastic
35990 smile on his lips, was evidently preparing to make fun of anything that
35991 gave him the opportunity: Sonya's reading, any remark of the count's, or
35992 even the manifesto itself should no better pretext present itself.
35994 After reading about the dangers that threatened Russia, the hopes the
35995 Emperor placed on Moscow and especially on its illustrious nobility,
35996 Sonya, with a quiver in her voice due chiefly to the attention that was
35997 being paid to her, read the last words:
35999 "We ourselves will not delay to appear among our people in that Capital
36000 and in other parts of our realm for consultation, and for the direction
36001 of all our levies, both those now barring the enemy's path and those
36002 freshly formed to defeat him wherever he may appear. May the ruin he
36003 hopes to bring upon us recoil on his own head, and may Europe delivered
36004 from bondage glorify the name of Russia!"
36006 "Yes, that's it!" cried the count, opening his moist eyes and sniffing
36007 repeatedly, as if a strong vinaigrette had been held to his nose; and he
36008 added, "Let the Emperor but say the word and we'll sacrifice everything
36009 and begrudge nothing."
36011 Before Shinshin had time to utter the joke he was ready to make on the
36012 count's patriotism, Natasha jumped up from her place and ran to her
36015 "What a darling our Papa is!" she cried, kissing him, and she again
36016 looked at Pierre with the unconscious coquetry that had returned to her
36017 with her better spirits.
36019 "There! Here's a patriot for you!" said Shinshin.
36021 "Not a patriot at all, but simply..." Natasha replied in an injured
36022 tone. "Everything seems funny to you, but this isn't at all a joke...."
36024 "A joke indeed!" put in the count. "Let him but say the word and we'll
36025 all go.... We're not Germans!"
36027 "But did you notice, it says, 'for consultation'?" said Pierre.
36029 "Never mind what it's for...."
36031 At this moment, Petya, to whom nobody was paying any attention, came up
36032 to his father with a very flushed face and said in his breaking voice
36033 that was now deep and now shrill:
36035 "Well, Papa, I tell you definitely, and Mamma too, it's as you please,
36036 but I say definitely that you must let me enter the army, because I
36037 can't... that's all...."
36039 The countess, in dismay, looked up to heaven, clasped her hands, and
36040 turned angrily to her husband.
36042 "That comes of your talking!" said she.
36044 But the count had already recovered from his excitement.
36046 "Come, come!" said he. "Here's a fine warrior! No! Nonsense! You must
36049 "It's not nonsense, Papa. Fedya Obolenski is younger than I, and he's
36050 going too. Besides, all the same I can't study now when..." Petya
36051 stopped short, flushed till he perspired, but still got out the words,
36052 "when our Fatherland is in danger."
36054 "That'll do, that'll do--nonsense...."
36056 "But you said yourself that we would sacrifice everything."
36058 "Petya! Be quiet, I tell you!" cried the count, with a glance at his
36059 wife, who had turned pale and was staring fixedly at her son.
36061 "And I tell you--Peter Kirilych here will also tell you..."
36063 "Nonsense, I tell you. Your mother's milk has hardly dried on your lips
36064 and you want to go into the army! There, there, I tell you," and the
36065 count moved to go out of the room, taking the papers, probably to reread
36066 them in his study before having a nap.
36068 "Well, Peter Kirilych, let's go and have a smoke," he said.
36070 Pierre was agitated and undecided. Natasha's unwontedly brilliant eyes,
36071 continually glancing at him with a more than cordial look, had reduced
36072 him to this condition.
36074 "No, I think I'll go home."
36076 "Home? Why, you meant to spend the evening with us.... You don't often
36077 come nowadays as it is, and this girl of mine," said the count good-
36078 naturedly, pointing to Natasha, "only brightens up when you're here."
36080 "Yes, I had forgotten... I really must go home... business..." said
36083 "Well, then, au revoir!" said the count, and went out of the room.
36085 "Why are you going? Why are you upset?" asked Natasha, and she looked
36086 challengingly into Pierre's eyes.
36088 "Because I love you!" was what he wanted to say, but he did not say it,
36089 and only blushed till the tears came, and lowered his eyes.
36091 "Because it is better for me to come less often... because... No, simply
36092 I have business...."
36094 "Why? No, tell me!" Natasha began resolutely and suddenly stopped.
36096 They looked at each other with dismayed and embarrassed faces. He tried
36097 to smile but could not: his smile expressed suffering, and he silently
36098 kissed her hand and went out.
36100 Pierre made up his mind not to go to the Rostovs' any more.
36107 After the definite refusal he had received, Petya went to his room and
36108 there locked himself in and wept bitterly. When he came in to tea,
36109 silent, morose, and with tear-stained face, everybody pretended not to
36112 Next day the Emperor arrived in Moscow, and several of the Rostovs'
36113 domestic serfs begged permission to go to have a look at him. That
36114 morning Petya was a long time dressing and arranging his hair and collar
36115 to look like a grown-up man. He frowned before his looking glass,
36116 gesticulated, shrugged his shoulders, and finally, without saying a word
36117 to anyone, took his cap and left the house by the back door, trying to
36118 avoid notice. Petya decided to go straight to where the Emperor was and
36119 to explain frankly to some gentleman-in-waiting (he imagined the Emperor
36120 to be always surrounded by gentlemen-in-waiting) that he, Count Rostov,
36121 in spite of his youth wished to serve his country; that youth could be
36122 no hindrance to loyalty, and that he was ready to... While dressing,
36123 Petya had prepared many fine things he meant to say to the gentleman-in-
36126 It was on the very fact of being so young that Petya counted for success
36127 in reaching the Emperor--he even thought how surprised everyone would be
36128 at his youthfulness--and yet in the arrangement of his collar and hair
36129 and by his sedate deliberate walk he wished to appear a grown-up man.
36130 But the farther he went and the more his attention was diverted by the
36131 ever-increasing crowds moving toward the Kremlin, the less he remembered
36132 to walk with the sedateness and deliberation of a man. As he approached
36133 the Kremlin he even began to avoid being crushed and resolutely stuck
36134 out his elbows in a menacing way. But within the Trinity Gateway he was
36135 so pressed to the wall by people who probably were unaware of the
36136 patriotic intentions with which he had come that in spite of all his
36137 determination he had to give in, and stop while carriages passed in,
36138 rumbling beneath the archway. Beside Petya stood a peasant woman, a
36139 footman, two tradesmen, and a discharged soldier. After standing some
36140 time in the gateway, Petya tried to move forward in front of the others
36141 without waiting for all the carriages to pass, and he began resolutely
36142 working his way with his elbows, but the woman just in front of him, who
36143 was the first against whom he directed his efforts, angrily shouted at
36146 "What are you shoving for, young lordling? Don't you see we're all
36147 standing still? Then why push?"
36149 "Anybody can shove," said the footman, and also began working his elbows
36150 to such effect that he pushed Petya into a very filthy corner of the
36153 Petya wiped his perspiring face with his hands and pulled up the damp
36154 collar which he had arranged so well at home to seem like a man's.
36156 He felt that he no longer looked presentable, and feared that if he were
36157 now to approach the gentlemen-in-waiting in that plight he would not be
36158 admitted to the Emperor. But it was impossible to smarten oneself up or
36159 move to another place, because of the crowd. One of the generals who
36160 drove past was an acquaintance of the Rostovs', and Petya thought of
36161 asking his help, but came to the conclusion that that would not be a
36162 manly thing to do. When the carriages had all passed in, the crowd,
36163 carrying Petya with it, streamed forward into the Kremlin Square which
36164 was already full of people. There were people not only in the square,
36165 but everywhere--on the slopes and on the roofs. As soon as Petya found
36166 himself in the square he clearly heard the sound of bells and the joyous
36167 voices of the crowd that filled the whole Kremlin.
36169 For a while the crowd was less dense, but suddenly all heads were bared,
36170 and everyone rushed forward in one direction. Petya was being pressed so
36171 that he could scarcely breathe, and everybody shouted, "Hurrah! hurrah!
36172 hurrah!" Petya stood on tiptoe and pushed and pinched, but could see
36173 nothing except the people about him.
36175 All the faces bore the same expression of excitement and enthusiasm. A
36176 tradesman's wife standing beside Petya sobbed, and the tears ran down
36179 "Father! Angel! Dear one!" she kept repeating, wiping away her tears
36182 "Hurrah!" was heard on all sides.
36184 For a moment the crowd stood still, but then it made another rush
36187 Quite beside himself, Petya, clinching his teeth and rolling his eyes
36188 ferociously, pushed forward, elbowing his way and shouting "hurrah!" as
36189 if he were prepared that instant to kill himself and everyone else, but
36190 on both sides of him other people with similarly ferocious faces pushed
36191 forward and everybody shouted "hurrah!"
36193 "So this is what the Emperor is!" thought Petya. "No, I can't petition
36194 him myself--that would be too bold." But in spite of this he continued
36195 to struggle desperately forward, and from between the backs of those in
36196 front he caught glimpses of an open space with a strip of red cloth
36197 spread out on it; but just then the crowd swayed back--the police in
36198 front were pushing back those who had pressed too close to the
36199 procession: the Emperor was passing from the palace to the Cathedral of
36200 the Assumption--and Petya unexpectedly received such a blow on his side
36201 and ribs and was squeezed so hard that suddenly everything grew dim
36202 before his eyes and he lost consciousness. When he came to himself, a
36203 man of clerical appearance with a tuft of gray hair at the back of his
36204 head and wearing a shabby blue cassock--probably a church clerk and
36205 chanter--was holding him under the arm with one hand while warding off
36206 the pressure of the crowd with the other.
36208 "You've crushed the young gentleman!" said the clerk. "What are you up
36209 to? Gently!... They've crushed him, crushed him!"
36211 The Emperor entered the Cathedral of the Assumption. The crowd spread
36212 out again more evenly, and the clerk led Petya--pale and breathless--to
36213 the Tsar-cannon. Several people were sorry for Petya, and suddenly a
36214 crowd turned toward him and pressed round him. Those who stood nearest
36215 him attended to him, unbuttoned his coat, seated him on the raised
36216 platform of the cannon, and reproached those others (whoever they might
36217 be) who had crushed him.
36219 "One might easily get killed that way! What do they mean by it? Killing
36220 people! Poor dear, he's as white as a sheet!"--various voices were heard
36223 Petya soon came to himself, the color returned to his face, the pain had
36224 passed, and at the cost of that temporary unpleasantness he had obtained
36225 a place by the cannon from where he hoped to see the Emperor who would
36226 be returning that way. Petya no longer thought of presenting his
36227 petition. If he could only see the Emperor he would be happy!
36229 While the service was proceeding in the Cathedral of the Assumption--it
36230 was a combined service of prayer on the occasion of the Emperor's
36231 arrival and of thanksgiving for the conclusion of peace with the Turks--
36232 the crowd outside spread out and hawkers appeared, selling kvas,
36233 gingerbread, and poppyseed sweets (of which Petya was particularly
36234 fond), and ordinary conversation could again be heard. A tradesman's
36235 wife was showing a rent in her shawl and telling how much the shawl had
36236 cost; another was saying that all silk goods had now got dear. The clerk
36237 who had rescued Petya was talking to a functionary about the priests who
36238 were officiating that day with the bishop. The clerk several times used
36239 the word "plenary" (of the service), a word Petya did not understand.
36240 Two young citizens were joking with some serf girls who were cracking
36241 nuts. All these conversations, especially the joking with the girls,
36242 were such as might have had a particular charm for Petya at his age, but
36243 they did not interest him now. He sat on his elevation--the pedestal of
36244 the cannon--still agitated as before by the thought of the Emperor and
36245 by his love for him. The feeling of pain and fear he had experienced
36246 when he was being crushed, together with that of rapture, still further
36247 intensified his sense of the importance of the occasion.
36249 Suddenly the sound of a firing of cannon was heard from the embankment,
36250 to celebrate the signing of peace with the Turks, and the crowd rushed
36251 impetuously toward the embankment to watch the firing. Petya too would
36252 have run there, but the clerk who had taken the young gentleman under
36253 his protection stopped him. The firing was still proceeding when
36254 officers, generals, and gentlemen-in-waiting came running out of the
36255 cathedral, and after them others in a more leisurely manner: caps were
36256 again raised, and those who had run to look at the cannon ran back
36257 again. At last four men in uniforms and sashes emerged from the
36258 cathedral doors. "Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the crowd again.
36260 "Which is he? Which?" asked Petya in a tearful voice, of those around
36261 him, but no one answered him, everybody was too excited; and Petya,
36262 fixing on one of those four men, whom he could not clearly see for the
36263 tears of joy that filled his eyes, concentrated all his enthusiasm on
36264 him--though it happened not to be the Emperor--frantically shouted
36265 "Hurrah!" and resolved that tomorrow, come what might, he would join the
36268 The crowd ran after the Emperor, followed him to the palace, and began
36269 to disperse. It was already late, and Petya had not eaten anything and
36270 was drenched with perspiration, yet he did not go home but stood with
36271 that diminishing, but still considerable, crowd before the palace while
36272 the Emperor dined--looking in at the palace windows, expecting he knew
36273 not what, and envying alike the notables he saw arriving at the entrance
36274 to dine with the Emperor and the court footmen who served at table,
36275 glimpses of whom could be seen through the windows.
36277 While the Emperor was dining, Valuev, looking out of the window, said:
36279 "The people are still hoping to see Your Majesty again."
36281 The dinner was nearly over, and the Emperor, munching a biscuit, rose
36282 and went out onto the balcony. The people, with Petya among them, rushed
36283 toward the balcony.
36285 "Angel! Dear one! Hurrah! Father!..." cried the crowd, and Petya with
36286 it, and again the women and men of weaker mold, Petya among them, wept
36289 A largish piece of the biscuit the Emperor was holding in his hand broke
36290 off, fell on the balcony parapet, and then to the ground. A coachman in
36291 a jerkin, who stood nearest, sprang forward and snatched it up. Several
36292 people in the crowd rushed at the coachman. Seeing this the Emperor had
36293 a plateful of biscuits brought him and began throwing them down from the
36294 balcony. Petya's eyes grew bloodshot, and still more excited by the
36295 danger of being crushed, he rushed at the biscuits. He did not know why,
36296 but he had to have a biscuit from the Tsar's hand and he felt that he
36297 must not give way. He sprang forward and upset an old woman who was
36298 catching at a biscuit; the old woman did not consider herself defeated
36299 though she was lying on the ground--she grabbed at some biscuits but her
36300 hand did not reach them. Petya pushed her hand away with his knee,
36301 seized a biscuit, and as if fearing to be too late, again shouted
36302 "Hurrah!" with a voice already hoarse.
36304 The Emperor went in, and after that the greater part of the crowd began
36307 "There! I said if only we waited--and so it was!" was being joyfully
36308 said by various people.
36310 Happy as Petya was, he felt sad at having to go home knowing that all
36311 the enjoyment of that day was over. He did not go straight home from the
36312 Kremlin, but called on his friend Obolenski, who was fifteen and was
36313 also entering the regiment. On returning home Petya announced resolutely
36314 and firmly that if he was not allowed to enter the service he would run
36315 away. And next day, Count Ilya Rostov--though he had not yet quite
36316 yielded--went to inquire how he could arrange for Petya to serve where
36317 there would be least danger.
36324 Two days later, on the fifteenth of July, an immense number of carriages
36325 were standing outside the Sloboda Palace.
36327 The great halls were full. In the first were the nobility and gentry in
36328 their uniforms, in the second bearded merchants in full-skirted coats of
36329 blue cloth and wearing medals. In the noblemen's hall there was an
36330 incessant movement and buzz of voices. The chief magnates sat on high-
36331 backed chairs at a large table under the portrait of the Emperor, but
36332 most of the gentry were strolling about the room.
36334 All these nobles, whom Pierre met every day at the club or in their own
36335 houses, were in uniform--some in that of Catherine's day, others in that
36336 of Emperor Paul, others again in the new uniforms of Alexander's time or
36337 the ordinary uniform of the nobility, and the general characteristic of
36338 being in uniform imparted something strange and fantastic to these
36339 diverse and familiar personalities, both old and young. The old men,
36340 dim-eyed, toothless, bald, sallow, and bloated, or gaunt and wrinkled,
36341 were especially striking. For the most part they sat quietly in their
36342 places and were silent, or, if they walked about and talked, attached
36343 themselves to someone younger. On all these faces, as on the faces of
36344 the crowd Petya had seen in the Square, there was a striking
36345 contradiction: the general expectation of a solemn event, and at the
36346 same time the everyday interests in a boston card party, Peter the cook,
36347 Zinaida Dmitrievna's health, and so on.
36349 Pierre was there too, buttoned up since early morning in a nobleman's
36350 uniform that had become too tight for him. He was agitated; this
36351 extraordinary gathering not only of nobles but also of the merchant-
36352 class--les etats generaux (States-General)--evoked in him a whole series
36353 of ideas he had long laid aside but which were deeply graven in his
36354 soul: thoughts of the Contrat Social and the French Revolution. The
36355 words that had struck him in the Emperor's appeal--that the sovereign
36356 was coming to the capital for consultation with his people--strengthened
36357 this idea. And imagining that in this direction something important
36358 which he had long awaited was drawing near, he strolled about watching
36359 and listening to conversations, but nowhere finding any confirmation of
36360 the ideas that occupied him.
36362 The Emperor's manifesto was read, evoking enthusiasm, and then all moved
36363 about discussing it. Besides the ordinary topics of conversation, Pierre
36364 heard questions of where the marshals of the nobility were to stand when
36365 the Emperor entered, when a ball should be given in the Emperor's honor,
36366 whether they should group themselves by districts or by whole
36367 provinces... and so on; but as soon as the war was touched on, or what
36368 the nobility had been convened for, the talk became undecided and
36369 indefinite. Then all preferred listening to speaking.
36371 A middle-aged man, handsome and virile, in the uniform of a retired
36372 naval officer, was speaking in one of the rooms, and a small crowd was
36373 pressing round him. Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round
36374 the speaker and listened. Count Ilya Rostov, in a military uniform of
36375 Catherine's time, was sauntering with a pleasant smile among the crowd,
36376 with all of whom he was acquainted. He too approached that group and
36377 listened with a kindly smile and nods of approval, as he always did, to
36378 what the speaker was saying. The retired naval man was speaking very
36379 boldly, as was evident from the expression on the faces of the listeners
36380 and from the fact that some people Pierre knew as the meekest and
36381 quietest of men walked away disapprovingly or expressed disagreement
36382 with him. Pierre pushed his way into the middle of the group, listened,
36383 and convinced himself that the man was indeed a liberal, but of views
36384 quite different from his own. The naval officer spoke in a particularly
36385 sonorous, musical, and aristocratic baritone voice, pleasantly
36386 swallowing his r's and generally slurring his consonants: the voice of a
36387 man calling out to his servant, "Heah! Bwing me my pipe!" It was
36388 indicative of dissipation and the exercise of authority.
36390 "What if the Smolensk people have offahd to waise militia for the
36391 Empewah? Ah we to take Smolensk as our patte'n? If the noble awistocwacy
36392 of the pwovince of Moscow thinks fit, it can show its loyalty to our
36393 sov'weign the Empewah in other ways. Have we fo'gotten the waising of
36394 the militia in the yeah 'seven? All that did was to enwich the pwiests'
36395 sons and thieves and wobbahs...."
36397 Count Ilya Rostov smiled blandly and nodded approval.
36399 "And was our militia of any use to the Empia? Not at all! It only wuined
36400 our farming! Bettah have another conscwiption... o' ou' men will wetu'n
36401 neithah soldiers no' peasants, and we'll get only depwavity fwom them.
36402 The nobility don't gwudge theah lives--evewy one of us will go and bwing
36403 in more wecwuits, and the sov'weign" (that was the way he referred to
36404 the Emperor) "need only say the word and we'll all die fo' him!" added
36405 the orator with animation.
36407 Count Rostov's mouth watered with pleasure and he nudged Pierre, but
36408 Pierre wanted to speak himself. He pushed forward, feeling stirred, but
36409 not yet sure what stirred him or what he would say. Scarcely had he
36410 opened his mouth when one of the senators, a man without a tooth in his
36411 head, with a shrewd though angry expression, standing near the first
36412 speaker, interrupted him. Evidently accustomed to managing debates and
36413 to maintaining an argument, he began in low but distinct tones:
36415 "I imagine, sir," said he, mumbling with his toothless mouth, "that we
36416 have been summoned here not to discuss whether it's best for the empire
36417 at the present moment to adopt conscription or to call out the militia.
36418 We have been summoned to reply to the appeal with which our sovereign
36419 the Emperor has honored us. But to judge what is best--conscription or
36420 the militia--we can leave to the supreme authority...."
36422 Pierre suddenly saw an outlet for his excitement. He hardened his heart
36423 against the senator who was introducing this set and narrow attitude
36424 into the deliberations of the nobility. Pierre stepped forward and
36425 interrupted him. He himself did not yet know what he would say, but he
36426 began to speak eagerly, occasionally lapsing into French or expressing
36427 himself in bookish Russian.
36429 "Excuse me, your excellency," he began. (He was well acquainted with the
36430 senator, but thought it necessary on this occasion to address him
36431 formally.) "Though I don't agree with the gentleman..." (he hesitated:
36432 he wished to say, "Mon tres honorable preopinant"--"My very honorable
36433 opponent") "with the gentleman... whom I have not the honor of knowing,
36434 I suppose that the nobility have been summoned not merely to express
36435 their sympathy and enthusiasm but also to consider the means by which we
36436 can assist our Fatherland! I imagine," he went on, warming to his
36437 subject, "that the Emperor himself would not be satisfied to find in us
36438 merely owners of serfs whom we are willing to devote to his service, and
36439 chair a canon * we are ready to make of ourselves--and not to obtain
36440 from us any co-co-counsel."
36443 * "Food for cannon."
36445 Many persons withdrew from the circle, noticing the senator's sarcastic
36446 smile and the freedom of Pierre's remarks. Only Count Rostov was pleased
36447 with them as he had been pleased with those of the naval officer, the
36448 senator, and in general with whatever speech he had last heard.
36450 "I think that before discussing these questions," Pierre continued, "we
36451 should ask the Emperor--most respectfully ask His Majesty--to let us
36452 know the number of our troops and the position in which our army and our
36453 forces now are, and then..."
36455 But scarcely had Pierre uttered these words before he was attacked from
36456 three sides. The most vigorous attack came from an old acquaintance, a
36457 boston player who had always been well disposed toward him, Stepan
36458 Stepanovich Adraksin. Adraksin was in uniform, and whether as a result
36459 of the uniform or from some other cause Pierre saw before him quite a
36460 different man. With a sudden expression of malevolence on his aged face,
36461 Adraksin shouted at Pierre:
36463 "In the first place, I tell you we have no right to question the Emperor
36464 about that, and secondly, if the Russian nobility had that right, the
36465 Emperor could not answer such a question. The troops are moved according
36466 to the enemy's movements and the number of men increases and
36469 Another voice, that of a nobleman of medium height and about forty years
36470 of age, whom Pierre had formerly met at the gypsies' and knew as a bad
36471 cardplayer, and who, also transformed by his uniform, came up to Pierre,
36472 interrupted Adraksin.
36474 "Yes, and this is not a time for discussing," he continued, "but for
36475 acting: there is war in Russia! The enemy is advancing to destroy
36476 Russia, to desecrate the tombs of our fathers, to carry off our wives
36477 and children." The nobleman smote his breast. "We will all arise, every
36478 one of us will go, for our father the Tsar!" he shouted, rolling his
36479 bloodshot eyes. Several approving voices were heard in the crowd. "We
36480 are Russians and will not grudge our blood in defense of our faith, the
36481 throne, and the Fatherland! We must cease raving if we are sons of our
36482 Fatherland! We will show Europe how Russia rises to the defense of
36485 Pierre wished to reply, but could not get in a word. He felt that his
36486 words, apart from what meaning they conveyed, were less audible than the
36487 sound of his opponent's voice.
36489 Count Rostov at the back of the crowd was expressing approval; several
36490 persons, briskly turning a shoulder to the orator at the end of a
36493 "That's right, quite right! Just so!"
36495 Pierre wished to say that he was ready to sacrifice his money, his
36496 serfs, or himself, only one ought to know the state of affairs in order
36497 to be able to improve it, but he was unable to speak. Many voices
36498 shouted and talked at the same time, so that Count Rostov had not time
36499 to signify his approval of them all, and the group increased, dispersed,
36500 re-formed, and then moved with a hum of talk into the largest hall and
36501 to the big table. Not only was Pierre's attempt to speak unsuccessful,
36502 but he was rudely interrupted, pushed aside, and people turned away from
36503 him as from a common enemy. This happened not because they were
36504 displeased by the substance of his speech, which had even been forgotten
36505 after the many subsequent speeches, but to animate it the crowd needed a
36506 tangible object to love and a tangible object to hate. Pierre became the
36507 latter. Many other orators spoke after the excited nobleman, and all in
36508 the same tone. Many spoke eloquently and with originality.
36510 Glinka, the editor of the Russian Messenger, who was recognized (cries
36511 of "author! author!" were heard in the crowd), said that "hell must be
36512 repulsed by hell," and that he had seen a child smiling at lightning
36513 flashes and thunderclaps, but "we will not be that child."
36515 "Yes, yes, at thunderclaps!" was repeated approvingly in the back rows
36518 The crowd drew up to the large table, at which sat gray-haired or bald
36519 seventy-year-old magnates, uniformed and besashed almost all of whom
36520 Pierre had seen in their own homes with their buffoons, or playing
36521 boston at the clubs. With an incessant hum of voices the crowd advanced
36522 to the table. Pressed by the throng against the high backs of the
36523 chairs, the orators spoke one after another and sometimes two together.
36524 Those standing behind noticed what a speaker omitted to say and hastened
36525 to supply it. Others in that heat and crush racked their brains to find
36526 some thought and hastened to utter it. The old magnates, whom Pierre
36527 knew, sat and turned to look first at one and then at another, and their
36528 faces for the most part only expressed the fact that they found it very
36529 hot. Pierre, however, felt excited, and the general desire to show that
36530 they were ready to go to all lengths--which found expression in the
36531 tones and looks more than in the substance of the speeches--infected him
36532 too. He did not renounce his opinions, but felt himself in some way to
36533 blame and wished to justify himself.
36535 "I only said that it would be more to the purpose to make sacrifices
36536 when we know what is needed!" said he, trying to be heard above the
36539 One of the old men nearest to him looked round, but his attention was
36540 immediately diverted by an exclamation at the other side of the table.
36542 "Yes, Moscow will be surrendered! She will be our expiation!" shouted
36545 "He is the enemy of mankind!" cried another. "Allow me to speak...."
36546 "Gentlemen, you are crushing me!..."
36553 At that moment Count Rostopchin with his protruding chin and alert eyes,
36554 wearing the uniform of a general with sash over his shoulder, entered
36555 the room, stepping briskly to the front of the crowd of gentry.
36557 "Our sovereign the Emperor will be here in a moment," said Rostopchin.
36558 "I am straight from the palace. Seeing the position we are in, I think
36559 there is little need for discussion. The Emperor has deigned to summon
36560 us and the merchants. Millions will pour forth from there"--he pointed
36561 to the merchants' hall--"but our business is to supply men and not spare
36562 ourselves... That is the least we can do!"
36564 A conference took place confined to the magnates sitting at the table.
36565 The whole consultation passed more than quietly. After all the preceding
36566 noise the sound of their old voices saying one after another, "I agree,"
36567 or for variety, "I too am of that opinion," and so on had even a
36570 The secretary was told to write down the resolution of the Moscow
36571 nobility and gentry, that they would furnish ten men, fully equipped,
36572 out of every thousand serfs, as the Smolensk gentry had done. Their
36573 chairs made a scraping noise as the gentlemen who had conferred rose
36574 with apparent relief, and began walking up and down, arm in arm, to
36575 stretch their legs and converse in couples.
36577 "The Emperor! The Emperor!" a sudden cry resounded through the halls and
36578 the whole throng hurried to the entrance.
36580 The Emperor entered the hall through a broad path between two lines of
36581 nobles. Every face expressed respectful, awe-struck curiosity. Pierre
36582 stood rather far off and could not hear all that the Emperor said. From
36583 what he did hear he understood that the Emperor spoke of the danger
36584 threatening the empire and of the hopes he placed on the Moscow
36585 nobility. He was answered by a voice which informed him of the
36586 resolution just arrived at.
36588 "Gentlemen!" said the Emperor with a quivering voice.
36590 There was a rustling among the crowd and it again subsided, so that
36591 Pierre distinctly heard the pleasantly human voice of the Emperor saying
36594 "I never doubted the devotion of the Russian nobles, but today it has
36595 surpassed my expectations. I thank you in the name of the Fatherland!
36596 Gentlemen, let us act! Time is most precious..."
36598 The Emperor ceased speaking, the crowd began pressing round him, and
36599 rapturous exclamations were heard from all sides.
36601 "Yes, most precious... a royal word," said Count Rostov, with a sob. He
36602 stood at the back, and, though he had heard hardly anything, understood
36603 everything in his own way.
36605 From the hall of the nobility the Emperor went to that of the merchants.
36606 There he remained about ten minutes. Pierre was among those who saw him
36607 come out from the merchants' hall with tears of emotion in his eyes. As
36608 became known later, he had scarcely begun to address the merchants
36609 before tears gushed from his eyes and he concluded in a trembling voice.
36610 When Pierre saw the Emperor he was coming out accompanied by two
36611 merchants, one of whom Pierre knew, a fat otkupshchik. The other was the
36612 mayor, a man with a thin sallow face and narrow beard. Both were
36613 weeping. Tears filled the thin man's eyes, and the fat otkupshchik
36614 sobbed outright like a child and kept repeating:
36616 "Our lives and property--take them, Your Majesty!"
36618 Pierre's one feeling at the moment was a desire to show that he was
36619 ready to go all lengths and was prepared to sacrifice everything. He now
36620 felt ashamed of his speech with its constitutional tendency and sought
36621 an opportunity of effacing it. Having heard that Count Mamonov was
36622 furnishing a regiment, Bezukhov at once informed Rostopchin that he
36623 would give a thousand men and their maintenance.
36625 Old Rostov could not tell his wife of what had passed without tears, and
36626 at once consented to Petya's request and went himself to enter his name.
36628 Next day the Emperor left Moscow. The assembled nobles all took off
36629 their uniforms and settled down again in their homes and clubs, and not
36630 without some groans gave orders to their stewards about the enrollment,
36631 feeling amazed themselves at what they had done.
36640 Napoleon began the war with Russia because he could not resist going to
36641 Dresden, could not help having his head turned by the homage he
36642 received, could not help donning a Polish uniform and yielding to the
36643 stimulating influence of a June morning, and could not refrain from
36644 bursts of anger in the presence of Kurakin and then of Balashev.
36646 Alexander refused negotiations because he felt himself to be personally
36647 insulted. Barclay de Tolly tried to command the army in the best way,
36648 because he wished to fulfill his duty and earn fame as a great
36649 commander. Rostov charged the French because he could not restrain his
36650 wish for a gallop across a level field; and in the same way the
36651 innumerable people who took part in the war acted in accord with their
36652 personal characteristics, habits, circumstances, and aims. They were
36653 moved by fear or vanity, rejoiced or were indignant, reasoned, imagining
36654 that they knew what they were doing and did it of their own free will,
36655 but they all were involuntary tools of history, carrying on a work
36656 concealed from them but comprehensible to us. Such is the inevitable
36657 fate of men of action, and the higher they stand in the social hierarchy
36658 the less are they free.
36660 The actors of 1812 have long since left the stage, their personal
36661 interests have vanished leaving no trace, and nothing remains of that
36662 time but its historic results.
36664 Providence compelled all these men, striving to attain personal aims, to
36665 further the accomplishment of a stupendous result no one of them at all
36666 expected--neither Napoleon, nor Alexander, nor still less any of those
36667 who did the actual fighting.
36669 The cause of the destruction of the French army in 1812 is clear to us
36670 now. No one will deny that that cause was, on the one hand, its advance
36671 into the heart of Russia late in the season without any preparation for
36672 a winter campaign and, on the other, the character given to the war by
36673 the burning of Russian towns and the hatred of the foe this aroused
36674 among the Russian people. But no one at the time foresaw (what now seems
36675 so evident) that this was the only way an army of eight hundred thousand
36676 men--the best in the world and led by the best general--could be
36677 destroyed in conflict with a raw army of half its numerical strength,
36678 and led by inexperienced commanders as the Russian army was. Not only
36679 did no one see this, but on the Russian side every effort was made to
36680 hinder the only thing that could save Russia, while on the French side,
36681 despite Napoleon's experience and so-called military genius, every
36682 effort was directed to pushing on to Moscow at the end of the summer,
36683 that is, to doing the very thing that was bound to lead to destruction.
36685 In historical works on the year 1812 French writers are very fond of
36686 saying that Napoleon felt the danger of extending his line, that he
36687 sought a battle and that his marshals advised him to stop at Smolensk,
36688 and of making similar statements to show that the danger of the campaign
36689 was even then understood. Russian authors are still fonder of telling us
36690 that from the commencement of the campaign a Scythian war plan was
36691 adopted to lure Napoleon into the depths of Russia, and this plan some
36692 of them attribute to Pfuel, others to a certain Frenchman, others to
36693 Toll, and others again to Alexander himself--pointing to notes,
36694 projects, and letters which contain hints of such a line of action. But
36695 all these hints at what happened, both from the French side and the
36696 Russian, are advanced only because they fit in with the event. Had that
36697 event not occurred these hints would have been forgotten, as we have
36698 forgotten the thousands and millions of hints and expectations to the
36699 contrary which were current then but have now been forgotten because the
36700 event falsified them. There are always so many conjectures as to the
36701 issue of any event that however it may end there will always be people
36702 to say: "I said then that it would be so," quite forgetting that amid
36703 their innumerable conjectures many were to quite the contrary effect.
36705 Conjectures as to Napoleon's awareness of the danger of extending his
36706 line, and (on the Russian side) as to luring the enemy into the depths
36707 of Russia, are evidently of that kind, and only by much straining can
36708 historians attribute such conceptions to Napoleon and his marshals, or
36709 such plans to the Russian commanders. All the facts are in flat
36710 contradiction to such conjectures. During the whole period of the war
36711 not only was there no wish on the Russian side to draw the French into
36712 the heart of the country, but from their first entry into Russia
36713 everything was done to stop them. And not only was Napoleon not afraid
36714 to extend his line, but he welcomed every step forward as a triumph and
36715 did not seek battle as eagerly as in former campaigns, but very lazily.
36717 At the very beginning of the war our armies were divided, and our sole
36718 aim was to unite them, though uniting the armies was no advantage if we
36719 meant to retire and lure the enemy into the depths of the country. Our
36720 Emperor joined the army to encourage it to defend every inch of Russian
36721 soil and not to retreat. The enormous Drissa camp was formed on Pfuel's
36722 plan, and there was no intention of retiring farther. The Emperor
36723 reproached the commanders in chief for every step they retired. He could
36724 not bear the idea of letting the enemy even reach Smolensk, still less
36725 could he contemplate the burning of Moscow, and when our armies did
36726 unite he was displeased that Smolensk was abandoned and burned without a
36727 general engagement having been fought under its walls.
36729 So thought the Emperor, and the Russian commanders and people were still
36730 more provoked at the thought that our forces were retreating into the
36731 depths of the country.
36733 Napoleon having cut our armies apart advanced far into the country and
36734 missed several chances of forcing an engagement. In August he was at
36735 Smolensk and thought only of how to advance farther, though as we now
36736 see that advance was evidently ruinous to him.
36738 The facts clearly show that Napoleon did not foresee the danger of the
36739 advance on Moscow, nor did Alexander and the Russian commanders then
36740 think of luring Napoleon on, but quite the contrary. The luring of
36741 Napoleon into the depths of the country was not the result of any plan,
36742 for no one believed it to be possible; it resulted from a most complex
36743 interplay of intrigues, aims, and wishes among those who took part in
36744 the war and had no perception whatever of the inevitable, or of the one
36745 way of saving Russia. Everything came about fortuitously. The armies
36746 were divided at the commencement of the campaign. We tried to unite
36747 them, with the evident intention of giving battle and checking the
36748 enemy's advance, and by this effort to unite them while avoiding battle
36749 with a much stronger enemy, and necessarily withdrawing the armies at an
36750 acute angle--we led the French on to Smolensk. But we withdrew at an
36751 acute angle not only because the French advanced between our two armies;
36752 the angle became still more acute and we withdrew still farther, because
36753 Barclay de Tolly was an unpopular foreigner disliked by Bagration (who
36754 would come under his command), and Bagration--being in command of the
36755 second army--tried to postpone joining up and coming under Barclay's
36756 command as long as he could. Bagration was slow in effecting the
36757 junction--though that was the chief aim of all at headquarters--because,
36758 as he alleged, he exposed his army to danger on this march, and it was
36759 best for him to retire more to the left and more to the south, worrying
36760 the enemy from flank and rear and securing from the Ukraine recruits for
36761 his army; and it looks as if he planned this in order not to come under
36762 the command of the detested foreigner Barclay, whose rank was inferior
36765 The Emperor was with the army to encourage it, but his presence and
36766 ignorance of what steps to take, and the enormous number of advisers and
36767 plans, destroyed the first army's energy and it retired.
36769 The intention was to make a stand at the Drissa camp, but Paulucci,
36770 aiming at becoming commander-in-chief, unexpectedly employed his energy
36771 to influence Alexander, and Pfuel's whole plan was abandoned and the
36772 command entrusted to Barclay. But as Barclay did not inspire confidence
36773 his power was limited. The armies were divided, there was no unity of
36774 command, and Barclay was unpopular; but from this confusion, division,
36775 and the unpopularity of the foreign commander-in-chief, there resulted
36776 on the one hand indecision and the avoidance of a battle (which we could
36777 not have refrained from had the armies been united and had someone else,
36778 instead of Barclay, been in command) and on the other an ever-increasing
36779 indignation against the foreigners and an increase in patriotic zeal.
36781 At last the Emperor left the army, and as the most convenient and indeed
36782 the only pretext for his departure it was decided that it was necessary
36783 for him to inspire the people in the capitals and arouse the nation in
36784 general to a patriotic war. And by this visit of the Emperor to Moscow
36785 the strength of the Russian army was trebled.
36787 He left in order not to obstruct the commander-in-chief's undivided
36788 control of the army, and hoping that more decisive action would then be
36789 taken, but the command of the armies became still more confused and
36790 enfeebled. Bennigsen, the Tsarevich, and a swarm of adjutants general
36791 remained with the army to keep the commander-in-chief under observation
36792 and arouse his energy, and Barclay, feeling less free than ever under
36793 the observation of all these "eyes of the Emperor," became still more
36794 cautious of undertaking any decisive action and avoided giving battle.
36796 Barclay stood for caution. The Tsarevich hinted at treachery and
36797 demanded a general engagement. Lubomirski, Bronnitski, Wlocki, and the
36798 others of that group stirred up so much trouble that Barclay, under
36799 pretext of sending papers to the Emperor, dispatched these Polish
36800 adjutants general to Petersburg and plunged into an open struggle with
36801 Bennigsen and the Tsarevich.
36803 At Smolensk the armies at last reunited, much as Bagration disliked it.
36805 Bagration drove up in a carriage to the house occupied by Barclay.
36806 Barclay donned his sash and came out to meet and report to his senior
36809 Despite his seniority in rank Bagration, in this contest of magnanimity,
36810 took his orders from Barclay, but, having submitted, agreed with him
36811 less than ever. By the Emperor's orders Bagration reported direct to
36812 him. He wrote to Arakcheev, the Emperor's confidant: "It must be as my
36813 sovereign pleases, but I cannot work with the Minister (meaning
36814 Barclay). For God's sake send me somewhere else if only in command of a
36815 regiment. I cannot stand it here. Headquarters are so full of Germans
36816 that a Russian cannot exist and there is no sense in anything. I thought
36817 I was really serving my sovereign and the Fatherland, but it turns out
36818 that I am serving Barclay. I confess I do not want to."
36820 The swarm of Bronnitskis and Wintzingerodes and their like still further
36821 embittered the relations between the commanders in chief, and even less
36822 unity resulted. Preparations were made to fight the French before
36823 Smolensk. A general was sent to survey the position. This general,
36824 hating Barclay, rode to visit a friend of his own, a corps commander,
36825 and, having spent the day with him, returned to Barclay and condemned,
36826 as unsuitable from every point of view, the battleground he had not
36829 While disputes and intrigues were going on about the future field of
36830 battle, and while we were looking for the French--having lost touch with
36831 them--the French stumbled upon Neverovski's division and reached the
36834 It was necessary to fight an unexpected battle at Smolensk to save our
36835 lines of communication. The battle was fought and thousands were killed
36838 Smolensk was abandoned contrary to the wishes of the Emperor and of the
36839 whole people. But Smolensk was burned by its own inhabitants-who had
36840 been misled by their governor. And these ruined inhabitants, setting an
36841 example to other Russians, went to Moscow thinking only of their own
36842 losses but kindling hatred of the foe. Napoleon advanced farther and we
36843 retired, thus arriving at the very result which caused his destruction.
36850 The day after his son had left, Prince Nicholas sent for Princess Mary
36851 to come to his study.
36853 "Well? Are you satisfied now?" said he. "You've made me quarrel with my
36854 son! Satisfied, are you? That's all you wanted! Satisfied?... It hurts
36855 me, it hurts. I'm old and weak and this is what you wanted. Well then,
36856 gloat over it! Gloat over it!"
36858 After that Princess Mary did not see her father for a whole week. He was
36859 ill and did not leave his study.
36861 Princess Mary noticed to her surprise that during this illness the old
36862 prince not only excluded her from his room, but did not admit
36863 Mademoiselle Bourienne either. Tikhon alone attended him.
36865 At the end of the week the prince reappeared and resumed his former way
36866 of life, devoting himself with special activity to building operations
36867 and the arrangement of the gardens and completely breaking off his
36868 relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne. His looks and cold tone to his
36869 daughter seemed to say: "There, you see? You plotted against me, you
36870 lied to Prince Andrew about my relations with that Frenchwoman and made
36871 me quarrel with him, but you see I need neither her nor you!"
36873 Princess Mary spent half of every day with little Nicholas, watching his
36874 lessons, teaching him Russian and music herself, and talking to
36875 Dessalles; the rest of the day she spent over her books, with her old
36876 nurse, or with "God's folk" who sometimes came by the back door to see
36879 Of the war Princess Mary thought as women do think about wars. She
36880 feared for her brother who was in it, was horrified by and amazed at the
36881 strange cruelty that impels men to kill one another, but she did not
36882 understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her like all
36883 previous wars. She did not realize the significance of this war, though
36884 Dessalles with whom she constantly conversed was passionately interested
36885 in its progress and tried to explain his own conception of it to her,
36886 and though the "God's folk" who came to see her reported, in their own
36887 way, the rumors current among the people of an invasion by Antichrist,
36888 and though Julie (now Princess Drubetskaya), who had resumed
36889 correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters from Moscow.
36891 "I write you in Russian, my good friend," wrote Julie in her Frenchified
36892 Russian, "because I have a detestation for all the French, and the same
36893 for their language which I cannot support to hear spoken.... We in
36894 Moscow are elated by enthusiasm for our adored Emperor.
36896 "My poor husband is enduring pains and hunger in Jewish taverns, but the
36897 news which I have inspires me yet more.
36899 "You heard probably of the heroic exploit of Raevski, embracing his two
36900 sons and saying: 'I will perish with them but we will not be shaken!'
36901 And truly though the enemy was twice stronger than we, we were
36902 unshakable. We pass the time as we can, but in war as in war! The
36903 princesses Aline and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unhappy
36904 widows of live men, make beautiful conversations over our 'charpie',
36905 only you, my friend, are missing..." and so on.
36907 The chief reason Princess Mary did not realize the full significance of
36908 this war was that the old prince never spoke of it, did not recognize
36909 it, and laughed at Dessalles when he mentioned it at dinner. The
36910 prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Mary
36911 unhesitatingly believed him.
36913 All that July the old prince was exceedingly active and even animated.
36914 He planned another garden and began a new building for the domestic
36915 serfs. The only thing that made Princess Mary anxious about him was that
36916 he slept very little and, instead of sleeping in his study as usual,
36917 changed his sleeping place every day. One day he would order his camp
36918 bed to be set up in the glass gallery, another day he remained on the
36919 couch or on the lounge chair in the drawing room and dozed there without
36920 undressing, while--instead of Mademoiselle Bourienne--a serf boy read to
36921 him. Then again he would spend a night in the dining room.
36923 On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrew. In his
36924 first letter which came soon after he had left home, Prince Andrew had
36925 dutifully asked his father's forgiveness for what he had allowed himself
36926 to say and begged to be restored to his favor. To this letter the old
36927 prince had replied affectionately, and from that time had kept the
36928 Frenchwoman at a distance. Prince Andrew's second letter, written near
36929 Vitebsk after the French had occupied that town, gave a brief account of
36930 the whole campaign, enclosed for them a plan he had drawn and forecasts
36931 as to the further progress of the war. In this letter Prince Andrew
36932 pointed out to his father the danger of staying at Bald Hills, so near
36933 the theater of war and on the army's direct line of march, and advised
36934 him to move to Moscow.
36936 At dinner that day, on Dessalles' mentioning that the French were said
36937 to have already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered his son's
36940 "There was a letter from Prince Andrew today," he said to Princess Mary-
36941 -"Haven't you read it?"
36943 "No, Father," she replied in a frightened voice.
36945 She could not have read the letter as she did not even know it had
36948 "He writes about this war," said the prince, with the ironic smile that
36949 had become habitual to him in speaking of the present war.
36951 "That must be very interesting," said Dessalles. "Prince Andrew is in a
36952 position to know..."
36954 "Oh, very interesting!" said Mademoiselle Bourienne.
36956 "Go and get it for me," said the old prince to Mademoiselle Bourienne.
36957 "You know--under the paperweight on the little table."
36959 Mademoiselle Bourienne jumped up eagerly.
36961 "No, don't!" he exclaimed with a frown. "You go, Michael Ivanovich."
36963 Michael Ivanovich rose and went to the study. But as soon as he had left
36964 the room the old prince, looking uneasily round, threw down his napkin
36967 "They can't do anything... always make some muddle," he muttered.
36969 While he was away Princess Mary, Dessalles, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and
36970 even little Nicholas exchanged looks in silence. The old prince returned
36971 with quick steps, accompanied by Michael Ivanovich, bringing the letter
36972 and a plan. These he put down beside him--not letting anyone read them
36975 On moving to the drawing room he handed the letter to Princess Mary and,
36976 spreading out before him the plan of the new building and fixing his
36977 eyes upon it, told her to read the letter aloud. When she had done so
36978 Princess Mary looked inquiringly at her father. He was examining the
36979 plan, evidently engrossed in his own ideas.
36981 "What do you think of it, Prince?" Dessalles ventured to ask.
36983 "I? I?..." said the prince as if unpleasantly awakened, and not taking
36984 his eyes from the plan of the building.
36986 "Very possibly the theater of war will move so near to us that..."
36988 "Ha ha ha! The theater of war!" said the prince. "I have said and still
36989 say that the theater of war is Poland and the enemy will never get
36990 beyond the Niemen."
36992 Dessalles looked in amazement at the prince, who was talking of the
36993 Niemen when the enemy was already at the Dnieper, but Princess Mary,
36994 forgetting the geographical position of the Niemen, thought that what
36995 her father was saying was correct.
36997 "When the snow melts they'll sink in the Polish swamps. Only they could
36998 fail to see it," the prince continued, evidently thinking of the
36999 campaign of 1807 which seemed to him so recent. "Bennigsen should have
37000 advanced into Prussia sooner, then things would have taken a different
37003 "But, Prince," Dessalles began timidly, "the letter mentions
37006 "Ah, the letter? Yes..." replied the prince peevishly. "Yes... yes..."
37007 His face suddenly took on a morose expression. He paused. "Yes, he
37008 writes that the French were beaten at... at... what river is it?"
37010 Dessalles dropped his eyes.
37012 "The prince says nothing about that," he remarked gently.
37014 "Doesn't he? But I didn't invent it myself."
37016 No one spoke for a long time.
37018 "Yes... yes... Well, Michael Ivanovich," he suddenly went on, raising
37019 his head and pointing to the plan of the building, "tell me how you mean
37022 Michael Ivanovich went up to the plan, and the prince after speaking to
37023 him about the building looked angrily at Princess Mary and Dessalles and
37024 went to his own room.
37026 Princess Mary saw Dessalles' embarrassed and astonished look fixed on
37027 her father, noticed his silence, and was struck by the fact that her
37028 father had forgotten his son's letter on the drawing-room table; but she
37029 was not only afraid to speak of it and ask Dessalles the reason of his
37030 confusion and silence, but was afraid even to think about it.
37032 In the evening Michael Ivanovich, sent by the prince, came to Princess
37033 Mary for Prince Andrew's letter which had been forgotten in the drawing
37034 room. She gave it to him and, unpleasant as it was to her to do so,
37035 ventured to ask him what her father was doing.
37037 "Always busy," replied Michael Ivanovich with a respectfully ironic
37038 smile which caused Princess Mary to turn pale. "He's worrying very much
37039 about the new building. He has been reading a little, but now"--Michael
37040 Ivanovich went on, lowering his voice--"now he's at his desk, busy with
37041 his will, I expect." (One of the prince's favorite occupations of late
37042 had been the preparation of some papers he meant to leave at his death
37043 and which he called his "will.")
37045 "And Alpatych is being sent to Smolensk?" asked Princess Mary.
37047 "Oh, yes, he has been waiting to start for some time."
37054 When Michael Ivanovich returned to the study with the letter, the old
37055 prince, with spectacles on and a shade over his eyes, was sitting at his
37056 open bureau with screened candles, holding a paper in his outstretched
37057 hand, and in a somewhat dramatic attitude was reading his manuscript--
37058 his "Remarks" as he termed it--which was to be transmitted to the
37059 Emperor after his death.
37061 When Michael Ivanovich went in there were tears in the prince's eyes
37062 evoked by the memory of the time when the paper he was now reading had
37063 been written. He took the letter from Michael Ivanovich's hand, put it
37064 in his pocket, folded up his papers, and called in Alpatych who had long
37067 The prince had a list of things to be bought in Smolensk and, walking up
37068 and down the room past Alpatych who stood by the door, he gave his
37071 "First, notepaper--do you hear? Eight quires, like this sample, gilt-
37072 edged... it must be exactly like the sample. Varnish, sealing wax, as in
37073 Michael Ivanovich's list."
37075 He paced up and down for a while and glanced at his notes.
37077 "Then hand to the governor in person a letter about the deed."
37079 Next, bolts for the doors of the new building were wanted and had to be
37080 of a special shape the prince had himself designed, and a leather case
37081 had to be ordered to keep the "will" in.
37083 The instructions to Alpatych took over two hours and still the prince
37084 did not let him go. He sat down, sank into thought, closed his eyes, and
37085 dozed off. Alpatych made a slight movement.
37087 "Well, go, go! If anything more is wanted I'll send after you."
37089 Alpatych went out. The prince again went to his bureau, glanced into it,
37090 fingered his papers, closed the bureau again, and sat down at the table
37091 to write to the governor.
37093 It was already late when he rose after sealing the letter. He wished to
37094 sleep, but he knew he would not be able to and that most depressing
37095 thoughts came to him in bed. So he called Tikhon and went through the
37096 rooms with him to show him where to set up the bed for that night.
37098 He went about looking at every corner. Every place seemed
37099 unsatisfactory, but worst of all was his customary couch in the study.
37100 That couch was dreadful to him, probably because of the oppressive
37101 thoughts he had had when lying there. It was unsatisfactory everywhere,
37102 but the corner behind the piano in the sitting room was better than
37103 other places: he had never slept there yet.
37105 With the help of a footman Tikhon brought in the bedstead and began
37108 "That's not right! That's not right!" cried the prince, and himself
37109 pushed it a few inches from the corner and then closer in again.
37111 "Well, at last I've finished, now I'll rest," thought the prince, and
37112 let Tikhon undress him.
37114 Frowning with vexation at the effort necessary to divest himself of his
37115 coat and trousers, the prince undressed, sat down heavily on the bed,
37116 and appeared to be meditating as he looked contemptuously at his
37117 withered yellow legs. He was not meditating, but only deferring the
37118 moment of making the effort to lift those legs up and turn over on the
37119 bed. "Ugh, how hard it is! Oh, that this toil might end and you would
37120 release me!" thought he. Pressing his lips together he made that effort
37121 for the twenty-thousandth time and lay down. But hardly had he done so
37122 before he felt the bed rocking backwards and forwards beneath him as if
37123 it were breathing heavily and jolting. This happened to him almost every
37124 night. He opened his eyes as they were closing.
37126 "No peace, damn them!" he muttered, angry he knew not with whom. "Ah
37127 yes, there was something else important, very important, that I was
37128 keeping till I should be in bed. The bolts? No, I told him about them.
37129 No, it was something, something in the drawing room. Princess Mary
37130 talked some nonsense. Dessalles, that fool, said something. Something in
37131 my pocket--can't remember..."
37133 "Tikhon, what did we talk about at dinner?"
37135 "About Prince Michael..."
37137 "Be quiet, quiet!" The prince slapped his hand on the table. "Yes, I
37138 know, Prince Andrew's letter! Princess Mary read it. Dessalles said
37139 something about Vitebsk. Now I'll read it."
37141 He had the letter taken from his pocket and the table--on which stood a
37142 glass of lemonade and a spiral wax candle--moved close to the bed, and
37143 putting on his spectacles he began reading. Only now in the stillness of
37144 the night, reading it by the faint light under the green shade, did he
37145 grasp its meaning for a moment.
37147 "The French at Vitebsk, in four days' march they may be at Smolensk;
37148 perhaps are already there! Tikhon!" Tikhon jumped up. "No, no, I don't
37149 want anything!" he shouted.
37151 He put the letter under the candlestick and closed his eyes. And there
37152 rose before him the Danube at bright noonday: reeds, the Russian camp,
37153 and himself a young general without a wrinkle on his ruddy face,
37154 vigorous and alert, entering Potemkin's gaily colored tent, and a
37155 burning sense of jealousy of "the favorite" agitated him now as strongly
37156 as it had done then. He recalled all the words spoken at that first
37157 meeting with Potemkin. And he saw before him a plump, rather sallow-
37158 faced, short, stout woman, the Empress Mother, with her smile and her
37159 words at her first gracious reception of him, and then that same face on
37160 the catafalque, and the encounter he had with Zubov over her coffin
37161 about his right to kiss her hand.
37163 "Oh, quicker, quicker! To get back to that time and have done with all
37164 the present! Quicker, quicker--and that they should leave me in peace!"
37171 Bald Hills, Prince Nicholas Bolkonski's estate, lay forty miles east
37172 from Smolensk and two miles from the main road to Moscow.
37174 The same evening that the prince gave his instructions to Alpatych,
37175 Dessalles, having asked to see Princess Mary, told her that, as the
37176 prince was not very well and was taking no steps to secure his safety,
37177 though from Prince Andrew's letter it was evident that to remain at Bald
37178 Hills might be dangerous, he respectfully advised her to send a letter
37179 by Alpatych to the Provincial Governor at Smolensk, asking him to let
37180 her know the state of affairs and the extent of the danger to which Bald
37181 Hills was exposed. Dessalles wrote this letter to the Governor for
37182 Princess Mary, she signed it, and it was given to Alpatych with
37183 instructions to hand it to the Governor and to come back as quickly as
37184 possible if there was danger.
37186 Having received all his orders Alpatych, wearing a white beaver hat--a
37187 present from the prince--and carrying a stick as the prince did, went
37188 out accompanied by his family. Three well-fed roans stood ready
37189 harnessed to a small conveyance with a leather hood.
37191 The larger bell was muffled and the little bells on the harness stuffed
37192 with paper. The prince allowed no one at Bald Hills to drive with
37193 ringing bells; but on a long journey Alpatych liked to have them. His
37194 satellites--the senior clerk, a countinghouse clerk, a scullery maid, a
37195 cook, two old women, a little pageboy, the coachman, and various
37196 domestic serfs--were seeing him off.
37198 His daughter placed chintz-covered down cushions for him to sit on and
37199 behind his back. His old sister-in-law popped in a small bundle, and one
37200 of the coachmen helped him into the vehicle.
37202 "There! There! Women's fuss! Women, women!" said Alpatych, puffing and
37203 speaking rapidly just as the prince did, and he climbed into the trap.
37205 After giving the clerk orders about the work to be done, Alpatych, not
37206 trying to imitate the prince now, lifted the hat from his bald head and
37207 crossed himself three times.
37209 "If there is anything... come back, Yakov Alpatych! For Christ's sake
37210 think of us!" cried his wife, referring to the rumors of war and the
37213 "Women, women! Women's fuss!" muttered Alpatych to himself and started
37214 on his journey, looking round at the fields of yellow rye and the still-
37215 green, thickly growing oats, and at other quite black fields just being
37216 plowed a second time.
37218 As he went along he looked with pleasure at the year's splendid crop of
37219 corn, scrutinized the strips of ryefield which here and there were
37220 already being reaped, made his calculations as to the sowing and the
37221 harvest, and asked himself whether he had not forgotten any of the
37224 Having baited the horses twice on the way, he arrived at the town toward
37225 evening on the fourth of August.
37227 Alpatych kept meeting and overtaking baggage trains and troops on the
37228 road. As he approached Smolensk he heard the sounds of distant firing,
37229 but these did not impress him. What struck him most was the sight of a
37230 splendid field of oats in which a camp had been pitched and which was
37231 being mown down by the soldiers, evidently for fodder. This fact
37232 impressed Alpatych, but in thinking about his own business he soon
37235 All the interests of his life for more than thirty years had been
37236 bounded by the will of the prince, and he never went beyond that limit.
37237 Everything not connected with the execution of the prince's orders did
37238 not interest and did not even exist for Alpatych.
37240 On reaching Smolensk on the evening of the fourth of August he put up in
37241 the Gachina suburb across the Dnieper, at the inn kept by Ferapontov,
37242 where he had been in the habit of putting up for the last thirty years.
37243 Some thirty years ago Ferapontov, by Alpatych's advice, had bought a
37244 wood from the prince, had begun to trade, and now had a house, an inn,
37245 and a corn dealer's shop in that province. He was a stout, dark, red-
37246 faced peasant in the forties, with thick lips, a broad knob of a nose,
37247 similar knobs over his black frowning brows, and a round belly.
37249 Wearing a waistcoat over his cotton shirt, Ferapontov was standing
37250 before his shop which opened onto the street. On seeing Alpatych he went
37253 "You're welcome, Yakov Alpatych. Folks are leaving the town, but you
37254 have come to it," said he.
37256 "Why are they leaving the town?" asked Alpatych.
37258 "That's what I say. Folks are foolish! Always afraid of the French."
37260 "Women's fuss, women's fuss!" said Alpatych.
37262 "Just what I think, Yakov Alpatych. What I say is: orders have been
37263 given not to let them in, so that must be right. And the peasants are
37264 asking three rubles for carting--it isn't Christian!"
37266 Yakov Alpatych heard without heeding. He asked for a samovar and for hay
37267 for his horses, and when he had had his tea he went to bed.
37269 All night long troops were moving past the inn. Next morning Alpatych
37270 donned a jacket he wore only in town and went out on business. It was a
37271 sunny morning and by eight o'clock it was already hot. "A good day for
37272 harvesting," thought Alpatych.
37274 From beyond the town firing had been heard since early morning. At eight
37275 o'clock the booming of cannon was added to the sound of musketry. Many
37276 people were hurrying through the streets and there were many soldiers,
37277 but cabs were still driving about, tradesmen stood at their shops, and
37278 service was being held in the churches as usual. Alpatych went to the
37279 shops, to government offices, to the post office, and to the Governor's.
37280 In the offices and shops and at the post office everyone was talking
37281 about the army and about the enemy who was already attacking the town,
37282 everybody was asking what should be done, and all were trying to calm
37285 In front of the Governor's house Alpatych found a large number of
37286 people, Cossacks, and a traveling carriage of the Governor's. At the
37287 porch he met two of the landed gentry, one of whom he knew. This man, an
37288 ex-captain of police, was saying angrily:
37290 "It's no joke, you know! It's all very well if you're single. 'One man
37291 though undone is but one,' as the proverb says, but with thirteen in
37292 your family and all the property... They've brought us to utter ruin!
37293 What sort of governors are they to do that? They ought to be hanged--the
37296 "Oh come, that's enough!" said the other.
37298 "What do I care? Let him hear! We're not dogs," said the ex-captain of
37299 police, and looking round he noticed Alpatych.
37301 "Oh, Yakov Alpatych! What have you come for?"
37303 "To see the Governor by his excellency's order," answered Alpatych,
37304 lifting his head and proudly thrusting his hand into the bosom of his
37305 coat as he always did when he mentioned the prince.... "He has ordered
37306 me to inquire into the position of affairs," he added.
37308 "Yes, go and find out!" shouted the angry gentleman. "They've brought
37309 things to such a pass that there are no carts or anything!... There it
37310 is again, do you hear?" said he, pointing in the direction whence came
37311 the sounds of firing.
37313 "They've brought us all to ruin... the brigands!" he repeated, and
37314 descended the porch steps.
37316 Alpatych swayed his head and went upstairs. In the waiting room were
37317 tradesmen, women, and officials, looking silently at one another. The
37318 door of the Governor's room opened and they all rose and moved forward.
37319 An official ran out, said some words to a merchant, called a stout
37320 official with a cross hanging on his neck to follow him, and vanished
37321 again, evidently wishing to avoid the inquiring looks and questions
37322 addressed to him. Alpatych moved forward and next time the official came
37323 out addressed him, one hand placed in the breast of his buttoned coat,
37324 and handed him two letters.
37326 "To his Honor Baron Asch, from General-in-Chief Prince Bolkonski," he
37327 announced with such solemnity and significance that the official turned
37328 to him and took the letters.
37330 A few minutes later the Governor received Alpatych and hurriedly said to
37333 "Inform the prince and princess that I knew nothing: I acted on the
37334 highest instructions--here..." and he handed a paper to Alpatych.
37335 "Still, as the prince is unwell my advice is that they should go to
37336 Moscow. I am just starting myself. Inform them..."
37338 But the Governor did not finish: a dusty perspiring officer ran into the
37339 room and began to say something in French. The Governor's face expressed
37342 "Go," he said, nodding his head to Alpatych, and began questioning the
37345 Eager, frightened, helpless glances were turned on Alpatych when he came
37346 out of the Governor's room. Involuntarily listening now to the firing,
37347 which had drawn nearer and was increasing in strength, Alpatych hurried
37348 to his inn. The paper handed to him by the Governor said this:
37350 "I assure you that the town of Smolensk is not in the slightest danger
37351 as yet and it is unlikely that it will be threatened with any. I from
37352 the one side and Prince Bagration from the other are marching to unite
37353 our forces before Smolensk, which junction will be effected on the 22nd
37354 instant, and both armies with their united forces will defend our
37355 compatriots of the province entrusted to your care till our efforts
37356 shall have beaten back the enemies of our Fatherland, or till the last
37357 warrior in our valiant ranks has perished. From this you will see that
37358 you have a perfect right to reassure the inhabitants of Smolensk, for
37359 those defended by two such brave armies may feel assured of victory."
37360 (Instructions from Barclay de Tolly to Baron Asch, the civil governor of
37363 People were anxiously roaming about the streets.
37365 Carts piled high with household utensils, chairs, and cupboards kept
37366 emerging from the gates of the yards and moving along the streets.
37367 Loaded carts stood at the house next to Ferapontov's and women were
37368 wailing and lamenting as they said good-by. A small watchdog ran round
37369 barking in front of the harnessed horses.
37371 Alpatych entered the innyard at a quicker pace than usual and went
37372 straight to the shed where his horses and trap were. The coachman was
37373 asleep. He woke him up, told him to harness, and went into the passage.
37374 From the host's room came the sounds of a child crying, the despairing
37375 sobs of a woman, and the hoarse angry shouting of Ferapontov. The cook
37376 began running hither and thither in the passage like a frightened hen,
37377 just as Alpatych entered.
37379 "He's done her to death. Killed the mistress!... Beat her... dragged her
37382 "What for?" asked Alpatych.
37384 "She kept begging to go away. She's a woman! 'Take me away,' says she,
37385 'don't let me perish with my little children! Folks,' she says, 'are all
37386 gone, so why,' she says, 'don't we go?' And he began beating and pulling
37389 At these words Alpatych nodded as if in approval, and not wishing to
37390 hear more went to the door of the room opposite the innkeeper's, where
37391 he had left his purchases.
37393 "You brute, you murderer!" screamed a thin, pale woman who, with a baby
37394 in her arms and her kerchief torn from her head, burst through the door
37395 at that moment and down the steps into the yard.
37397 Ferapontov came out after her, but on seeing Alpatych adjusted his
37398 waistcoat, smoothed his hair, yawned, and followed Alpatych into the
37401 "Going already?" said he.
37403 Alpatych, without answering or looking at his host, sorted his packages
37404 and asked how much he owed.
37406 "We'll reckon up! Well, have you been to the Governor's?" asked
37407 Ferapontov. "What has been decided?"
37409 Alpatych replied that the Governor had not told him anything definite.
37411 "With our business, how can we get away?" said Ferapontov. "We'd have to
37412 pay seven rubles a cartload to Dorogobuzh and I tell them they're not
37413 Christians to ask it! Selivanov, now, did a good stroke last Thursday--
37414 sold flour to the army at nine rubles a sack. Will you have some tea?"
37417 While the horses were being harnessed Alpatych and Ferapontov over their
37418 tea talked of the price of corn, the crops, and the good weather for
37421 "Well, it seems to be getting quieter," remarked Ferapontov, finishing
37422 his third cup of tea and getting up. "Ours must have got the best of it.
37423 The orders were not to let them in. So we're in force, it seems.... They
37424 say the other day Matthew Ivanych Platov drove them into the river
37425 Marina and drowned some eighteen thousand in one day."
37427 Alpatych collected his parcels, handed them to the coachman who had come
37428 in, and settled up with the innkeeper. The noise of wheels, hoofs, and
37429 bells was heard from the gateway as a little trap passed out.
37431 It was by now late in the afternoon. Half the street was in shadow, the
37432 other half brightly lit by the sun. Alpatych looked out of the window
37433 and went to the door. Suddenly the strange sound of a far-off whistling
37434 and thud was heard, followed by a boom of cannon blending into a dull
37435 roar that set the windows rattling.
37437 He went out into the street: two men were running past toward the
37438 bridge. From different sides came whistling sounds and the thud of
37439 cannon balls and bursting shells falling on the town. But these sounds
37440 were hardly heard in comparison with the noise of the firing outside the
37441 town and attracted little attention from the inhabitants. The town was
37442 being bombarded by a hundred and thirty guns which Napoleon had ordered
37443 up after four o'clock. The people did not at once realize the meaning of
37446 At first the noise of the falling bombs and shells only aroused
37447 curiosity. Ferapontov's wife, who till then had not ceased wailing under
37448 the shed, became quiet and with the baby in her arms went to the gate,
37449 listening to the sounds and looking in silence at the people.
37451 The cook and a shop assistant came to the gate. With lively curiosity
37452 everyone tried to get a glimpse of the projectiles as they flew over
37453 their heads. Several people came round the corner talking eagerly.
37455 "What force!" remarked one. "Knocked the roof and ceiling all to
37458 "Routed up the earth like a pig," said another.
37460 "That's grand, it bucks one up!" laughed the first. "Lucky you jumped
37461 aside, or it would have wiped you out!"
37463 Others joined those men and stopped and told how cannon balls had fallen
37464 on a house close to them. Meanwhile still more projectiles, now with the
37465 swift sinister whistle of a cannon ball, now with the agreeable
37466 intermittent whistle of a shell, flew over people's heads incessantly,
37467 but not one fell close by, they all flew over. Alpatych was getting into
37468 his trap. The innkeeper stood at the gate.
37470 "What are you staring at?" he shouted to the cook, who in her red skirt,
37471 with sleeves rolled up, swinging her bare elbows, had stepped to the
37472 corner to listen to what was being said.
37474 "What marvels!" she exclaimed, but hearing her master's voice she turned
37475 back, pulling down her tucked-up skirt.
37477 Once more something whistled, but this time quite close, swooping
37478 downwards like a little bird; a flame flashed in the middle of the
37479 street, something exploded, and the street was shrouded in smoke.
37481 "Scoundrel, what are you doing?" shouted the innkeeper, rushing to the
37484 At that moment the pitiful wailing of women was heard from different
37485 sides, the frightened baby began to cry, and people crowded silently
37486 with pale faces round the cook. The loudest sound in that crowd was her
37489 "Oh-h-h! Dear souls, dear kind souls! Don't let me die! My good
37492 Five minutes later no one remained in the street. The cook, with her
37493 thigh broken by a shell splinter, had been carried into the kitchen.
37494 Alpatych, his coachman, Ferapontov's wife and children and the house
37495 porter were all sitting in the cellar, listening. The roar of guns, the
37496 whistling of projectiles, and the piteous moaning of the cook, which
37497 rose above the other sounds, did not cease for a moment. The mistress
37498 rocked and hushed her baby and when anyone came into the cellar asked in
37499 a pathetic whisper what had become of her husband who had remained in
37500 the street. A shopman who entered told her that her husband had gone
37501 with others to the cathedral, whence they were fetching the wonder-
37502 working icon of Smolensk.
37504 Toward dusk the cannonade began to subside. Alpatych left the cellar and
37505 stopped in the doorway. The evening sky that had been so clear was
37506 clouded with smoke, through which, high up, the sickle of the new moon
37507 shone strangely. Now that the terrible din of the guns had ceased a hush
37508 seemed to reign over the town, broken only by the rustle of footsteps,
37509 the moaning, the distant cries, and the crackle of fires which seemed
37510 widespread everywhere. The cook's moans had now subsided. On two sides
37511 black curling clouds of smoke rose and spread from the fires. Through
37512 the streets soldiers in various uniforms walked or ran confusedly in
37513 different directions like ants from a ruined ant-hill. Several of them
37514 ran into Ferapontov's yard before Alpatych's eyes. Alpatych went out to
37515 the gate. A retreating regiment, thronging and hurrying, blocked the
37518 Noticing him, an officer said: "The town is being abandoned. Get away,
37519 get away!" and then, turning to the soldiers, shouted:
37521 "I'll teach you to run into the yards!"
37523 Alpatych went back to the house, called the coachman, and told him to
37524 set off. Ferapontov's whole household came out too, following Alpatych
37525 and the coachman. The women, who had been silent till then, suddenly
37526 began to wail as they looked at the fires--the smoke and even the flames
37527 of which could be seen in the failing twilight--and as if in reply the
37528 same kind of lamentation was heard from other parts of the street.
37529 Inside the shed Alpatych and the coachman arranged the tangled reins and
37530 traces of their horses with trembling hands.
37532 As Alpatych was driving out of the gate he saw some ten soldiers in
37533 Ferapontov's open shop, talking loudly and filling their bags and
37534 knapsacks with flour and sunflower seeds. Just then Ferapontov returned
37535 and entered his shop. On seeing the soldiers he was about to shout at
37536 them, but suddenly stopped and, clutching at his hair, burst into sobs
37539 "Loot everything, lads! Don't let those devils get it!" he cried, taking
37540 some bags of flour himself and throwing them into the street.
37542 Some of the soldiers were frightened and ran away, others went on
37543 filling their bags. On seeing Alpatych, Ferapontov turned to him:
37545 "Russia is done for!" he cried. "Alpatych, I'll set the place on fire
37546 myself. We're done for!..." and Ferapontov ran into the yard.
37548 Soldiers were passing in a constant stream along the street blocking it
37549 completely, so that Alpatych could not pass out and had to wait.
37550 Ferapontov's wife and children were also sitting in a cart waiting till
37551 it was possible to drive out.
37553 Night had come. There were stars in the sky and the new moon shone out
37554 amid the smoke that screened it. On the sloping descent to the Dnieper
37555 Alpatych's cart and that of the innkeeper's wife, which were slowly
37556 moving amid the rows of soldiers and of other vehicles, had to stop. In
37557 a side street near the crossroads where the vehicles had stopped, a
37558 house and some shops were on fire. This fire was already burning itself
37559 out. The flames now died down and were lost in the black smoke, now
37560 suddenly flared up again brightly, lighting up with strange distinctness
37561 the faces of the people crowding at the crossroads. Black figures
37562 flitted about before the fire, and through the incessant crackling of
37563 the flames talking and shouting could be heard. Seeing that his trap
37564 would not be able to move on for some time, Alpatych got down and turned
37565 into the side street to look at the fire. Soldiers were continually
37566 rushing backwards and forwards near it, and he saw two of them and a man
37567 in a frieze coat dragging burning beams into another yard across the
37568 street, while others carried bundles of hay.
37570 Alpatych went up to a large crowd standing before a high barn which was
37571 blazing briskly. The walls were all on fire and the back wall had fallen
37572 in, the wooden roof was collapsing, and the rafters were alight. The
37573 crowd was evidently watching for the roof to fall in, and Alpatych
37574 watched for it too.
37576 "Alpatych!" a familiar voice suddenly hailed the old man.
37578 "Mercy on us! Your excellency!" answered Alpatych, immediately
37579 recognizing the voice of his young prince.
37581 Prince Andrew in his riding cloak, mounted on a black horse, was looking
37582 at Alpatych from the back of the crowd.
37584 "Why are you here?" he asked.
37586 "Your... your excellency," stammered Alpatych and broke into sobs. "Are
37587 we really lost? Master!..."
37589 "Why are you here?" Prince Andrew repeated.
37591 At that moment the flames flared up and showed his young master's pale
37592 worn face. Alpatych told how he had been sent there and how difficult it
37595 "Are we really quite lost, your excellency?" he asked again.
37597 Prince Andrew without replying took out a notebook and raising his knee
37598 began writing in pencil on a page he tore out. He wrote to his sister:
37600 "Smolensk is being abandoned. Bald Hills will be occupied by the enemy
37601 within a week. Set off immediately for Moscow. Let me know at once when
37602 you will start. Send by special messenger to Usvyazh."
37604 Having written this and given the paper to Alpatych, he told him how to
37605 arrange for departure of the prince, the princess, his son, and the
37606 boy's tutor, and how and where to let him know immediately. Before he
37607 had had time to finish giving these instructions, a chief of staff
37608 followed by a suite galloped up to him.
37610 "You are a colonel?" shouted the chief of staff with a German accent, in
37611 a voice familiar to Prince Andrew. "Houses are set on fire in your
37612 presence and you stand by! What does this mean? You will answer for it!"
37613 shouted Berg, who was now assistant to the chief of staff of the
37614 commander of the left flank of the infantry of the first army, a place,
37615 as Berg said, "very agreeable and well en evidence."
37617 Prince Andrew looked at him and without replying went on speaking to
37620 "So tell them that I shall await a reply till the tenth, and if by the
37621 tenth I don't receive news that they have all got away I shall have to
37622 throw up everything and come myself to Bald Hills."
37624 "Prince," said Berg, recognizing Prince Andrew, "I only spoke because I
37625 have to obey orders, because I always do obey exactly.... You must
37626 please excuse me," he went on apologetically.
37628 Something cracked in the flames. The fire died down for a moment and
37629 wreaths of black smoke rolled from under the roof. There was another
37630 terrible crash and something huge collapsed.
37632 "Ou-rou-rou!" yelled the crowd, echoing the crash of the collapsing roof
37633 of the barn, the burning grain in which diffused a cakelike aroma all
37634 around. The flames flared up again, lighting the animated, delighted,
37635 exhausted faces of the spectators.
37637 The man in the frieze coat raised his arms and shouted:
37639 "It's fine, lads! Now it's raging... It's fine!"
37641 "That's the owner himself," cried several voices.
37643 "Well then," continued Prince Andrew to Alpatych, "report to them as I
37644 have told you"; and not replying a word to Berg who was now mute beside
37645 him, he touched his horse and rode down the side street.
37652 From Smolensk the troops continued to retreat, followed by the enemy. On
37653 the tenth of August the regiment Prince Andrew commanded was marching
37654 along the highroad past the avenue leading to Bald Hills. Heat and
37655 drought had continued for more than three weeks. Each day fleecy clouds
37656 floated across the sky and occasionally veiled the sun, but toward
37657 evening the sky cleared again and the sun set in reddish-brown mist.
37658 Heavy night dews alone refreshed the earth. The unreaped corn was
37659 scorched and shed its grain. The marshes dried up. The cattle lowed from
37660 hunger, finding no food on the sun-parched meadows. Only at night and in
37661 the forests while the dew lasted was there any freshness. But on the
37662 road, the highroad along which the troops marched, there was no such
37663 freshness even at night or when the road passed through the forest; the
37664 dew was imperceptible on the sandy dust churned up more than six inches
37665 deep. As soon as day dawned the march began. The artillery and baggage
37666 wagons moved noiselessly through the deep dust that rose to the very
37667 hubs of the wheels, and the infantry sank ankle-deep in that soft,
37668 choking, hot dust that never cooled even at night. Some of this dust was
37669 kneaded by the feet and wheels, while the rest rose and hung like a
37670 cloud over the troops, settling in eyes, ears, hair, and nostrils, and
37671 worst of all in the lungs of the men and beasts as they moved along that
37672 road. The higher the sun rose the higher rose that cloud of dust, and
37673 through the screen of its hot fine particles one could look with naked
37674 eye at the sun, which showed like a huge crimson ball in the unclouded
37675 sky. There was no wind, and the men choked in that motionless
37676 atmosphere. They marched with handkerchiefs tied over their noses and
37677 mouths. When they passed through a village they all rushed to the wells
37678 and fought for the water and drank it down to the mud.
37680 Prince Andrew was in command of a regiment, and the management of that
37681 regiment, the welfare of the men and the necessity of receiving and
37682 giving orders, engrossed him. The burning of Smolensk and its
37683 abandonment made an epoch in his life. A novel feeling of anger against
37684 the foe made him forget his own sorrow. He was entirely devoted to the
37685 affairs of his regiment and was considerate and kind to his men and
37686 officers. In the regiment they called him "our prince," were proud of
37687 him and loved him. But he was kind and gentle only to those of his
37688 regiment, to Timokhin and the like--people quite new to him, belonging
37689 to a different world and who could not know and understand his past. As
37690 soon as he came across a former acquaintance or anyone from the staff,
37691 he bristled up immediately and grew spiteful, ironical, and
37692 contemptuous. Everything that reminded him of his past was repugnant to
37693 him, and so in his relations with that former circle he confined himself
37694 to trying to do his duty and not to be unfair.
37696 In truth everything presented itself in a dark and gloomy light to
37697 Prince Andrew, especially after the abandonment of Smolensk on the sixth
37698 of August (he considered that it could and should have been defended)
37699 and after his sick father had had to flee to Moscow, abandoning to
37700 pillage his dearly beloved Bald Hills which he had built and peopled.
37701 But despite this, thanks to his regiment, Prince Andrew had something to
37702 think about entirely apart from general questions. Two days previously
37703 he had received news that his father, son, and sister had left for
37704 Moscow; and though there was nothing for him to do at Bald Hills, Prince
37705 Andrew with a characteristic desire to foment his own grief decided that
37706 he must ride there.
37708 He ordered his horse to be saddled and, leaving his regiment on the
37709 march, rode to his father's estate where he had been born and spent his
37710 childhood. Riding past the pond where there used always to be dozens of
37711 women chattering as they rinsed their linen or beat it with wooden
37712 beetles, Prince Andrew noticed that there was not a soul about and that
37713 the little washing wharf, torn from its place and half submerged, was
37714 floating on its side in the middle of the pond. He rode to the keeper's
37715 lodge. No one at the stone entrance gates of the drive and the door
37716 stood open. Grass had already begun to grow on the garden paths, and
37717 horses and calves were straying in the English park. Prince Andrew rode
37718 up to the hothouse; some of the glass panes were broken, and of the
37719 trees in tubs some were overturned and others dried up. He called for
37720 Taras the gardener, but no one replied. Having gone round the corner of
37721 the hothouse to the ornamental garden, he saw that the carved garden
37722 fence was broken and branches of the plum trees had been torn off with
37723 the fruit. An old peasant whom Prince Andrew in his childhood had often
37724 seen at the gate was sitting on a green garden seat, plaiting a bast
37727 He was deaf and did not hear Prince Andrew ride up. He was sitting on
37728 the seat the old prince used to like to sit on, and beside him strips of
37729 bast were hanging on the broken and withered branch of a magnolia.
37731 Prince Andrew rode up to the house. Several limes in the old garden had
37732 been cut down and a piebald mare and her foal were wandering in front of
37733 the house among the rosebushes. The shutters were all closed, except at
37734 one window which was open. A little serf boy, seeing Prince Andrew, ran
37735 into the house. Alpatych, having sent his family away, was alone at Bald
37736 Hills and was sitting indoors reading the Lives of the Saints. On
37737 hearing that Prince Andrew had come, he went out with his spectacles on
37738 his nose, buttoning his coat, and, hastily stepping up, without a word
37739 began weeping and kissing Prince Andrew's knee.
37741 Then, vexed at his own weakness, he turned away and began to report on
37742 the position of affairs. Everything precious and valuable had been
37743 removed to Bogucharovo. Seventy quarters of grain had also been carted
37744 away. The hay and the spring corn, of which Alpatych said there had been
37745 a remarkable crop that year, had been commandeered by the troops and
37746 mown down while still green. The peasants were ruined; some of them too
37747 had gone to Bogucharovo, only a few remained.
37749 Without waiting to hear him out, Prince Andrew asked:
37751 "When did my father and sister leave?" meaning when did they leave for
37754 Alpatych, understanding the question to refer to their departure for
37755 Bogucharovo, replied that they had left on the seventh and again went
37756 into details concerning the estate management, asking for instructions.
37758 "Am I to let the troops have the oats, and to take a receipt for them?
37759 We have still six hundred quarters left," he inquired.
37761 "What am I to say to him?" thought Prince Andrew, looking down on the
37762 old man's bald head shining in the sun and seeing by the expression on
37763 his face that the old man himself understood how untimely such questions
37764 were and only asked them to allay his grief.
37766 "Yes, let them have it," replied Prince Andrew.
37768 "If you noticed some disorder in the garden," said Alpatych, "it was
37769 impossible to prevent it. Three regiments have been here and spent the
37770 night, dragoons mostly. I took down the name and rank of their
37771 commanding officer, to hand in a complaint about it."
37773 "Well, and what are you going to do? Will you stay here if the enemy
37774 occupies the place?" asked Prince Andrew.
37776 Alpatych turned his face to Prince Andrew, looked at him, and suddenly
37777 with a solemn gesture raised his arm.
37779 "He is my refuge! His will be done!" he exclaimed.
37781 A group of bareheaded peasants was approaching across the meadow toward
37784 "Well, good-by!" said Prince Andrew, bending over to Alpatych. "You must
37785 go away too, take away what you can and tell the serfs to go to the
37786 Ryazan estate or to the one near Moscow."
37788 Alpatych clung to Prince Andrew's leg and burst into sobs. Gently
37789 disengaging himself, the prince spurred his horse and rode down the
37790 avenue at a gallop.
37792 The old man was still sitting in the ornamental garden, like a fly
37793 impassive on the face of a loved one who is dead, tapping the last on
37794 which he was making the bast shoe, and two little girls, running out
37795 from the hot house carrying in their skirts plums they had plucked from
37796 the trees there, came upon Prince Andrew. On seeing the young master,
37797 the elder one with frightened look clutched her younger companion by the
37798 hand and hid with her behind a birch tree, not stopping to pick up some
37799 green plums they had dropped.
37801 Prince Andrew turned away with startled haste, unwilling to let them see
37802 that they had been observed. He was sorry for the pretty frightened
37803 little girl, was afraid of looking at her, and yet felt an irresistible
37804 desire to do so. A new sensation of comfort and relief came over him
37805 when, seeing these girls, he realized the existence of other human
37806 interests entirely aloof from his own and just as legitimate as those
37807 that occupied him. Evidently these girls passionately desired one thing-
37808 -to carry away and eat those green plums without being caught--and
37809 Prince Andrew shared their wish for the success of their enterprise. He
37810 could not resist looking at them once more. Believing their danger past,
37811 they sprang from their ambush and, chirruping something in their shrill
37812 little voices and holding up their skirts, their bare little sunburned
37813 feet scampered merrily and quickly across the meadow grass.
37815 Prince Andrew was somewhat refreshed by having ridden off the dusty
37816 highroad along which the troops were moving. But not far from Bald Hills
37817 he again came out on the road and overtook his regiment at its halting
37818 place by the dam of a small pond. It was past one o'clock. The sun, a
37819 red ball through the dust, burned and scorched his back intolerably
37820 through his black coat. The dust always hung motionless above the buzz
37821 of talk that came from the resting troops. There was no wind. As he
37822 crossed the dam Prince Andrew smelled the ooze and freshness of the
37823 pond. He longed to get into that water, however dirty it might be, and
37824 he glanced round at the pool from whence came sounds of shrieks and
37825 laughter. The small, muddy, green pond had risen visibly more than a
37826 foot, flooding the dam, because it was full of the naked white bodies of
37827 soldiers with brick-red hands, necks, and faces, who were splashing
37828 about in it. All this naked white human flesh, laughing and shrieking,
37829 floundered about in that dirty pool like carp stuffed into a watering
37830 can, and the suggestion of merriment in that floundering mass rendered
37831 it specially pathetic.
37833 One fair-haired young soldier of the third company, whom Prince Andrew
37834 knew and who had a strap round the calf of one leg, crossed himself,
37835 stepped back to get a good run, and plunged into the water; another, a
37836 dark noncommissioned officer who was always shaggy, stood up to his
37837 waist in the water joyfully wriggling his muscular figure and snorted
37838 with satisfaction as he poured the water over his head with hands
37839 blackened to the wrists. There were sounds of men slapping one another,
37840 yelling, and puffing.
37842 Everywhere on the bank, on the dam, and in the pond, there was healthy,
37843 white, muscular flesh. The officer, Timokhin, with his red little nose,
37844 standing on the dam wiping himself with a towel, felt confused at seeing
37845 the prince, but made up his mind to address him nevertheless.
37847 "It's very nice, your excellency! Wouldn't you like to?" said he.
37849 "It's dirty," replied Prince Andrew, making a grimace.
37851 "We'll clear it out for you in a minute," said Timokhin, and, still
37852 undressed, ran off to clear the men out of the pond.
37854 "The prince wants to bathe."
37856 "What prince? Ours?" said many voices, and the men were in such haste to
37857 clear out that the prince could hardly stop them. He decided that he
37858 would rather wash himself with water in the barn.
37860 "Flesh, bodies, cannon fodder!" he thought, and he looked at his own
37861 naked body and shuddered, not from cold but from a sense of disgust and
37862 horror he did not himself understand, aroused by the sight of that
37863 immense number of bodies splashing about in the dirty pond.
37865 On the seventh of August Prince Bagration wrote as follows from his
37866 quarters at Mikhaylovna on the Smolensk road:
37868 Dear Count Alexis Andreevich--(He was writing to Arakcheev but knew that
37869 his letter would be read by the Emperor, and therefore weighed every
37870 word in it to the best of his ability.)
37872 I expect the Minister (Barclay de Tolly) has already reported the
37873 abandonment of Smolensk to the enemy. It is pitiable and sad, and the
37874 whole army is in despair that this most important place has been
37875 wantonly abandoned. I, for my part, begged him personally most urgently
37876 and finally wrote him, but nothing would induce him to consent. I swear
37877 to you on my honor that Napoleon was in such a fix as never before and
37878 might have lost half his army but could not have taken Smolensk. Our
37879 troops fought, and are fighting, as never before. With fifteen thousand
37880 men I held the enemy at bay for thirty-five hours and beat him; but he
37881 would not hold out even for fourteen hours. It is disgraceful, a stain
37882 on our army, and as for him, he ought, it seems to me, not to live. If
37883 he reports that our losses were great, it is not true; perhaps about
37884 four thousand, not more, and not even that; but even were they ten
37885 thousand, that's war! But the enemy has lost masses...
37887 What would it have cost him to hold out for another two days? They would
37888 have had to retire of their own accord, for they had no water for men or
37889 horses. He gave me his word he would not retreat, but suddenly sent
37890 instructions that he was retiring that night. We cannot fight in this
37891 way, or we may soon bring the enemy to Moscow...
37893 There is a rumor that you are thinking of peace. God forbid that you
37894 should make peace after all our sacrifices and such insane retreats! You
37895 would set all Russia against you and every one of us would feel ashamed
37896 to wear the uniform. If it has come to this--we must fight as long as
37897 Russia can and as long as there are men able to stand...
37899 One man ought to be in command, and not two. Your Minister may perhaps
37900 be good as a Minister, but as a general he is not merely bad but
37901 execrable, yet to him is entrusted the fate of our whole country.... I
37902 am really frantic with vexation; forgive my writing boldly. It is clear
37903 that the man who advocates the conclusion of a peace, and that the
37904 Minister should command the army, does not love our sovereign and
37905 desires the ruin of us all. So I write you frankly: call out the
37906 militia. For the Minister is leading these visitors after him to Moscow
37907 in a most masterly way. The whole army feels great suspicion of the
37908 Imperial aide-de-camp Wolzogen. He is said to be more Napoleon's man
37909 than ours, and he is always advising the Minister. I am not merely civil
37910 to him but obey him like a corporal, though I am his senior. This is
37911 painful, but, loving my benefactor and sovereign, I submit. Only I am
37912 sorry for the Emperor that he entrusts our fine army to such as he.
37913 Consider that on our retreat we have lost by fatigue and left in the
37914 hospital more than fifteen thousand men, and had we attacked this would
37915 not have happened. Tell me, for God's sake, what will Russia, our mother
37916 Russia, say to our being so frightened, and why are we abandoning our
37917 good and gallant Fatherland to such rabble and implanting feelings of
37918 hatred and shame in all our subjects? What are we scared at and of whom
37919 are we afraid? I am not to blame that the Minister is vacillating, a
37920 coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities. The whole army
37921 bewails it and calls down curses upon him...
37928 Among the innumerable categories applicable to the phenomena of human
37929 life one may discriminate between those in which substance prevails and
37930 those in which form prevails. To the latter--as distinguished from
37931 village, country, provincial, or even Moscow life--we may allot
37932 Petersburg life, and especially the life of its salons. That life of the
37933 salons is unchanging. Since the year 1805 we had made peace and had
37934 again quarreled with Bonaparte and had made constitutions and unmade
37935 them again, but the salons of Anna Pavlovna and Helene remained just as
37936 they had been--the one seven and the other five years before. At Anna
37937 Pavlovna's they talked with perplexity of Bonaparte's successes just as
37938 before and saw in them and in the subservience shown to him by the
37939 European sovereigns a malicious conspiracy, the sole object of which was
37940 to cause unpleasantness and anxiety to the court circle of which Anna
37941 Pavlovna was the representative. And in Helene's salon, which Rumyantsev
37942 himself honored with his visits, regarding Helene as a remarkably
37943 intelligent woman, they talked with the same ecstasy in 1812 as in 1808
37944 of the "great nation" and the "great man," and regretted our rupture
37945 with France, a rupture which, according to them, ought to be promptly
37946 terminated by peace.
37948 Of late, since the Emperor's return from the army, there had been some
37949 excitement in these conflicting salon circles and some demonstrations of
37950 hostility to one another, but each camp retained its own tendency. In
37951 Anna Pavlovna's circle only those Frenchmen were admitted who were deep-
37952 rooted legitimists, and patriotic views were expressed to the effect
37953 that one ought not to go to the French theater and that to maintain the
37954 French troupe was costing the government as much as a whole army corps.
37955 The progress of the war was eagerly followed, and only the reports most
37956 flattering to our army were circulated. In the French circle of Helene
37957 and Rumyantsev the reports of the cruelty of the enemy and of the war
37958 were contradicted and all Napoleon's attempts at conciliation were
37959 discussed. In that circle they discountenanced those who advised hurried
37960 preparations for a removal to Kazan of the court and the girls'
37961 educational establishments under the patronage of the Dowager Empress.
37962 In Helene's circle the war in general was regarded as a series of formal
37963 demonstrations which would very soon end in peace, and the view
37964 prevailed expressed by Bilibin--who now in Petersburg was quite at home
37965 in Helene's house, which every clever man was obliged to visit--that not
37966 by gunpowder but by those who invented it would matters be settled. In
37967 that circle the Moscow enthusiasm--news of which had reached Petersburg
37968 simultaneously with the Emperor's return--was ridiculed sarcastically
37969 and very cleverly, though with much caution.
37971 Anna Pavlovna's circle on the contrary was enraptured by this enthusiasm
37972 and spoke of it as Plutarch speaks of the deeds of the ancients. Prince
37973 Vasili, who still occupied his former important posts, formed a
37974 connecting link between these two circles. He visited his "good friend
37975 Anna Pavlovna" as well as his daughter's "diplomatic salon," and often
37976 in his constant comings and goings between the two camps became confused
37977 and said at Helene's what he should have said at Anna Pavlovna's and
37980 Soon after the Emperor's return Prince Vasili in a conversation about
37981 the war at Anna Pavlovna's severely condemned Barclay de Tolly, but was
37982 undecided as to who ought to be appointed commander-in-chief. One of the
37983 visitors, usually spoken of as "a man of great merit," having described
37984 how he had that day seen Kutuzov, the newly chosen chief of the
37985 Petersburg militia, presiding over the enrollment of recruits at the
37986 Treasury, cautiously ventured to suggest that Kutuzov would be the man
37987 to satisfy all requirements.
37989 Anna Pavlovna remarked with a melancholy smile that Kutuzov had done
37990 nothing but cause the Emperor annoyance.
37992 "I have talked and talked at the Assembly of the Nobility," Prince
37993 Vasili interrupted, "but they did not listen to me. I told them his
37994 election as chief of the militia would not please the Emperor. They did
37997 "It's all this mania for opposition," he went on. "And who for? It is
37998 all because we want to ape the foolish enthusiasm of those Muscovites,"
37999 Prince Vasili continued, forgetting for a moment that though at Helene's
38000 one had to ridicule the Moscow enthusiasm, at Anna Pavlovna's one had to
38001 be ecstatic about it. But he retrieved his mistake at once. "Now, is it
38002 suitable that Count Kutuzov, the oldest general in Russia, should
38003 preside at that tribunal? He will get nothing for his pains! How could
38004 they make a man commander-in-chief who cannot mount a horse, who drops
38005 asleep at a council, and has the very worst morals! A good reputation he
38006 made for himself at Bucharest! I don't speak of his capacity as a
38007 general, but at a time like this how they appoint a decrepit, blind old
38008 man, positively blind? A fine idea to have a blind general! He can't see
38009 anything. To play blindman's bluff? He can't see at all!"
38011 No one replied to his remarks.
38013 This was quite correct on the twenty-fourth of July. But on the twenty-
38014 ninth of July Kutuzov received the title of Prince. This might indicate
38015 a wish to get rid of him, and therefore Prince Vasili's opinion
38016 continued to be correct though he was not now in any hurry to express
38017 it. But on the eighth of August a committee, consisting of Field Marshal
38018 Saltykov, Arakcheev, Vyazmitinov, Lopukhin, and Kochubey met to consider
38019 the progress of the war. This committee came to the conclusion that our
38020 failures were due to a want of unity in the command and though the
38021 members of the committee were aware of the Emperor's dislike of Kutuzov,
38022 after a short deliberation they agreed to advise his appointment as
38023 commander in chief. That same day Kutuzov was appointed commander-in-
38024 chief with full powers over the armies and over the whole region
38027 On the ninth of August Prince Vasili at Anna Pavlovna's again met the
38028 "man of great merit." The latter was very attentive to Anna Pavlovna
38029 because he wanted to be appointed director of one of the educational
38030 establishments for young ladies. Prince Vasili entered the room with the
38031 air of a happy conqueror who has attained the object of his desires.
38033 "Well, have you heard the great news? Prince Kutuzov is field marshal!
38034 All dissensions are at an end! I am so glad, so delighted! At last we
38035 have a man!" said he, glancing sternly and significantly round at
38036 everyone in the drawing room.
38038 The "man of great merit," despite his desire to obtain the post of
38039 director, could not refrain from reminding Prince Vasili of his former
38040 opinion. Though this was impolite to Prince Vasili in Anna Pavlovna's
38041 drawing room, and also to Anna Pavlovna herself who had received the
38042 news with delight, he could not resist the temptation.
38044 "But, Prince, they say he is blind!" said he, reminding Prince Vasili of
38047 "Eh? Nonsense! He sees well enough," said Prince Vasili rapidly, in a
38048 deep voice and with a slight cough--the voice and cough with which he
38049 was wont to dispose of all difficulties.
38051 "He sees well enough," he added. "And what I am so pleased about," he
38052 went on, "is that our sovereign has given him full powers over all the
38053 armies and the whole region--powers no commander-in-chief ever had
38054 before. He is a second autocrat," he concluded with a victorious smile.
38056 "God grant it! God grant it!" said Anna Pavlovna.
38058 The "man of great merit," who was still a novice in court circles,
38059 wishing to flatter Anna Pavlovna by defending her former position on
38060 this question, observed:
38062 "It is said that the Emperor was reluctant to give Kutuzov those powers.
38063 They say he blushed like a girl to whom Joconde is read, when he said to
38064 Kutuzov: 'Your Emperor and the Fatherland award you this honor.'"
38066 "Perhaps the heart took no part in that speech," said Anna Pavlovna.
38068 "Oh, no, no!" warmly rejoined Prince Vasili, who would not now yield
38069 Kutuzov to anyone; in his opinion Kutuzov was not only admirable
38070 himself, but was adored by everybody. "No, that's impossible," said he,
38071 "for our sovereign appreciated him so highly before."
38073 "God grant only that Prince Kutuzov assumes real power and does not
38074 allow anyone to put a spoke in his wheel," observed Anna Pavlovna.
38076 Understanding at once to whom she alluded, Prince Vasili said in a
38079 "I know for a fact that Kutuzov made it an absolute condition that the
38080 Tsarevich should not be with the army. Do you know what he said to the
38083 And Prince Vasili repeated the words supposed to have been spoken by
38084 Kutuzov to the Emperor. "I can neither punish him if he does wrong nor
38085 reward him if he does right."
38087 "Oh, a very wise man is Prince Kutuzov! I have known him a long time!"
38089 "They even say," remarked the "man of great merit" who did not yet
38090 possess courtly tact, "that his excellency made it an express condition
38091 that the sovereign himself should not be with the army."
38093 As soon as he said this both Prince Vasili and Anna Pavlovna turned away
38094 from him and glanced sadly at one another with a sigh at his naivete.
38101 While this was taking place in Petersburg the French had already passed
38102 Smolensk and were drawing nearer and nearer to Moscow. Napoleon's
38103 historian Thiers, like other of his historians, trying to justify his
38104 hero says that he was drawn to the walls of Moscow against his will. He
38105 is as right as other historians who look for the explanation of historic
38106 events in the will of one man; he is as right as the Russian historians
38107 who maintain that Napoleon was drawn to Moscow by the skill of the
38108 Russian commanders. Here besides the law of retrospection, which regards
38109 all the past as a preparation for events that subsequently occur, the
38110 law of reciprocity comes in, confusing the whole matter. A good
38111 chessplayer having lost a game is sincerely convinced that his loss
38112 resulted from a mistake he made and looks for that mistake in the
38113 opening, but forgets that at each stage of the game there were similar
38114 mistakes and that none of his moves were perfect. He only notices the
38115 mistake to which he pays attention, because his opponent took advantage
38116 of it. How much more complex than this is the game of war, which occurs
38117 under certain limits of time, and where it is not one will that
38118 manipulates lifeless objects, but everything results from innumerable
38119 conflicts of various wills!
38121 After Smolensk Napoleon sought a battle beyond Dorogobuzh at Vyazma, and
38122 then at Tsarevo-Zaymishche, but it happened that owing to a conjunction
38123 of innumerable circumstances the Russians could not give battle till
38124 they reached Borodino, seventy miles from Moscow. From Vyazma Napoleon
38125 ordered a direct advance on Moscow.
38127 Moscou, la capitale asiatique de ce grand empire, la ville sacree des
38128 peuples d'Alexandre, Moscou avec ses innombrables eglises en forme de
38129 pagodes chinoises, * this Moscow gave Napoleon's imagination no rest. On
38130 the march from Vyazma to Tsarevo-Zaymishche he rode his light bay
38131 bobtailed ambler accompanied by his Guards, his bodyguard, his pages,
38132 and aides-de-camp. Berthier, his chief of staff, dropped behind to
38133 question a Russian prisoner captured by the cavalry. Followed by
38134 Lelorgne d'Ideville, an interpreter, he overtook Napoleon at a gallop
38135 and reined in his horse with an amused expression.
38138 * "Moscow, the Asiatic capital of this great empire, the sacred city of
38139 Alexander's people, Moscow with its innumerable churches shaped like
38142 "Well?" asked Napoleon.
38144 "One of Platov's Cossacks says that Platov's corps is joining up with
38145 the main army and that Kutuzov has been appointed commander-in-chief. He
38146 is a very shrewd and garrulous fellow."
38148 Napoleon smiled and told them to give the Cossack a horse and bring the
38149 man to him. He wished to talk to him himself. Several adjutants galloped
38150 off, and an hour later, Lavrushka, the serf Denisov had handed over to
38151 Rostov, rode up to Napoleon in an orderly's jacket and on a French
38152 cavalry saddle, with a merry, and tipsy face. Napoleon told him to ride
38153 by his side and began questioning him.
38155 "You are a Cossack?"
38157 "Yes, a Cossack, your Honor."
38159 "The Cossack, not knowing in what company he was, for Napoleon's plain
38160 appearance had nothing about it that would reveal to an Oriental mind
38161 the presence of a monarch, talked with extreme familiarity of the
38162 incidents of the war," says Thiers, narrating this episode. In reality
38163 Lavrushka, having got drunk the day before and left his master
38164 dinnerless, had been whipped and sent to the village in quest of
38165 chickens, where he engaged in looting till the French took him prisoner.
38166 Lavrushka was one of those coarse, bare-faced lackeys who have seen all
38167 sorts of things, consider it necessary to do everything in a mean and
38168 cunning way, are ready to render any sort of service to their master,
38169 and are keen at guessing their master's baser impulses, especially those
38170 prompted by vanity and pettiness.
38172 Finding himself in the company of Napoleon, whose identity he had easily
38173 and surely recognized, Lavrushka was not in the least abashed but merely
38174 did his utmost to gain his new master's favor.
38176 He knew very well that this was Napoleon, but Napoleon's presence could
38177 no more intimidate him than Rostov's, or a sergeant major's with the
38178 rods, would have done, for he had nothing that either the sergeant major
38179 or Napoleon could deprive him of.
38181 So he rattled on, telling all the gossip he had heard among the
38182 orderlies. Much of it true. But when Napoleon asked him whether the
38183 Russians thought they would beat Bonaparte or not, Lavrushka screwed up
38184 his eyes and considered.
38186 In this question he saw subtle cunning, as men of his type see cunning
38187 in everything, so he frowned and did not answer immediately.
38189 "It's like this," he said thoughtfully, "if there's a battle soon, yours
38190 will win. That's right. But if three days pass, then after that, well,
38191 then that same battle will not soon be over."
38193 Lelorgne d'Ideville smilingly interpreted this speech to Napoleon thus:
38194 "If a battle takes place within the next three days the French will win,
38195 but if later, God knows what will happen." Napoleon did not smile,
38196 though he was evidently in high good humor, and he ordered these words
38199 Lavrushka noticed this and to entertain him further, pretending not to
38200 know who Napoleon was, added:
38202 "We know that you have Bonaparte and that he has beaten everybody in the
38203 world, but we are a different matter..."--without knowing why or how
38204 this bit of boastful patriotism slipped out at the end.
38206 The interpreter translated these words without the last phrase, and
38207 Bonaparte smiled. "The young Cossack made his mighty interlocutor
38208 smile," says Thiers. After riding a few paces in silence, Napoleon
38209 turned to Berthier and said he wished to see how the news that he was
38210 talking to the Emperor himself, to that very Emperor who had written his
38211 immortally victorious name on the Pyramids, would affect this enfant du
38215 * "Child of the Don."
38217 The fact was accordingly conveyed to Lavrushka.
38219 Lavrushka, understanding that this was done to perplex him and that
38220 Napoleon expected him to be frightened, to gratify his new masters
38221 promptly pretended to be astonished and awe-struck, opened his eyes
38222 wide, and assumed the expression he usually put on when taken to be
38223 whipped. "As soon as Napoleon's interpreter had spoken," says Thiers,
38224 "the Cossack, seized by amazement, did not utter another word, but rode
38225 on, his eyes fixed on the conqueror whose fame had reached him across
38226 the steppes of the East. All his loquacity was suddenly arrested and
38227 replaced by a naive and silent feeling of admiration. Napoleon, after
38228 making the Cossack a present, had him set free like a bird restored to
38229 its native fields."
38231 Napoleon rode on, dreaming of the Moscow that so appealed to his
38232 imagination, and "the bird restored to its native fields" galloped to
38233 our outposts, inventing on the way all that had not taken place but that
38234 he meant to relate to his comrades. What had really taken place he did
38235 not wish to relate because it seemed to him not worth telling. He found
38236 the Cossacks, inquired for the regiment operating with Platov's
38237 detachment and by evening found his master, Nicholas Rostov, quartered
38238 at Yankovo. Rostov was just mounting to go for a ride round the
38239 neighboring villages with Ilyin; he let Lavrushka have another horse and
38240 took him along with him.
38247 Princess Mary was not in Moscow and out of danger as Prince Andrew
38250 After the return of Alpatych from Smolensk the old prince suddenly
38251 seemed to awake as from a dream. He ordered the militiamen to be called
38252 up from the villages and armed, and wrote a letter to the commander-in-
38253 chief informing him that he had resolved to remain at Bald Hills to the
38254 last extremity and to defend it, leaving to the commander-in-chief's
38255 discretion to take measures or not for the defense of Bald Hills, where
38256 one of Russia's oldest generals would be captured or killed, and he
38257 announced to his household that he would remain at Bald Hills.
38259 But while himself remaining, he gave instructions for the departure of
38260 the princess and Dessalles with the little prince to Bogucharovo and
38261 thence to Moscow. Princess Mary, alarmed by her father's feverish and
38262 sleepless activity after his previous apathy, could not bring herself to
38263 leave him alone and for the first time in her life ventured to disobey
38264 him. She refused to go away and her father's fury broke over her in a
38265 terrible storm. He repeated every injustice he had ever inflicted on
38266 her. Trying to convict her, he told her she had worn him out, had caused
38267 his quarrel with his son, had harbored nasty suspicions of him, making
38268 it the object of her life to poison his existence, and he drove her from
38269 his study telling her that if she did not go away it was all the same to
38270 him. He declared that he did not wish to remember her existence and
38271 warned her not to dare to let him see her. The fact that he did not, as
38272 she had feared, order her to be carried away by force but only told her
38273 not to let him see her cheered Princess Mary. She knew it was a proof
38274 that in the depth of his soul he was glad she was remaining at home and
38277 The morning after little Nicholas had left, the old prince donned his
38278 full uniform and prepared to visit the commander-in-chief. His caleche
38279 was already at the door. Princess Mary saw him walk out of the house in
38280 his uniform wearing all his orders and go down the garden to review his
38281 armed peasants and domestic serfs. She sat by the window listening to
38282 his voice which reached her from the garden. Suddenly several men came
38283 running up the avenue with frightened faces.
38285 Princess Mary ran out to the porch, down the flower-bordered path, and
38286 into the avenue. A large crowd of militiamen and domestics were moving
38287 toward her, and in their midst several men were supporting by the
38288 armpits and dragging along a little old man in a uniform and
38289 decorations. She ran up to him and, in the play of the sunlight that
38290 fell in small round spots through the shade of the lime-tree avenue,
38291 could not be sure what change there was in his face. All she could see
38292 was that his former stern and determined expression had altered to one
38293 of timidity and submission. On seeing his daughter he moved his helpless
38294 lips and made a hoarse sound. It was impossible to make out what he
38295 wanted. He was lifted up, carried to his study, and laid on the very
38296 couch he had so feared of late.
38298 The doctor, who was fetched that same night, bled him and said that the
38299 prince had had a seizure paralyzing his right side.
38301 It was becoming more and more dangerous to remain at Bald Hills, and
38302 next day they moved the prince to Bogucharovo, the doctor accompanying
38305 By the time they reached Bogucharovo, Dessalles and the little prince
38306 had already left for Moscow.
38308 For three weeks the old prince lay stricken by paralysis in the new
38309 house Prince Andrew had built at Bogucharovo, ever in the same state,
38310 getting neither better nor worse. He was unconscious and lay like a
38311 distorted corpse. He muttered unceasingly, his eyebrows and lips
38312 twitching, and it was impossible to tell whether he understood what was
38313 going on around him or not. One thing was certain--that he was suffering
38314 and wished to say something. But what it was, no one could tell: it
38315 might be some caprice of a sick and half-crazy man, or it might relate
38316 to public affairs, or possibly to family concerns.
38318 The doctor said this restlessness did not mean anything and was due to
38319 physical causes; but Princess Mary thought he wished to tell her
38320 something, and the fact that her presence always increased his
38321 restlessness confirmed her opinion.
38323 He was evidently suffering both physically and mentally. There was no
38324 hope of recovery. It was impossible for him to travel, it would not do
38325 to let him die on the road. "Would it not be better if the end did come,
38326 the very end?" Princess Mary sometimes thought. Night and day, hardly
38327 sleeping at all, she watched him and, terrible to say, often watched him
38328 not with hope of finding signs of improvement but wishing to find
38329 symptoms of the approach of the end.
38331 Strange as it was to her to acknowledge this feeling in herself, yet
38332 there it was. And what seemed still more terrible to her was that since
38333 her father's illness began (perhaps even sooner, when she stayed with
38334 him expecting something to happen), all the personal desires and hopes
38335 that had been forgotten or sleeping within her had awakened. Thoughts
38336 that had not entered her mind for years--thoughts of a life free from
38337 the fear of her father, and even the possibility of love and of family
38338 happiness--floated continually in her imagination like temptations of
38339 the devil. Thrust them aside as she would, questions continually
38340 recurred to her as to how she would order her life now, after that.
38341 These were temptations of the devil and Princess Mary knew it. She knew
38342 that the sole weapon against him was prayer, and she tried to pray. She
38343 assumed an attitude of prayer, looked at the icons, repeated the words
38344 of a prayer, but she could not pray. She felt that a different world had
38345 now taken possession of her--the life of a world of strenuous and free
38346 activity, quite opposed to the spiritual world in which till now she had
38347 been confined and in which her greatest comfort had been prayer. She
38348 could not pray, could not weep, and worldly cares took possession of
38351 It was becoming dangerous to remain in Bogucharovo. News of the approach
38352 of the French came from all sides, and in one village, ten miles from
38353 Bogucharovo, a homestead had been looted by French marauders.
38355 The doctor insisted on the necessity of moving the prince; the
38356 provincial Marshal of the Nobility sent an official to Princess Mary to
38357 persuade her to get away as quickly as possible, and the head of the
38358 rural police having come to Bogucharovo urged the same thing, saying
38359 that the French were only some twenty-five miles away, that French
38360 proclamations were circulating in the villages, and that if the princess
38361 did not take her father away before the fifteenth, he could not answer
38362 for the consequences.
38364 The princess decided to leave on the fifteenth. The cares of preparation
38365 and giving orders, for which everyone came to her, occupied her all day.
38366 She spent the night of the fourteenth as usual, without undressing, in
38367 the room next to the one where the prince lay. Several times, waking up,
38368 she heard his groans and muttering, the creak of his bed, and the steps
38369 of Tikhon and the doctor when they turned him over. Several times she
38370 listened at the door, and it seemed to her that his mutterings were
38371 louder than usual and that they turned him over oftener. She could not
38372 sleep and several times went to the door and listened, wishing to enter
38373 but not deciding to do so. Though he did not speak, Princess Mary saw
38374 and knew how unpleasant every sign of anxiety on his account was to him.
38375 She had noticed with what dissatisfaction he turned from the look she
38376 sometimes involuntarily fixed on him. She knew that her going in during
38377 the night at an unusual hour would irritate him.
38379 But never had she felt so grieved for him or so much afraid of losing
38380 him. She recalled all her life with him and in every word and act of his
38381 found an expression of his love of her. Occasionally amid these memories
38382 temptations of the devil would surge into her imagination: thoughts of
38383 how things would be after his death, and how her new, liberated life
38384 would be ordered. But she drove these thoughts away with disgust. Toward
38385 morning he became quiet and she fell asleep.
38387 She woke late. That sincerity which often comes with waking showed her
38388 clearly what chiefly concerned her about her father's illness. On waking
38389 she listened to what was going on behind the door and, hearing him
38390 groan, said to herself with a sigh that things were still the same.
38392 "But what could have happened? What did I want? I want his death!" she
38393 cried with a feeling of loathing for herself.
38395 She washed, dressed, said her prayers, and went out to the porch. In
38396 front of it stood carriages without horses and things were being packed
38399 It was a warm, gray morning. Princess Mary stopped at the porch, still
38400 horrified by her spiritual baseness and trying to arrange her thoughts
38401 before going to her father. The doctor came downstairs and went out to
38404 "He is a little better today," said he. "I was looking for you. One can
38405 make out something of what he is saying. His head is clearer. Come in,
38406 he is asking for you..."
38408 Princess Mary's heart beat so violently at this news that she grew pale
38409 and leaned against the wall to keep from falling. To see him, talk to
38410 him, feel his eyes on her now that her whole soul was overflowing with
38411 those dreadful, wicked temptations, was a torment of joy and terror.
38413 "Come," said the doctor.
38415 Princess Mary entered her father's room and went up to his bed. He was
38416 lying on his back propped up high, and his small bony hands with their
38417 knotted purple veins were lying on the quilt; his left eye gazed
38418 straight before him, his right eye was awry, and his brows and lips
38419 motionless. He seemed altogether so thin, small, and pathetic. His face
38420 seemed to have shriveled or melted; his features had grown smaller.
38421 Princess Mary went up and kissed his hand. His left hand pressed hers so
38422 that she understood that he had long been waiting for her to come. He
38423 twitched her hand, and his brows and lips quivered angrily.
38425 She looked at him in dismay trying to guess what he wanted of her. When
38426 she changed her position so that his left eye could see her face he
38427 calmed down, not taking his eyes off her for some seconds. Then his lips
38428 and tongue moved, sounds came, and he began to speak, gazing timidly and
38429 imploringly at her, evidently afraid that she might not understand.
38431 Straining all her faculties Princess Mary looked at him. The comic
38432 efforts with which he moved his tongue made her drop her eyes and with
38433 difficulty repress the sobs that rose to her throat. He said something,
38434 repeating the same words several times. She could not understand them,
38435 but tried to guess what he was saying and inquiringly repeated the words
38438 "Mmm...ar...ate...ate..." he repeated several times.
38440 It was quite impossible to understand these sounds. The doctor thought
38441 he had guessed them, and inquiringly repeated: "Mary, are you afraid?"
38442 The prince shook his head, again repeated the same sounds.
38444 "My mind, my mind aches?" questioned Princess Mary.
38446 He made a mumbling sound in confirmation of this, took her hand, and
38447 began pressing it to different parts of his breast as if trying to find
38448 the right place for it.
38450 "Always thoughts... about you... thoughts..." he then uttered much more
38451 clearly than he had done before, now that he was sure of being
38454 Princess Mary pressed her head against his hand, trying to hide her sobs
38457 He moved his hand over her hair.
38459 "I have been calling you all night..." he brought out.
38461 "If only I had known..." she said through her tears. "I was afraid to
38464 He pressed her hand.
38466 "Weren't you asleep?"
38468 "No, I did not sleep," said Princess Mary, shaking her head.
38470 Unconsciously imitating her father, she now tried to express herself as
38471 he did, as much as possible by signs, and her tongue too seemed to move
38474 "Dear one... Dearest..." Princess Mary could not quite make out what he
38475 had said, but from his look it was clear that he had uttered a tender
38476 caressing word such as he had never used to her before. "Why didn't you
38479 "And I was wishing for his death!" thought Princess Mary.
38481 He was silent awhile.
38483 "Thank you... daughter dear!... for all, for all... forgive!... thank
38484 you!... forgive!... thank you!..." and tears began to flow from his
38485 eyes. "Call Andrew!" he said suddenly, and a childish, timid expression
38486 of doubt showed itself on his face as he spoke.
38488 He himself seemed aware that his demand was meaningless. So at least it
38489 seemed to Princess Mary.
38491 "I have a letter from him," she replied.
38493 He glanced at her with timid surprise.
38497 "He's with the army, Father, at Smolensk."
38499 He closed his eyes and remained silent a long time. Then as if in answer
38500 to his doubts and to confirm the fact that now he understood and
38501 remembered everything, he nodded his head and reopened his eyes.
38503 "Yes," he said, softly and distinctly. "Russia has perished. They've
38506 And he began to sob, and again tears flowed from his eyes. Princess Mary
38507 could no longer restrain herself and wept while she gazed at his face.
38509 Again he closed his eyes. His sobs ceased, he pointed to his eyes, and
38510 Tikhon, understanding him, wiped away the tears.
38512 Then he again opened his eyes and said something none of them could
38513 understand for a long time, till at last Tikhon understood and repeated
38514 it. Princess Mary had sought the meaning of his words in the mood in
38515 which he had just been speaking. She thought he was speaking of Russia,
38516 or Prince Andrew, of herself, of his grandson, or of his own death, and
38517 so she could not guess his words.
38519 "Put on your white dress. I like it," was what he said.
38521 Having understood this Princess Mary sobbed still louder, and the doctor
38522 taking her arm led her out to the veranda, soothing her and trying to
38523 persuade her to prepare for her journey. When she had left the room the
38524 prince again began speaking about his son, about the war, and about the
38525 Emperor, angrily twitching his brows and raising his hoarse voice, and
38526 then he had a second and final stroke.
38528 Princess Mary stayed on the veranda. The day had cleared, it was hot and
38529 sunny. She could understand nothing, think of nothing and feel nothing,
38530 except passionate love for her father, love such as she thought she had
38531 never felt till that moment. She ran out sobbing into the garden and as
38532 far as the pond, along the avenues of young lime trees Prince Andrew had
38535 "Yes... I... I... I wished for his death! Yes, I wanted it to end
38536 quicker.... I wished to be at peace.... And what will become of me? What
38537 use will peace be when he is no longer here?" Princess Mary murmured,
38538 pacing the garden with hurried steps and pressing her hands to her bosom
38539 which heaved with convulsive sobs.
38541 When she had completed the tour of the garden, which brought her again
38542 to the house, she saw Mademoiselle Bourienne--who had remained at
38543 Bogucharovo and did not wish to leave it--coming toward her with a
38544 stranger. This was the Marshal of the Nobility of the district, who had
38545 come personally to point out to the princess the necessity for her
38546 prompt departure. Princess Mary listened without understanding him; she
38547 led him to the house, offered him lunch, and sat down with him. Then,
38548 excusing herself, she went to the door of the old prince's room. The
38549 doctor came out with an agitated face and said she could not enter.
38551 "Go away, Princess! Go away... go away!"
38553 She returned to the garden and sat down on the grass at the foot of the
38554 slope by the pond, where no one could see her. She did not know how long
38555 she had been there when she was aroused by the sound of a woman's
38556 footsteps running along the path. She rose and saw Dunyasha her maid,
38557 who was evidently looking for her, and who stopped suddenly as if in
38558 alarm on seeing her mistress.
38560 "Please come, Princess... The Prince," said Dunyasha in a breaking
38563 "Immediately, I'm coming, I'm coming!" replied the princess hurriedly,
38564 not giving Dunyasha time to finish what she was saying, and trying to
38565 avoid seeing the girl she ran toward the house.
38567 "Princess, it's God's will! You must be prepared for everything," said
38568 the Marshal, meeting her at the house door.
38570 "Let me alone; it's not true!" she cried angrily to him.
38572 The doctor tried to stop her. She pushed him aside and ran to her
38573 father's door. "Why are these people with frightened faces stopping me?
38574 I don't want any of them! And what are they doing here?" she thought.
38575 She opened the door and the bright daylight in that previously darkened
38576 room startled her. In the room were her nurse and other women. They all
38577 drew back from the bed, making way for her. He was still lying on the
38578 bed as before, but the stern expression of his quiet face made Princess
38579 Mary stop short on the threshold.
38581 "No, he's not dead--it's impossible!" she told herself and approached
38582 him, and repressing the terror that seized her, she pressed her lips to
38583 his cheek. But she stepped back immediately. All the force of the
38584 tenderness she had been feeling for him vanished instantly and was
38585 replaced by a feeling of horror at what lay there before her. "No, he is
38586 no more! He is not, but here where he was is something unfamiliar and
38587 hostile, some dreadful, terrifying, and repellent mystery!" And hiding
38588 her face in her hands, Princess Mary sank into the arms of the doctor,
38591 In the presence of Tikhon and the doctor the women washed what had been
38592 the prince, tied his head up with a handkerchief that the mouth should
38593 not stiffen while open, and with another handkerchief tied together the
38594 legs that were already spreading apart. Then they dressed him in uniform
38595 with his decorations and placed his shriveled little body on a table.
38596 Heaven only knows who arranged all this and when, but it all got done as
38597 if of its own accord. Toward night candles were burning round his
38598 coffin, a pall was spread over it, the floor was strewn with sprays of
38599 juniper, a printed band was tucked in under his shriveled head, and in a
38600 corner of the room sat a chanter reading the psalms.
38602 Just as horses shy and snort and gather about a dead horse, so the
38603 inmates of the house and strangers crowded into the drawing room round
38604 the coffin--the Marshal, the village Elder, peasant women--and all with
38605 fixed and frightened eyes, crossing themselves, bowed and kissed the old
38606 prince's cold and stiffened hand.
38613 Until Prince Andrew settled in Bogucharovo its owners had always been
38614 absentees, and its peasants were of quite a different character from
38615 those of Bald Hills. They differed from them in speech, dress, and
38616 disposition. They were called steppe peasants. The old prince used to
38617 approve of them for their endurance at work when they came to Bald Hills
38618 to help with the harvest or to dig ponds, and ditches, but he disliked
38619 them for their boorishness.
38621 Prince Andrew's last stay at Bogucharovo, when he introduced hospitals
38622 and schools and reduced the quitrent the peasants had to pay, had not
38623 softened their disposition but had on the contrary strengthened in them
38624 the traits of character the old prince called boorishness. Various
38625 obscure rumors were always current among them: at one time a rumor that
38626 they would all be enrolled as Cossacks; at another of a new religion to
38627 which they were all to be converted; then of some proclamation of the
38628 Tsar's and of an oath to the Tsar Paul in 1797 (in connection with which
38629 it was rumored that freedom had been granted them but the landowners had
38630 stopped it), then of Peter Fedorovich's return to the throne in seven
38631 years' time, when everything would be made free and so "simple" that
38632 there would be no restrictions. Rumors of the war with Bonaparte and his
38633 invasion were connected in their minds with the same sort of vague
38634 notions of Antichrist, the end of the world, and "pure freedom."
38636 In the vicinity of Bogucharovo were large villages belonging to the
38637 crown or to owners whose serfs paid quitrent and could work where they
38638 pleased. There were very few resident landlords in the neighborhood and
38639 also very few domestic or literate serfs, and in the lives of the
38640 peasantry of those parts the mysterious undercurrents in the life of the
38641 Russian people, the causes and meaning of which are so baffling to
38642 contemporaries, were more clearly and strongly noticeable than among
38643 others. One instance, which had occurred some twenty years before, was a
38644 movement among the peasants to emigrate to some unknown "warm rivers."
38645 Hundreds of peasants, among them the Bogucharovo folk, suddenly began
38646 selling their cattle and moving in whole families toward the southeast.
38647 As birds migrate to somewhere beyond the sea, so these men with their
38648 wives and children streamed to the southeast, to parts where none of
38649 them had ever been. They set off in caravans, bought their freedom one
38650 by one or ran away, and drove or walked toward the "warm rivers." Many
38651 of them were punished, some sent to Siberia, many died of cold and
38652 hunger on the road, many returned of their own accord, and the movement
38653 died down of itself just as it had sprung up, without apparent reason.
38654 But such undercurrents still existed among the people and gathered new
38655 forces ready to manifest themselves just as strangely, unexpectedly, and
38656 at the same time simply, naturally, and forcibly. Now in 1812, to anyone
38657 living in close touch with these people it was apparent that these
38658 undercurrents were acting strongly and nearing an eruption.
38660 Alpatych, who had reached Bogucharovo shortly before the old prince's
38661 death, noticed an agitation among the peasants, and that contrary to
38662 what was happening in the Bald Hills district, where over a radius of
38663 forty miles all the peasants were moving away and leaving their villages
38664 to be devastated by the Cossacks, the peasants in the steppe region
38665 round Bogucharovo were, it was rumored, in touch with the French,
38666 received leaflets from them that passed from hand to hand, and did not
38667 migrate. He learned from domestic serfs loyal to him that the peasant
38668 Karp, who possessed great influence in the village commune and had
38669 recently been away driving a government transport, had returned with
38670 news that the Cossacks were destroying deserted villages, but that the
38671 French did not harm them. Alpatych also knew that on the previous day
38672 another peasant had even brought from the village of Visloukhovo, which
38673 was occupied by the French, a proclamation by a French general that no
38674 harm would be done to the inhabitants, and if they remained they would
38675 be paid for anything taken from them. As proof of this the peasant had
38676 brought from Visloukhovo a hundred rubles in notes (he did not know that
38677 they were false) paid to him in advance for hay.
38679 More important still, Alpatych learned that on the morning of the very
38680 day he gave the village Elder orders to collect carts to move the
38681 princess' luggage from Bogucharovo, there had been a village meeting at
38682 which it had been decided not to move but to wait. Yet there was no time
38683 to waste. On the fifteenth, the day of the old prince's death, the
38684 Marshal had insisted on Princess Mary's leaving at once, as it was
38685 becoming dangerous. He had told her that after the sixteenth he could
38686 not be responsible for what might happen. On the evening of the day the
38687 old prince died the Marshal went away, promising to return next day for
38688 the funeral. But this he was unable to do, for he received tidings that
38689 the French had unexpectedly advanced, and had barely time to remove his
38690 own family and valuables from his estate.
38692 For some thirty years Bogucharovo had been managed by the village Elder,
38693 Dron, whom the old prince called by the diminutive "Dronushka."
38695 Dron was one of those physically and mentally vigorous peasants who grow
38696 big beards as soon as they are of age and go on unchanged till they are
38697 sixty or seventy, without a gray hair or the loss of a tooth, as
38698 straight and strong at sixty as at thirty.
38700 Soon after the migration to the "warm rivers," in which he had taken
38701 part like the rest, Dron was made village Elder and overseer of
38702 Bogucharovo, and had since filled that post irreproachably for twenty-
38703 three years. The peasants feared him more than they did their master.
38704 The masters, both the old prince and the young, and the steward
38705 respected him and jestingly called him "the Minister." During the whole
38706 time of his service Dron had never been drunk or ill, never after
38707 sleepless nights or the hardest tasks had he shown the least fatigue,
38708 and though he could not read he had never forgotten a single money
38709 account or the number of quarters of flour in any of the endless
38710 cartloads he sold for the prince, nor a single shock of the whole corn
38711 crop on any single acre of the Bogucharovo fields.
38713 Alpatych, arriving from the devastated Bald Hills estate, sent for his
38714 Dron on the day of the prince's funeral and told him to have twelve
38715 horses got ready for the princess' carriages and eighteen carts for the
38716 things to be removed from Bogucharovo. Though the peasants paid
38717 quitrent, Alpatych thought no difficulty would be made about complying
38718 with this order, for there were two hundred and thirty households at
38719 work in Bogucharovo and the peasants were well to do. But on hearing the
38720 order Dron lowered his eyes and remained silent. Alpatych named certain
38721 peasants he knew, from whom he told him to take the carts.
38723 Dron replied that the horses of these peasants were away carting.
38724 Alpatych named others, but they too, according to Dron, had no horses
38725 available: some horses were carting for the government, others were too
38726 weak, and others had died for want of fodder. It seemed that no horses
38727 could be had even for the carriages, much less for the carting.
38729 Alpatych looked intently at Dron and frowned. Just as Dron was a model
38730 village Elder, so Alpatych had not managed the prince's estates for
38731 twenty years in vain. He was a model steward, possessing in the highest
38732 degree the faculty of divining the needs and instincts of those he dealt
38733 with. Having glanced at Dron he at once understood that his answers did
38734 not express his personal views but the general mood of the Bogucharovo
38735 commune, by which the Elder had already been carried away. But he also
38736 knew that Dron, who had acquired property and was hated by the commune,
38737 must be hesitating between the two camps: the masters' and the serfs'.
38738 He noticed this hesitation in Dron's look and therefore frowned and
38739 moved closer up to him.
38741 "Now just listen, Dronushka," said he. "Don't talk nonsense to me. His
38742 excellency Prince Andrew himself gave me orders to move all the people
38743 away and not leave them with the enemy, and there is an order from the
38744 Tsar about it too. Anyone who stays is a traitor to the Tsar. Do you
38747 "I hear," Dron answered without lifting his eyes.
38749 Alpatych was not satisfied with this reply.
38751 "Eh, Dron, it will turn out badly!" he said, shaking his head.
38753 "The power is in your hands," Dron rejoined sadly.
38755 "Eh, Dron, drop it!" Alpatych repeated, withdrawing his hand from his
38756 bosom and solemnly pointing to the floor at Dron's feet. "I can see
38757 through you and three yards into the ground under you," he continued,
38758 gazing at the floor in front of Dron.
38760 Dron was disconcerted, glanced furtively at Alpatych and again lowered
38763 "You drop this nonsense and tell the people to get ready to leave their
38764 homes and go to Moscow and to get carts ready for tomorrow morning for
38765 the princess' things. And don't go to any meeting yourself, do you
38768 Dron suddenly fell on his knees.
38770 "Yakov Alpatych, discharge me! Take the keys from me and discharge me,
38771 for Christ's sake!"
38773 "Stop that!" cried Alpatych sternly. "I see through you and three yards
38774 under you," he repeated, knowing that his skill in beekeeping, his
38775 knowledge of the right time to sow the oats, and the fact that he had
38776 been able to retain the old prince's favor for twenty years had long
38777 since gained him the reputation of being a wizard, and that the power of
38778 seeing three yards under a man is considered an attribute of wizards.
38780 Dron got up and was about to say something, but Alpatych interrupted
38783 "What is it you have got into your heads, eh?... What are you thinking
38786 "What am I to do with the people?" said Dron. "They're quite beside
38787 themselves; I have already told them..."
38789 "'Told them,' I dare say!" said Alpatych. "Are they drinking?" he asked
38792 "Quite beside themselves, Yakov Alpatych; they've fetched another
38795 "Well, then, listen! I'll go to the police officer, and you tell them
38796 so, and that they must stop this and the carts must be got ready."
38800 Alpatych did not insist further. He had managed people for a long time
38801 and knew that the chief way to make them obey is to show no suspicion
38802 that they can possibly disobey. Having wrung a submissive "I understand"
38803 from Dron, Alpatych contented himself with that, though he not only
38804 doubted but felt almost certain that without the help of troops the
38805 carts would not be forthcoming.
38807 And so it was, for when evening came no carts had been provided. In the
38808 village, outside the drink shop, another meeting was being held, which
38809 decided that the horses should be driven out into the woods and the
38810 carts should not be provided. Without saying anything of this to the
38811 princess, Alpatych had his own belongings taken out of the carts which
38812 had arrived from Bald Hills and had those horses got ready for the
38813 princess' carriages. Meanwhile he went himself to the police
38821 After her father's funeral Princess Mary shut herself up in her room and
38822 did not admit anyone. A maid came to the door to say that Alpatych was
38823 asking for orders about their departure. (This was before his talk with
38824 Dron.) Princess Mary raised herself on the sofa on which she had been
38825 lying and replied through the closed door that she did not mean to go
38826 away and begged to be left in peace.
38828 The windows of the room in which she was lying looked westward. She lay
38829 on the sofa with her face to the wall, fingering the buttons of the
38830 leather cushion and seeing nothing but that cushion, and her confused
38831 thoughts were centered on one subject--the irrevocability of death and
38832 her own spiritual baseness, which she had not suspected, but which had
38833 shown itself during her father's illness. She wished to pray but did not
38834 dare to, dared not in her present state of mind address herself to God.
38835 She lay for a long time in that position.
38837 The sun had reached the other side of the house, and its slanting rays
38838 shone into the open window, lighting up the room and part of the morocco
38839 cushion at which Princess Mary was looking. The flow of her thoughts
38840 suddenly stopped. Unconsciously she sat up, smoothed her hair, got up,
38841 and went to the window, involuntarily inhaling the freshness of the
38842 clear but windy evening.
38844 "Yes, you can well enjoy the evening now! He is gone and no one will
38845 hinder you," she said to herself, and sinking into a chair she let her
38846 head fall on the window sill.
38848 Someone spoke her name in a soft and tender voice from the garden and
38849 kissed her head. She looked up. It was Mademoiselle Bourienne in a black
38850 dress and weepers. She softly approached Princess Mary, sighed, kissed
38851 her, and immediately began to cry. The princess looked up at her. All
38852 their former disharmony and her own jealousy recurred to her mind. But
38853 she remembered too how he had changed of late toward Mademoiselle
38854 Bourienne and could not bear to see her, thereby showing how unjust were
38855 the reproaches Princess Mary had mentally addressed to her. "Besides, is
38856 it for me, for me who desired his death, to condemn anyone?" she
38859 Princess Mary vividly pictured to herself the position of Mademoiselle
38860 Bourienne, whom she had of late kept at a distance, but who yet was
38861 dependent on her and living in her house. She felt sorry for her and
38862 held out her hand with a glance of gentle inquiry. Mademoiselle
38863 Bourienne at once began crying again and kissed that hand, speaking of
38864 the princess' sorrow and making herself a partner in it. She said her
38865 only consolation was the fact that the princess allowed her to share her
38866 sorrow, that all the old misunderstandings should sink into nothing but
38867 this great grief; that she felt herself blameless in regard to everyone,
38868 and that he, from above, saw her affection and gratitude. The princess
38869 heard her, not heeding her words but occasionally looking up at her and
38870 listening to the sound of her voice.
38872 "Your position is doubly terrible, dear princess," said Mademoiselle
38873 Bourienne after a pause. "I understand that you could not, and cannot,
38874 think of yourself, but with my love for you I must do so.... Has
38875 Alpatych been to you? Has he spoken to you of going away?" she asked.
38877 Princess Mary did not answer. She did not understand who was to go or
38878 where to. "Is it possible to plan or think of anything now? Is it not
38879 all the same?" she thought, and did not reply.
38881 "You know, chere Marie," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, "that we are in
38882 danger--are surrounded by the French. It would be dangerous to move now.
38883 If we go we are almost sure to be taken prisoners, and God knows..."
38885 Princess Mary looked at her companion without understanding what she was
38888 "Oh, if anyone knew how little anything matters to me now," she said.
38889 "Of course I would on no account wish to go away from him.... Alpatych
38890 did say something about going.... Speak to him; I can do nothing,
38891 nothing, and don't want to...."
38893 "I've spoken to him. He hopes we should be in time to get away tomorrow,
38894 but I think it would now be better to stay here," said Mademoiselle
38895 Bourienne. "Because, you will agree, chere Marie, to fall into the hands
38896 of the soldiers or of riotous peasants would be terrible."
38898 Mademoiselle Bourienne took from her reticule a proclamation (not
38899 printed on ordinary Russian paper) of General Rameau's, telling people
38900 not to leave their homes and that the French authorities would afford
38901 them proper protection. She handed this to the princess.
38903 "I think it would be best to appeal to that general," she continued,
38904 "and I am sure that all due respect would be shown you."
38906 Princess Mary read the paper, and her face began to quiver with stifled
38909 "From whom did you get this?" she asked.
38911 "They probably recognized that I am French, by my name," replied
38912 Mademoiselle Bourienne blushing.
38914 Princess Mary, with the paper in her hand, rose from the window and with
38915 a pale face went out of the room and into what had been Prince Andrew's
38918 "Dunyasha, send Alpatych, or Dronushka, or somebody to me!" she said,
38919 "and tell Mademoiselle Bourienne not to come to me," she added, hearing
38920 Mademoiselle Bourienne's voice. "We must go at once, at once!" she said,
38921 appalled at the thought of being left in the hands of the French.
38923 "If Prince Andrew heard that I was in the power of the French! That I,
38924 the daughter of Prince Nicholas Bolkonski, asked General Rameau for
38925 protection and accepted his favor!" This idea horrified her, made her
38926 shudder, blush, and feel such a rush of anger and pride as she had never
38927 experienced before. All that was distressing, and especially all that
38928 was humiliating, in her position rose vividly to her mind. "They, the
38929 French, would settle in this house: M. le General Rameau would occupy
38930 Prince Andrew's study and amuse himself by looking through and reading
38931 his letters and papers. Mademoiselle Bourienne would do the honors of
38932 Bogucharovo for him. I should be given a small room as a favor, the
38933 soldiers would violate my father's newly dug grave to steal his crosses
38934 and stars, they would tell me of their victories over the Russians, and
38935 would pretend to sympathize with my sorrow..." thought Princess Mary,
38936 not thinking her own thoughts but feeling bound to think like her father
38937 and her brother. For herself she did not care where she remained or what
38938 happened to her, but she felt herself the representative of her dead
38939 father and of Prince Andrew. Involuntarily she thought their thoughts
38940 and felt their feelings. What they would have said and what they would
38941 have done she felt bound to say and do. She went into Prince Andrew's
38942 study, trying to enter completely into his ideas, and considered her
38945 The demands of life, which had seemed to her annihilated by her father's
38946 death, all at once rose before her with a new, previously unknown force
38947 and took possession of her.
38949 Agitated and flushed she paced the room, sending now for Michael
38950 Ivanovich and now for Tikhon or Dron. Dunyasha, the nurse, and the other
38951 maids could not say in how far Mademoiselle Bourienne's statement was
38952 correct. Alpatych was not at home, he had gone to the police. Neither
38953 could the architect Michael Ivanovich, who on being sent for came in
38954 with sleepy eyes, tell Princess Mary anything. With just the same smile
38955 of agreement with which for fifteen years he had been accustomed to
38956 answer the old prince without expressing views of his own, he now
38957 replied to Princess Mary, so that nothing definite could be got from his
38958 answers. The old valet Tikhon, with sunken, emaciated face that bore the
38959 stamp of inconsolable grief, replied: "Yes, Princess" to all Princess
38960 Mary's questions and hardly refrained from sobbing as he looked at her.
38962 At length Dron, the village Elder, entered the room and with a deep bow
38963 to Princess Mary came to a halt by the doorpost.
38965 Princess Mary walked up and down the room and stopped in front of him.
38967 "Dronushka," she said, regarding as a sure friend this Dronushka who
38968 always used to bring a special kind of gingerbread from his visit to the
38969 fair at Vyazma every year and smilingly offer it to her, "Dronushka, now
38970 since our misfortune..." she began, but could not go on.
38972 "We are all in God's hands," said he, with a sigh.
38974 They were silent for a while.
38976 "Dronushka, Alpatych has gone off somewhere and I have no one to turn
38977 to. Is it true, as they tell me, that I can't even go away?"
38979 "Why shouldn't you go away, your excellency? You can go," said Dron.
38981 "I was told it would be dangerous because of the enemy. Dear friend, I
38982 can do nothing. I understand nothing. I have nobody! I want to go away
38983 tonight or early tomorrow morning."
38985 Dron paused. He looked askance at Princess Mary and said: "There are no
38986 horses; I told Yakov Alpatych so."
38988 "Why are there none?" asked the princess.
38990 "It's all God's scourge," said Dron. "What horses we had have been taken
38991 for the army or have died--this is such a year! It's not a case of
38992 feeding horses--we may die of hunger ourselves! As it is, some go three
38993 days without eating. We've nothing, we've been ruined."
38995 Princess Mary listened attentively to what he told her.
38997 "The peasants are ruined? They have no bread?" she asked.
38999 "They're dying of hunger," said Dron. "It's not a case of carting."
39001 "But why didn't you tell me, Dronushka? Isn't it possible to help them?
39002 I'll do all I can...."
39004 To Princess Mary it was strange that now, at a moment when such sorrow
39005 was filling her soul, there could be rich people and poor, and the rich
39006 could refrain from helping the poor. She had heard vaguely that there
39007 was such a thing as "landlord's corn" which was sometimes given to the
39008 peasants. She also knew that neither her father nor her brother would
39009 refuse to help the peasants in need, she only feared to make some
39010 mistake in speaking about the distribution of the grain she wished to
39011 give. She was glad such cares presented themselves, enabling her without
39012 scruple to forget her own grief. She began asking Dron about the
39013 peasants' needs and what there was in Bogucharovo that belonged to the
39016 "But we have grain belonging to my brother?" she said.
39018 "The landlord's grain is all safe," replied Dron proudly. "Our prince
39019 did not order it to be sold."
39021 "Give it to the peasants, let them have all they need; I give you leave
39022 in my brother's name," said she.
39024 Dron made no answer but sighed deeply.
39026 "Give them that corn if there is enough of it. Distribute it all. I give
39027 this order in my brother's name; and tell them that what is ours is
39028 theirs. We do not grudge them anything. Tell them so."
39030 Dron looked intently at the princess while she was speaking.
39032 "Discharge me, little mother, for God's sake! Order the keys to be taken
39033 from me," said he. "I have served twenty-three years and have done no
39034 wrong. Discharge me, for God's sake!"
39036 Princess Mary did not understand what he wanted of her or why he was
39037 asking to be discharged. She replied that she had never doubted his
39038 devotion and that she was ready to do anything for him and for the
39046 An hour later Dunyasha came to tell the princess that Dron had come, and
39047 all the peasants had assembled at the barn by the princess' order and
39048 wished to have word with their mistress.
39050 "But I never told them to come," said Princess Mary. "I only told Dron
39051 to let them have the grain."
39053 "Only, for God's sake, Princess dear, have them sent away and don't go
39054 out to them. It's all a trick," said Dunyasha, "and when Yakov Alpatych
39055 returns let us get away... and please don't..."
39057 "What is a trick?" asked Princess Mary in surprise.
39059 "I know it is, only listen to me for God's sake! Ask nurse too. They say
39060 they don't agree to leave Bogucharovo as you ordered."
39062 "You're making some mistake. I never ordered them to go away," said
39063 Princess Mary. "Call Dronushka."
39065 Dron came and confirmed Dunyasha's words; the peasants had come by the
39068 "But I never sent for them," declared the princess. "You must have given
39069 my message wrong. I only said that you were to give them the grain."
39071 Dron only sighed in reply.
39073 "If you order it they will go away," said he.
39075 "No, no. I'll go out to them," said Princess Mary, and in spite of the
39076 nurse's and Dunyasha's protests she went out into the porch; Dron,
39077 Dunyasha, the nurse, and Michael Ivanovich following her.
39079 "They probably think I am offering them the grain to bribe them to
39080 remain here, while I myself go away leaving them to the mercy of the
39081 French," thought Princess Mary. "I will offer them monthly rations and
39082 housing at our Moscow estate. I am sure Andrew would do even more in my
39083 place," she thought as she went out in the twilight toward the crowd
39084 standing on the pasture by the barn.
39086 The men crowded closer together, stirred, and rapidly took off their
39087 hats. Princess Mary lowered her eyes and, tripping over her skirt, came
39088 close up to them. So many different eyes, old and young, were fixed on
39089 her, and there were so many different faces, that she could not
39090 distinguish any of them and, feeling that she must speak to them all at
39091 once, did not know how to do it. But again the sense that she
39092 represented her father and her brother gave her courage, and she boldly
39095 "I am very glad you have come," she said without raising her eyes, and
39096 feeling her heart beating quickly and violently. "Dronushka tells me
39097 that the war has ruined you. That is our common misfortune, and I shall
39098 grudge nothing to help you. I am myself going away because it is
39099 dangerous here... the enemy is near... because... I am giving you
39100 everything, my friends, and I beg you to take everything, all our grain,
39101 so that you may not suffer want! And if you have been told that I am
39102 giving you the grain to keep you here--that is not true. On the
39103 contrary, I ask you to go with all your belongings to our estate near
39104 Moscow, and I promise you I will see to it that there you shall want for
39105 nothing. You shall be given food and lodging."
39107 The princess stopped. Sighs were the only sound heard in the crowd.
39109 "I am not doing this on my own account," she continued, "I do it in the
39110 name of my dead father, who was a good master to you, and of my brother
39113 Again she paused. No one broke the silence.
39115 "Ours is a common misfortune and we will share it together. All that is
39116 mine is yours," she concluded, scanning the faces before her.
39118 All eyes were gazing at her with one and the same expression. She could
39119 not fathom whether it was curiosity, devotion, gratitude, or
39120 apprehension and distrust--but the expression on all the faces was
39123 "We are all very thankful for your bounty, but it won't do for us to
39124 take the landlord's grain," said a voice at the back of the crowd.
39126 "But why not?" asked the princess.
39128 No one replied and Princess Mary, looking round at the crowd, found that
39129 every eye she met now was immediately dropped.
39131 "But why don't you want to take it?" she asked again.
39135 The silence began to oppress the princess and she tried to catch
39138 "Why don't you speak?" she inquired of a very old man who stood just in
39139 front of her leaning on his stick. "If you think something more is
39140 wanted, tell me! I will do anything," said she, catching his eye.
39142 But as if this angered him, he bent his head quite low and muttered:
39144 "Why should we agree? We don't want the grain."
39146 "Why should we give up everything? We don't agree. Don't agree.... We
39147 are sorry for you, but we're not willing. Go away yourself, alone..."
39148 came from various sides of the crowd.
39150 And again all the faces in that crowd bore an identical expression,
39151 though now it was certainly not an expression of curiosity or gratitude,
39152 but of angry resolve.
39154 "But you can't have understood me," said Princess Mary with a sad smile.
39155 "Why don't you want to go? I promise to house and feed you, while here
39156 the enemy would ruin you..."
39158 But her voice was drowned by the voices of the crowd.
39160 "We're not willing. Let them ruin us! We won't take your grain. We don't
39163 Again Princess Mary tried to catch someone's eye, but not a single eye
39164 in the crowd was turned to her; evidently they were all trying to avoid
39165 her look. She felt strange and awkward.
39167 "Oh yes, an artful tale! Follow her into slavery! Pull down your houses
39168 and go into bondage! I dare say! 'I'll give you grain, indeed!' she
39169 says," voices in the crowd were heard saying.
39171 With drooping head Princess Mary left the crowd and went back to the
39172 house. Having repeated her order to Dron to have horses ready for her
39173 departure next morning, she went to her room and remained alone with her
39181 For a long time that night Princess Mary sat by the open window of her
39182 room hearing the sound of the peasants' voices that reached her from the
39183 village, but it was not of them she was thinking. She felt that she
39184 could not understand them however much she might think about them. She
39185 thought only of one thing, her sorrow, which, after the break caused by
39186 cares for the present, seemed already to belong to the past. Now she
39187 could remember it and weep or pray.
39189 After sunset the wind had dropped. The night was calm and fresh. Toward
39190 midnight the voices began to subside, a cock crowed, the full moon began
39191 to show from behind the lime trees, a fresh white dewy mist began to
39192 rise, and stillness reigned over the village and the house.
39194 Pictures of the near past--her father's illness and last moments--rose
39195 one after another to her memory. With mournful pleasure she now lingered
39196 over these images, repelling with horror only the last one, the picture
39197 of his death, which she felt she could not contemplate even in
39198 imagination at this still and mystic hour of night. And these pictures
39199 presented themselves to her so clearly and in such detail that they
39200 seemed now present, now past, and now future.
39202 She vividly recalled the moment when he had his first stroke and was
39203 being dragged along by his armpits through the garden at Bald Hills,
39204 muttering something with his helpless tongue, twitching his gray
39205 eyebrows and looking uneasily and timidly at her.
39207 "Even then he wanted to tell me what he told me the day he died," she
39208 thought. "He had always thought what he said then." And she recalled in
39209 all its detail the night at Bald Hills before he had the last stroke,
39210 when with a foreboding of disaster she had remained at home against his
39211 will. She had not slept and had stolen downstairs on tiptoe, and going
39212 to the door of the conservatory where he slept that night had listened
39213 at the door. In a suffering and weary voice he was saying something to
39214 Tikhon, speaking of the Crimea and its warm nights and of the Empress.
39215 Evidently he had wanted to talk. "And why didn't he call me? Why didn't
39216 he let me be there instead of Tikhon?" Princess Mary had thought and
39217 thought again now. "Now he will never tell anyone what he had in his
39218 soul. Never will that moment return for him or for me when he might have
39219 said all he longed to say, and not Tikhon but I might have heard and
39220 understood him. Why didn't I enter the room?" she thought. "Perhaps he
39221 would then have said to me what he said the day he died. While talking
39222 to Tikhon he asked about me twice. He wanted to see me, and I was
39223 standing close by, outside the door. It was sad and painful for him to
39224 talk to Tikhon who did not understand him. I remember how he began
39225 speaking to him about Lise as if she were alive--he had forgotten she
39226 was dead--and Tikhon reminded him that she was no more, and he shouted,
39227 'Fool!' He was greatly depressed. From behind the door I heard how he
39228 lay down on his bed groaning and loudly exclaimed, 'My God!' Why didn't
39229 I go in then? What could he have done to me? What could I have lost? And
39230 perhaps he would then have been comforted and would have said that word
39231 to me." And Princess Mary uttered aloud the caressing word he had said
39232 to her on the day of his death. "Dear-est!" she repeated, and began
39233 sobbing, with tears that relieved her soul. She now saw his face before
39234 her. And not the face she had known ever since she could remember and
39235 had always seen at a distance, but the timid, feeble face she had seen
39236 for the first time quite closely, with all its wrinkles and details,
39237 when she stooped near to his mouth to catch what he said.
39239 "Dear-est!" she repeated again.
39241 "What was he thinking when he uttered that word? What is he thinking
39242 now?" This question suddenly presented itself to her, and in answer she
39243 saw him before her with the expression that was on his face as he lay in
39244 his coffin with his chin bound up with a white handkerchief. And the
39245 horror that had seized her when she touched him and convinced herself
39246 that that was not he, but something mysterious and horrible, seized her
39247 again. She tried to think of something else and to pray, but could do
39248 neither. With wide-open eyes she gazed at the moonlight and the shadows,
39249 expecting every moment to see his dead face, and she felt that the
39250 silence brooding over the house and within it held her fast.
39252 "Dunyasha," she whispered. "Dunyasha!" she screamed wildly, and tearing
39253 herself out of this silence she ran to the servants' quarters to meet
39254 her old nurse and the maidservants who came running toward her.
39261 On the seventeenth of August Rostov and Ilyin, accompanied by Lavrushka
39262 who had just returned from captivity and by an hussar orderly, left
39263 their quarters at Yankovo, ten miles from Bogucharovo, and went for a
39264 ride--to try a new horse Ilyin had bought and to find out whether there
39265 was any hay to be had in the villages.
39267 For the last three days Bogucharovo had lain between the two hostile
39268 armies, so that it was as easy for the Russian rearguard to get to it as
39269 for the French vanguard; Rostov, as a careful squadron commander, wished
39270 to take such provisions as remained at Bogucharovo before the French
39273 Rostov and Ilyin were in the merriest of moods. On the way to
39274 Bogucharovo, a princely estate with a dwelling house and farm where they
39275 hoped to find many domestic serfs and pretty girls, they questioned
39276 Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, and raced one
39277 another to try Ilyin's horse.
39279 Rostov had no idea that the village he was entering was the property of
39280 that very Bolkonski who had been engaged to his sister.
39282 Rostov and Ilyin gave rein to their horses for a last race along the
39283 incline before reaching Bogucharovo, and Rostov, outstripping Ilyin, was
39284 the first to gallop into the village street.
39286 "You're first!" cried Ilyin, flushed.
39288 "Yes, always first both on the grassland and here," answered Rostov,
39289 stroking his heated Donets horse.
39291 "And I'd have won on my Frenchy, your excellency," said Lavrushka from
39292 behind, alluding to his shabby cart horse, "only I didn't wish to
39295 They rode at a footpace to the barn, where a large crowd of peasants was
39298 Some of the men bared their heads, others stared at the new arrivals
39299 without doffing their caps. Two tall old peasants with wrinkled faces
39300 and scanty beards emerged from the tavern, smiling, staggering, and
39301 singing some incoherent song, and approached the officers.
39303 "Fine fellows!" said Rostov laughing. "Is there any hay here?"
39305 "And how like one another," said Ilyin.
39307 "A mo-o-st me-r-r-y co-o-m-pa...!" sang one of the peasants with a
39310 One of the men came out of the crowd and went up to Rostov.
39312 "Who do you belong to?" he asked.
39314 "The French," replied Ilyin jestingly, "and here is Napoleon himself"--
39315 and he pointed to Lavrushka.
39317 "Then you are Russians?" the peasant asked again.
39319 "And is there a large force of you here?" said another, a short man,
39322 "Very large," answered Rostov. "But why have you collected here?" he
39323 added. "Is it a holiday?"
39325 "The old men have met to talk over the business of the commune," replied
39326 the peasant, moving away.
39328 At that moment, on the road leading from the big house, two women and a
39329 man in a white hat were seen coming toward the officers.
39331 "The one in pink is mine, so keep off!" said Ilyin on seeing Dunyasha
39332 running resolutely toward him.
39334 "She'll be ours!" said Lavrushka to Ilyin, winking.
39336 "What do you want, my pretty?" said Ilyin with a smile.
39338 "The princess ordered me to ask your regiment and your name."
39340 "This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your humble
39343 "Co-o-om-pa-ny!" roared the tipsy peasant with a beatific smile as he
39344 looked at Ilyin talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Alpatych
39345 advanced to Rostov, having bared his head while still at a distance.
39347 "May I make bold to trouble your honor?" said he respectfully, but with
39348 a shade of contempt for the youthfulness of this officer and with a hand
39349 thrust into his bosom. "My mistress, daughter of General in Chief Prince
39350 Nicholas Bolkonski who died on the fifteenth of this month, finding
39351 herself in difficulties owing to the boorishness of these people"--he
39352 pointed to the peasants--"asks you to come up to the house.... Won't
39353 you, please, ride on a little farther," said Alpatych with a melancholy
39354 smile, "as it is not convenient in the presence of...?" He pointed to
39355 the two peasants who kept as close to him as horseflies to a horse.
39357 "Ah!... Alpatych... Ah, Yakov Alpatych... Grand! Forgive us for Christ's
39358 sake, eh?" said the peasants, smiling joyfully at him.
39360 Rostov looked at the tipsy peasants and smiled.
39362 "Or perhaps they amuse your honor?" remarked Alpatych with a staid air,
39363 as he pointed at the old men with his free hand.
39365 "No, there's not much to be amused at here," said Rostov, and rode on a
39366 little way. "What's the matter?" he asked.
39368 "I make bold to inform your honor that the rude peasants here don't wish
39369 to let the mistress leave the estate, and threaten to unharness her
39370 horses, so that though everything has been packed up since morning, her
39371 excellency cannot get away."
39373 "Impossible!" exclaimed Rostov.
39375 "I have the honor to report to you the actual truth," said Alpatych.
39377 Rostov dismounted, gave his horse to the orderly, and followed Alpatych
39378 to the house, questioning him as to the state of affairs. It appeared
39379 that the princess' offer of corn to the peasants the previous day, and
39380 her talk with Dron and at the meeting, had actually had so bad an effect
39381 that Dron had finally given up the keys and joined the peasants and had
39382 not appeared when Alpatych sent for him; and that in the morning when
39383 the princess gave orders to harness for her journey, the peasants had
39384 come in a large crowd to the barn and sent word that they would not let
39385 her leave the village: that there was an order not to move, and that
39386 they would unharness the horses. Alpatych had gone out to admonish them,
39387 but was told (it was chiefly Karp who did the talking, Dron not showing
39388 himself in the crowd) that they could not let the princess go, that
39389 there was an order to the contrary, but that if she stayed they would
39390 serve her as before and obey her in everything.
39392 At the moment when Rostov and Ilyin were galloping along the road,
39393 Princess Mary, despite the dissuasions of Alpatych, her nurse, and the
39394 maids, had given orders to harness and intended to start, but when the
39395 cavalrymen were espied they were taken for Frenchmen, the coachman ran
39396 away, and the women in the house began to wail.
39398 "Father! Benefactor! God has sent you!" exclaimed deeply moved voices as
39399 Rostov passed through the anteroom.
39401 Princess Mary was sitting helpless and bewildered in the large sitting
39402 room, when Rostov was shown in. She could not grasp who he was and why
39403 he had come, or what was happening to her. When she saw his Russian
39404 face, and by his walk and the first words he uttered recognized him as a
39405 man of her own class, she glanced at him with her deep radiant look and
39406 began speaking in a voice that faltered and trembled with emotion. This
39407 meeting immediately struck Rostov as a romantic event. "A helpless girl
39408 overwhelmed with grief, left to the mercy of coarse, rioting peasants!
39409 And what a strange fate sent me here! What gentleness and nobility there
39410 are in her features and expression!" thought he as he looked at her and
39411 listened to her timid story.
39413 When she began to tell him that all this had happened the day after her
39414 father's funeral, her voice trembled. She turned away, and then, as if
39415 fearing he might take her words as meant to move him to pity, looked at
39416 him with an apprehensive glance of inquiry. There were tears in Rostov's
39417 eyes. Princess Mary noticed this and glanced gratefully at him with that
39418 radiant look which caused the plainness of her face to be forgotten.
39420 "I cannot express, Princess, how glad I am that I happened to ride here
39421 and am able to show my readiness to serve you," said Rostov, rising. "Go
39422 when you please, and I give you my word of honor that no one shall dare
39423 to cause you annoyance if only you will allow me to act as your escort."
39424 And bowing respectfully, as if to a lady of royal blood, he moved toward
39427 Rostov's deferential tone seemed to indicate that though he would
39428 consider himself happy to be acquainted with her, he did not wish to
39429 take advantage of her misfortunes to intrude upon her.
39431 Princess Mary understood this and appreciated his delicacy.
39433 "I am very, very grateful to you," she said in French, "but I hope it
39434 was all a misunderstanding and that no one is to blame for it." She
39435 suddenly began to cry.
39437 "Excuse me!" she said.
39439 Rostov, knitting his brows, left the room with another low bow.
39446 "Well, is she pretty? Ah, friend--my pink one is delicious; her name is
39449 But on glancing at Rostov's face Ilyin stopped short. He saw that his
39450 hero and commander was following quite a different train of thought.
39452 Rostov glanced angrily at Ilyin and without replying strode off with
39453 rapid steps to the village.
39455 "I'll show them; I'll give it to them, the brigands!" said he to
39458 Alpatych at a gliding trot, only just managing not to run, kept up with
39459 him with difficulty.
39461 "What decision have you been pleased to come to?" said he.
39463 Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly and sternly turned on
39466 "Decision? What decision? Old dotard!..." cried he. "What have you been
39467 about? Eh? The peasants are rioting, and you can't manage them? You're a
39468 traitor yourself! I know you. I'll flay you all alive!..." And as if
39469 afraid of wasting his store of anger, he left Alpatych and went rapidly
39470 forward. Alpatych, mastering his offended feelings, kept pace with
39471 Rostov at a gliding gait and continued to impart his views. He said the
39472 peasants were obdurate and that at the present moment it would be
39473 imprudent to "overresist" them without an armed force, and would it not
39474 be better first to send for the military?
39476 "I'll give them armed force... I'll 'overresist' them!" uttered Rostov
39477 meaninglessly, breathless with irrational animal fury and the need to
39480 Without considering what he would do he moved unconciously with quick,
39481 resolute steps toward the crowd. And the nearer he drew to it the more
39482 Alpatych felt that this unreasonable action might produce good results.
39483 The peasants in the crowd were similarly impressed when they saw
39484 Rostov's rapid, firm steps and resolute, frowning face.
39486 After the hussars had come to the village and Rostov had gone to see the
39487 princess, a certain confusion and dissension had arisen among the crowd.
39488 Some of the peasants said that these new arrivals were Russians and
39489 might take it amiss that the mistress was being detained. Dron was of
39490 this opinion, but as soon as he expressed it Karp and others attacked
39493 "How many years have you been fattening on the commune?" Karp shouted at
39494 him. "It's all one to you! You'll dig up your pot of money and take it
39495 away with you.... What does it matter to you whether our homes are
39498 "We've been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave their homes
39499 or take away a single grain, and that's all about it!" cried another.
39501 "It was your son's turn to be conscripted, but no fear! You begrudged
39502 your lump of a son," a little old man suddenly began attacking Dron--
39503 "and so they took my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier! But we all have
39506 "To be sure, we all have to die. I'm not against the commune," said
39509 "That's it--not against it! You've filled your belly...."
39511 The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followed by
39512 Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, came up to the crowd, Karp, thrusting
39513 his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked to the front.
39514 Dron on the contrary retired to the rear and the crowd drew closer
39517 "Who is your Elder here? Hey?" shouted Rostov, coming up to the crowd
39520 "The Elder? What do you want with him?..." asked Karp.
39522 But before the words were well out of his mouth, his cap flew off and a
39523 fierce blow jerked his head to one side.
39525 "Caps off, traitors!" shouted Rostov in a wrathful voice. "Where's the
39526 Elder?" he cried furiously.
39528 "The Elder.... He wants the Elder!... Dron Zakharych, you!" meek and
39529 flustered voices here and there were heard calling and caps began to
39530 come off their heads.
39532 "We don't riot, we're following the orders," declared Karp, and at that
39533 moment several voices began speaking together.
39535 "It's as the old men have decided--there's too many of you giving
39538 "Arguing? Mutiny!... Brigands! Traitors!" cried Rostov unmeaningly in a
39539 voice not his own, gripping Karp by the collar. "Bind him, bind him!" he
39540 shouted, though there was no one to bind him but Lavrushka and Alpatych.
39542 Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and seized him by the arms from
39545 "Shall I call up our men from beyond the hill?" he called out.
39547 Alpatych turned to the peasants and ordered two of them by name to come
39548 and bind Karp. The men obediently came out of the crowd and began taking
39551 "Where's the Elder?" demanded Rostov in a loud voice.
39553 With a pale and frowning face Dron stepped out of the crowd.
39555 "Are you the Elder? Bind him, Lavrushka!" shouted Rostov, as if that
39556 order, too, could not possibly meet with any opposition.
39558 And in fact two more peasants began binding Dron, who took off his own
39559 belt and handed it to them, as if to aid them.
39561 "And you all listen to me!" said Rostov to the peasants. "Be off to your
39562 houses at once, and don't let one of your voices be heard!"
39564 "Why, we've not done any harm! We did it just out of foolishness. It's
39565 all nonsense... I said then that it was not in order," voices were heard
39566 bickering with one another.
39569 "There! What did I say?" said Alpatych, coming into his own again. "It's
39572 "All our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych," came the answers, and the crowd
39573 began at once to disperse through the village.
39575 The two bound men were led off to the master's house. The two drunken
39576 peasants followed them.
39578 "Aye, when I look at you!..." said one of them to Karp.
39580 "How can one talk to the masters like that? What were you thinking of,
39581 you fool?" added the other--"A real fool!"
39583 Two hours later the carts were standing in the courtyard of the
39584 Bogucharovo house. The peasants were briskly carrying out the
39585 proprietor's goods and packing them on the carts, and Dron, liberated at
39586 Princess Mary's wish from the cupboard where he had been confined, was
39587 standing in the yard directing the men.
39589 "Don't put it in so carelessly," said one of the peasants, a man with a
39590 round smiling face, taking a casket from a housemaid. "You know it has
39591 cost money! How can you chuck it in like that or shove it under the cord
39592 where it'll get rubbed? I don't like that way of doing things. Let it
39593 all be done properly, according to rule. Look here, put it under the
39594 bast matting and cover it with hay--that's the way!"
39596 "Eh, books, books!" said another peasant, bringing out Prince Andrew's
39597 library cupboards. "Don't catch up against it! It's heavy, lads--solid
39600 "Yes, they worked all day and didn't play!" remarked the tall, round-
39601 faced peasant gravely, pointing with a significant wink at the
39602 dictionaries that were on the top.
39604 Unwilling to obtrude himself on the princess, Rostov did not go back to
39605 the house but remained in the village awaiting her departure. When her
39606 carriage drove out of the house, he mounted and accompanied her eight
39607 miles from Bogucharovo to where the road was occupied by our troops. At
39608 the inn at Yankovo he respectfully took leave of her, for the first time
39609 permitting himself to kiss her hand.
39611 "How can you speak so!" he blushingly replied to Princess Mary's
39612 expressions of gratitude for her deliverance, as she termed what had
39613 occurred. "Any police officer would have done as much! If we had had
39614 only peasants to fight, we should not have let the enemy come so far,"
39615 said he with a sense of shame and wishing to change the subject. "I am
39616 only happy to have had the opportunity of making your acquaintance.
39617 Good-bye, Princess. I wish you happiness and consolation and hope to
39618 meet you again in happier circumstances. If you don't want to make me
39619 blush, please don't thank me!"
39621 But the princess, if she did not again thank him in words, thanked him
39622 with the whole expression of her face, radiant with gratitude and
39623 tenderness. She could not believe that there was nothing to thank him
39624 for. On the contrary, it seemed to her certain that had he not been
39625 there she would have perished at the hands of the mutineers and of the
39626 French, and that he had exposed himself to terrible and obvious danger
39627 to save her, and even more certain was it that he was a man of lofty and
39628 noble soul, able to understand her position and her sorrow. His kind,
39629 honest eyes, with the tears rising in them when she herself had begun to
39630 cry as she spoke of her loss, did not leave her memory.
39632 When she had taken leave of him and remained alone she suddenly felt her
39633 eyes filling with tears, and then not for the first time the strange
39634 question presented itself to her: did she love him?
39636 On the rest of the way to Moscow, though the princess' position was not
39637 a cheerful one, Dunyasha, who went with her in the carriage, more than
39638 once noticed that her mistress leaned out of the window and smiled at
39639 something with an expression of mingled joy and sorrow.
39641 "Well, supposing I do love him?" thought Princess Mary.
39643 Ashamed as she was of acknowledging to herself that she had fallen in
39644 love with a man who would perhaps never love her, she comforted herself
39645 with the thought that no one would ever know it and that she would not
39646 be to blame if, without ever speaking of it to anyone, she continued to
39647 the end of her life to love the man with whom she had fallen in love for
39648 the first and last time in her life.
39650 Sometimes when she recalled his looks, his sympathy, and his words,
39651 happiness did not appear impossible to her. It was at those moments that
39652 Dunyasha noticed her smiling as she looked out of the carriage window.
39654 "Was it not fate that brought him to Bogucharovo, and at that very
39655 moment?" thought Princess Mary. "And that caused his sister to refuse my
39656 brother?" And in all this Princess Mary saw the hand of Providence.
39658 The impression the princess made on Rostov was a very agreeable one. To
39659 remember her gave him pleasure, and when his comrades, hearing of his
39660 adventure at Bogucharovo, rallied him on having gone to look for hay and
39661 having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, he grew
39662 angry. It made him angry just because the idea of marrying the gentle
39663 Princess Mary, who was attractive to him and had an enormous fortune,
39664 had against his will more than once entered his head. For himself
39665 personally Nicholas could not wish for a better wife: by marrying her he
39666 would make the countess his mother happy, would be able to put his
39667 father's affairs in order, and would even--he felt it--ensure Princess
39670 But Sonya? And his plighted word? That was why Rostov grew angry when he
39671 was rallied about Princess Bolkonskaya.
39678 On receiving command of the armies Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrew and
39679 sent an order for him to report at headquarters.
39681 Prince Andrew arrived at Tsarevo-Zaymishche on the very day and at the
39682 very hour that Kutuzov was reviewing the troops for the first time. He
39683 stopped in the village at the priest's house in front of which stood the
39684 commander-in-chief's carriage, and he sat down on the bench at the gate
39685 awaiting his Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. From the
39686 field beyond the village came now sounds of regimental music and now the
39687 roar of many voices shouting "Hurrah!" to the new commander-in-chief.
39688 Two orderlies, a courier and a major-domo, stood near by, some ten paces
39689 from Prince Andrew, availing themselves of Kutuzov's absence and of the
39690 fine weather. A short, swarthy lieutenant colonel of hussars with thick
39691 mustaches and whiskers rode up to the gate and, glancing at Prince
39692 Andrew, inquired whether his Serene Highness was putting up there and
39693 whether he would soon be back.
39695 Prince Andrew replied that he was not on his Serene Highness' staff but
39696 was himself a new arrival. The lieutenant colonel turned to a smart
39697 orderly, who, with the peculiar contempt with which a commander-in-
39698 chief's orderly speaks to officers, replied:
39700 "What? His Serene Highness? I expect he'll be here soon. What do you
39703 The lieutenant colonel of hussars smiled beneath his mustache at the
39704 orderly's tone, dismounted, gave his horse to a dispatch runner, and
39705 approached Bolkonski with a slight bow. Bolkonski made room for him on
39706 the bench and the lieutenant colonel sat down beside him.
39708 "You're also waiting for the commander-in-chief?" said he. "They say he
39709 weceives evewyone, thank God!... It's awful with those sausage eaters!
39710 Ermolov had weason to ask to be pwomoted to be a German! Now p'waps
39711 Wussians will get a look in. As it was, devil only knows what was
39712 happening. We kept wetweating and wetweating. Did you take part in the
39713 campaign?" he asked.
39715 "I had the pleasure," replied Prince Andrew, "not only of taking part in
39716 the retreat but of losing in that retreat all I held dear--not to
39717 mention the estate and home of my birth--my father, who died of grief. I
39718 belong to the province of Smolensk."
39720 "Ah? You're Pwince Bolkonski? Vewy glad to make your acquaintance! I'm
39721 Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known as 'Vaska,'" said Denisov,
39722 pressing Prince Andrew's hand and looking into his face with a
39723 particularly kindly attention. "Yes, I heard," said he sympathetically,
39724 and after a short pause added: "Yes, it's Scythian warfare. It's all
39725 vewy well--only not for those who get it in the neck. So you are Pwince
39726 Andwew Bolkonski?" He swayed his head. "Vewy pleased, Pwince, to make
39727 your acquaintance!" he repeated again, smiling sadly, and he again
39728 pressed Prince Andrew's hand.
39730 Prince Andrew knew Denisov from what Natasha had told him of her first
39731 suitor. This memory carried him sadly and sweetly back to those painful
39732 feelings of which he had not thought lately, but which still found place
39733 in his soul. Of late he had received so many new and very serious
39734 impressions--such as the retreat from Smolensk, his visit to Bald Hills,
39735 and the recent news of his father's death--and had experienced so many
39736 emotions, that for a long time past those memories had not entered his
39737 mind, and now that they did, they did not act on him with nearly their
39738 former strength. For Denisov, too, the memories awakened by the name of
39739 Bolkonski belonged to a distant, romantic past, when after supper and
39740 after Natasha's singing he had proposed to a little girl of fifteen
39741 without realizing what he was doing. He smiled at the recollection of
39742 that time and of his love for Natasha, and passed at once to what now
39743 interested him passionately and exclusively. This was a plan of campaign
39744 he had devised while serving at the outposts during the retreat. He had
39745 proposed that plan to Barclay de Tolly and now wished to propose it to
39746 Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of
39747 operation was too extended, and it proposed that instead of, or
39748 concurrently with, action on the front to bar the advance of the French,
39749 we should attack their line of communication. He began explaining his
39750 plan to Prince Andrew.
39752 "They can't hold all that line. It's impossible. I will undertake to
39753 bweak thwough. Give me five hundwed men and I will bweak the line,
39754 that's certain! There's only one way--guewilla warfare!"
39756 Denisov rose and began gesticulating as he explained his plan to
39757 Bolkonski. In the midst of his explanation shouts were heard from the
39758 army, growing more incoherent and more diffused, mingling with music and
39759 songs and coming from the field where the review was held. Sounds of
39760 hoofs and shouts were nearing the village.
39762 "He's coming! He's coming!" shouted a Cossack standing at the gate.
39764 Bolkonski and Denisov moved to the gate, at which a knot of soldiers (a
39765 guard of honor) was standing, and they saw Kutuzov coming down the
39766 street mounted on a rather small sorrel horse. A huge suite of generals
39767 rode behind him. Barclay was riding almost beside him, and a crowd of
39768 officers ran after and around them shouting, "Hurrah!"
39770 His adjutants galloped into the yard before him. Kutuzov was impatiently
39771 urging on his horse, which ambled smoothly under his weight, and he
39772 raised his hand to his white Horse Guard's cap with a red band and no
39773 peak, nodding his head continually. When he came up to the guard of
39774 honor, a fine set of Grenadiers mostly wearing decorations, who were
39775 giving him the salute, he looked at them silently and attentively for
39776 nearly a minute with the steady gaze of a commander and then turned to
39777 the crowd of generals and officers surrounding him. Suddenly his face
39778 assumed a subtle expression, he shrugged his shoulders with an air of
39781 "And with such fine fellows to retreat and retreat! Well, good-by,
39782 General," he added, and rode into the yard past Prince Andrew and
39785 "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted those behind him.
39787 Since Prince Andrew had last seen him Kutuzov had grown still more
39788 corpulent, flaccid, and fat. But the bleached eyeball, the scar, and the
39789 familiar weariness of his expression were still the same. He was wearing
39790 the white Horse Guard's cap and a military overcoat with a whip hanging
39791 over his shoulder by a thin strap. He sat heavily and swayed limply on
39792 his brisk little horse.
39794 "Whew... whew... whew!" he whistled just audibly as he rode into the
39795 yard. His face expressed the relief of relaxed strain felt by a man who
39796 means to rest after a ceremony. He drew his left foot out of the stirrup
39797 and, lurching with his whole body and puckering his face with the
39798 effort, raised it with difficulty onto the saddle, leaned on his knee,
39799 groaned, and slipped down into the arms of the Cossacks and adjutants
39800 who stood ready to assist him.
39802 He pulled himself together, looked round, screwing up his eyes, glanced
39803 at Prince Andrew, and, evidently not recognizing him, moved with his
39804 waddling gait to the porch. "Whew... whew... whew!" he whistled, and
39805 again glanced at Prince Andrew. As often occurs with old men, it was
39806 only after some seconds that the impression produced by Prince Andrew's
39807 face linked itself up with Kutuzov's remembrance of his personality.
39809 "Ah, how do you do, my dear prince? How do you do, my dear boy? Come
39810 along..." said he, glancing wearily round, and he stepped onto the porch
39811 which creaked under his weight.
39813 He unbuttoned his coat and sat down on a bench in the porch.
39815 "And how's your father?"
39817 "I received news of his death, yesterday," replied Prince Andrew
39820 Kutuzov looked at him with eyes wide open with dismay and then took off
39821 his cap and crossed himself:
39823 "May the kingdom of Heaven be his! God's will be done to us all!" He
39824 sighed deeply, his whole chest heaving, and was silent for a while. "I
39825 loved him and respected him, and sympathize with you with all my heart."
39827 He embraced Prince Andrew, pressing him to his fat breast, and for some
39828 time did not let him go. When he released him Prince Andrew saw that
39829 Kutuzov's flabby lips were trembling and that tears were in his eyes. He
39830 sighed and pressed on the bench with both hands to raise himself.
39832 "Come! Come with me, we'll have a talk," said he.
39834 But at that moment Denisov, no more intimidated by his superiors than by
39835 the enemy, came with jingling spurs up the steps of the porch, despite
39836 the angry whispers of the adjutants who tried to stop him. Kutuzov, his
39837 hands still pressed on the seat, glanced at him glumly. Denisov, having
39838 given his name, announced that he had to communicate to his Serene
39839 Highness a matter of great importance for their country's welfare.
39840 Kutuzov looked wearily at him and, lifting his hands with a gesture of
39841 annoyance, folded them across his stomach, repeating the words: "For our
39842 country's welfare? Well, what is it? Speak!" Denisov blushed like a girl
39843 (it was strange to see the color rise in that shaggy, bibulous, time-
39844 worn face) and boldly began to expound his plan of cutting the enemy's
39845 lines of communication between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov came from
39846 those parts and knew the country well. His plan seemed decidedly a good
39847 one, especially from the strength of conviction with which he spoke.
39848 Kutuzov looked down at his own legs, occasionally glancing at the door
39849 of the adjoining hut as if expecting something unpleasant to emerge from
39850 it. And from that hut, while Denisov was speaking, a general with a
39851 portfolio under his arm really did appear.
39853 "What?" said Kutuzov, in the midst of Denisov's explanations, "are you
39856 "Ready, your Serene Highness," replied the general.
39858 Kutuzov swayed his head, as much as to say: "How is one man to deal with
39859 it all?" and again listened to Denisov.
39861 "I give my word of honor as a Wussian officer," said Denisov, "that I
39862 can bweak Napoleon's line of communication!"
39864 "What relation are you to Intendant General Kiril Andreevich Denisov?"
39865 asked Kutuzov, interrupting him.
39867 "He is my uncle, your Sewene Highness."
39869 "Ah, we were friends," said Kutuzov cheerfully. "All right, all right,
39870 friend, stay here at the staff and tomorrow we'll have a talk."
39872 With a nod to Denisov he turned away and put out his hand for the papers
39873 Konovnitsyn had brought him.
39875 "Would not your Serene Highness like to come inside?" said the general
39876 on duty in a discontented voice, "the plans must be examined and several
39877 papers have to be signed."
39879 An adjutant came out and announced that everything was in readiness
39880 within. But Kutuzov evidently did not wish to enter that room till he
39881 was disengaged. He made a grimace...
39883 "No, tell them to bring a small table out here, my dear boy. I'll look
39884 at them here," said he. "Don't go away," he added, turning to Prince
39885 Andrew, who remained in the porch and listened to the general's report.
39887 While this was being given, Prince Andrew heard the whisper of a woman's
39888 voice and the rustle of a silk dress behind the door. Several times on
39889 glancing that way he noticed behind that door a plump, rosy, handsome
39890 woman in a pink dress with a lilac silk kerchief on her head, holding a
39891 dish and evidently awaiting the entrance of the commander-in-chief.
39892 Kutuzov's adjutant whispered to Prince Andrew that this was the wife of
39893 the priest whose home it was, and that she intended to offer his Serene
39894 Highness bread and salt. "Her husband has welcomed his Serene Highness
39895 with the cross at the church, and she intends to welcome him in the
39896 house.... She's very pretty," added the adjutant with a smile. At those
39897 words Kutuzov looked round. He was listening to the general's report--
39898 which consisted chiefly of a criticism of the position at Tsarevo-
39899 Zaymishche--as he had listened to Denisov, and seven years previously
39900 had listened to the discussion at the Austerlitz council of war. He
39901 evidently listened only because he had ears which, though there was a
39902 piece of tow in one of them, could not help hearing; but it was evident
39903 that nothing the general could say would surprise or even interest him,
39904 that he knew all that would be said beforehand, and heard it all only
39905 because he had to, as one has to listen to the chanting of a service of
39906 prayer. All that Denisov had said was clever and to the point. What the
39907 general was saying was even more clever and to the point, but it was
39908 evident that Kutuzov despised knowledge and cleverness, and knew of
39909 something else that would decide the matter--something independent of
39910 cleverness and knowledge. Prince Andrew watched the commander-in-chief's
39911 face attentively, and the only expression he could see there was one of
39912 boredom, curiosity as to the meaning of the feminine whispering behind
39913 the door, and a desire to observe propriety. It was evident that Kutuzov
39914 despised cleverness and learning and even the patriotic feeling shown by
39915 Denisov, but despised them not because of his own intellect, feelings,
39916 or knowledge--he did not try to display any of these--but because of
39917 something else. He despised them because of his old age and experience
39918 of life. The only instruction Kutuzov gave of his own accord during that
39919 report referred to looting by the Russian troops. At the end of the
39920 report the general put before him for signature a paper relating to the
39921 recovery of payment from army commanders for green oats mown down by the
39922 soldiers, when landowners lodged petitions for compensation.
39924 After hearing the matter, Kutuzov smacked his lips together and shook
39927 "Into the stove... into the fire with it! I tell you once for all, my
39928 dear fellow," said he, "into the fire with all such things! Let them cut
39929 the crops and burn wood to their hearts' content. I don't order it or
39930 allow it, but I don't exact compensation either. One can't get on
39931 without it. 'When wood is chopped the chips will fly.'" He looked at the
39932 paper again. "Oh, this German precision!" he muttered, shaking his head.
39939 "Well, that's all!" said Kutuzov as he signed the last of the documents,
39940 and rising heavily and smoothing out the folds in his fat white neck he
39941 moved toward the door with a more cheerful expression.
39943 The priest's wife, flushing rosy red, caught up the dish she had after
39944 all not managed to present at the right moment, though she had so long
39945 been preparing for it, and with a low bow offered it to Kutuzov.
39947 He screwed up his eyes, smiled, lifted her chin with his hand, and said:
39949 "Ah, what a beauty! Thank you, sweetheart!"
39951 He took some gold pieces from his trouser pocket and put them on the
39952 dish for her. "Well, my dear, and how are we getting on?" he asked,
39953 moving to the door of the room assigned to him. The priest's wife
39954 smiled, and with dimples in her rosy cheeks followed him into the room.
39955 The adjutant came out to the porch and asked Prince Andrew to lunch with
39956 him. Half an hour later Prince Andrew was again called to Kutuzov. He
39957 found him reclining in an armchair, still in the same unbuttoned
39958 overcoat. He had in his hand a French book which he closed as Prince
39959 Andrew entered, marking the place with a knife. Prince Andrew saw by the
39960 cover that it was Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.
39962 "Well, sit down, sit down here. Let's have a talk," said Kutuzov. "It's
39963 sad, very sad. But remember, my dear fellow, that I am a father to you,
39964 a second father...."
39966 Prince Andrew told Kutuzov all he knew of his father's death, and what
39967 he had seen at Bald Hills when he passed through it.
39969 "What... what they have brought us to!" Kutuzov suddenly cried in an
39970 agitated voice, evidently picturing vividly to himself from Prince
39971 Andrew's story the condition Russia was in. "But give me time, give me
39972 time!" he said with a grim look, evidently not wishing to continue this
39973 agitating conversation, and added: "I sent for you to keep you with me."
39975 "I thank your Serene Highness, but I fear I am no longer fit for the
39976 staff," replied Prince Andrew with a smile which Kutuzov noticed.
39978 Kutuzov glanced inquiringly at him.
39980 "But above all," added Prince Andrew, "I have grown used to my regiment,
39981 am fond of the officers, and I fancy the men also like me. I should be
39982 sorry to leave the regiment. If I decline the honor of being with you,
39985 A shrewd, kindly, yet subtly derisive expression lit up Kutuzov's podgy
39986 face. He cut Bolkonski short.
39988 "I am sorry, for I need you. But you're right, you're right! It's not
39989 here that men are needed. Advisers are always plentiful, but men are
39990 not. The regiments would not be what they are if the would-be advisers
39991 served there as you do. I remember you at Austerlitz.... I remember,
39992 yes, I remember you with the standard!" said Kutuzov, and a flush of
39993 pleasure suffused Prince Andrew's face at this recollection.
39995 Taking his hand and drawing him downwards, Kutuzov offered his cheek to
39996 be kissed, and again Prince Andrew noticed tears in the old man's eyes.
39997 Though Prince Andrew knew that Kutuzov's tears came easily, and that he
39998 was particularly tender to and considerate of him from a wish to show
39999 sympathy with his loss, yet this reminder of Austerlitz was both
40000 pleasant and flattering to him.
40002 "Go your way and God be with you. I know your path is the path of
40003 honor!" He paused. "I missed you at Bucharest, but I needed someone to
40004 send." And changing the subject, Kutuzov began to speak of the Turkish
40005 war and the peace that had been concluded. "Yes, I have been much
40006 blamed," he said, "both for that war and the peace... but everything
40007 came at the right time. Tout vient a point a celui qui sait attendre. *
40008 And there were as many advisers there as here..." he went on, returning
40009 to the subject of "advisers" which evidently occupied him. "Ah, those
40010 advisers!" said he. "If we had listened to them all we should not have
40011 made peace with Turkey and should not have been through with that war.
40012 Everything in haste, but more haste, less speed. Kamenski would have
40013 been lost if he had not died. He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand
40014 men. It is not difficult to capture a fortress but it is difficult to
40015 win a campaign. For that, not storming and attacking but patience and
40016 time are wanted. Kamenski sent soldiers to Rustchuk, but I only employed
40017 these two things and took more fortresses than Kamenski and made them
40018 Turks eat horseflesh!" He swayed his head. "And the French shall too,
40019 believe me," he went on, growing warmer and beating his chest, "I'll
40020 make them eat horseflesh!" And tears again dimmed his eyes.
40023 * "Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait."
40025 "But shan't we have to accept battle?" remarked Prince Andrew.
40027 "We shall if everybody wants it; it can't be helped.... But believe me,
40028 my dear boy, there is nothing stronger than those two: patience and
40029 time, they will do it all. But the advisers n'entendent pas de cette
40030 oreille, voila le mal. * Some want a thing--others don't. What's one to
40031 do?" he asked, evidently expecting an answer. "Well, what do you want us
40032 to do?" he repeated and his eye shone with a deep, shrewd look. "I'll
40033 tell you what to do," he continued, as Prince Andrew still did not
40034 reply: "I will tell you what to do, and what I do. Dans le doute, mon
40035 cher," he paused, "abstiens-toi" *(2)--he articulated the French proverb
40039 * "Don't see it that way, that's the trouble."
40041 * (2) "When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing."
40043 "Well, good-by, my dear fellow; remember that with all my heart I share
40044 your sorrow, and that for you I am not a Serene Highness, nor a prince,
40045 nor a commander-in-chief, but a father! If you want anything come
40046 straight to me. Good-bye, my dear boy."
40048 Again he embraced and kissed Prince Andrew, but before the latter had
40049 left the room Kutuzov gave a sigh of relief and went on with his
40050 unfinished novel, Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.
40052 Prince Andrew could not have explained how or why it was, but after that
40053 interview with Kutuzov he went back to his regiment reassured as to the
40054 general course of affairs and as to the man to whom it had been
40055 entrusted. The more he realized the absence of all personal motive in
40056 that old man--in whom there seemed to remain only the habit of passions,
40057 and in place of an intellect (grouping events and drawing conclusions)
40058 only the capacity calmly to contemplate the course of events--the more
40059 reassured he was that everything would be as it should. "He will not
40060 bring in any plan of his own. He will not devise or undertake anything,"
40061 thought Prince Andrew, "but he will hear everything, remember
40062 everything, and put everything in its place. He will not hinder anything
40063 useful nor allow anything harmful. He understands that there is
40064 something stronger and more important than his own will--the inevitable
40065 course of events, and he can see them and grasp their significance, and
40066 seeing that significance can refrain from meddling and renounce his
40067 personal wish directed to something else. And above all," thought Prince
40068 Andrew, "one believes in him because he's Russian, despite the novel by
40069 Genlis and the French proverbs, and because his voice shook when he
40070 said: 'What they have brought us to!' and had a sob in it when he said
40071 he would 'make them eat horseflesh!'"
40073 On such feelings, more or less dimly shared by all, the unanimity and
40074 general approval were founded with which, despite court influences, the
40075 popular choice of Kutuzov as commander-in-chief was received.
40082 After the Emperor had left Moscow, life flowed on there in its usual
40083 course, and its course was so very usual that it was difficult to
40084 remember the recent days of patriotic elation and ardor, hard to believe
40085 that Russia was really in danger and that the members of the English
40086 Club were also sons of the Fatherland ready to sacrifice everything for
40087 it. The one thing that recalled the patriotic fervor everyone had
40088 displayed during the Emperor's stay was the call for contributions of
40089 men and money, a necessity that as soon as the promises had been made
40090 assumed a legal, official form and became unavoidable.
40092 With the enemy's approach to Moscow, the Moscovites' view of their
40093 situation did not grow more serious but on the contrary became even more
40094 frivolous, as always happens with people who see a great danger
40095 approaching. At the approach of danger there are always two voices that
40096 speak with equal power in the human soul: one very reasonably tells a
40097 man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of escaping it;
40098 the other, still more reasonably, says that it is too depressing and
40099 painful to think of the danger, since it is not in man's power to
40100 foresee everything and avert the general course of events, and it is
40101 therefore better to disregard what is painful till it comes, and to
40102 think about what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally listens to the
40103 first voice, but in society to the second. So it was now with the
40104 inhabitants of Moscow. It was long since people had been as gay in
40105 Moscow as that year.
40107 Rostopchin's broadsheets, headed by woodcuts of a drink shop, a potman,
40108 and a Moscow burgher called Karpushka Chigirin, "who--having been a
40109 militiaman and having had rather too much at the pub--heard that
40110 Napoleon wished to come to Moscow, grew angry, abused the French in very
40111 bad language, came out of the drink shop, and, under the sign of the
40112 eagle, began to address the assembled people," were read and discussed,
40113 together with the latest of Vasili Lvovich Pushkin's bouts rimes.
40115 In the corner room at the club, members gathered to read these
40116 broadsheets, and some liked the way Karpushka jeered at the French,
40117 saying: "They will swell up with Russian cabbage, burst with our
40118 buckwheat porridge, and choke themselves with cabbage soup. They are all
40119 dwarfs and one peasant woman will toss three of them with a hayfork."
40120 Others did not like that tone and said it was stupid and vulgar. It was
40121 said that Rostopchin had expelled all Frenchmen and even all foreigners
40122 from Moscow, and that there had been some spies and agents of Napoleon
40123 among them; but this was told chiefly to introduce Rostopchin's witty
40124 remark on that occasion. The foreigners were deported to Nizhni by boat,
40125 and Rostopchin had said to them in French: "Rentrez en vousmemes; entrez
40126 dans la barque, et n'en faites pas une barque de Charon." * There was
40127 talk of all the government offices having been already removed from
40128 Moscow, and to this Shinshin's witticism was added--that for that alone
40129 Moscow ought to be grateful to Napoleon. It was said that Mamonov's
40130 regiment would cost him eight hundred thousand rubles, and that Bezukhov
40131 had spent even more on his, but that the best thing about Bezukhov's
40132 action was that he himself was going to don a uniform and ride at the
40133 head of his regiment without charging anything for the show.
40136 * "Think it over; get into the barque, and take care not to make it a
40139 "You don't spare anyone," said Julie Drubetskaya as she collected and
40140 pressed together a bunch of raveled lint with her thin, beringed
40143 Julie was preparing to leave Moscow next day and was giving a farewell
40146 "Bezukhov est ridicule, but he is so kind and good-natured. What
40147 pleasure is there to be so caustique?"
40149 "A forfeit!" cried a young man in militia uniform whom Julie called "mon
40150 chevalier," and who was going with her to Nizhni.
40152 In Julie's set, as in many other circles in Moscow, it had been agreed
40153 that they would speak nothing but Russian and that those who made a slip
40154 and spoke French should pay fines to the Committee of Voluntary
40157 "Another forfeit for a Gallicism," said a Russian writer who was
40158 present. "'What pleasure is there to be' is not Russian!"
40160 "You spare no one," continued Julie to the young man without heeding the
40163 "For caustique--I am guilty and will pay, and I am prepared to pay again
40164 for the pleasure of telling you the truth. For Gallicisms I won't be
40165 responsible," she remarked, turning to the author: "I have neither the
40166 money nor the time, like Prince Galitsyn, to engage a master to teach me
40169 "Ah, here he is!" she added. "Quand on... No, no," she said to the
40170 militia officer, "you won't catch me. Speak of the sun and you see its
40171 rays!" and she smiled amiably at Pierre. "We were just talking of you,"
40172 she said with the facility in lying natural to a society woman. "We were
40173 saying that your regiment would be sure to be better than Mamonov's."
40175 "Oh, don't talk to me of my regiment," replied Pierre, kissing his
40176 hostess' hand and taking a seat beside her. "I am so sick of it."
40178 "You will, of course, command it yourself?" said Julie, directing a sly,
40179 sarcastic glance toward the militia officer.
40181 The latter in Pierre's presence had ceased to be caustic, and his face
40182 expressed perplexity as to what Julie's smile might mean. In spite of
40183 his absent-mindedness and good nature, Pierre's personality immediately
40184 checked any attempt to ridicule him to his face.
40186 "No," said Pierre, with a laughing glance at his big, stout body. "I
40187 should make too good a target for the French, besides I am afraid I
40188 should hardly be able to climb onto a horse."
40190 Among those whom Julie's guests happened to choose to gossip about were
40193 "I hear that their affairs are in a very bad way," said Julie. "And he
40194 is so unreasonable, the count himself I mean. The Razumovskis wanted to
40195 buy his house and his estate near Moscow, but it drags on and on. He
40198 "No, I think the sale will come off in a few days," said someone.
40199 "Though it is madness to buy anything in Moscow now."
40201 "Why?" asked Julie. "You don't think Moscow is in danger?"
40203 "Then why are you leaving?"
40205 "I? What a question! I am going because... well, because everyone is
40206 going: and besides--I am not Joan of Arc or an Amazon."
40208 "Well, of course, of course! Let me have some more strips of linen."
40210 "If he manages the business properly he will be able to pay off all his
40211 debts," said the militia officer, speaking of Rostov.
40213 "A kindly old man but not up to much. And why do they stay on so long in
40214 Moscow? They meant to leave for the country long ago. Natalie is quite
40215 well again now, isn't she?" Julie asked Pierre with a knowing smile.
40217 "They are waiting for their younger son," Pierre replied. "He joined
40218 Obolenski's Cossacks and went to Belaya Tserkov where the regiment is
40219 being formed. But now they have had him transferred to my regiment and
40220 are expecting him every day. The count wanted to leave long ago, but the
40221 countess won't on any account leave Moscow till her son returns."
40223 "I met them the day before yesterday at the Arkharovs'. Natalie has
40224 recovered her looks and is brighter. She sang a song. How easily some
40225 people get over everything!"
40227 "Get over what?" inquired Pierre, looking displeased.
40231 "You know, Count, such knights as you are only found in Madame de
40234 "What knights? What do you mean?" demanded Pierre, blushing.
40236 "Oh, come, my dear count! C'est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire,
40237 ma parole d'honneur!" *
40240 * "It is the talk of all Moscow. My word, I admire you!"
40242 "Forfeit, forfeit!" cried the militia officer.
40244 "All right, one can't talk--how tiresome!"
40246 "What is 'the talk of all Moscow'?" Pierre asked angrily, rising to his
40249 "Come now, Count, you know!"
40251 "I don't know anything about it," said Pierre.
40253 "I know you were friendly with Natalie, and so... but I was always more
40254 friendly with Vera--that dear Vera."
40256 "No, madame!" Pierre continued in a tone of displeasure, "I have not
40257 taken on myself the role of Natalie Rostova's knight at all, and have
40258 not been to their house for nearly a month. But I cannot understand the
40261 "Qui s'excuse s'accuse," * said Julie, smiling and waving the lint
40262 triumphantly, and to have the last word she promptly changed the
40263 subject. "Do you know what I heard today? Poor Mary Bolkonskaya arrived
40264 in Moscow yesterday. Do you know that she has lost her father?"
40267 * "Who excuses himself, accuses himself."
40269 "Really? Where is she? I should like very much to see her," said Pierre.
40271 "I spent the evening with her yesterday. She is going to their estate
40272 near Moscow either today or tomorrow morning, with her nephew."
40274 "Well, and how is she?" asked Pierre.
40276 "She is well, but sad. But do you know who rescued her? It is quite a
40277 romance. Nicholas Rostov! She was surrounded, and they wanted to kill
40278 her and had wounded some of her people. He rushed in and saved her...."
40280 "Another romance," said the militia officer. "Really, this general
40281 flight has been arranged to get all the old maids married off. Catiche
40282 is one and Princess Bolkonskaya another."
40284 "Do you know, I really believe she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune
40288 * "A little bit in love with the young man."
40290 "Forfeit, forfeit, forfeit!"
40292 "But how could one say that in Russian?"
40299 When Pierre returned home he was handed two of Rostopchin's broadsheets
40300 that had been brought that day.
40302 The first declared that the report that Count Rostopchin had forbidden
40303 people to leave Moscow was false; on the contrary he was glad that
40304 ladies and tradesmen's wives were leaving the city. "There will be less
40305 panic and less gossip," ran the broadsheet "but I will stake my life on
40306 it that scoundrel will not enter Moscow." These words showed Pierre
40307 clearly for the first time that the French would enter Moscow. The
40308 second broadsheet stated that our headquarters were at Vyazma, that
40309 Count Wittgenstein had defeated the French, but that as many of the
40310 inhabitants of Moscow wished to be armed, weapons were ready for them at
40311 the arsenal: sabers, pistols, and muskets which could be had at a low
40312 price. The tone of the proclamation was not as jocose as in the former
40313 Chigirin talks. Pierre pondered over these broadsheets. Evidently the
40314 terrible stormcloud he had desired with the whole strength of his soul
40315 but which yet aroused involuntary horror in him was drawing near.
40317 "Shall I join the army and enter the service, or wait?" he asked himself
40318 for the hundredth time. He took a pack of cards that lay on the table
40319 and began to lay them out for a game of patience.
40321 "If this patience comes out," he said to himself after shuffling the
40322 cards, holding them in his hand, and lifting his head, "if it comes out,
40323 it means... what does it mean?"
40325 He had not decided what it should mean when he heard the voice of the
40326 eldest princess at the door asking whether she might come in.
40328 "Then it will mean that I must go to the army," said Pierre to himself.
40329 "Come in, come in!" he added to the princess.
40331 Only the eldest princess, the one with the stony face and long waist,
40332 was still living in Pierre's house. The two younger ones had both
40335 "Excuse my coming to you, cousin," she said in a reproachful and
40336 agitated voice. "You know some decision must be come to. What is going
40337 to happen? Everyone has left Moscow and the people are rioting. How is
40338 it that we are staying on?"
40340 "On the contrary, things seem satisfactory, ma cousine," said Pierre in
40341 the bantering tone he habitually adopted toward her, always feeling
40342 uncomfortable in the role of her benefactor.
40344 "Satisfactory, indeed! Very satisfactory! Barbara Ivanovna told me today
40345 how our troops are distinguishing themselves. It certainly does them
40346 credit! And the people too are quite mutinous--they no longer obey, even
40347 my maid has taken to being rude. At this rate they will soon begin
40348 beating us. One can't walk in the streets. But, above all, the French
40349 will be here any day now, so what are we waiting for? I ask just one
40350 thing of you, cousin," she went on, "arrange for me to be taken to
40351 Petersburg. Whatever I may be, I can't live under Bonaparte's rule."
40353 "Oh, come, ma cousine! Where do you get your information from? On the
40356 "I won't submit to your Napoleon! Others may if they please.... If you
40357 don't want to do this..."
40359 "But I will, I'll give the order at once."
40361 The princess was apparently vexed at not having anyone to be angry with.
40362 Muttering to herself, she sat down on a chair.
40364 "But you have been misinformed," said Pierre. "Everything is quiet in
40365 the city and there is not the slightest danger. See! I've just been
40366 reading..." He showed her the broadsheet. "Count Rostopchin writes that
40367 he will stake his life on it that the enemy will not enter Moscow."
40369 "Oh, that count of yours!" said the princess malevolently. "He is a
40370 hypocrite, a rascal who has himself roused the people to riot. Didn't he
40371 write in those idiotic broadsheets that anyone, 'whoever it might be,
40372 should be dragged to the lockup by his hair'? (How silly!) 'And honor
40373 and glory to whoever captures him,' he says. This is what his cajolery
40374 has brought us to! Barbara Ivanovna told me the mob near killed her
40375 because she said something in French."
40377 "Oh, but it's so... You take everything so to heart," said Pierre, and
40378 began laying out his cards for patience.
40380 Although that patience did come out, Pierre did not join the army, but
40381 remained in deserted Moscow ever in the same state of agitation,
40382 irresolution, and alarm, yet at the same time joyfully expecting
40383 something terrible.
40385 Next day toward evening the princess set off, and Pierre's head steward
40386 came to inform him that the money needed for the equipment of his
40387 regiment could not be found without selling one of the estates. In
40388 general the head steward made out to Pierre that his project of raising
40389 a regiment would ruin him. Pierre listened to him, scarcely able to
40392 "Well then, sell it," said he. "What's to be done? I can't draw back
40395 The worse everything became, especially his own affairs, the better was
40396 Pierre pleased and the more evident was it that the catastrophe he
40397 expected was approaching. Hardly anyone he knew was left in town. Julie
40398 had gone, and so had Princess Mary. Of his intimate friends only the
40399 Rostovs remained, but he did not go to see them.
40401 To distract his thoughts he drove that day to the village of Vorontsovo
40402 to see the great balloon Leppich was constructing to destroy the foe,
40403 and a trial balloon that was to go up next day. The balloon was not yet
40404 ready, but Pierre learned that it was being constructed by the Emperor's
40405 desire. The Emperor had written to Count Rostopchin as follows:
40407 As soon as Leppich is ready, get together a crew of reliable and
40408 intelligent men for his car and send a courier to General Kutuzov to let
40409 him know. I have informed him of the matter.
40411 Please impress upon Leppich to be very careful where he descends for the
40412 first time, that he may not make a mistake and fall into the enemy's
40413 hands. It is essential for him to combine his movements with those of
40414 the commander-in-chief.
40416 On his way home from Vorontsovo, as he was passing the Bolotnoe Place
40417 Pierre, seeing a large crowd round the Lobnoe Place, stopped and got out
40418 of his trap. A French cook accused of being a spy was being flogged. The
40419 flogging was only just over, and the executioner was releasing from the
40420 flogging bench a stout man with red whiskers, in blue stockings and a
40421 green jacket, who was moaning piteously. Another criminal, thin and
40422 pale, stood near. Judging by their faces they were both Frenchmen. With
40423 a frightened and suffering look resembling that on the thin Frenchman's
40424 face, Pierre pushed his way in through the crowd.
40426 "What is it? Who is it? What is it for?" he kept asking.
40428 But the attention of the crowd--officials, burghers, shopkeepers,
40429 peasants, and women in cloaks and in pelisses--was so eagerly centered
40430 on what was passing in Lobnoe Place that no one answered him. The stout
40431 man rose, frowned, shrugged his shoulders, and evidently trying to
40432 appear firm began to pull on his jacket without looking about him, but
40433 suddenly his lips trembled and he began to cry, in the way full-blooded
40434 grown-up men cry, though angry with himself for doing so. In the crowd
40435 people began talking loudly, to stifle their feelings of pity as it
40438 "He's cook to some prince."
40440 "Eh, mounseer, Russian sauce seems to be sour to a Frenchman... sets his
40441 teeth on edge!" said a wrinkled clerk who was standing behind Pierre,
40442 when the Frenchman began to cry.
40444 The clerk glanced round, evidently hoping that his joke would be
40445 appreciated. Some people began to laugh, others continued to watch in
40446 dismay the executioner who was undressing the other man.
40448 Pierre choked, his face puckered, and he turned hastily away, went back
40449 to his trap muttering something to himself as he went, and took his
40450 seat. As they drove along he shuddered and exclaimed several times so
40451 audibly that the coachman asked him:
40453 "What is your pleasure?"
40455 "Where are you going?" shouted Pierre to the man, who was driving to
40458 "To the Governor's, as you ordered," answered the coachman.
40460 "Fool! Idiot!" shouted Pierre, abusing his coachman--a thing he rarely
40461 did. "Home, I told you! And drive faster, blockhead!" "I must get away
40462 this very day," he murmured to himself.
40464 At the sight of the tortured Frenchman and the crowd surrounding the
40465 Lobnoe Place, Pierre had so definitely made up his mind that he could no
40466 longer remain in Moscow and would leave for the army that very day that
40467 it seemed to him that either he had told the coachman this or that the
40468 man ought to have known it for himself.
40470 On reaching home Pierre gave orders to Evstafey--his head coachman who
40471 knew everything, could do anything, and was known to all Moscow--that he
40472 would leave that night for the army at Mozhaysk, and that his saddle
40473 horses should be sent there. This could not all be arranged that day, so
40474 on Evstafey's representation Pierre had to put off his departure till
40475 next day to allow time for the relay horses to be sent on in advance.
40477 On the twenty-fourth the weather cleared up after a spell of rain, and
40478 after dinner Pierre left Moscow. When changing horses that night in
40479 Perkhushkovo, he learned that there had been a great battle that
40480 evening. (This was the battle of Shevardino.) He was told that there in
40481 Perkhushkovo the earth trembled from the firing, but nobody could answer
40482 his questions as to who had won. At dawn next day Pierre was approaching
40485 Every house in Mozhaysk had soldiers quartered in it, and at the hostel
40486 where Pierre was met by his groom and coachman there was no room to be
40487 had. It was full of officers.
40489 Everywhere in Mozhaysk and beyond it, troops were stationed or on the
40490 march. Cossacks, foot and horse soldiers, wagons, caissons, and cannon
40491 were everywhere. Pierre pushed forward as fast as he could, and the
40492 farther he left Moscow behind and the deeper he plunged into that sea of
40493 troops the more was he overcome by restless agitation and a new and
40494 joyful feeling he had not experienced before. It was a feeling akin to
40495 what he had felt at the Sloboda Palace during the Emperor's visit--a
40496 sense of the necessity of undertaking something and sacrificing
40497 something. He now experienced a glad consciousness that everything that
40498 constitutes men's happiness--the comforts of life, wealth, even life
40499 itself--is rubbish it is pleasant to throw away, compared with
40500 something... With what? Pierre could not say, and he did not try to
40501 determine for whom and for what he felt such particular delight in
40502 sacrificing everything. He was not occupied with the question of what to
40503 sacrifice for; the fact of sacrificing in itself afforded him a new and
40511 On the twenty-fourth of August the battle of the Shevardino Redoubt was
40512 fought, on the twenty-fifth not a shot was fired by either side, and on
40513 the twenty-sixth the battle of Borodino itself took place.
40515 Why and how were the battles of Shevardino and Borodino given and
40516 accepted? Why was the battle of Borodino fought? There was not the least
40517 sense in it for either the French or the Russians. Its immediate result
40518 for the Russians was, and was bound to be, that we were brought nearer
40519 to the destruction of Moscow--which we feared more than anything in the
40520 world; and for the French its immediate result was that they were
40521 brought nearer to the destruction of their whole army--which they feared
40522 more than anything in the world. What the result must be was quite
40523 obvious, and yet Napoleon offered and Kutuzov accepted that battle.
40525 If the commanders had been guided by reason, it would seem that it must
40526 have been obvious to Napoleon that by advancing thirteen hundred miles
40527 and giving battle with a probability of losing a quarter of his army, he
40528 was advancing to certain destruction, and it must have been equally
40529 clear to Kutuzov that by accepting battle and risking the loss of a
40530 quarter of his army he would certainly lose Moscow. For Kutuzov this was
40531 mathematically clear, as it is that if when playing draughts I have one
40532 man less and go on exchanging, I shall certainly lose, and therefore
40533 should not exchange. When my opponent has sixteen men and I have
40534 fourteen, I am only one eighth weaker than he, but when I have exchanged
40535 thirteen more men he will be three times as strong as I am.
40537 Before the battle of Borodino our strength in proportion to the French
40538 was about as five to six, but after that battle it was little more than
40539 one to two: previously we had a hundred thousand against a hundred and
40540 twenty thousand; afterwards little more than fifty thousand against a
40541 hundred thousand. Yet the shrewd and experienced Kutuzov accepted the
40542 battle, while Napoleon, who was said to be a commander of genius, gave
40543 it, losing a quarter of his army and lengthening his lines of
40544 communication still more. If it is said that he expected to end the
40545 campaign by occupying Moscow as he had ended a previous campaign by
40546 occupying Vienna, there is much evidence to the contrary. Napoleon's
40547 historians themselves tell us that from Smolensk onwards he wished to
40548 stop, knew the danger of his extended position, and knew that the
40549 occupation of Moscow would not be the end of the campaign, for he had
40550 seen at Smolensk the state in which Russian towns were left to him, and
40551 had not received a single reply to his repeated announcements of his
40554 In giving and accepting battle at Borodino, Kutuzov acted involuntarily
40555 and irrationally. But later on, to fit what had occurred, the historians
40556 provided cunningly devised evidence of the foresight and genius of the
40557 generals who, of all the blind tools of history were the most enslaved
40560 The ancients have left us model heroic poems in which the heroes furnish
40561 the whole interest of the story, and we are still unable to accustom
40562 ourselves to the fact that for our epoch histories of that kind are
40565 On the other question, how the battle of Borodino and the preceding
40566 battle of Shevardino were fought, there also exists a definite and well-
40567 known, but quite false, conception. All the historians describe the
40570 The Russian army, they say, in its retreat from Smolensk sought out for
40571 itself the best position for a general engagement and found such a
40572 position at Borodino.
40574 The Russians, they say, fortified this position in advance on the left
40575 of the highroad (from Moscow to Smolensk) and almost at a right angle to
40576 it, from Borodino to Utitsa, at the very place where the battle was
40579 In front of this position, they say, a fortified outpost was set up on
40580 the Shevardino mound to observe the enemy. On the twenty-fourth, we are
40581 told, Napoleon attacked this advanced post and took it, and, on the
40582 twenty-sixth, attacked the whole Russian army, which was in position on
40583 the field of Borodino.
40585 So the histories say, and it is all quite wrong, as anyone who cares to
40586 look into the matter can easily convince himself.
40588 The Russians did not seek out the best position but, on the contrary,
40589 during the retreat passed many positions better than Borodino. They did
40590 not stop at any one of these positions because Kutuzov did not wish to
40591 occupy a position he had not himself chosen, because the popular demand
40592 for a battle had not yet expressed itself strongly enough, and because
40593 Miloradovich had not yet arrived with the militia, and for many other
40594 reasons. The fact is that other positions they had passed were stronger,
40595 and that the position at Borodino (the one where the battle was fought),
40596 far from being strong, was no more a position than any other spot one
40597 might find in the Russian Empire by sticking a pin into the map at
40600 Not only did the Russians not fortify the position on the field of
40601 Borodino to the left of, and at a right angle to, the highroad (that is,
40602 the position on which the battle took place), but never till the twenty-
40603 fifth of August, 1812, did they think that a battle might be fought
40604 there. This was shown first by the fact that there were no entrenchments
40605 there by the twenty fifth and that those begun on the twenty-fifth and
40606 twenty-sixth were not completed, and secondly, by the position of the
40607 Shevardino Redoubt. That redoubt was quite senseless in front of the
40608 position where the battle was accepted. Why was it more strongly
40609 fortified than any other post? And why were all efforts exhausted and
40610 six thousand men sacrificed to defend it till late at night on the
40611 twenty-fourth? A Cossack patrol would have sufficed to observe the
40612 enemy. Thirdly, as proof that the position on which the battle was
40613 fought had not been foreseen and that the Shevardino Redoubt was not an
40614 advanced post of that position, we have the fact that up to the twenty-
40615 fifth, Barclay de Tolly and Bagration were convinced that the Shevardino
40616 Redoubt was the left flank of the position, and that Kutuzov himself in
40617 his report, written in hot haste after the battle, speaks of the
40618 Shevardino Redoubt as the left flank of the position. It was much later,
40619 when reports on the battle of Borodino were written at leisure, that the
40620 incorrect and extraordinary statement was invented (probably to justify
40621 the mistakes of a commander-in-chief who had to be represented as
40622 infallible) that the Shevardino Redoubt was an advanced post--whereas in
40623 reality it was simply a fortified point on the left flank--and that the
40624 battle of Borodino was fought by us on an entrenched position previously
40625 selected, where as it was fought on a quite unexpected spot which was
40626 almost unentrenched.
40628 The case was evidently this: a position was selected along the river
40629 Kolocha--which crosses the highroad not at a right angle but at an acute
40630 angle--so that the left flank was at Shevardino, the right flank near
40631 the village of Novoe, and the center at Borodino at the confluence of
40632 the rivers Kolocha and Voyna.
40634 To anyone who looks at the field of Borodino without thinking of how the
40635 battle was actually fought, this position, protected by the river
40636 Kolocha, presents itself as obvious for an army whose object was to
40637 prevent an enemy from advancing along the Smolensk road to Moscow.
40639 Napoleon, riding to Valuevo on the twenty-fourth, did not see (as the
40640 history books say he did) the position of the Russians from Utitsa to
40641 Borodino (he could not have seen that position because it did not
40642 exist), nor did he see an advanced post of the Russian army, but while
40643 pursuing the Russian rearguard he came upon the left flank of the
40644 Russian position--at the Shevardino Redoubt--and unexpectedly for the
40645 Russians moved his army across the Kolocha. And the Russians, not having
40646 time to begin a general engagement, withdrew their left wing from the
40647 position they had intended to occupy and took up a new position which
40648 had not been foreseen and was not fortified. By crossing to the other
40649 side of the Kolocha to the left of the highroad, Napoleon shifted the
40650 whole forthcoming battle from right to left (looking from the Russian
40651 side) and transferred it to the plain between Utitsa, Semenovsk, and
40652 Borodino--a plain no more advantageous as a position than any other
40653 plain in Russia--and there the whole battle of the twenty-sixth of
40656 Had Napoleon not ridden out on the evening of the twenty-fourth to the
40657 Kolocha, and had he not then ordered an immediate attack on the redoubt
40658 but had begun the attack next morning, no one would have doubted that
40659 the Shevardino Redoubt was the left flank of our position, and the
40660 battle would have taken place where we expected it. In that case we
40661 should probably have defended the Shevardino Redoubt--our left flank--
40662 still more obstinately. We should have attacked Napoleon in the center
40663 or on the right, and the engagement would have taken place on the
40664 twenty-fifth, in the position we intended and had fortified. But as the
40665 attack on our left flank took place in the evening after the retreat of
40666 our rear guard (that is, immediately after the fight at Gridneva), and
40667 as the Russian commanders did not wish, or were not in time, to begin a
40668 general engagement then on the evening of the twenty-fourth, the first
40669 and chief action of the battle of Borodino was already lost on the
40670 twenty-fourth, and obviously led to the loss of the one fought on the
40673 After the loss of the Shevardino Redoubt, we found ourselves on the
40674 morning of the twenty-fifth without a position for our left flank, and
40675 were forced to bend it back and hastily entrench it where it chanced to
40678 Not only was the Russian army on the twenty-sixth defended by weak,
40679 unfinished entrenchments, but the disadvantage of that position was
40680 increased by the fact that the Russian commanders--not having fully
40681 realized what had happened, namely the loss of our position on the left
40682 flank and the shifting of the whole field of the forthcoming battle from
40683 right to left--maintained their extended position from the village of
40684 Novoe to Utitsa, and consequently had to move their forces from right to
40685 left during the battle. So it happened that throughout the whole battle
40686 the Russians opposed the entire French army launched against our left
40687 flank with but half as many men. (Poniatowski's action against Utitsa,
40688 and Uvarov's on the right flank against the French, were actions
40689 distinct from the main course of the battle.) So the battle of Borodino
40690 did not take place at all as (in an effort to conceal our commanders'
40691 mistakes even at the cost of diminishing the glory due to the Russian
40692 army and people) it has been described. The battle of Borodino was not
40693 fought on a chosen and entrenched position with forces only slightly
40694 weaker than those of the enemy, but, as a result of the loss of the
40695 Shevardino Redoubt, the Russians fought the battle of Borodino on an
40696 open and almost unentrenched position, with forces only half as numerous
40697 as the French; that is to say, under conditions in which it was not
40698 merely unthinkable to fight for ten hours and secure an indecisive
40699 result, but unthinkable to keep an army even from complete
40700 disintegration and flight.
40707 On the morning of the twenty-fifth Pierre was leaving Mozhaysk. At the
40708 descent of the high steep hill, down which a winding road led out of the
40709 town past the cathedral on the right, where a service was being held and
40710 the bells were ringing, Pierre got out of his vehicle and proceeded on
40711 foot. Behind him a cavalry regiment was coming down the hill preceded by
40712 its singers. Coming up toward him was a train of carts carrying men who
40713 had been wounded in the engagement the day before. The peasant drivers,
40714 shouting and lashing their horses, kept crossing from side to side. The
40715 carts, in each of which three or four wounded soldiers were lying or
40716 sitting, jolted over the stones that had been thrown on the steep
40717 incline to make it something like a road. The wounded, bandaged with
40718 rags, with pale cheeks, compressed lips, and knitted brows, held on to
40719 the sides of the carts as they were jolted against one another. Almost
40720 all of them stared with naive, childlike curiosity at Pierre's white hat
40721 and green swallow-tail coat.
40723 Pierre's coachman shouted angrily at the convoy of wounded to keep to
40724 one side of the road. The cavalry regiment, as it descended the hill
40725 with its singers, surrounded Pierre's carriage and blocked the road.
40726 Pierre stopped, being pressed against the side of the cutting in which
40727 the road ran. The sunshine from behind the hill did not penetrate into
40728 the cutting and there it was cold and damp, but above Pierre's head was
40729 the bright August sunshine and the bells sounded merrily. One of the
40730 carts with wounded stopped by the side of the road close to Pierre. The
40731 driver in his bast shoes ran panting up to it, placed a stone under one
40732 of its tireless hind wheels, and began arranging the breech-band on his
40735 One of the wounded, an old soldier with a bandaged arm who was following
40736 the cart on foot, caught hold of it with his sound hand and turned to
40739 "I say, fellow countryman! Will they set us down here or take us on to
40742 Pierre was so deep in thought that he did not hear the question. He was
40743 looking now at the cavalry regiment that had met the convoy of wounded,
40744 now at the cart by which he was standing, in which two wounded men were
40745 sitting and one was lying. One of those sitting up in the cart had
40746 probably been wounded in the cheek. His whole head was wrapped in rags
40747 and one cheek was swollen to the size of a baby's head. His nose and
40748 mouth were twisted to one side. This soldier was looking at the
40749 cathedral and crossing himself. Another, a young lad, a fair-haired
40750 recruit as white as though there was no blood in his thin face, looked
40751 at Pierre kindly, with a fixed smile. The third lay prone so that his
40752 face was not visible. The cavalry singers were passing close by:
40755 Ah lost, quite lost... is my head so keen, Living in a foreign land.
40757 they sang their soldiers' dance song.
40759 As if responding to them but with a different sort of merriment, the
40760 metallic sound of the bells reverberated high above and the hot rays of
40761 the sun bathed the top of the opposite slope with yet another sort of
40762 merriment. But beneath the slope, by the cart with the wounded near the
40763 panting little nag where Pierre stood, it was damp, somber, and sad.
40765 The soldier with the swollen cheek looked angrily at the cavalry
40768 "Oh, the coxcombs!" he muttered reproachfully.
40770 "It's not the soldiers only, but I've seen peasants today, too.... The
40771 peasants--even they have to go," said the soldier behind the cart,
40772 addressing Pierre with a sad smile. "No distinctions made nowadays....
40773 They want the whole nation to fall on them--in a word, it's Moscow! They
40774 want to make an end of it."
40776 In spite of the obscurity of the soldier's words Pierre understood what
40777 he wanted to say and nodded approval.
40779 The road was clear again; Pierre descended the hill and drove on.
40781 He kept looking to either side of the road for familiar faces, but only
40782 saw everywhere the unfamiliar faces of various military men of different
40783 branches of the service, who all looked with astonishment at his white
40784 hat and green tail coat.
40786 Having gone nearly three miles he at last met an acquaintance and
40787 eagerly addressed him. This was one of the head army doctors. He was
40788 driving toward Pierre in a covered gig, sitting beside a young surgeon,
40789 and on recognizing Pierre he told the Cossack who occupied the driver's
40792 "Count! Your excellency, how come you to be here?" asked the doctor.
40794 "Well, you know, I wanted to see..."
40796 "Yes, yes, there will be something to see...."
40798 Pierre got out and talked to the doctor, explaining his intention of
40799 taking part in a battle.
40801 The doctor advised him to apply direct to Kutuzov.
40803 "Why should you be God knows where out of sight, during the battle?" he
40804 said, exchanging glances with his young companion. "Anyhow his Serene
40805 Highness knows you and will receive you graciously. That's what you must
40808 The doctor seemed tired and in a hurry.
40810 "You think so?... Ah, I also wanted to ask you where our position is
40811 exactly?" said Pierre.
40813 "The position?" repeated the doctor. "Well, that's not my line. Drive
40814 past Tatarinova, a lot of digging is going on there. Go up the hillock
40817 "Can one see from there?... If you would..."
40819 But the doctor interrupted him and moved toward his gig.
40821 "I would go with you but on my honor I'm up to here"--and he pointed to
40822 his throat. "I'm galloping to the commander of the corps. How do matters
40823 stand?... You know, Count, there'll be a battle tomorrow. Out of an army
40824 of a hundred thousand we must expect at least twenty thousand wounded,
40825 and we haven't stretchers, or bunks, or dressers, or doctors enough for
40826 six thousand. We have ten thousand carts, but we need other things as
40827 well--we must manage as best we can!"
40829 The strange thought that of the thousands of men, young and old, who had
40830 stared with merry surprise at his hat (perhaps the very men he had
40831 noticed), twenty thousand were inevitably doomed to wounds and death
40834 "They may die tomorrow; why are they thinking of anything but death?"
40835 And by some latent sequence of thought the descent of the Mozhaysk hill,
40836 the carts with the wounded, the ringing bells, the slanting rays of the
40837 sun, and the songs of the cavalrymen vividly recurred to his mind.
40839 "The cavalry ride to battle and meet the wounded and do not for a moment
40840 think of what awaits them, but pass by, winking at the wounded. Yet from
40841 among these men twenty thousand are doomed to die, and they wonder at my
40842 hat! Strange!" thought Pierre, continuing his way to Tatarinova.
40844 In front of a landowner's house to the left of the road stood carriages,
40845 wagons, and crowds of orderlies and sentinels. The commander-in-chief
40846 was putting up there, but just when Pierre arrived he was not in and
40847 hardly any of the staff were there--they had gone to the church service.
40848 Pierre drove on toward Gorki.
40850 When he had ascended the hill and reached the little village street, he
40851 saw for the first time peasant militiamen in their white shirts and with
40852 crosses on their caps, who, talking and laughing loudly, animated and
40853 perspiring, were at work on a huge knoll overgrown with grass to the
40856 Some of them were digging, others were wheeling barrowloads of earth
40857 along planks, while others stood about doing nothing.
40859 Two officers were standing on the knoll, directing the men. On seeing
40860 these peasants, who were evidently still amused by the novelty of their
40861 position as soldiers, Pierre once more thought of the wounded men at
40862 Mozhaysk and understood what the soldier had meant when he said: "They
40863 want the whole nation to fall on them." The sight of these bearded
40864 peasants at work on the battlefield, with their queer, clumsy boots and
40865 perspiring necks, and their shirts opening from the left toward the
40866 middle, unfastened, exposing their sunburned collarbones, impressed
40867 Pierre more strongly with the solemnity and importance of the moment
40868 than anything he had yet seen or heard.
40875 Pierre stepped out of his carriage and, passing the toiling militiamen,
40876 ascended the knoll from which, according to the doctor, the battlefield
40879 It was about eleven o'clock. The sun shone somewhat to the left and
40880 behind him and brightly lit up the enormous panorama which, rising like
40881 an amphitheater, extended before him in the clear rarefied atmosphere.
40883 From above on the left, bisecting that amphitheater, wound the Smolensk
40884 highroad, passing through a village with a white church some five
40885 hundred paces in front of the knoll and below it. This was Borodino.
40886 Below the village the road crossed the river by a bridge and, winding
40887 down and up, rose higher and higher to the village of Valuevo visible
40888 about four miles away, where Napoleon was then stationed. Beyond Valuevo
40889 the road disappeared into a yellowing forest on the horizon. Far in the
40890 distance in that birch and fir forest to the right of the road, the
40891 cross and belfry of the Kolocha Monastery gleamed in the sun. Here and
40892 there over the whole of that blue expanse, to right and left of the
40893 forest and the road, smoking campfires could be seen and indefinite
40894 masses of troops--ours and the enemy's. The ground to the right--along
40895 the course of the Kolocha and Moskva rivers--was broken and hilly.
40896 Between the hollows the villages of Bezubova and Zakharino showed in the
40897 distance. On the left the ground was more level; there were fields of
40898 grain, and the smoking ruins of Semenovsk, which had been burned down,
40901 All that Pierre saw was so indefinite that neither the left nor the
40902 right side of the field fully satisfied his expectations. Nowhere could
40903 he see the battlefield he had expected to find, but only fields,
40904 meadows, troops, woods, the smoke of campfires, villages, mounds, and
40905 streams; and try as he would he could descry no military "position" in
40906 this place which teemed with life, nor could he even distinguish our
40907 troops from the enemy's.
40909 "I must ask someone who knows," he thought, and addressed an officer who
40910 was looking with curiosity at his huge unmilitary figure.
40912 "May I ask you," said Pierre, "what village that is in front?"
40914 "Burdino, isn't it?" said the officer, turning to his companion.
40916 "Borodino," the other corrected him.
40918 The officer, evidently glad of an opportunity for a talk, moved up to
40921 "Are those our men there?" Pierre inquired.
40923 "Yes, and there, further on, are the French," said the officer. "There
40924 they are, there... you can see them."
40926 "Where? Where?" asked Pierre.
40928 "One can see them with the naked eye... Why, there!"
40930 The officer pointed with his hand to the smoke visible on the left
40931 beyond the river, and the same stern and serious expression that Pierre
40932 had noticed on many of the faces he had met came into his face.
40934 "Ah, those are the French! And over there?..." Pierre pointed to a knoll
40935 on the left, near which some troops could be seen.
40939 "Ah, ours! And there?..." Pierre pointed to another knoll in the
40940 distance with a big tree on it, near a village that lay in a hollow
40941 where also some campfires were smoking and something black was visible.
40943 "That's his again," said the officer. (It was the Shevardino Redoubt.)
40944 "It was ours yesterday, but now it is his."
40946 "Then how about our position?"
40948 "Our position?" replied the officer with a smile of satisfaction. "I can
40949 tell you quite clearly, because I constructed nearly all our
40950 entrenchments. There, you see? There's our center, at Borodino, just
40951 there," and he pointed to the village in front of them with the white
40952 church. "That's where one crosses the Kolocha. You see down there where
40953 the rows of hay are lying in the hollow, there's the bridge. That's our
40954 center. Our right flank is over there"--he pointed sharply to the right,
40955 far away in the broken ground--"That's where the Moskva River is, and we
40956 have thrown up three redoubts there, very strong ones. The left
40957 flank..." here the officer paused. "Well, you see, that's difficult to
40958 explain.... Yesterday our left flank was there at Shevardino, you see,
40959 where the oak is, but now we have withdrawn our left wing--now it is
40960 over there, do you see that village and the smoke? That's Semenovsk,
40961 yes, there," he pointed to Raevski's knoll. "But the battle will hardly
40962 be there. His having moved his troops there is only a ruse; he will
40963 probably pass round to the right of the Moskva. But wherever it may be,
40964 many a man will be missing tomorrow!" he remarked.
40966 An elderly sergeant who had approached the officer while he was giving
40967 these explanations had waited in silence for him to finish speaking, but
40968 at this point, evidently not liking the officer's remark, interrupted
40971 "Gabions must be sent for," said he sternly.
40973 The officer appeared abashed, as though he understood that one might
40974 think of how many men would be missing tomorrow but ought not to speak
40977 "Well, send number three company again," the officer replied hurriedly.
40979 "And you, are you one of the doctors?"
40981 "No, I've come on my own," answered Pierre, and he went down the hill
40982 again, passing the militiamen.
40984 "Oh, those damned fellows!" muttered the officer who followed him,
40985 holding his nose as he ran past the men at work.
40987 "There they are... bringing her, coming... There they are... They'll be
40988 here in a minute..." voices were suddenly heard saying; and officers,
40989 soldiers, and militiamen began running forward along the road.
40991 A church procession was coming up the hill from Borodino. First along
40992 the dusty road came the infantry in ranks, bareheaded and with arms
40993 reversed. From behind them came the sound of church singing.
40995 Soldiers and militiamen ran bareheaded past Pierre toward the
40998 "They are bringing her, our Protectress!... The Iberian Mother of God!"
41001 "The Smolensk Mother of God," another corrected him.
41003 The militiamen, both those who had been in the village and those who had
41004 been at work on the battery, threw down their spades and ran to meet the
41005 church procession. Following the battalion that marched along the dusty
41006 road came priests in their vestments--one little old man in a hood with
41007 attendants and singers. Behind them soldiers and officers bore a large,
41008 dark-faced icon with an embossed metal cover. This was the icon that had
41009 been brought from Smolensk and had since accompanied the army. Behind,
41010 before, and on both sides, crowds of militiamen with bared heads walked,
41011 ran, and bowed to the ground.
41013 At the summit of the hill they stopped with the icon; the men who had
41014 been holding it up by the linen bands attached to it were relieved by
41015 others, the chanters relit their censers, and service began. The hot
41016 rays of the sun beat down vertically and a fresh soft wind played with
41017 the hair of the bared heads and with the ribbons decorating the icon.
41018 The singing did not sound loud under the open sky. An immense crowd of
41019 bareheaded officers, soldiers, and militiamen surrounded the icon.
41020 Behind the priest and a chanter stood the notabilities on a spot
41021 reserved for them. A bald general with a St. George's Cross on his neck
41022 stood just behind the priest's back, and without crossing himself (he
41023 was evidently a German) patiently awaited the end of the service, which
41024 he considered it necessary to hear to the end, probably to arouse the
41025 patriotism of the Russian people. Another general stood in a martial
41026 pose, crossing himself by shaking his hand in front of his chest while
41027 looking about him. Standing among the crowd of peasants, Pierre
41028 recognized several acquaintances among these notables, but did not look
41029 at them--his whole attention was absorbed in watching the serious
41030 expression on the faces of the crowd of soldiers and militiamen who were
41031 all gazing eagerly at the icon. As soon as the tired chanters, who were
41032 singing the service for the twentieth time that day, began lazily and
41033 mechanically to sing: "Save from calamity Thy servants, O Mother of
41034 God," and the priest and deacon chimed in: "For to Thee under God we all
41035 flee as to an inviolable bulwark and protection," there again kindled in
41036 all those faces the same expression of consciousness of the solemnity of
41037 the impending moment that Pierre had seen on the faces at the foot of
41038 the hill at Mozhaysk and momentarily on many and many faces he had met
41039 that morning; and heads were bowed more frequently and hair tossed back,
41040 and sighs and the sound men made as they crossed themselves were heard.
41042 The crowd round the icon suddenly parted and pressed against Pierre.
41043 Someone, a very important personage judging by the haste with which way
41044 was made for him, was approaching the icon.
41046 It was Kutuzov, who had been riding round the position and on his way
41047 back to Tatarinova had stopped where the service was being held. Pierre
41048 recognized him at once by his peculiar figure, which distinguished him
41049 from everybody else.
41051 With a long overcoat on his exceedingly stout, round-shouldered body,
41052 with uncovered white head and puffy face showing the white ball of the
41053 eye he had lost, Kutuzov walked with plunging, swaying gait into the
41054 crowd and stopped behind the priest. He crossed himself with an
41055 accustomed movement, bent till he touched the ground with his hand, and
41056 bowed his white head with a deep sigh. Behind Kutuzov was Bennigsen and
41057 the suite. Despite the presence of the commander-in-chief, who attracted
41058 the attention of all the superior officers, the militiamen and soldiers
41059 continued their prayers without looking at him.
41061 When the service was over, Kutuzov stepped up to the icon, sank heavily
41062 to his knees, bowed to the ground, and for a long time tried vainly to
41063 rise, but could not do so on account of his weakness and weight. His
41064 white head twitched with the effort. At last he rose, kissed the icon as
41065 a child does with naively pouting lips, and again bowed till he touched
41066 the ground with his hand. The other generals followed his example, then
41067 the officers, and after them with excited faces, pressing on one
41068 another, crowding, panting, and pushing, scrambled the soldiers and
41076 Staggering amid the crush, Pierre looked about him.
41078 "Count Peter Kirilovich! How did you get here?" said a voice.
41080 Pierre looked round. Boris Drubetskoy, brushing his knees with his hand
41081 (he had probably soiled them when he, too, had knelt before the icon),
41082 came up to him smiling. Boris was elegantly dressed, with a slightly
41083 martial touch appropriate to a campaign. He wore a long coat and like
41084 Kutuzov had a whip slung across his shoulder.
41086 Meanwhile Kutuzov had reached the village and seated himself in the
41087 shade of the nearest house, on a bench which one Cossack had run to
41088 fetch and another had hastily covered with a rug. An immense and
41089 brilliant suite surrounded him.
41091 The icon was carried further, accompanied by the throng. Pierre stopped
41092 some thirty paces from Kutuzov, talking to Boris.
41094 He explained his wish to be present at the battle and to see the
41097 "This is what you must do," said Boris. "I will do the honors of the
41098 camp to you. You will see everything best from where Count Bennigsen
41099 will be. I am in attendance on him, you know; I'll mention it to him.
41100 But if you want to ride round the position, come along with us. We are
41101 just going to the left flank. Then when we get back, do spend the night
41102 with me and we'll arrange a game of cards. Of course you know Dmitri
41103 Sergeevich? Those are his quarters," and he pointed to the third house
41104 in the village of Gorki.
41106 "But I should like to see the right flank. They say it's very strong,"
41107 said Pierre. "I should like to start from the Moskva River and ride
41108 round the whole position."
41110 "Well, you can do that later, but the chief thing is the left flank."
41112 "Yes, yes. But where is Prince Bolkonski's regiment? Can you point it
41115 "Prince Andrew's? We shall pass it and I'll take you to him."
41117 "What about the left flank?" asked Pierre
41119 "To tell you the truth, between ourselves, God only knows what state our
41120 left flank is in," said Boris confidentially lowering his voice. "It is
41121 not at all what Count Bennigsen intended. He meant to fortify that knoll
41122 quite differently, but..." Boris shrugged his shoulders, "his Serene
41123 Highness would not have it, or someone persuaded him. You see..." but
41124 Boris did not finish, for at that moment Kaysarov, Kutuzov's adjutant,
41125 came up to Pierre. "Ah, Kaysarov!" said Boris, addressing him with an
41126 unembarrassed smile, "I was just trying to explain our position to the
41127 count. It is amazing how his Serene Highness could so foresee the
41128 intentions of the French!"
41130 "You mean the left flank?" asked Kaysarov.
41132 "Yes, exactly; the left flank is now extremely strong."
41134 Though Kutuzov had dismissed all unnecessary men from the staff, Boris
41135 had contrived to remain at headquarters after the changes. He had
41136 established himself with Count Bennigsen, who, like all on whom Boris
41137 had been in attendance, considered young Prince Drubetskoy an invaluable
41140 In the higher command there were two sharply defined parties: Kutuzov's
41141 party and that of Bennigsen, the chief of staff. Boris belonged to the
41142 latter and no one else, while showing servile respect to Kutuzov, could
41143 so create an impression that the old fellow was not much good and that
41144 Bennigsen managed everything. Now the decisive moment of battle had come
41145 when Kutuzov would be destroyed and the power pass to Bennigsen, or even
41146 if Kutuzov won the battle it would be felt that everything was done by
41147 Bennigsen. In any case many great rewards would have to be given for
41148 tomorrow's action, and new men would come to the front. So Boris was
41149 full of nervous vivacity all day.
41151 After Kaysarov, others whom Pierre knew came up to him, and he had not
41152 time to reply to all the questions about Moscow that were showered upon
41153 him, or to listen to all that was told him. The faces all expressed
41154 animation and apprehension, but it seemed to Pierre that the cause of
41155 the excitement shown in some of these faces lay chiefly in questions of
41156 personal success; his mind, however, was occupied by the different
41157 expression he saw on other faces--an expression that spoke not of
41158 personal matters but of the universal questions of life and death.
41159 Kutuzov noticed Pierre's figure and the group gathered round him.
41161 "Call him to me," said Kutuzov.
41163 An adjutant told Pierre of his Serene Highness' wish, and Pierre went
41164 toward Kutuzov's bench. But a militiaman got there before him. It was
41167 "How did that fellow get here?" asked Pierre.
41169 "He's a creature that wriggles in anywhere!" was the answer. "He has
41170 been degraded, you know. Now he wants to bob up again. He's been
41171 proposing some scheme or other and has crawled into the enemy's picket
41172 line at night.... He's a brave fellow."
41174 Pierre took off his hat and bowed respectfully to Kutuzov.
41176 "I concluded that if I reported to your Serene Highness you might send
41177 me away or say that you knew what I was reporting, but then I shouldn't
41178 lose anything..." Dolokhov was saying.
41182 "But if I were right, I should be rendering a service to my Fatherland
41183 for which I am ready to die."
41187 "And should your Serene Highness require a man who will not spare his
41188 skin, please think of me.... Perhaps I may prove useful to your Serene
41191 "Yes... Yes..." Kutuzov repeated, his laughing eye narrowing more and
41192 more as he looked at Pierre.
41194 Just then Boris, with his courtierlike adroitness, stepped up to
41195 Pierre's side near Kutuzov and in a most natural manner, without raising
41196 his voice, said to Pierre, as though continuing an interrupted
41199 "The militia have put on clean white shirts to be ready to die. What
41202 Boris evidently said this to Pierre in order to be overheard by his
41203 Serene Highness. He knew Kutuzov's attention would be caught by those
41204 words, and so it was.
41206 "What are you saying about the militia?" he asked Boris.
41208 "Preparing for tomorrow, your Serene Highness--for death--they have put
41211 "Ah... a wonderful, a matchless people!" said Kutuzov; and he closed his
41212 eyes and swayed his head. "A matchless people!" he repeated with a sigh.
41214 "So you want to smell gunpowder?" he said to Pierre. "Yes, it's a
41215 pleasant smell. I have the honor to be one of your wife's adorers. Is
41216 she well? My quarters are at your service."
41218 And as often happens with old people, Kutuzov began looking about
41219 absent-mindedly as if forgetting all he wanted to say or do.
41221 Then, evidently remembering what he wanted, he beckoned to Andrew
41222 Kaysarov, his adjutant's brother.
41224 "Those verses... those verses of Marin's... how do they go, eh? Those he
41225 wrote about Gerakov: 'Lectures for the corps inditing'... Recite them,
41226 recite them!" said he, evidently preparing to laugh.
41228 Kaysarov recited.... Kutuzov smilingly nodded his head to the rhythm of
41231 When Pierre had left Kutuzov, Dolokhov came up to him and took his hand.
41233 "I am very glad to meet you here, Count," he said aloud, regardless of
41234 the presence of strangers and in a particularly resolute and solemn
41235 tone. "On the eve of a day when God alone knows who of us is fated to
41236 survive, I am glad of this opportunity to tell you that I regret the
41237 misunderstandings that occurred between us and should wish you not to
41238 have any ill feeling for me. I beg you to forgive me."
41240 Pierre looked at Dolokhov with a smile, not knowing what to say to him.
41241 With tears in his eyes Dolokhov embraced Pierre and kissed him.
41243 Boris said a few words to his general, and Count Bennigsen turned to
41244 Pierre and proposed that he should ride with him along the line.
41246 "It will interest you," said he.
41248 "Yes, very much," replied Pierre.
41250 Half an hour later Kutuzov left for Tatarinova, and Bennigsen and his
41251 suite, with Pierre among them, set out on their ride along the line.
41258 From Gorki, Bennigsen descended the highroad to the bridge which, when
41259 they had looked at it from the hill, the officer had pointed out as
41260 being the center of our position and where rows of fragrant new-mown hay
41261 lay by the riverside. They rode across that bridge into the village of
41262 Borodino and thence turned to the left, passing an enormous number of
41263 troops and guns, and came to a high knoll where militiamen were digging.
41264 This was the redoubt, as yet unnamed, which afterwards became known as
41265 the Raevski Redoubt, or the Knoll Battery, but Pierre paid no special
41266 attention to it. He did not know that it would become more memorable to
41267 him than any other spot on the plain of Borodino.
41269 They then crossed the hollow to Semenovsk, where the soldiers were
41270 dragging away the last logs from the huts and barns. Then they rode
41271 downhill and uphill, across a ryefield trodden and beaten down as if by
41272 hail, following a track freshly made by the artillery over the furrows
41273 of the plowed land, and reached some fleches * which were still being
41277 * A kind of entrenchment.
41279 At the fleches Bennigsen stopped and began looking at the Shevardino
41280 Redoubt opposite, which had been ours the day before and where several
41281 horsemen could be descried. The officers said that either Napoleon or
41282 Murat was there, and they all gazed eagerly at this little group of
41283 horsemen. Pierre also looked at them, trying to guess which of the
41284 scarcely discernible figures was Napoleon. At last those mounted men
41285 rode away from the mound and disappeared.
41287 Bennigsen spoke to a general who approached him, and began explaining
41288 the whole position of our troops. Pierre listened to him, straining each
41289 faculty to understand the essential points of the impending battle, but
41290 was mortified to feel that his mental capacity was inadequate for the
41291 task. He could make nothing of it. Bennigsen stopped speaking and,
41292 noticing that Pierre was listening, suddenly said to him:
41294 "I don't think this interests you?"
41296 "On the contrary it's very interesting!" replied Pierre not quite
41299 From the fleches they rode still farther to the left, along a road
41300 winding through a thick, low-growing birch wood. In the middle of the
41301 wood a brown hare with white feet sprang out and, scared by the tramp of
41302 the many horses, grew so confused that it leaped along the road in front
41303 of them for some time, arousing general attention and laughter, and only
41304 when several voices shouted at it did it dart to one side and disappear
41305 in the thicket. After going through the wood for about a mile and a half
41306 they came out on a glade where troops of Tuchkov's corps were stationed
41307 to defend the left flank.
41309 Here, at the extreme left flank, Bennigsen talked a great deal and with
41310 much heat, and, as it seemed to Pierre, gave orders of great military
41311 importance. In front of Tuchkov's troops was some high ground not
41312 occupied by troops. Bennigsen loudly criticized this mistake, saying
41313 that it was madness to leave a height which commanded the country around
41314 unoccupied and to place troops below it. Some of the generals expressed
41315 the same opinion. One in particular declared with martial heat that they
41316 were put there to be slaughtered. Bennigsen on his own authority ordered
41317 the troops to occupy the high ground. This disposition on the left flank
41318 increased Pierre's doubt of his own capacity to understand military
41319 matters. Listening to Bennigsen and the generals criticizing the
41320 position of the troops behind the hill, he quite understood them and
41321 shared their opinion, but for that very reason he could not understand
41322 how the man who put them there behind the hill could have made so gross
41323 and palpable a blunder.
41325 Pierre did not know that these troops were not, as Bennigsen supposed,
41326 put there to defend the position, but were in a concealed position as an
41327 ambush, that they should not be seen and might be able to strike an
41328 approaching enemy unexpectedly. Bennigsen did not know this and moved
41329 the troops forward according to his own ideas without mentioning the
41330 matter to the commander-in-chief.
41337 On that bright evening of August 25, Prince Andrew lay leaning on his
41338 elbow in a broken-down shed in the village of Knyazkovo at the further
41339 end of his regiment's encampment. Through a gap in the broken wall he
41340 could see, beside the wooden fence, a row of thirty year-old birches
41341 with their lower branches lopped off, a field on which shocks of oats
41342 were standing, and some bushes near which rose the smoke of campfires--
41343 the soldiers' kitchens.
41345 Narrow and burdensome and useless to anyone as his life now seemed to
41346 him, Prince Andrew on the eve of battle felt agitated and irritable as
41347 he had done seven years before at Austerlitz.
41349 He had received and given the orders for next day's battle and had
41350 nothing more to do. But his thoughts--the simplest, clearest, and
41351 therefore most terrible thoughts--would give him no peace. He knew that
41352 tomorrow's battle would be the most terrible of all he had taken part
41353 in, and for the first time in his life the possibility of death
41354 presented itself to him--not in relation to any worldly matter or with
41355 reference to its effect on others, but simply in relation to himself, to
41356 his own soul--vividly, plainly, terribly, and almost as a certainty. And
41357 from the height of this perception all that had previously tormented and
41358 preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without
41359 shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline. All life
41360 appeared to him like magic-lantern pictures at which he had long been
41361 gazing by artificial light through a glass. Now he suddenly saw those
41362 badly daubed pictures in clear daylight and without a glass. "Yes, yes!
41363 There they are, those false images that agitated, enraptured, and
41364 tormented me," said he to himself, passing in review the principal
41365 pictures of the magic lantern of life and regarding them now in the cold
41366 white daylight of his clear perception of death. "There they are, those
41367 rudely painted figures that once seemed splendid and mysterious. Glory,
41368 the good of society, love of a woman, the Fatherland itself--how
41369 important these pictures appeared to me, with what profound meaning they
41370 seemed to be filled! And it is all so simple, pale, and crude in the
41371 cold white light of this morning which I feel is dawning for me." The
41372 three great sorrows of his life held his attention in particular: his
41373 love for a woman, his father's death, and the French invasion which had
41374 overrun half Russia. "Love... that little girl who seemed to me brimming
41375 over with mystic forces! Yes, indeed, I loved her. I made romantic plans
41376 of love and happiness with her! Oh, what a boy I was!" he said aloud
41377 bitterly. "Ah me! I believed in some ideal love which was to keep her
41378 faithful to me for the whole year of my absence! Like the gentle dove in
41379 the fable she was to pine apart from me.... But it was much simpler
41380 really.... It was all very simple and horrible."
41382 "When my father built Bald Hills he thought the place was his: his land,
41383 his air, his peasants. But Napoleon came and swept him aside,
41384 unconscious of his existence, as he might brush a chip from his path,
41385 and his Bald Hills and his whole life fell to pieces. Princess Mary says
41386 it is a trial sent from above. What is the trial for, when he is not
41387 here and will never return? He is not here! For whom then is the trial
41388 intended? The Fatherland, the destruction of Moscow! And tomorrow I
41389 shall be killed, perhaps not even by a Frenchman but by one of our own
41390 men, by a soldier discharging a musket close to my ear as one of them
41391 did yesterday, and the French will come and take me by head and heels
41392 and fling me into a hole that I may not stink under their noses, and new
41393 conditions of life will arise, which will seem quite ordinary to others
41394 and about which I shall know nothing. I shall not exist..."
41396 He looked at the row of birches shining in the sunshine, with their
41397 motionless green and yellow foliage and white bark. "To die... to be
41398 killed tomorrow... That I should not exist... That all this should still
41401 And the birches with their light and shade, the curly clouds, the smoke
41402 of the campfires, and all that was around him changed and seemed
41403 terrible and menacing. A cold shiver ran down his spine. He rose
41404 quickly, went out of the shed, and began to walk about.
41406 After he had returned, voices were heard outside the shed. "Who's that?"
41409 The red-nosed Captain Timokhin, formerly Dolokhov's squadron commander,
41410 but now from lack of officers a battalion commander, shyly entered the
41411 shed followed by an adjutant and the regimental paymaster.
41413 Prince Andrew rose hastily, listened to the business they had come
41414 about, gave them some further instructions, and was about to dismiss
41415 them when he heard a familiar, lisping, voice behind the shed.
41417 "Devil take it!" said the voice of a man stumbling over something.
41419 Prince Andrew looked out of the shed and saw Pierre, who had tripped
41420 over a pole on the ground and had nearly fallen, coming his way. It was
41421 unpleasant to Prince Andrew to meet people of his own set in general,
41422 and Pierre especially, for he reminded him of all the painful moments of
41423 his last visit to Moscow.
41425 "You? What a surprise!" said he. "What brings you here? This is
41428 As he said this his eyes and face expressed more than coldness--they
41429 expressed hostility, which Pierre noticed at once. He had approached the
41430 shed full of animation, but on seeing Prince Andrew's face he felt
41431 constrained and ill at ease.
41433 "I have come... simply... you know... come... it interests me," said
41434 Pierre, who had so often that day senselessly repeated that word
41435 "interesting." "I wish to see the battle."
41437 "Oh yes, and what do the masonic brothers say about war? How would they
41438 stop it?" said Prince Andrew sarcastically. "Well, and how's Moscow? And
41439 my people? Have they reached Moscow at last?" he asked seriously.
41441 "Yes, they have. Julie Drubetskaya told me so. I went to see them, but
41442 missed them. They have gone to your estate near Moscow."
41449 The officers were about to take leave, but Prince Andrew, apparently
41450 reluctant to be left alone with his friend, asked them to stay and have
41451 tea. Seats were brought in and so was the tea. The officers gazed with
41452 surprise at Pierre's huge stout figure and listened to his talk of
41453 Moscow and the position of our army, round which he had ridden. Prince
41454 Andrew remained silent, and his expression was so forbidding that Pierre
41455 addressed his remarks chiefly to the good-natured battalion commander.
41457 "So you understand the whole position of our troops?" Prince Andrew
41460 "Yes--that is, how do you mean?" said Pierre. "Not being a military man
41461 I can't say I have understood it fully, but I understand the general
41464 "Well, then, you know more than anyone else, be it who it may," said
41467 "Oh!" said Pierre, looking over his spectacles in perplexity at Prince
41468 Andrew. "Well, and what do you think of Kutuzov's appointment?" he
41471 "I was very glad of his appointment, that's all I know," replied Prince
41474 "And tell me your opinion of Barclay de Tolly. In Moscow they are saying
41475 heaven knows what about him.... What do you think of him?"
41477 "Ask them," replied Prince Andrew, indicating the officers.
41479 Pierre looked at Timokhin with the condescendingly interrogative smile
41480 with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer.
41482 "We see light again, since his Serenity has been appointed, your
41483 excellency," said Timokhin timidly, and continually turning to glance at
41486 "Why so?" asked Pierre.
41488 "Well, to mention only firewood and fodder, let me inform you. Why, when
41489 we were retreating from Sventsyani we dare not touch a stick or a wisp
41490 of hay or anything. You see, we were going away, so he would get it all;
41491 wasn't it so, your excellency?" and again Timokhin turned to the prince.
41492 "But we daren't. In our regiment two officers were court-martialed for
41493 that kind of thing. But when his Serenity took command everything became
41494 straight forward. Now we see light..."
41496 "Then why was it forbidden?"
41498 Timokhin looked about in confusion, not knowing what or how to answer
41499 such a question. Pierre put the same question to Prince Andrew.
41501 "Why, so as not to lay waste the country we were abandoning to the
41502 enemy," said Prince Andrew with venomous irony. "It is very sound: one
41503 can't permit the land to be pillaged and accustom the troops to
41504 marauding. At Smolensk too he judged correctly that the French might
41505 outflank us, as they had larger forces. But he could not understand
41506 this," cried Prince Andrew in a shrill voice that seemed to escape him
41507 involuntarily: "he could not understand that there, for the first time,
41508 we were fighting for Russian soil, and that there was a spirit in the
41509 men such as I had never seen before, that we had held the French for two
41510 days, and that that success had increased our strength tenfold. He
41511 ordered us to retreat, and all our efforts and losses went for nothing.
41512 He had no thought of betraying us, he tried to do the best he could, he
41513 thought out everything, and that is why he is unsuitable. He is
41514 unsuitable now, just because he plans out everything very thoroughly and
41515 accurately as every German has to. How can I explain?... Well, say your
41516 father has a German valet, and he is a splendid valet and satisfies your
41517 father's requirements better than you could, then it's all right to let
41518 him serve. But if your father is mortally sick you'll send the valet
41519 away and attend to your father with your own unpracticed, awkward hands,
41520 and will soothe him better than a skilled man who is a stranger could.
41521 So it has been with Barclay. While Russia was well, a foreigner could
41522 serve her and be a splendid minister; but as soon as she is in danger
41523 she needs one of her own kin. But in your club they have been making him
41524 out a traitor! They slander him as a traitor, and the only result will
41525 be that afterwards, ashamed of their false accusations, they will make
41526 him out a hero or a genius instead of a traitor, and that will be still
41527 more unjust. He is an honest and very punctilious German."
41529 "And they say he's a skillful commander," rejoined Pierre.
41531 "I don't understand what is meant by 'a skillful commander,'" replied
41532 Prince Andrew ironically.
41534 "A skillful commander?" replied Pierre. "Why, one who foresees all
41535 contingencies... and foresees the adversary's intentions."
41537 "But that's impossible," said Prince Andrew as if it were a matter
41540 Pierre looked at him in surprise.
41542 "And yet they say that war is like a game of chess?" he remarked.
41544 "Yes," replied Prince Andrew, "but with this little difference, that in
41545 chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not
41546 limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight is always
41547 stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while
41548 in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes
41549 weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can
41550 never be known to anyone. Believe me," he went on, "if things depended
41551 on arrangements made by the staff, I should be there making
41552 arrangements, but instead of that I have the honor to serve here in the
41553 regiment with these gentlemen, and I consider that on us tomorrow's
41554 battle will depend and not on those others.... Success never depends,
41555 and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers,
41556 and least of all on position."
41558 "But on what then?"
41560 "On the feeling that is in me and in him," he pointed to Timokhin, "and
41563 Prince Andrew glanced at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in alarm
41564 and bewilderment. In contrast to his former reticent taciturnity Prince
41565 Andrew now seemed excited. He could apparently not refrain from
41566 expressing the thoughts that had suddenly occurred to him.
41568 "A battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it! Why did we lose
41569 the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours,
41570 but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle, and
41571 we did lose it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for
41572 there, we wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could.
41573 'We've lost, so let us run,' and we ran. If we had not said that till
41574 the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we
41575 shan't say it! You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the
41576 right flank too extended," he went on. "That's all nonsense, there's
41577 nothing of the kind. But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most
41578 diverse chances which will be decided on the instant by the fact that
41579 our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is
41580 killed, but all that is being done at present is only play. The fact is
41581 that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do
41582 not help matters, but hinder. They are only concerned with their own
41585 "At such a moment?" said Pierre reproachfully.
41587 "At such a moment!" Prince Andrew repeated. "To them it is only a moment
41588 affording opportunities to undermine a rival and obtain an extra cross
41589 or ribbon. For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred
41590 thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and
41591 the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side
41592 that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win. And if you
41593 like I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles those at
41594 the top may make, we shall win tomorrow's battle. Tomorrow, happen what
41595 may, we shall win!"
41597 "There now, your excellency! That's the truth, the real truth," said
41598 Timokhin. "Who would spare himself now? The soldiers in my battalion,
41599 believe me, wouldn't drink their vodka! 'It's not the day for that!'
41602 All were silent. The officers rose. Prince Andrew went out of the shed
41603 with them, giving final orders to the adjutant. After they had gone
41604 Pierre approached Prince Andrew and was about to start a conversation
41605 when they heard the clatter of three horses' hoofs on the road not far
41606 from the shed, and looking in that direction Prince Andrew recognized
41607 Wolzogen and Clausewitz accompanied by a Cossack. They rode close by
41608 continuing to converse, and Prince Andrew involuntarily heard these
41611 "Der Krieg muss in Raum verlegt werden. Der Ansicht kann ich nicht genug
41612 Preis geben," * said one of them.
41615 * "The war must be extended widely. I cannot sufficiently commend that
41618 "Oh, ja," said the other, "der Zweck ist nur den Feind zu schwachen, so
41619 kann man gewiss nicht den Verlust der Privat-Personen in Achtung
41623 * "Oh, yes, the only aim is to weaken the enemy, so of course one cannot
41624 take into account the loss of private individuals."
41626 "Oh, no," agreed the other.
41628 "Extend widely!" said Prince Andrew with an angry snort, when they had
41629 ridden past. "In that 'extend' were my father, son, and sister, at Bald
41630 Hills. That's all the same to him! That's what I was saying to you--
41631 those German gentlemen won't win the battle tomorrow but will only make
41632 all the mess they can, because they have nothing in their German heads
41633 but theories not worth an empty eggshell and haven't in their hearts the
41634 one thing needed tomorrow--that which Timokhin has. They have yielded up
41635 all Europe to him, and have now come to teach us. Fine teachers!" and
41636 again his voice grew shrill.
41638 "So you think we shall win tomorrow's battle?" asked Pierre.
41640 "Yes, yes," answered Prince Andrew absently. "One thing I would do if I
41641 had the power," he began again, "I would not take prisoners. Why take
41642 prisoners? It's chivalry! The French have destroyed my home and are on
41643 their way to destroy Moscow, they have outraged and are outraging me
41644 every moment. They are my enemies. In my opinion they are all criminals.
41645 And so thinks Timokhin and the whole army. They should be executed!
41646 Since they are my foes they cannot be my friends, whatever may have been
41649 "Yes, yes," muttered Pierre, looking with shining eyes at Prince Andrew.
41650 "I quite agree with you!"
41652 The question that had perturbed Pierre on the Mozhaysk hill and all that
41653 day now seemed to him quite clear and completely solved. He now
41654 understood the whole meaning and importance of this war and of the
41655 impending battle. All he had seen that day, all the significant and
41656 stern expressions on the faces he had seen in passing, were lit up for
41657 him by a new light. He understood that latent heat (as they say in
41658 physics) of patriotism which was present in all these men he had seen,
41659 and this explained to him why they all prepared for death calmly, and as
41660 it were lightheartedly.
41662 "Not take prisoners," Prince Andrew continued: "That by itself would
41663 quite change the whole war and make it less cruel. As it is we have
41664 played at war--that's what's vile! We play at magnanimity and all that
41665 stuff. Such magnanimity and sensibility are like the magnanimity and
41666 sensibility of a lady who faints when she sees a calf being killed: she
41667 is so kindhearted that she can't look at blood, but enjoys eating the
41668 calf served up with sauce. They talk to us of the rules of war, of
41669 chivalry, of flags of truce, of mercy to the unfortunate and so on. It's
41670 all rubbish! I saw chivalry and flags of truce in 1805; they humbugged
41671 us and we humbugged them. They plunder other people's houses, issue
41672 false paper money, and worst of all they kill my children and my father,
41673 and then talk of rules of war and magnanimity to foes! Take no
41674 prisoners, but kill and be killed! He who has come to this as I have
41675 through the same sufferings..."
41677 Prince Andrew, who had thought it was all the same to him whether or not
41678 Moscow was taken as Smolensk had been, was suddenly checked in his
41679 speech by an unexpected cramp in his throat. He paced up and down a few
41680 times in silence, but his eyes glittered feverishly and his lips
41681 quivered as he began speaking.
41683 "If there was none of this magnanimity in war, we should go to war only
41684 when it was worth while going to certain death, as now. Then there would
41685 not be war because Paul Ivanovich had offended Michael Ivanovich. And
41686 when there was a war, like this one, it would be war! And then the
41687 determination of the troops would be quite different. Then all these
41688 Westphalians and Hessians whom Napoleon is leading would not follow him
41689 into Russia, and we should not go to fight in Austria and Prussia
41690 without knowing why. War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in
41691 life; and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to
41692 accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in
41693 that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is
41694 now, war is the favorite pastime of the idle and frivolous. The military
41695 calling is the most highly honored.
41697 "But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the
41698 habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are
41699 spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country's
41700 inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud
41701 and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class
41702 are the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance,
41703 cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this it is the
41704 highest class, respected by everyone. All the kings, except the Chinese,
41705 wear military uniforms, and he who kills most people receives the
41708 "They meet, as we shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another; they kill
41709 and maim tens of thousands, and then have thanksgiving services for
41710 having killed so many people (they even exaggerate the number), and they
41711 announce a victory, supposing that the more people they have killed the
41712 greater their achievement. How does God above look at them and hear
41713 them?" exclaimed Prince Andrew in a shrill, piercing voice. "Ah, my
41714 friend, it has of late become hard for me to live. I see that I have
41715 begun to understand too much. And it doesn't do for man to taste of the
41716 tree of knowledge of good and evil.... Ah, well, it's not for long!" he
41719 "However, you're sleepy, and it's time for me to sleep. Go back to
41720 Gorki!" said Prince Andrew suddenly.
41722 "Oh no!" Pierre replied, looking at Prince Andrew with frightened,
41723 compassionate eyes.
41725 "Go, go! Before a battle one must have one's sleep out," repeated Prince
41728 He came quickly up to Pierre and embraced and kissed him. "Good-bye, be
41729 off!" he shouted. "Whether we meet again or not..." and turning away
41730 hurriedly he entered the shed.
41732 It was already dark, and Pierre could not make out whether the
41733 expression of Prince Andrew's face was angry or tender.
41735 For some time he stood in silence considering whether he should follow
41736 him or go away. "No, he does not want it!" Pierre concluded. "And I know
41737 that this is our last meeting!" He sighed deeply and rode back to Gorki.
41739 On re-entering the shed Prince Andrew lay down on a rug, but he could
41742 He closed his eyes. One picture succeeded another in his imagination. On
41743 one of them he dwelt long and joyfully. He vividly recalled an evening
41744 in Petersburg. Natasha with animated and excited face was telling him
41745 how she had gone to look for mushrooms the previous summer and had lost
41746 her way in the big forest. She incoherently described the depths of the
41747 forest, her feelings, and a talk with a beekeeper she met, and
41748 constantly interrupted her story to say: "No, I can't! I'm not telling
41749 it right; no, you don't understand," though he encouraged her by saying
41750 that he did understand, and he really had understood all she wanted to
41751 say. But Natasha was not satisfied with her own words: she felt that
41752 they did not convey the passionately poetic feeling she had experienced
41753 that day and wished to convey. "He was such a delightful old man, and it
41754 was so dark in the forest... and he had such kind... No, I can't
41755 describe it," she had said, flushed and excited. Prince Andrew smiled
41756 now the same happy smile as then when he had looked into her eyes. "I
41757 understood her," he thought. "I not only understood her, but it was just
41758 that inner, spiritual force, that sincerity, that frankness of soul--
41759 that very soul of hers which seemed to be fettered by her body--it was
41760 that soul I loved in her... loved so strongly and happily..." and
41761 suddenly he remembered how his love had ended. "He did not need anything
41762 of that kind. He neither saw nor understood anything of the sort. He
41763 only saw in her a pretty and fresh young girl, with whom he did not
41764 deign to unite his fate. And I?... and he is still alive and gay!"
41766 Prince Andrew jumped up as if someone had burned him, and again began
41767 pacing up and down in front of the shed.
41774 On August 25, the eve of the battle of Borodino, M. de Beausset, prefect
41775 of the French Emperor's palace, arrived at Napoleon's quarters at
41776 Valuevo with Colonel Fabvier, the former from Paris and the latter from
41779 Donning his court uniform, M. de Beausset ordered a box he had brought
41780 for the Emperor to be carried before him and entered the first
41781 compartment of Napoleon's tent, where he began opening the box while
41782 conversing with Napoleon's aides-de-camp who surrounded him.
41784 Fabvier, not entering the tent, remained at the entrance talking to some
41785 generals of his acquaintance.
41787 The Emperor Napoleon had not yet left his bedroom and was finishing his
41788 toilet. Slightly snorting and grunting, he presented now his back and
41789 now his plump hairy chest to the brush with which his valet was rubbing
41790 him down. Another valet, with his finger over the mouth of a bottle, was
41791 sprinkling Eau de Cologne on the Emperor's pampered body with an
41792 expression which seemed to say that he alone knew where and how much Eau
41793 de Cologne should be sprinkled. Napoleon's short hair was wet and matted
41794 on the forehead, but his face, though puffy and yellow, expressed
41795 physical satisfaction. "Go on, harder, go on!" he muttered to the valet
41796 who was rubbing him, slightly twitching and grunting. An aide-de-camp,
41797 who had entered the bedroom to report to the Emperor the number of
41798 prisoners taken in yesterday's action, was standing by the door after
41799 delivering his message, awaiting permission to withdraw. Napoleon,
41800 frowning, looked at him from under his brows.
41802 "No prisoners!" said he, repeating the aide-de-camp's words. "They are
41803 forcing us to exterminate them. So much the worse for the Russian
41804 army.... Go on... harder, harder!" he muttered, hunching his back and
41805 presenting his fat shoulders.
41807 "All right. Let Monsieur de Beausset enter, and Fabvier too," he said,
41808 nodding to the aide-de-camp.
41810 "Yes, sire," and the aide-de-camp disappeared through the door of the
41813 Two valets rapidly dressed His Majesty, and wearing the blue uniform of
41814 the Guards he went with firm quick steps to the reception room.
41816 De Beausset's hands meanwhile were busily engaged arranging the present
41817 he had brought from the Empress, on two chairs directly in front of the
41818 entrance. But Napoleon had dressed and come out with such unexpected
41819 rapidity that he had not time to finish arranging the surprise.
41821 Napoleon noticed at once what they were about and guessed that they were
41822 not ready. He did not wish to deprive them of the pleasure of giving him
41823 a surprise, so he pretended not to see de Beausset and called Fabvier to
41824 him, listening silently and with a stern frown to what Fabvier told him
41825 of the heroism and devotion of his troops fighting at Salamanca, at the
41826 other end of Europe, with but one thought--to be worthy of their
41827 Emperor--and but one fear--to fail to please him. The result of that
41828 battle had been deplorable. Napoleon made ironic remarks during
41829 Fabvier's account, as if he had not expected that matters could go
41830 otherwise in his absence.
41832 "I must make up for that in Moscow," said Napoleon. "I'll see you
41833 later," he added, and summoned de Beausset, who by that time had
41834 prepared the surprise, having placed something on the chairs and covered
41837 De Beausset bowed low, with that courtly French bow which only the old
41838 retainers of the Bourbons knew how to make, and approached him,
41839 presenting an envelope.
41841 Napoleon turned to him gaily and pulled his ear.
41843 "You have hurried here. I am very glad. Well, what is Paris saying?" he
41844 asked, suddenly changing his former stern expression for a most cordial
41847 "Sire, all Paris regrets your absence," replied de Beausset as was
41850 But though Napoleon knew that de Beausset had to say something of this
41851 kind, and though in his lucid moments he knew it was untrue, he was
41852 pleased to hear it from him. Again he honored him by touching his ear.
41854 "I am very sorry to have made you travel so far," said he.
41856 "Sire, I expected nothing less than to find you at the gates of Moscow,"
41857 replied de Beausset.
41859 Napoleon smiled and, lifting his head absent-mindedly, glanced to the
41860 right. An aide-de-camp approached with gliding steps and offered him a
41861 gold snuffbox, which he took.
41863 "Yes, it has happened luckily for you," he said, raising the open
41864 snuffbox to his nose. "You are fond of travel, and in three days you
41865 will see Moscow. You surely did not expect to see that Asiatic capital.
41866 You will have a pleasant journey."
41868 De Beausset bowed gratefully at this regard for his taste for travel (of
41869 which he had not till then been aware).
41871 "Ha, what's this?" asked Napoleon, noticing that all the courtiers were
41872 looking at something concealed under a cloth.
41874 With courtly adroitness de Beausset half turned and without turning his
41875 back to the Emperor retired two steps, twitching off the cloth at the
41876 same time, and said:
41878 "A present to Your Majesty from the Empress."
41880 It was a portrait, painted in bright colors by Gerard, of the son borne
41881 to Napoleon by the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, the boy whom for
41882 some reason everyone called "The King of Rome."
41884 A very pretty curly-headed boy with a look of the Christ in the Sistine
41885 Madonna was depicted playing at stick and ball. The ball represented the
41886 terrestrial globe and the stick in his other hand a scepter.
41888 Though it was not clear what the artist meant to express by depicting
41889 the so-called King of Rome spiking the earth with a stick, the allegory
41890 apparently seemed to Napoleon, as it had done to all who had seen it in
41891 Paris, quite clear and very pleasing.
41893 "The King of Rome!" he said, pointing to the portrait with a graceful
41894 gesture. "Admirable!"
41896 With the natural capacity of an Italian for changing the expression of
41897 his face at will, he drew nearer to the portrait and assumed a look of
41898 pensive tenderness. He felt that what he now said and did would be
41899 historical, and it seemed to him that it would now be best for him--
41900 whose grandeur enabled his son to play stick and ball with the
41901 terrestrial globe--to show, in contrast to that grandeur, the simplest
41902 paternal tenderness. His eyes grew dim, he moved forward, glanced round
41903 at a chair (which seemed to place itself under him), and sat down on it
41904 before the portrait. At a single gesture from him everyone went out on
41905 tiptoe, leaving the great man to himself and his emotion.
41907 Having sat still for a while he touched--himself not knowing why--the
41908 thick spot of paint representing the highest light in the portrait,
41909 rose, and recalled de Beausset and the officer on duty. He ordered the
41910 portrait to be carried outside his tent, that the Old Guard, stationed
41911 round it, might not be deprived of the pleasure of seeing the King of
41912 Rome, the son and heir of their adored monarch.
41914 And while he was doing M. de Beausset the honor of breakfasting with
41915 him, they heard, as Napoleon had anticipated, the rapturous cries of the
41916 officers and men of the Old Guard who had run up to see the portrait.
41918 "Vive l'Empereur! Vive le roi de Rome! Vive l'Empereur!" came those
41921 After breakfast Napoleon in de Beausset's presence dictated his order of
41922 the day to the army.
41924 "Short and energetic!" he remarked when he had read over the
41925 proclamation which he had dictated straight off without corrections. It
41928 Soldiers! This is the battle you have so longed for. Victory depends on
41929 you. It is essential for us; it will give us all we need: comfortable
41930 quarters and a speedy return to our country. Behave as you did at
41931 Austerlitz, Friedland, Vitebsk, and Smolensk. Let our remotest posterity
41932 recall your achievements this day with pride. Let it be said of each of
41933 you: "He was in the great battle before Moscow!"
41935 "Before Moscow!" repeated Napoleon, and inviting M. de Beausset, who was
41936 so fond of travel, to accompany him on his ride, he went out of the tent
41937 to where the horses stood saddled.
41939 "Your Majesty is too kind!" replied de Beausset to the invitation to
41940 accompany the Emperor; he wanted to sleep, did not know how to ride and
41941 was afraid of doing so.
41943 But Napoleon nodded to the traveler, and de Beausset had to mount. When
41944 Napoleon came out of the tent the shouting of the Guards before his
41945 son's portrait grew still louder. Napoleon frowned.
41947 "Take him away!" he said, pointing with a gracefully majestic gesture to
41948 the portrait. "It is too soon for him to see a field of battle."
41950 De Beausset closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed deeply, to
41951 indicate how profoundly he valued and comprehended the Emperor's words.
41958 On the twenty-fifth of August, so his historians tell us, Napoleon spent
41959 the whole day on horseback inspecting the locality, considering plans
41960 submitted to him by his marshals, and personally giving commands to his
41963 The original line of the Russian forces along the river Kolocha had been
41964 dislocated by the capture of the Shevardino Redoubt on the twenty-
41965 fourth, and part of the line--the left flank--had been drawn back. That
41966 part of the line was not entrenched and in front of it the ground was
41967 more open and level than elsewhere. It was evident to anyone, military
41968 or not, that it was here the French should attack. It would seem that
41969 not much consideration was needed to reach this conclusion, nor any
41970 particular care or trouble on the part of the Emperor and his marshals,
41971 nor was there any need of that special and supreme quality called genius
41972 that people are so apt to ascribe to Napoleon; yet the historians who
41973 described the event later and the men who then surrounded Napoleon, and
41974 he himself, thought otherwise.
41976 Napoleon rode over the plain and surveyed the locality with a profound
41977 air and in silence, nodded with approval or shook his head dubiously,
41978 and without communicating to the generals around him the profound course
41979 of ideas which guided his decisions merely gave them his final
41980 conclusions in the form of commands. Having listened to a suggestion
41981 from Davout, who was now called Prince d'Eckmuhl, to turn the Russian
41982 left wing, Napoleon said it should not be done, without explaining why
41983 not. To a proposal made by General Campan (who was to attack the
41984 fleches) to lead his division through the woods, Napoleon agreed, though
41985 the so-called Duke of Elchingen (Ney) ventured to remark that a movement
41986 through the woods was dangerous and might disorder the division.
41988 Having inspected the country opposite the Shevardino Redoubt, Napoleon
41989 pondered a little in silence and then indicated the spots where two
41990 batteries should be set up by the morrow to act against the Russian
41991 entrenchments, and the places where, in line with them, the field
41992 artillery should be placed.
41994 After giving these and other commands he returned to his tent, and the
41995 dispositions for the battle were written down from his dictation.
41997 These dispositions, of which the French historians write with enthusiasm
41998 and other historians with profound respect, were as follows:
42000 At dawn the two new batteries established during the night on the plain
42001 occupied by the Prince d'Eckmuhl will open fire on the opposing
42002 batteries of the enemy.
42004 At the same time the commander of the artillery of the 1st Corps,
42005 General Pernetti, with thirty cannon of Campan's division and all the
42006 howitzers of Dessaix's and Friant's divisions, will move forward, open
42007 fire, and overwhelm with shellfire the enemy's battery, against which
42011 24 guns of the artillery of the Guards 30 guns of Campan's division
42013 and 8 guns of Friant's and Dessaix's divisions --
42017 The commander of the artillery of the 3rd Corps, General Fouche, will
42018 place the howitzers of the 3rd and 8th Corps, sixteen in all, on the
42019 flanks of the battery that is to bombard the entrenchment on the left,
42020 which will have forty guns in all directed against it.
42022 General Sorbier must be ready at the first order to advance with all the
42023 howitzers of the Guard's artillery against either one or other of the
42026 During the cannonade Prince Poniatowski is to advance through the wood
42027 on the village and turn the enemy's position.
42029 General Campan will move through the wood to seize the first
42032 After the advance has begun in this manner, orders will be given in
42033 accordance with the enemy's movements.
42035 The cannonade on the left flank will begin as soon as the guns of the
42036 right wing are heard. The sharpshooters of Morand's division and of the
42037 vice-King's division will open a heavy fire on seeing the attack
42038 commence on the right wing.
42040 The vice-King will occupy the village and cross by its three bridges,
42041 advancing to the same heights as Morand's and Gibrard's divisions, which
42042 under his leadership will be directed against the redoubt and come into
42043 line with the rest of the forces.
42045 All this must be done in good order (le tout se fera avec ordre et
42046 methode) as far as possible retaining troops in reserve.
42048 The Imperial Camp near Mozhaysk,
42050 September, 6, 1812.
42052 These dispositions, which are very obscure and confused if one allows
42053 oneself to regard the arrangements without religious awe of his genius,
42054 related to Napoleon's orders to deal with four points--four different
42055 orders. Not one of these was, or could be, carried out.
42057 In the disposition it is said first that the batteries placed on the
42058 spot chosen by Napoleon, with the guns of Pernetti and Fouche; which
42059 were to come in line with them, 102 guns in all, were to open fire and
42060 shower shells on the Russian fleches and redoubts. This could not be
42061 done, as from the spots selected by Napoleon the projectiles did not
42062 carry to the Russian works, and those 102 guns shot into the air until
42063 the nearest commander, contrary to Napoleon's instructions, moved them
42066 The second order was that Poniatowski, moving to the village through the
42067 wood, should turn the Russian left flank. This could not be done and was
42068 not done, because Poniatowski, advancing on the village through the
42069 wood, met Tuchkov there barring his way, and could not and did not turn
42070 the Russian position.
42072 The third order was: General Campan will move through the wood to seize
42073 the first fortification. General Campan's division did not seize the
42074 first fortification but was driven back, for on emerging from the wood
42075 it had to reform under grapeshot, of which Napoleon was unaware.
42077 The fourth order was: The vice-King will occupy the village (Borodino)
42078 and cross by its three bridges, advancing to the same heights as
42079 Morand's and Gdrard's divisions (for whose movements no directions are
42080 given), which under his leadership will be directed against the redoubt
42081 and come into line with the rest of the forces.
42083 As far as one can make out, not so much from this unintelligible
42084 sentence as from the attempts the vice-King made to execute the orders
42085 given him, he was to advance from the left through Borodino to the
42086 redoubt while the divisions of Morand and Gerard were to advance
42087 simultaneously from the front.
42089 All this, like the other parts of the disposition, was not and could not
42090 be executed. After passing through Borodino the vice-King was driven
42091 back to the Kolocha and could get no farther; while the divisions of
42092 Morand and Gerard did not take the redoubt but were driven back, and the
42093 redoubt was only taken at the end of the battle by the cavalry (a thing
42094 probably unforeseen and not heard of by Napoleon). So not one of the
42095 orders in the disposition was, or could be, executed. But in the
42096 disposition it is said that, after the fight has commenced in this
42097 manner, orders will be given in accordance with the enemy's movements,
42098 and so it might be supposed that all necessary arrangements would be
42099 made by Napoleon during the battle. But this was not and could not be
42100 done, for during the whole battle Napoleon was so far away that, as
42101 appeared later, he could not know the course of the battle and not one
42102 of his orders during the fight could be executed.
42109 Many historians say that the French did not win the battle of Borodino
42110 because Napoleon had a cold, and that if he had not had a cold the
42111 orders he gave before and during the battle would have been still more
42112 full of genius and Russia would have been lost and the face of the world
42113 have been changed. To historians who believe that Russia was shaped by
42114 the will of one man--Peter the Great--and that France from a republic
42115 became an empire and French armies went to Russia at the will of one
42116 man--Napoleon--to say that Russia remained a power because Napoleon had
42117 a bad cold on the twenty-fourth of August may seem logical and
42120 If it had depended on Napoleon's will to fight or not to fight the
42121 battle of Borodino, and if this or that other arrangement depended on
42122 his will, then evidently a cold affecting the manifestation of his will
42123 might have saved Russia, and consequently the valet who omitted to bring
42124 Napoleon his waterproof boots on the twenty-fourth would have been the
42125 savior of Russia. Along that line of thought such a deduction is
42126 indubitable, as indubitable as the deduction Voltaire made in jest
42127 (without knowing what he was jesting at) when he saw that the Massacre
42128 of St. Bartholomew was due to Charles IX's stomach being deranged. But
42129 to men who do not admit that Russia was formed by the will of one man,
42130 Peter I, or that the French Empire was formed and the war with Russia
42131 begun by the will of one man, Napoleon, that argument seems not merely
42132 untrue and irrational, but contrary to all human reality. To the
42133 question of what causes historic events another answer presents itself,
42134 namely, that the course of human events is predetermined from on high--
42135 depends on the coincidence of the wills of all who take part in the
42136 events, and that a Napoleon's influence on the course of these events is
42137 purely external and fictitious.
42139 Strange as at first glance it may seem to suppose that the Massacre of
42140 St. Bartholomew was not due to Charles IX's will, though he gave the
42141 order for it and thought it was done as a result of that order; and
42142 strange as it may seem to suppose that the slaughter of eighty thousand
42143 men at Borodino was not due to Napoleon's will, though he ordered the
42144 commencement and conduct of the battle and thought it was done because
42145 he ordered it; strange as these suppositions appear, yet human dignity--
42146 which tells me that each of us is, if not more at least not less a man
42147 than the great Napoleon--demands the acceptance of that solution of the
42148 question, and historic investigation abundantly confirms it.
42150 At the battle of Borodino Napoleon shot at no one and killed no one.
42151 That was all done by the soldiers. Therefore it was not he who killed
42154 The French soldiers went to kill and be killed at the battle of Borodino
42155 not because of Napoleon's orders but by their own volition. The whole
42156 army--French, Italian, German, Polish, and Dutch--hungry, ragged, and
42157 weary of the campaign, felt at the sight of an army blocking their road
42158 to Moscow that the wine was drawn and must be drunk. Had Napoleon then
42159 forbidden them to fight the Russians, they would have killed him and
42160 have proceeded to fight the Russians because it was inevitable.
42162 When they heard Napoleon's proclamation offering them, as compensation
42163 for mutilation and death, the words of posterity about their having been
42164 in the battle before Moscow, they cried "Vive l'Empereur!" just as they
42165 had cried "Vive l'Empereur!" at the sight of the portrait of the boy
42166 piercing the terrestrial globe with a toy stick, and just as they would
42167 have cried "Vive l'Empereur!" at any nonsense that might be told them.
42168 There was nothing left for them to do but cry "Vive l'Empereur!" and go
42169 to fight, in order to get food and rest as conquerors in Moscow. So it
42170 was not because of Napoleon's commands that they killed their fellow
42173 And it was not Napoleon who directed the course of the battle, for none
42174 of his orders were executed and during the battle he did not know what
42175 was going on before him. So the way in which these people killed one
42176 another was not decided by Napoleon's will but occurred independently of
42177 him, in accord with the will of hundreds of thousands of people who took
42178 part in the common action. It only seemed to Napoleon that it all took
42179 place by his will. And so the question whether he had or had not a cold
42180 has no more historic interest than the cold of the least of the
42181 transport soldiers.
42183 Moreover, the assertion made by various writers that his cold was the
42184 cause of his dispositions not being as well-planned as on former
42185 occasions, and of his orders during the battle not being as good as
42186 previously, is quite baseless, which again shows that Napoleon's cold on
42187 the twenty-sixth of August was unimportant.
42189 The dispositions cited above are not at all worse, but are even better,
42190 than previous dispositions by which he had won victories. His pseudo-
42191 orders during the battle were also no worse than formerly, but much the
42192 same as usual. These dispositions and orders only seem worse than
42193 previous ones because the battle of Borodino was the first Napoleon did
42194 not win. The profoundest and most excellent dispositions and orders seem
42195 very bad, and every learned militarist criticizes them with looks of
42196 importance, when they relate to a battle that has been lost, and the
42197 very worst dispositions and orders seem very good, and serious people
42198 fill whole volumes to demonstrate their merits, when they relate to a
42199 battle that has been won.
42201 The dispositions drawn up by Weyrother for the battle of Austerlitz were
42202 a model of perfection for that kind of composition, but still they were
42203 criticized--criticized for their very perfection, for their excessive
42206 Napoleon at the battle of Borodino fulfilled his office as
42207 representative of authority as well as, and even better than, at other
42208 battles. He did nothing harmful to the progress of the battle; he
42209 inclined to the most reasonable opinions, he made no confusion, did not
42210 contradict himself, did not get frightened or run away from the field of
42211 battle, but with his great tact and military experience carried out his
42212 role of appearing to command, calmly and with dignity.
42219 On returning from a second inspection of the lines, Napoleon remarked:
42221 "The chessmen are set up, the game will begin tomorrow!"
42223 Having ordered punch and summoned de Beausset, he began to talk to him
42224 about Paris and about some changes he meant to make in the Empress'
42225 household, surprising the prefect by his memory of minute details
42226 relating to the court.
42228 He showed an interest in trifles, joked about de Beausset's love of
42229 travel, and chatted carelessly, as a famous, self-confident surgeon who
42230 knows his job does when turning up his sleeves and putting on his apron
42231 while a patient is being strapped to the operating table. "The matter is
42232 in my hands and is clear and definite in my head. When the time comes to
42233 set to work I shall do it as no one else could, but now I can jest, and
42234 the more I jest and the calmer I am the more tranquil and confident you
42235 ought to be, and the more amazed at my genius."
42237 Having finished his second glass of punch, Napoleon went to rest before
42238 the serious business which, he considered, awaited him next day. He was
42239 so much interested in that task that he was unable to sleep, and in
42240 spite of his cold which had grown worse from the dampness of the
42241 evening, he went into the large division of the tent at three o'clock in
42242 the morning, loudly blowing his nose. He asked whether the Russians had
42243 not withdrawn, and was told that the enemy's fires were still in the
42244 same places. He nodded approval.
42246 The adjutant in attendance came into the tent.
42248 "Well, Rapp, do you think we shall do good business today?" Napoleon
42251 "Without doubt, sire," replied Rapp.
42253 Napoleon looked at him.
42255 "Do you remember, sire, what you did me the honor to say at Smolensk?"
42256 continued Rapp. "The wine is drawn and must be drunk."
42258 Napoleon frowned and sat silent for a long time leaning his head on his
42261 "This poor army!" he suddenly remarked. "It has diminished greatly since
42262 Smolensk. Fortune is frankly a courtesan, Rapp. I have always said so
42263 and I am beginning to experience it. But the Guards, Rapp, the Guards
42264 are intact?" he remarked interrogatively.
42266 "Yes, sire," replied Rapp.
42268 Napoleon took a lozenge, put it in his mouth, and glanced at his watch.
42269 He was not sleepy and it was still not nearly morning. It was impossible
42270 to give further orders for the sake of killing time, for the orders had
42271 all been given and were now being executed.
42273 "Have the biscuits and rice been served out to the regiments of the
42274 Guards?" asked Napoleon sternly.
42280 Rapp replied that he had given the Emperor's order about the rice, but
42281 Napoleon shook his head in dissatisfaction as if not believing that his
42282 order had been executed. An attendant came in with punch. Napoleon
42283 ordered another glass to be brought for Rapp, and silently sipped his
42286 "I have neither taste nor smell," he remarked, sniffing at his glass.
42287 "This cold is tiresome. They talk about medicine--what is the good of
42288 medicine when it can't cure a cold! Corvisart gave me these lozenges but
42289 they don't help at all. What can doctors cure? One can't cure anything.
42290 Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its
42291 nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it
42292 will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies.
42293 Our body is like a perfect watch that should go for a certain time; the
42294 watchmaker cannot open it, he can only adjust it by fumbling, and that
42295 blindfold.... Yes, our body is just a machine for living, that is all."
42297 And having entered on the path of definition, of which he was fond,
42298 Napoleon suddenly and unexpectedly gave a new one.
42300 "Do you know, Rapp, what military art is?" asked he. "It is the art of
42301 being stronger than the enemy at a given moment. That's all."
42303 Rapp made no reply.
42305 "Tomorrow we shall have to deal with Kutuzov!" said Napoleon. "We shall
42306 see! Do you remember at Braunau he commanded an army for three weeks and
42307 did not once mount a horse to inspect his entrenchments.... We shall
42310 He looked at his watch. It was still only four o'clock. He did not feel
42311 sleepy. The punch was finished and there was still nothing to do. He
42312 rose, walked to and fro, put on a warm overcoat and a hat, and went out
42313 of the tent. The night was dark and damp, a scarcely perceptible
42314 moisture was descending from above. Near by, the campfires were dimly
42315 burning among the French Guards, and in the distance those of the
42316 Russian line shone through the smoke. The weather was calm, and the
42317 rustle and tramp of the French troops already beginning to move to take
42318 up their positions were clearly audible.
42320 Napoleon walked about in front of his tent, looked at the fires and
42321 listened to these sounds, and as he was passing a tall guardsman in a
42322 shaggy cap, who was standing sentinel before his tent and had drawn
42323 himself up like a black pillar at sight of the Emperor, Napoleon stopped
42326 "What year did you enter the service?" he asked with that affectation of
42327 military bluntness and geniality with which he always addressed the
42330 The man answered the question.
42332 "Ah! One of the old ones! Has your regiment had its rice?"
42334 "It has, Your Majesty."
42336 Napoleon nodded and walked away.
42338 At half-past five Napoleon rode to the village of Shevardino.
42340 It was growing light, the sky was clearing, only a single cloud lay in
42341 the east. The abandoned campfires were burning themselves out in the
42342 faint morning light.
42344 On the right a single deep report of a cannon resounded and died away in
42345 the prevailing silence. Some minutes passed. A second and a third report
42346 shook the air, then a fourth and a fifth boomed solemnly near by on the
42349 The first shots had not yet ceased to reverberate before others rang out
42350 and yet more were heard mingling with and overtaking one another.
42352 Napoleon with his suite rode up to the Shevardino Redoubt where he
42353 dismounted. The game had begun.
42360 On returning to Gorki after having seen Prince Andrew, Pierre ordered
42361 his groom to get the horses ready and to call him early in the morning,
42362 and then immediately fell asleep behind a partition in a corner Boris
42363 had given up to him.
42365 Before he was thoroughly awake next morning everybody had already left
42366 the hut. The panes were rattling in the little windows and his groom was
42369 "Your excellency! Your excellency! Your excellency!" he kept repeating
42370 pertinaciously while he shook Pierre by the shoulder without looking at
42371 him, having apparently lost hope of getting him to wake up.
42373 "What? Has it begun? Is it time?" Pierre asked, waking up.
42375 "Hear the firing," said the groom, a discharged soldier. "All the
42376 gentlemen have gone out, and his Serene Highness himself rode past long
42379 Pierre dressed hastily and ran out to the porch. Outside all was bright,
42380 fresh, dewy, and cheerful. The sun, just bursting forth from behind a
42381 cloud that had concealed it, was shining, with rays still half broken by
42382 the clouds, over the roofs of the street opposite, on the dew-
42383 besprinkled dust of the road, on the walls of the houses, on the
42384 windows, the fence, and on Pierre's horses standing before the hut. The
42385 roar of guns sounded more distinct outside. An adjutant accompanied by a
42386 Cossack passed by at a sharp trot.
42388 "It's time, Count; it's time!" cried the adjutant.
42390 Telling the groom to follow him with the horses, Pierre went down the
42391 street to the knoll from which he had looked at the field of battle the
42392 day before. A crowd of military men was assembled there, members of the
42393 staff could be heard conversing in French, and Kutuzov's gray head in a
42394 white cap with a red band was visible, his gray nape sunk between his
42395 shoulders. He was looking through a field glass down the highroad before
42398 Mounting the steps to the knoll Pierre looked at the scene before him,
42399 spellbound by beauty. It was the same panorama he had admired from that
42400 spot the day before, but now the whole place was full of troops and
42401 covered by smoke clouds from the guns, and the slanting rays of the
42402 bright sun, rising slightly to the left behind Pierre, cast upon it
42403 through the clear morning air penetrating streaks of rosy, golden-tinted
42404 light and long dark shadows. The forest at the farthest extremity of the
42405 panorama seemed carved in some precious stone of a yellowish-green
42406 color; its undulating outline was silhouetted against the horizon and
42407 was pierced beyond Valuevo by the Smolensk highroad crowded with troops.
42408 Nearer at hand glittered golden cornfields interspersed with copses.
42409 There were troops to be seen everywhere, in front and to the right and
42410 left. All this was vivid, majestic, and unexpected; but what impressed
42411 Pierre most of all was the view of the battlefield itself, of Borodino
42412 and the hollows on both sides of the Kolocha.
42414 Above the Kolocha, in Borodino and on both sides of it, especially to
42415 the left where the Voyna flowing between its marshy banks falls into the
42416 Kolocha, a mist had spread which seemed to melt, to dissolve, and to
42417 become translucent when the brilliant sun appeared and magically colored
42418 and outlined everything. The smoke of the guns mingled with this mist,
42419 and over the whole expanse and through that mist the rays of the morning
42420 sun were reflected, flashing back like lightning from the water, from
42421 the dew, and from the bayonets of the troops crowded together by the
42422 riverbanks and in Borodino. A white church could be seen through the
42423 mist, and here and there the roofs of huts in Borodino as well as dense
42424 masses of soldiers, or green ammunition chests and ordnance. And all
42425 this moved, or seemed to move, as the smoke and mist spread out over the
42426 whole space. Just as in the mist-enveloped hollow near Borodino, so
42427 along the entire line outside and above it and especially in the woods
42428 and fields to the left, in the valleys and on the summits of the high
42429 ground, clouds of powder smoke seemed continually to spring up out of
42430 nothing, now singly, now several at a time, some translucent, others
42431 dense, which, swelling, growing, rolling, and blending, extended over
42434 These puffs of smoke and (strange to say) the sound of the firing
42435 produced the chief beauty of the spectacle.
42437 "Puff!"--suddenly a round compact cloud of smoke was seen merging from
42438 violet into gray and milky white, and "boom!" came the report a second
42441 "Puff! puff!"--and two clouds arose pushing one another and blending
42442 together; and "boom, boom!" came the sounds confirming what the eye had
42445 Pierre glanced round at the first cloud, which he had seen as a round
42446 compact ball, and in its place already were balloons of smoke floating
42447 to one side, and--"puff" (with a pause)--"puff, puff!" three and then
42448 four more appeared and then from each, with the same interval--"boom--
42449 boom, boom!" came the fine, firm, precise sounds in reply. It seemed as
42450 if those smoke clouds sometimes ran and sometimes stood still while
42451 woods, fields, and glittering bayonets ran past them. From the left,
42452 over fields and bushes, those large balls of smoke were continually
42453 appearing followed by their solemn reports, while nearer still, in the
42454 hollows and woods, there burst from the muskets small cloudlets that had
42455 no time to become balls, but had their little echoes in just the same
42456 way. "Trakh-ta-ta-takh!" came the frequent crackle of musketry, but it
42457 was irregular and feeble in comparison with the reports of the cannon.
42459 Pierre wished to be there with that smoke, those shining bayonets, that
42460 movement, and those sounds. He turned to look at Kutuzov and his suite,
42461 to compare his impressions with those of others. They were all looking
42462 at the field of battle as he was, and, as it seemed to him, with the
42463 same feelings. All their faces were now shining with that latent warmth
42464 of feeling Pierre had noticed the day before and had fully understood
42465 after his talk with Prince Andrew.
42467 "Go, my dear fellow, go... and Christ be with you!" Kutuzov was saying
42468 to a general who stood beside him, not taking his eye from the
42471 Having received this order the general passed by Pierre on his way down
42474 "To the crossing!" said the general coldly and sternly in reply to one
42475 of the staff who asked where he was going.
42477 "I'll go there too, I too!" thought Pierre, and followed the general.
42479 The general mounted a horse a Cossack had brought him. Pierre went to
42480 his groom who was holding his horses and, asking which was the quietest,
42481 clambered onto it, seized it by the mane, and turning out his toes
42482 pressed his heels against its sides and, feeling that his spectacles
42483 were slipping off but unable to let go of the mane and reins, he
42484 galloped after the general, causing the staff officers to smile as they
42485 watched him from the knoll.
42492 Having descended the hill the general after whom Pierre was galloping
42493 turned sharply to the left, and Pierre, losing sight of him, galloped in
42494 among some ranks of infantry marching ahead of him. He tried to pass
42495 either in front of them or to the right or left, but there were soldiers
42496 everywhere, all with the same preoccupied expression and busy with some
42497 unseen but evidently important task. They all gazed with the same
42498 dissatisfied and inquiring expression at this stout man in a white hat,
42499 who for some unknown reason threatened to trample them under his horse's
42502 "Why ride into the middle of the battalion?" one of them shouted at him.
42504 Another prodded his horse with the butt end of a musket, and Pierre,
42505 bending over his saddlebow and hardly able to control his shying horse,
42506 galloped ahead of the soldiers where there was a free space.
42508 There was a bridge ahead of him, where other soldiers stood firing.
42509 Pierre rode up to them. Without being aware of it he had come to the
42510 bridge across the Kolocha between Gorki and Borodino, which the French
42511 (having occupied Borodino) were attacking in the first phase of the
42512 battle. Pierre saw that there was a bridge in front of him and that
42513 soldiers were doing something on both sides of it and in the meadow,
42514 among the rows of new-mown hay which he had taken no notice of amid the
42515 smoke of the campfires the day before; but despite the incessant firing
42516 going on there he had no idea that this was the field of battle. He did
42517 not notice the sound of the bullets whistling from every side, or the
42518 projectiles that flew over him, did not see the enemy on the other side
42519 of the river, and for a long time did not notice the killed and wounded,
42520 though many fell near him. He looked about him with a smile which did
42521 not leave his face.
42523 "Why's that fellow in front of the line?" shouted somebody at him again.
42525 "To the left!... Keep to the right!" the men shouted to him.
42527 Pierre went to the right, and unexpectedly encountered one of Raevski's
42528 adjutants whom he knew. The adjutant looked angrily at him, evidently
42529 also intending to shout at him, but on recognizing him he nodded.
42531 "How have you got here?" he said, and galloped on.
42533 Pierre, feeling out of place there, having nothing to do, and afraid of
42534 getting in someone's way again, galloped after the adjutant.
42536 "What's happening here? May I come with you?" he asked.
42538 "One moment, one moment!" replied the adjutant, and riding up to a stout
42539 colonel who was standing in the meadow, he gave him some message and
42540 then addressed Pierre.
42542 "Why have you come here, Count?" he asked with a smile. "Still
42545 "Yes, yes," assented Pierre.
42547 But the adjutant turned his horse about and rode on.
42549 "Here it's tolerable," said he, "but with Bagration on the left flank
42550 they're getting it frightfully hot."
42552 "Really?" said Pierre. "Where is that?"
42554 "Come along with me to our knoll. We can get a view from there and in
42555 our battery it is still bearable," said the adjutant. "Will you come?"
42557 "Yes, I'll come with you," replied Pierre, looking round for his groom.
42559 It was only now that he noticed wounded men staggering along or being
42560 carried on stretchers. On that very meadow he had ridden over the day
42561 before, a soldier was lying athwart the rows of scented hay, with his
42562 head thrown awkwardly back and his shako off.
42564 "Why haven't they carried him away?" Pierre was about to ask, but seeing
42565 the stern expression of the adjutant who was also looking that way, he
42568 Pierre did not find his groom and rode along the hollow with the
42569 adjutant to Raevski's Redoubt. His horse lagged behind the adjutant's
42570 and jolted him at every step.
42572 "You don't seem to be used to riding, Count?" remarked the adjutant.
42574 "No it's not that, but her action seems so jerky," said Pierre in a
42577 "Why... she's wounded!" said the adjutant. "In the off foreleg above the
42578 knee. A bullet, no doubt. I congratulate you, Count, on your baptism of
42581 Having ridden in the smoke past the Sixth Corps, behind the artillery
42582 which had been moved forward and was in action, deafening them with the
42583 noise of firing, they came to a small wood. There it was cool and quiet,
42584 with a scent of autumn. Pierre and the adjutant dismounted and walked up
42587 "Is the general here?" asked the adjutant on reaching the knoll.
42589 "He was here a minute ago but has just gone that way," someone told him,
42590 pointing to the right.
42592 The adjutant looked at Pierre as if puzzled what to do with him now.
42594 "Don't trouble about me," said Pierre. "I'll go up onto the knoll if I
42597 "Yes, do. You'll see everything from there and it's less dangerous, and
42598 I'll come for you."
42600 Pierre went to the battery and the adjutant rode on. They did not meet
42601 again, and only much later did Pierre learn that he lost an arm that
42604 The knoll to which Pierre ascended was that famous one afterwards known
42605 to the Russians as the Knoll Battery or Raevski's Redoubt, and to the
42606 French as la grande redoute, la fatale redoute, la redoute du centre,
42607 around which tens of thousands fell, and which the French regarded as
42608 the key to the whole position.
42610 This redoubt consisted of a knoll, on three sides of which trenches had
42611 been dug. Within the entrenchment stood ten guns that were being fired
42612 through openings in the earthwork.
42614 In line with the knoll on both sides stood other guns which also fired
42615 incessantly. A little behind the guns stood infantry. When ascending
42616 that knoll Pierre had no notion that this spot, on which small trenches
42617 had been dug and from which a few guns were firing, was the most
42618 important point of the battle.
42620 On the contrary, just because he happened to be there he thought it one
42621 of the least significant parts of the field.
42623 Having reached the knoll, Pierre sat down at one end of a trench
42624 surrounding the battery and gazed at what was going on around him with
42625 an unconsciously happy smile. Occasionally he rose and walked about the
42626 battery still with that same smile, trying not to obstruct the soldiers
42627 who were loading, hauling the guns, and continually running past him
42628 with bags and charges. The guns of that battery were being fired
42629 continually one after another with a deafening roar, enveloping the
42630 whole neighborhood in powder smoke.
42632 In contrast with the dread felt by the infantrymen placed in support,
42633 here in the battery where a small number of men busy at their work were
42634 separated from the rest by a trench, everyone experienced a common and
42635 as it were family feeling of animation.
42637 The intrusion of Pierre's nonmilitary figure in a white hat made an
42638 unpleasant impression at first. The soldiers looked askance at him with
42639 surprise and even alarm as they went past him. The senior artillery
42640 officer, a tall, long-legged, pockmarked man, moved over to Pierre as if
42641 to see the action of the farthest gun and looked at him with curiosity.
42643 A young round-faced officer, quite a boy still and evidently only just
42644 out of the Cadet College, who was zealously commanding the two guns
42645 entrusted to him, addressed Pierre sternly.
42647 "Sir," he said, "permit me to ask you to stand aside. You must not be
42650 The soldiers shook their heads disapprovingly as they looked at Pierre.
42651 But when they had convinced themselves that this man in the white hat
42652 was doing no harm, but either sat quietly on the slope of the trench
42653 with a shy smile or, politely making way for the soldiers, paced up and
42654 down the battery under fire as calmly as if he were on a boulevard,
42655 their feeling of hostile distrust gradually began to change into a
42656 kindly and bantering sympathy, such as soldiers feel for their dogs,
42657 cocks, goats, and in general for the animals that live with the
42658 regiment. The men soon accepted Pierre into their family, adopted him,
42659 gave him a nickname ("our gentleman"), and made kindly fun of him among
42662 A shell tore up the earth two paces from Pierre and he looked around
42663 with a smile as he brushed from his clothes some earth it had thrown up.
42665 "And how's it you're not afraid, sir, really now?" a red-faced, broad-
42666 shouldered soldier asked Pierre, with a grin that disclosed a set of
42667 sound, white teeth.
42669 "Are you afraid, then?" said Pierre.
42671 "What else do you expect?" answered the soldier. "She has no mercy, you
42672 know! When she comes spluttering down, out go your innards. One can't
42673 help being afraid," he said laughing.
42675 Several of the men, with bright kindly faces, stopped beside Pierre.
42676 They seemed not to have expected him to talk like anybody else, and the
42677 discovery that he did so delighted them.
42679 "It's the business of us soldiers. But in a gentleman it's wonderful!
42680 There's a gentleman for you!"
42682 "To your places!" cried the young officer to the men gathered round
42685 The young officer was evidently exercising his duties for the first or
42686 second time and therefore treated both his superiors and the men with
42687 great precision and formality.
42689 The booming cannonade and the fusillade of musketry were growing more
42690 intense over the whole field, especially to the left where Bagration's
42691 fleches were, but where Pierre was the smoke of the firing made it
42692 almost impossible to distinguish anything. Moreover, his whole attention
42693 was engrossed by watching the family circle--separated from all else--
42694 formed by the men in the battery. His first unconscious feeling of
42695 joyful animation produced by the sights and sounds of the battlefield
42696 was now replaced by another, especially since he had seen that soldier
42697 lying alone in the hayfield. Now, seated on the slope of the trench, he
42698 observed the faces of those around him.
42700 By ten o'clock some twenty men had already been carried away from the
42701 battery; two guns were smashed and cannon balls fell more and more
42702 frequently on the battery and spent bullets buzzed and whistled around.
42703 But the men in the battery seemed not to notice this, and merry voices
42704 and jokes were heard on all sides.
42706 "A live one!" shouted a man as a whistling shell approached.
42708 "Not this way! To the infantry!" added another with loud laughter,
42709 seeing the shell fly past and fall into the ranks of the supports.
42711 "Are you bowing to a friend, eh?" remarked another, chaffing a peasant
42712 who ducked low as a cannon ball flew over.
42714 Several soldiers gathered by the wall of the trench, looking out to see
42715 what was happening in front.
42717 "They've withdrawn the front line, it has retired," said they, pointing
42718 over the earthwork.
42720 "Mind your own business," an old sergeant shouted at them. "If they've
42721 retired it's because there's work for them to do farther back."
42723 And the sergeant, taking one of the men by the shoulders, gave him a
42724 shove with his knee. This was followed by a burst of laughter.
42726 "To the fifth gun, wheel it up!" came shouts from one side.
42728 "Now then, all together, like bargees!" rose the merry voices of those
42729 who were moving the gun.
42731 "Oh, she nearly knocked our gentleman's hat off!" cried the red-faced
42732 humorist, showing his teeth chaffing Pierre. "Awkward baggage!" he added
42733 reproachfully to a cannon ball that struck a cannon wheel and a man's
42736 "Now then, you foxes!" said another, laughing at some militiamen who,
42737 stooping low, entered the battery to carry away the wounded man.
42739 "So this gruel isn't to your taste? Oh, you crows! You're scared!" they
42740 shouted at the militiamen who stood hesitating before the man whose leg
42743 "There, lads... oh, oh!" they mimicked the peasants, "they don't like it
42746 Pierre noticed that after every ball that hit the redoubt, and after
42747 every loss, the liveliness increased more and more.
42749 As the flames of the fire hidden within come more and more vividly and
42750 rapidly from an approaching thundercloud, so, as if in opposition to
42751 what was taking place, the lightning of hidden fire growing more and
42752 more intense glowed in the faces of these men.
42754 Pierre did not look out at the battlefield and was not concerned to know
42755 what was happening there; he was entirely absorbed in watching this fire
42756 which burned ever more brightly and which he felt was flaming up in the
42757 same way in his own soul.
42759 At ten o'clock the infantry that had been among the bushes in front of
42760 the battery and along the Kamenka streamlet retreated. From the battery
42761 they could be seen running back past it carrying their wounded on their
42762 muskets. A general with his suite came to the battery, and after
42763 speaking to the colonel gave Pierre an angry look and went away again
42764 having ordered the infantry supports behind the battery to lie down, so
42765 as to be less exposed to fire. After this from amid the ranks of
42766 infantry to the right of the battery came the sound of a drum and shouts
42767 of command, and from the battery one saw how those ranks of infantry
42770 Pierre looked over the wall of the trench and was particularly struck by
42771 a pale young officer who, letting his sword hang down, was walking
42772 backwards and kept glancing uneasily around.
42774 The ranks of the infantry disappeared amid the smoke but their long-
42775 drawn shout and rapid musketry firing could still be heard. A few
42776 minutes later crowds of wounded men and stretcher-bearers came back from
42777 that direction. Projectiles began to fall still more frequently in the
42778 battery. Several men were lying about who had not been removed. Around
42779 the cannon the men moved still more briskly and busily. No one any
42780 longer took notice of Pierre. Once or twice he was shouted at for being
42781 in the way. The senior officer moved with big, rapid strides from one
42782 gun to another with a frowning face. The young officer, with his face
42783 still more flushed, commanded the men more scrupulously than ever. The
42784 soldiers handed up the charges, turned, loaded, and did their business
42785 with strained smartness. They gave little jumps as they walked, as
42786 though they were on springs.
42788 The stormcloud had come upon them, and in every face the fire which
42789 Pierre had watched kindle burned up brightly. Pierre standing beside the
42790 commanding officer. The young officer, his hand to his shako, ran up to
42793 "I have the honor to report, sir, that only eight rounds are left. Are
42794 we to continue firing?" he asked.
42796 "Grapeshot!" the senior shouted, without answering the question, looking
42797 over the wall of the trench.
42799 Suddenly something happened: the young officer gave a gasp and bending
42800 double sat down on the ground like a bird shot on the wing. Everything
42801 became strange, confused, and misty in Pierre's eyes.
42803 One cannon ball after another whistled by and struck the earthwork, a
42804 soldier, or a gun. Pierre, who had not noticed these sounds before, now
42805 heard nothing else. On the right of the battery soldiers shouting
42806 "Hurrah!" were running not forwards but backwards, it seemed to Pierre.
42808 A cannon ball struck the very end of the earth work by which he was
42809 standing, crumbling down the earth; a black ball flashed before his eyes
42810 and at the same instant plumped into something. Some militiamen who were
42811 entering the battery ran back.
42813 "All with grapeshot!" shouted the officer.
42815 The sergeant ran up to the officer and in a frightened whisper informed
42816 him (as a butler at dinner informs his master that there is no more of
42817 some wine asked for) that there were no more charges.
42819 "The scoundrels! What are they doing?" shouted the officer, turning to
42822 The officer's face was red and perspiring and his eyes glittered under
42825 "Run to the reserves and bring up the ammunition boxes!" he yelled,
42826 angrily avoiding Pierre with his eyes and speaking to his men.
42828 "I'll go," said Pierre.
42830 The officer, without answering him, strode across to the opposite side.
42832 "Don't fire.... Wait!" he shouted.
42834 The man who had been ordered to go for ammunition stumbled against
42837 "Eh, sir, this is no place for you," said he, and ran down the slope.
42839 Pierre ran after him, avoiding the spot where the young officer was
42842 One cannon ball, another, and a third flew over him, falling in front,
42843 beside, and behind him. Pierre ran down the slope. "Where am I going?"
42844 he suddenly asked himself when he was already near the green ammunition
42845 wagons. He halted irresolutely, not knowing whether to return or go on.
42846 Suddenly a terrible concussion threw him backwards to the ground. At the
42847 same instant he was dazzled by a great flash of flame, and immediately a
42848 deafening roar, crackling, and whistling made his ears tingle.
42850 When he came to himself he was sitting on the ground leaning on his
42851 hands; the ammunition wagons he had been approaching no longer existed,
42852 only charred green boards and rags littered the scorched grass, and a
42853 horse, dangling fragments of its shaft behind it, galloped past, while
42854 another horse lay, like Pierre, on the ground, uttering prolonged and
42862 Beside himself with terror Pierre jumped up and ran back to the battery,
42863 as to the only refuge from the horrors that surrounded him.
42865 On entering the earthwork he noticed that there were men doing something
42866 there but that no shots were being fired from the battery. He had no
42867 time to realize who these men were. He saw the senior officer lying on
42868 the earth wall with his back turned as if he were examining something
42869 down below and that one of the soldiers he had noticed before was
42870 struggling forward shouting "Brothers!" and trying to free himself from
42871 some men who were holding him by the arm. He also saw something else
42874 But he had not time to realize that the colonel had been killed, that
42875 the soldier shouting "Brothers!" was a prisoner, and that another man
42876 had been bayoneted in the back before his eyes, for hardly had he run
42877 into the redoubt before a thin, sallow-faced, perspiring man in a blue
42878 uniform rushed on him sword in hand, shouting something. Instinctively
42879 guarding against the shock--for they had been running together at full
42880 speed before they saw one another--Pierre put out his hands and seized
42881 the man (a French officer) by the shoulder with one hand and by the
42882 throat with the other. The officer, dropping his sword, seized Pierre by
42885 For some seconds they gazed with frightened eyes at one another's
42886 unfamiliar faces and both were perplexed at what they had done and what
42887 they were to do next. "Am I taken prisoner or have I taken him
42888 prisoner?" each was thinking. But the French officer was evidently more
42889 inclined to think he had been taken prisoner because Pierre's strong
42890 hand, impelled by instinctive fear, squeezed his throat ever tighter and
42891 tighter. The Frenchman was about to say something, when just above their
42892 heads, terrible and low, a cannon ball whistled, and it seemed to Pierre
42893 that the French officer's head had been torn off, so swiftly had he
42896 Pierre too bent his head and let his hands fall. Without further thought
42897 as to who had taken whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery
42898 and Pierre ran down the slope stumbling over the dead and wounded who,
42899 it seemed to him, caught at his feet. But before he reached the foot of
42900 the knoll he was met by a dense crowd of Russian soldiers who,
42901 stumbling, tripping up, and shouting, ran merrily and wildly toward the
42902 battery. (This was the attack for which Ermolov claimed the credit,
42903 declaring that only his courage and good luck made such a feat possible:
42904 it was the attack in which he was said to have thrown some St. George's
42905 Crosses he had in his pocket into the battery for the first soldiers to
42906 take who got there.)
42908 The French who had occupied the battery fled, and our troops shouting
42909 "Hurrah!" pursued them so far beyond the battery that it was difficult
42912 The prisoners were brought down from the battery and among them was a
42913 wounded French general, whom the officers surrounded. Crowds of wounded-
42914 -some known to Pierre and some unknown--Russians and French, with faces
42915 distorted by suffering, walked, crawled, and were carried on stretchers
42916 from the battery. Pierre again went up onto the knoll where he had spent
42917 over an hour, and of that family circle which had received him as a
42918 member he did not find a single one. There were many dead whom he did
42919 not know, but some he recognized. The young officer still sat in the
42920 same way, bent double, in a pool of blood at the edge of the earth wall.
42921 The red-faced man was still twitching, but they did not carry him away.
42923 Pierre ran down the slope once more.
42925 "Now they will stop it, now they will be horrified at what they have
42926 done!" he thought, aimlessly going toward a crowd of stretcher bearers
42927 moving from the battlefield.
42929 But behind the veil of smoke the sun was still high, and in front and
42930 especially to the left, near Semenovsk, something seemed to be seething
42931 in the smoke, and the roar of cannon and musketry did not diminish, but
42932 even increased to desperation like a man who, straining himself, shrieks
42933 with all his remaining strength.
42940 The chief action of the battle of Borodino was fought within the seven
42941 thousand feet between Borodino and Bagration's fleches. Beyond that
42942 space there was, on the one side, a demonstration made by the Russians
42943 with Uvarov's cavalry at midday, and on the other side, beyond Utitsa,
42944 Poniatowski's collision with Tuchkov; but these two were detached and
42945 feeble actions in comparison with what took place in the center of the
42946 battlefield. On the field between Borodino and the fleches, beside the
42947 wood, the chief action of the day took place on an open space visible
42948 from both sides and was fought in the simplest and most artless way.
42950 The battle began on both sides with a cannonade from several hundred
42953 Then when the whole field was covered with smoke, two divisions,
42954 Campan's and Dessaix's, advanced from the French right, while Murat's
42955 troops advanced on Borodino from their left.
42957 From the Shevardino Redoubt where Napoleon was standing the fleches were
42958 two thirds of a mile away, and it was more than a mile as the crow flies
42959 to Borodino, so that Napoleon could not see what was happening there,
42960 especially as the smoke mingling with the mist hid the whole locality.
42961 The soldiers of Dessaix's division advancing against the fleches could
42962 only be seen till they had entered the hollow that lay between them and
42963 the fleches. As soon as they had descended into that hollow, the smoke
42964 of the guns and musketry on the fleches grew so dense that it covered
42965 the whole approach on that side of it. Through the smoke glimpses could
42966 be caught of something black--probably men--and at times the glint of
42967 bayonets. But whether they were moving or stationary, whether they were
42968 French or Russian, could not be discovered from the Shevardino Redoubt.
42970 The sun had risen brightly and its slanting rays struck straight into
42971 Napoleon's face as, shading his eyes with his hand, he looked at the
42972 fleches. The smoke spread out before them, and at times it looked as if
42973 the smoke were moving, at times as if the troops moved. Sometimes shouts
42974 were heard through the firing, but it was impossible to tell what was
42977 Napoleon, standing on the knoll, looked through a field glass, and in
42978 its small circlet saw smoke and men, sometimes his own and sometimes
42979 Russians, but when he looked again with the naked eye, he could not tell
42980 where what he had seen was.
42982 He descended the knoll and began walking up and down before it.
42984 Occasionally he stopped, listened to the firing, and gazed intently at
42987 But not only was it impossible to make out what was happening from where
42988 he was standing down below, or from the knoll above on which some of his
42989 generals had taken their stand, but even from the fleches themselves--in
42990 which by this time there were now Russian and now French soldiers,
42991 alternately or together, dead, wounded, alive, frightened, or maddened--
42992 even at those fleches themselves it was impossible to make out what was
42993 taking place. There for several hours amid incessant cannon and musketry
42994 fire, now Russians were seen alone, now Frenchmen alone, now infantry,
42995 and now cavalry: they appeared, fired, fell, collided, not knowing what
42996 to do with one another, screamed, and ran back again.
42998 From the battlefield adjutants he had sent out, and orderlies from his
42999 marshals, kept galloping up to Napoleon with reports of the progress of
43000 the action, but all these reports were false, both because it was
43001 impossible in the heat of battle to say what was happening at any given
43002 moment and because many of the adjutants did not go to the actual place
43003 of conflict but reported what they had heard from others; and also
43004 because while an adjutant was riding more than a mile to Napoleon
43005 circumstances changed and the news he brought was already becoming
43006 false. Thus an adjutant galloped up from Murat with tidings that
43007 Borodino had been occupied and the bridge over the Kolocha was in the
43008 hands of the French. The adjutant asked whether Napoleon wished the
43009 troops to cross it? Napoleon gave orders that the troops should form up
43010 on the farther side and wait. But before that order was given--almost as
43011 soon in fact as the adjutant had left Borodino--the bridge had been
43012 retaken by the Russians and burned, in the very skirmish at which Pierre
43013 had been present at the beginning of the battle.
43015 An adjutant galloped up from the fleches with a pale and frightened face
43016 and reported to Napoleon that their attack had been repulsed, Campan
43017 wounded, and Davout killed; yet at the very time the adjutant had been
43018 told that the French had been repulsed, the fleches had in fact been
43019 recaptured by other French troops, and Davout was alive and only
43020 slightly bruised. On the basis of these necessarily untrustworthy
43021 reports Napoleon gave his orders, which had either been executed before
43022 he gave them or could not be and were not executed.
43024 The marshals and generals, who were nearer to the field of battle but,
43025 like Napoleon, did not take part in the actual fighting and only
43026 occasionally went within musket range, made their own arrangements
43027 without asking Napoleon and issued orders where and in what direction to
43028 fire and where cavalry should gallop and infantry should run. But even
43029 their orders, like Napoleon's, were seldom carried out, and then but
43030 partially. For the most part things happened contrary to their orders.
43031 Soldiers ordered to advance ran back on meeting grapeshot; soldiers
43032 ordered to remain where they were, suddenly, seeing Russians
43033 unexpectedly before them, sometimes rushed back and sometimes forward,
43034 and the cavalry dashed without orders in pursuit of the flying Russians.
43035 In this way two cavalry regiments galloped through the Semenovsk hollow
43036 and as soon as they reached the top of the incline turned round and
43037 galloped full speed back again. The infantry moved in the same way,
43038 sometimes running to quite other places than those they were ordered to
43039 go to. All orders as to where and when to move the guns, when to send
43040 infantry to shoot or horsemen to ride down the Russian infantry--all
43041 such orders were given by the officers on the spot nearest to the units
43042 concerned, without asking either Ney, Davout, or Murat, much less
43043 Napoleon. They did not fear getting into trouble for not fulfilling
43044 orders or for acting on their own initiative, for in battle what is at
43045 stake is what is dearest to man--his own life--and it sometimes seems
43046 that safety lies in running back, sometimes in running forward; and
43047 these men who were right in the heat of the battle acted according to
43048 the mood of the moment. In reality, however, all these movements forward
43049 and backward did not improve or alter the position of the troops. All
43050 their rushing and galloping at one another did little harm, the harm of
43051 disablement and death was caused by the balls and bullets that flew over
43052 the fields on which these men were floundering about. As soon as they
43053 left the place where the balls and bullets were flying about, their
43054 superiors, located in the background, re-formed them and brought them
43055 under discipline and under the influence of that discipline led them
43056 back to the zone of fire, where under the influence of fear of death
43057 they lost their discipline and rushed about according to the chance
43058 promptings of the throng.
43065 Napoleon's generals--Davout, Ney, and Murat, who were near that region
43066 of fire and sometimes even entered it--repeatedly led into it huge
43067 masses of well-ordered troops. But contrary to what had always happened
43068 in their former battles, instead of the news they expected of the
43069 enemy's flight, these orderly masses returned thence as disorganized and
43070 terrified mobs. The generals re-formed them, but their numbers
43071 constantly decreased. In the middle of the day Murat sent his adjutant
43072 to Napoleon to demand reinforcements.
43074 Napoleon sat at the foot of the knoll, drinking punch, when Murat's
43075 adjutant galloped up with an assurance that the Russians would be routed
43076 if His Majesty would let him have another division.
43078 "Reinforcements?" said Napoleon in a tone of stern surprise, looking at
43079 the adjutant--a handsome lad with long black curls arranged like Murat's
43080 own--as though he did not understand his words.
43082 "Reinforcements!" thought Napoleon to himself. "How can they need
43083 reinforcements when they already have half the army directed against a
43084 weak, unentrenched Russian wing?"
43086 "Tell the King of Naples," said he sternly, "that it is not noon yet,
43087 and I don't yet see my chessboard clearly. Go!..."
43089 The handsome boy adjutant with the long hair sighed deeply without
43090 removing his hand from his hat and galloped back to where men were being
43093 Napoleon rose and having summoned Caulaincourt and Berthier began
43094 talking to them about matters unconnected with the battle.
43096 In the midst of this conversation, which was beginning to interest
43097 Napoleon, Berthier's eyes turned to look at a general with a suite, who
43098 was galloping toward the knoll on a lathering horse. It was Belliard.
43099 Having dismounted he went up to the Emperor with rapid strides and in a
43100 loud voice began boldly demonstrating the necessity of sending
43101 reinforcements. He swore on his honor that the Russians were lost if the
43102 Emperor would give another division.
43104 Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down
43105 without replying. Belliard began talking loudly and eagerly to the
43106 generals of the suite around him.
43108 "You are very fiery, Belliard," said Napoleon, when he again came up to
43109 the general. "In the heat of a battle it is easy to make a mistake. Go
43110 and have another look and then come back to me."
43112 Before Belliard was out of sight, a messenger from another part of the
43113 battlefield galloped up.
43115 "Now then, what do you want?" asked Napoleon in the tone of a man
43116 irritated at being continually disturbed.
43118 "Sire, the prince..." began the adjutant.
43120 "Asks for reinforcements?" said Napoleon with an angry gesture.
43122 The adjutant bent his head affirmatively and began to report, but the
43123 Emperor turned from him, took a couple of steps, stopped, came back, and
43126 "We must give reserves," he said, moving his arms slightly apart. "Who
43127 do you think should be sent there?" he asked of Berthier (whom he
43128 subsequently termed "that gosling I have made an eagle").
43130 "Send Claparede's division, sire," replied Berthier, who knew all the
43131 division's regiments, and battalions by heart.
43133 Napoleon nodded assent.
43135 The adjutant galloped to Claparede's division and a few minutes later
43136 the Young Guards stationed behind the knoll moved forward. Napoleon
43137 gazed silently in that direction.
43139 "No!" he suddenly said to Berthier. "I can't send Claparede. Send
43140 Friant's division."
43142 Though there was no advantage in sending Friant's division instead of
43143 Claparede's, and even an obvious inconvenience and delay in stopping
43144 Claparede and sending Friant now, the order was carried out exactly.
43145 Napoleon did not notice that in regard to his army he was playing the
43146 part of a doctor who hinders by his medicines--a role he so justly
43147 understood and condemned.
43149 Friant's division disappeared as the others had done into the smoke of
43150 the battlefield. From all sides adjutants continued to arrive at a
43151 gallop and as if by agreement all said the same thing. They all asked
43152 for reinforcements and all said that the Russians were holding their
43153 positions and maintaining a hellish fire under which the French army was
43156 Napoleon sat on a campstool, wrapped in thought.
43158 M. de Beausset, the man so fond of travel, having fasted since morning,
43159 came up to the Emperor and ventured respectfully to suggest lunch to His
43162 "I hope I may now congratulate Your Majesty on a victory?" said he.
43164 Napoleon silently shook his head in negation. Assuming the negation to
43165 refer only to the victory and not to the lunch, M. de Beausset ventured
43166 with respectful jocularity to remark that there is no reason for not
43167 having lunch when one can get it.
43169 "Go away..." exclaimed Napoleon suddenly and morosely, and turned aside.
43171 A beatific smile of regret, repentance, and ecstasy beamed on M. de
43172 Beausset's face and he glided away to the other generals.
43174 Napoleon was experiencing a feeling of depression like that of an ever-
43175 lucky gambler who, after recklessly flinging money about and always
43176 winning, suddenly just when he has calculated all the chances of the
43177 game, finds that the more he considers his play the more surely he
43180 His troops were the same, his generals the same, the same preparations
43181 had been made, the same dispositions, and the same proclamation courte
43182 et energique, he himself was still the same: he knew that and knew that
43183 he was now even more experienced and skillful than before. Even the
43184 enemy was the same as at Austerlitz and Friedland--yet the terrible
43185 stroke of his arm had supernaturally become impotent.
43187 All the old methods that had been unfailingly crowned with success: the
43188 concentration of batteries on one point, an attack by reserves to break
43189 the enemy's line, and a cavalry attack by "the men of iron," all these
43190 methods had already been employed, yet not only was there no victory,
43191 but from all sides came the same news of generals killed and wounded, of
43192 reinforcements needed, of the impossibility of driving back the
43193 Russians, and of disorganization among his own troops.
43195 Formerly, after he had given two or three orders and uttered a few
43196 phrases, marshals and adjutants had come galloping up with
43197 congratulations and happy faces, announcing the trophies taken, the
43198 corps of prisoners, bundles of enemy eagles and standards, cannon and
43199 stores, and Murat had only begged leave to loose the cavalry to gather
43200 in the baggage wagons. So it had been at Lodi, Marengo, Arcola, Jena,
43201 Austerlitz, Wagram, and so on. But now something strange was happening
43204 Despite news of the capture of the fleches, Napoleon saw that this was
43205 not the same, not at all the same, as what had happened in his former
43206 battles. He saw that what he was feeling was felt by all the men about
43207 him experienced in the art of war. All their faces looked dejected, and
43208 they all shunned one another's eyes--only a de Beausset could fail to
43209 grasp the meaning of what was happening.
43211 But Napoleon with his long experience of war well knew the meaning of a
43212 battle not gained by the attacking side in eight hours, after all
43213 efforts had been expended. He knew that it was a lost battle and that
43214 the least accident might now--with the fight balanced on such a strained
43215 center--destroy him and his army.
43217 When he ran his mind over the whole of this strange Russian campaign in
43218 which not one battle had been won, and in which not a flag, or cannon,
43219 or army corps had been captured in two months, when he looked at the
43220 concealed depression on the faces around him and heard reports of the
43221 Russians still holding their ground--a terrible feeling like a nightmare
43222 took possession of him, and all the unlucky accidents that might destroy
43223 him occurred to his mind. The Russians might fall on his left wing,
43224 might break through his center, he himself might be killed by a stray
43225 cannon ball. All this was possible. In former battles he had only
43226 considered the possibilities of success, but now innumerable unlucky
43227 chances presented themselves, and he expected them all. Yes, it was like
43228 a dream in which a man fancies that a ruffian is coming to attack him,
43229 and raises his arm to strike that ruffian a terrible blow which he knows
43230 should annihilate him, but then feels that his arm drops powerless and
43231 limp like a rag, and the horror of unavoidable destruction seizes him in
43234 The news that the Russians were attacking the left flank of the French
43235 army aroused that horror in Napoleon. He sat silently on a campstool
43236 below the knoll, with head bowed and elbows on his knees. Berthier
43237 approached and suggested that they should ride along the line to
43238 ascertain the position of affairs.
43240 "What? What do you say?" asked Napoleon. "Yes, tell them to bring me my
43243 He mounted and rode toward Semenovsk.
43245 Amid the powder smoke, slowly dispersing over the whole space through
43246 which Napoleon rode, horses and men were lying in pools of blood, singly
43247 or in heaps. Neither Napoleon nor any of his generals had ever before
43248 seen such horrors or so many slain in such a small area. The roar of
43249 guns, that had not ceased for ten hours, wearied the ear and gave a
43250 peculiar significance to the spectacle, as music does to tableaux
43251 vivants. Napoleon rode up the high ground at Semenovsk, and through the
43252 smoke saw ranks of men in uniforms of a color unfamiliar to him. They
43255 The Russians stood in serried ranks behind Semenovsk village and its
43256 knoll, and their guns boomed incessantly along their line and sent forth
43257 clouds of smoke. It was no longer a battle: it was a continuous
43258 slaughter which could be of no avail either to the French or the
43259 Russians. Napoleon stopped his horse and again fell into the reverie
43260 from which Berthier had aroused him. He could not stop what was going on
43261 before him and around him and was supposed to be directed by him and to
43262 depend on him, and from its lack of success this affair, for the first
43263 time, seemed to him unnecessary and horrible.
43265 One of the generals rode up to Napoleon and ventured to offer to lead
43266 the Old Guard into action. Ney and Berthier, standing near Napoleon,
43267 exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless
43270 Napoleon bowed his head and remained silent a long time.
43272 "At eight hundred leagues from France, I will not have my Guard
43273 destroyed!" he said, and turning his horse rode back to Shevardino.
43280 On the rug-covered bench where Pierre had seen him in the morning sat
43281 Kutuzov, his gray head hanging, his heavy body relaxed. He gave no
43282 orders, but only assented to or dissented from what others suggested.
43284 "Yes, yes, do that," he replied to various proposals. "Yes, yes: go,
43285 dear boy, and have a look," he would say to one or another of those
43286 about him; or, "No, don't, we'd better wait!" He listened to the reports
43287 that were brought him and gave directions when his subordinates demanded
43288 that of him; but when listening to the reports it seemed as if he were
43289 not interested in the import of the words spoken, but rather in
43290 something else--in the expression of face and tone of voice of those who
43291 were reporting. By long years of military experience he knew, and with
43292 the wisdom of age understood, that it is impossible for one man to
43293 direct hundreds of thousands of others struggling with death, and he
43294 knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a
43295 commander-in-chief, nor the place where the troops are stationed, nor by
43296 the number of cannon or of slaughtered men, but by that intangible force
43297 called the spirit of the army, and he watched this force and guided it
43298 in as far as that was in his power.
43300 Kutuzov's general expression was one of concentrated quiet attention,
43301 and his face wore a strained look as if he found it difficult to master
43302 the fatigue of his old and feeble body.
43304 At eleven o'clock they brought him news that the fleches captured by the
43305 French had been retaken, but that Prince Bagration was wounded. Kutuzov
43306 groaned and swayed his head.
43308 "Ride over to Prince Peter Ivanovich and find out about it exactly," he
43309 said to one of his adjutants, and then turned to the Duke of Wurttemberg
43310 who was standing behind him.
43312 "Will Your Highness please take command of the first army?"
43314 Soon after the duke's departure--before he could possibly have reached
43315 Semenovsk--his adjutant came back from him and told Kutuzov that the
43316 duke asked for more troops.
43318 Kutuzov made a grimace and sent an order to Dokhturov to take over the
43319 command of the first army, and a request to the duke--whom he said he
43320 could not spare at such an important moment--to return to him. When they
43321 brought him news that Murat had been taken prisoner, and the staff
43322 officers congratulated him, Kutuzov smiled.
43324 "Wait a little, gentlemen," said he. "The battle is won, and there is
43325 nothing extraordinary in the capture of Murat. Still, it is better to
43326 wait before we rejoice."
43328 But he sent an adjutant to take the news round the army.
43330 When Scherbinin came galloping from the left flank with news that the
43331 French had captured the fleches and the village of Semenovsk, Kutuzov,
43332 guessing by the sounds of the battle and by Scherbinin's looks that the
43333 news was bad, rose as if to stretch his legs and, taking Scherbinin's
43334 arm, led him aside.
43336 "Go, my dear fellow," he said to Ermolov, "and see whether something
43339 Kutuzov was in Gorki, near the center of the Russian position. The
43340 attack directed by Napoleon against our left flank had been several
43341 times repulsed. In the center the French had not got beyond Borodino,
43342 and on their left flank Uvarov's cavalry had put the French to flight.
43344 Toward three o'clock the French attacks ceased. On the faces of all who
43345 came from the field of battle, and of those who stood around him,
43346 Kutuzov noticed an expression of extreme tension. He was satisfied with
43347 the day's success--a success exceeding his expectations, but the old
43348 man's strength was failing him. Several times his head dropped low as if
43349 it were falling and he dozed off. Dinner was brought him.
43351 Adjutant General Wolzogen, the man who when riding past Prince Andrew
43352 had said, "the war should be extended widely," and whom Bagration so
43353 detested, rode up while Kutuzov was at dinner. Wolzogen had come from
43354 Barclay de Tolly to report on the progress of affairs on the left flank.
43355 The sagacious Barclay de Tolly, seeing crowds of wounded men running
43356 back and the disordered rear of the army, weighed all the circumstances,
43357 concluded that the battle was lost, and sent his favorite officer to the
43358 commander in chief with that news.
43360 Kutuzov was chewing a piece of roast chicken with difficulty and glanced
43361 at Wolzogen with eyes that brightened under their puckering lids.
43363 Wolzogen, nonchalantly stretching his legs, approached Kutuzov with a
43364 half-contemptuous smile on his lips, scarcely touching the peak of his
43367 He treated his Serene Highness with a somewhat affected nonchalance
43368 intended to show that, as a highly trained military man, he left it to
43369 Russians to make an idol of this useless old man, but that he knew whom
43370 he was dealing with. "Der alte Herr" (as in their own set the Germans
43371 called Kutuzov) "is making himself very comfortable," thought Wolzogen,
43372 and looking severely at the dishes in front of Kutuzov he began to
43373 report to "the old gentleman" the position of affairs on the left flank
43374 as Barclay had ordered him to and as he himself had seen and understood
43377 "All the points of our position are in the enemy's hands and we cannot
43378 dislodge them for lack of troops, the men are running away and it is
43379 impossible to stop them," he reported.
43381 Kutuzov ceased chewing and fixed an astonished gaze on Wolzogen, as if
43382 not understanding what was said to him. Wolzogen, noticing "the old
43383 gentleman's" agitation, said with a smile:
43385 "I have not considered it right to conceal from your Serene Highness
43386 what I have seen. The troops are in complete disorder..."
43388 "You have seen? You have seen?..." Kutuzov shouted. Frowning and rising
43389 quickly, he went up to Wolzogen.
43391 "How... how dare you!..." he shouted, choking and making a threatening
43392 gesture with his trembling arms: "How dare you, sir, say that to me? You
43393 know nothing about it. Tell General Barclay from me that his information
43394 is incorrect and that the real course of the battle is better known to
43395 me, the commander-in-chief, than to him."
43397 Wolzogen was about to make a rejoinder, but Kutuzov interrupted him.
43399 "The enemy has been repulsed on the left and defeated on the right
43400 flank. If you have seen amiss, sir, do not allow yourself to say what
43401 you don't know! Be so good as to ride to General Barclay and inform him
43402 of my firm intention to attack the enemy tomorrow," said Kutuzov
43405 All were silent, and the only sound audible was the heavy breathing of
43406 the panting old general.
43408 "They are repulsed everywhere, for which I thank God and our brave army!
43409 The enemy is beaten, and tomorrow we shall drive him from the sacred
43410 soil of Russia," said Kutuzov crossing himself, and he suddenly sobbed
43411 as his eyes filled with tears.
43413 Wolzogen, shrugging his shoulders and curling his lips, stepped silently
43414 aside, marveling at "the old gentleman's" conceited stupidity.
43416 "Ah, here he is, my hero!" said Kutuzov to a portly, handsome, dark-
43417 haired general who was just ascending the knoll.
43419 This was Raevski, who had spent the whole day at the most important part
43420 of the field of Borodino.
43422 Raevski reported that the troops were firmly holding their ground and
43423 that the French no longer ventured to attack.
43425 After hearing him, Kutuzov said in French:
43427 "Then you do not think, like some others, that we must retreat?"
43429 "On the contrary, your Highness, in indecisive actions it is always the
43430 most stubborn who remain victors," replied Raevski, "and in my
43433 "Kaysarov!" Kutuzov called to his adjutant. "Sit down and write out the
43434 order of the day for tomorrow. And you," he continued, addressing
43435 another, "ride along the line and announce that tomorrow we attack."
43437 While Kutuzov was talking to Raevski and dictating the order of the day,
43438 Wolzogen returned from Barclay and said that General Barclay wished to
43439 have written confirmation of the order the field marshal had given.
43441 Kutuzov, without looking at Wolzogen, gave directions for the order to
43442 be written out which the former commander-in-chief, to avoid personal
43443 responsibility, very judiciously wished to receive.
43445 And by means of that mysterious indefinable bond which maintains
43446 throughout an army one and the same temper, known as "the spirit of the
43447 army," and which constitutes the sinew of war, Kutuzov's words, his
43448 order for a battle next day, immediately became known from one end of
43449 the army to the other.
43451 It was far from being the same words or the same order that reached the
43452 farthest links of that chain. The tales passing from mouth to mouth at
43453 different ends of the army did not even resemble what Kutuzov had said,
43454 but the sense of his words spread everywhere because what he said was
43455 not the outcome of cunning calculations, but of a feeling that lay in
43456 the commander-in-chief's soul as in that of every Russian.
43458 And on learning that tomorrow they were to attack the enemy, and hearing
43459 from the highest quarters a confirmation of what they wanted to believe,
43460 the exhausted, wavering men felt comforted and inspirited.
43467 Prince Andrew's regiment was among the reserves which till after one
43468 o'clock were stationed inactive behind Semenovsk, under heavy artillery
43469 fire. Toward two o'clock the regiment, having already lost more than two
43470 hundred men, was moved forward into a trampled oatfield in the gap
43471 between Semenovsk and the Knoll Battery, where thousands of men perished
43472 that day and on which an intense, concentrated fire from several hundred
43473 enemy guns was directed between one and two o'clock.
43475 Without moving from that spot or firing a single shot the regiment here
43476 lost another third of its men. From in front and especially from the
43477 right, in the unlifting smoke the guns boomed, and out of the mysterious
43478 domain of smoke that overlay the whole space in front, quick hissing
43479 cannon balls and slow whistling shells flew unceasingly. At times, as if
43480 to allow them a respite, a quarter of an hour passed during which the
43481 cannon balls and shells all flew overhead, but sometimes several men
43482 were torn from the regiment in a minute and the slain were continually
43483 being dragged away and the wounded carried off.
43485 With each fresh blow less and less chance of life remained for those not
43486 yet killed. The regiment stood in columns of battalion, three hundred
43487 paces apart, but nevertheless the men were always in one and the same
43488 mood. All alike were taciturn and morose. Talk was rarely heard in the
43489 ranks, and it ceased altogether every time the thud of a successful shot
43490 and the cry of "stretchers!" was heard. Most of the time, by their
43491 officers' order, the men sat on the ground. One, having taken off his
43492 shako, carefully loosened the gathers of its lining and drew them tight
43493 again; another, rubbing some dry clay between his palms, polished his
43494 bayonet; another fingered the strap and pulled the buckle of his
43495 bandolier, while another smoothed and refolded his leg bands and put his
43496 boots on again. Some built little houses of the tufts in the plowed
43497 ground, or plaited baskets from the straw in the cornfield. All seemed
43498 fully absorbed in these pursuits. When men were killed or wounded, when
43499 rows of stretchers went past, when some troops retreated, and when great
43500 masses of the enemy came into view through the smoke, no one paid any
43501 attention to these things. But when our artillery or cavalry advanced or
43502 some of our infantry were seen to move forward, words of approval were
43503 heard on all sides. But the liveliest attention was attracted by
43504 occurrences quite apart from, and unconnected with, the battle. It was
43505 as if the minds of these morally exhausted men found relief in everyday,
43506 commonplace occurrences. A battery of artillery was passing in front of
43507 the regiment. The horse of an ammunition cart put its leg over a trace.
43508 "Hey, look at the trace horse!... Get her leg out! She'll fall.... Ah,
43509 they don't see it!" came identical shouts from the ranks all along the
43510 regiment. Another time, general attention was attracted by a small brown
43511 dog, coming heaven knows whence, which trotted in a preoccupied manner
43512 in front of the ranks with tail stiffly erect till suddenly a shell fell
43513 close by, when it yelped, tucked its tail between its legs, and darted
43514 aside. Yells and shrieks of laughter rose from the whole regiment. But
43515 such distractions lasted only a moment, and for eight hours the men had
43516 been inactive, without food, in constant fear of death, and their pale
43517 and gloomy faces grew ever paler and gloomier.
43519 Prince Andrew, pale and gloomy like everyone in the regiment, paced up
43520 and down from the border of one patch to another, at the edge of the
43521 meadow beside an oatfield, with head bowed and arms behind his back.
43522 There was nothing for him to do and no orders to be given. Everything
43523 went on of itself. The killed were dragged from the front, the wounded
43524 carried away, and the ranks closed up. If any soldiers ran to the rear
43525 they returned immediately and hastily. At first Prince Andrew,
43526 considering it his duty to rouse the courage of the men and to set them
43527 an example, walked about among the ranks, but he soon became convinced
43528 that this was unnecessary and that there was nothing he could teach
43529 them. All the powers of his soul, as of every soldier there, were
43530 unconsciously bent on avoiding the contemplation of the horrors of their
43531 situation. He walked along the meadow, dragging his feet, rustling the
43532 grass, and gazing at the dust that covered his boots; now he took big
43533 strides trying to keep to the footprints left on the meadow by the
43534 mowers, then he counted his steps, calculating how often he must walk
43535 from one strip to another to walk a mile, then he stripped the flowers
43536 from the wormwood that grew along a boundary rut, rubbed them in his
43537 palms, and smelled their pungent, sweetly bitter scent. Nothing remained
43538 of the previous day's thoughts. He thought of nothing. He listened with
43539 weary ears to the ever-recurring sounds, distinguishing the whistle of
43540 flying projectiles from the booming of the reports, glanced at the
43541 tiresomely familiar faces of the men of the first battalion, and waited.
43542 "Here it comes... this one is coming our way again!" he thought,
43543 listening to an approaching whistle in the hidden region of smoke. "One,
43544 another! Again! It has hit...." He stopped and looked at the ranks. "No,
43545 it has gone over. But this one has hit!" And again he started trying to
43546 reach the boundary strip in sixteen paces. A whizz and a thud! Five
43547 paces from him, a cannon ball tore up the dry earth and disappeared. A
43548 chill ran down his back. Again he glanced at the ranks. Probably many
43549 had been hit--a large crowd had gathered near the second battalion.
43551 "Adjutant!" he shouted. "Order them not to crowd together."
43553 The adjutant, having obeyed this instruction, approached Prince Andrew.
43554 From the other side a battalion commander rode up.
43556 "Look out!" came a frightened cry from a soldier and, like a bird
43557 whirring in rapid flight and alighting on the ground, a shell dropped
43558 with little noise within two steps of Prince Andrew and close to the
43559 battalion commander's horse. The horse first, regardless of whether it
43560 was right or wrong to show fear, snorted, reared almost throwing the
43561 major, and galloped aside. The horse's terror infected the men.
43563 "Lie down!" cried the adjutant, throwing himself flat on the ground.
43565 Prince Andrew hesitated. The smoking shell spun like a top between him
43566 and the prostrate adjutant, near a wormwood plant between the field and
43569 "Can this be death?" thought Prince Andrew, looking with a quite new,
43570 envious glance at the grass, the wormwood, and the streamlet of smoke
43571 that curled up from the rotating black ball. "I cannot, I do not wish to
43572 die. I love life--I love this grass, this earth, this air...." He
43573 thought this, and at the same time remembered that people were looking
43576 "It's shameful, sir!" he said to the adjutant. "What..."
43578 He did not finish speaking. At one and the same moment came the sound of
43579 an explosion, a whistle of splinters as from a breaking window frame, a
43580 suffocating smell of powder, and Prince Andrew started to one side,
43581 raising his arm, and fell on his chest. Several officers ran up to him.
43582 From the right side of his abdomen, blood was welling out making a large
43583 stain on the grass.
43585 The militiamen with stretchers who were called up stood behind the
43586 officers. Prince Andrew lay on his chest with his face in the grass,
43587 breathing heavily and noisily.
43589 "What are you waiting for? Come along!"
43591 The peasants went up and took him by his shoulders and legs, but he
43592 moaned piteously and, exchanging looks, they set him down again.
43594 "Pick him up, lift him, it's all the same!" cried someone.
43596 They again took him by the shoulders and laid him on the stretcher.
43598 "Ah, God! My God! What is it? The stomach? That means death! My God!"--
43599 voices among the officers were heard saying.
43601 "It flew a hair's breadth past my ear," said the adjutant.
43603 The peasants, adjusting the stretcher to their shoulders, started
43604 hurriedly along the path they had trodden down, to the dressing station.
43606 "Keep in step! Ah... those peasants!" shouted an officer, seizing by
43607 their shoulders and checking the peasants, who were walking unevenly and
43608 jolting the stretcher.
43610 "Get into step, Fedor... I say, Fedor!" said the foremost peasant.
43612 "Now that's right!" said the one behind joyfully, when he had got into
43615 "Your excellency! Eh, Prince!" said the trembling voice of Timokhin, who
43616 had run up and was looking down on the stretcher.
43618 Prince Andrew opened his eyes and looked up at the speaker from the
43619 stretcher into which his head had sunk deep and again his eyelids
43622 The militiamen carried Prince Andrew to the dressing station by the
43623 wood, where wagons were stationed. The dressing station consisted of
43624 three tents with flaps turned back, pitched at the edge of a birch wood.
43625 In the wood, wagons and horses were standing. The horses were eating
43626 oats from their movable troughs and sparrows flew down and pecked the
43627 grains that fell. Some crows, scenting blood, flew among the birch trees
43628 cawing impatiently. Around the tents, over more than five acres,
43629 bloodstained men in various garbs stood, sat, or lay. Around the wounded
43630 stood crowds of soldier stretcher-bearers with dismal and attentive
43631 faces, whom the officers keeping order tried in vain to drive from the
43632 spot. Disregarding the officers' orders, the soldiers stood leaning
43633 against their stretchers and gazing intently, as if trying to comprehend
43634 the difficult problem of what was taking place before them. From the
43635 tents came now loud angry cries and now plaintive groans. Occasionally
43636 dressers ran out to fetch water, or to point out those who were to be
43637 brought in next. The wounded men awaiting their turn outside the tents
43638 groaned, sighed, wept, screamed, swore, or asked for vodka. Some were
43639 delirious. Prince Andrew's bearers, stepping over the wounded who had
43640 not yet been bandaged, took him, as a regimental commander, close up to
43641 one of the tents and there stopped, awaiting instructions. Prince Andrew
43642 opened his eyes and for a long time could not make out what was going on
43643 around him. He remembered the meadow, the wormwood, the field, the
43644 whirling black ball, and his sudden rush of passionate love of life. Two
43645 steps from him, leaning against a branch and talking loudly and
43646 attracting general attention, stood a tall, handsome, black-haired
43647 noncommissioned officer with a bandaged head. He had been wounded in the
43648 head and leg by bullets. Around him, eagerly listening to his talk, a
43649 crowd of wounded and stretcher-bearers was gathered.
43651 "We kicked him out from there so that he chucked everything, we grabbed
43652 the King himself!" cried he, looking around him with eyes that glittered
43653 with fever. "If only reserves had come up just then, lads, there
43654 wouldn't have been nothing left of him! I tell you surely..."
43656 Like all the others near the speaker, Prince Andrew looked at him with
43657 shining eyes and experienced a sense of comfort. "But isn't it all the
43658 same now?" thought he. "And what will be there, and what has there been
43659 here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in
43660 this life I did not and do not understand."
43667 One of the doctors came out of the tent in a bloodstained apron, holding
43668 a cigar between the thumb and little finger of one of his small
43669 bloodstained hands, so as not to smear it. He raised his head and looked
43670 about him, but above the level of the wounded men. He evidently wanted a
43671 little respite. After turning his head from right to left for some time,
43672 he sighed and looked down.
43674 "All right, immediately," he replied to a dresser who pointed Prince
43675 Andrew out to him, and he told them to carry him into the tent.
43677 Murmurs arose among the wounded who were waiting.
43679 "It seems that even in the next world only the gentry are to have a
43680 chance!" remarked one.
43682 Prince Andrew was carried in and laid on a table that had only just been
43683 cleared and which a dresser was washing down. Prince Andrew could not
43684 make out distinctly what was in that tent. The pitiful groans from all
43685 sides and the torturing pain in his thigh, stomach, and back distracted
43686 him. All he saw about him merged into a general impression of naked,
43687 bleeding human bodies that seemed to fill the whole of the low tent, as
43688 a few weeks previously, on that hot August day, such bodies had filled
43689 the dirty pond beside the Smolensk road. Yes, it was the same flesh, the
43690 same chair a canon, the sight of which had even then filled him with
43691 horror, as by a presentiment.
43693 There were three operating tables in the tent. Two were occupied, and on
43694 the third they placed Prince Andrew. For a little while he was left
43695 alone and involuntarily witnessed what was taking place on the other two
43696 tables. On the nearest one sat a Tartar, probably a Cossack, judging by
43697 the uniform thrown down beside him. Four soldiers were holding him, and
43698 a spectacled doctor was cutting into his muscular brown back.
43700 "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" grunted the Tartar, and suddenly lifting up his swarthy
43701 snub-nosed face with its high cheekbones, and baring his white teeth, he
43702 began to wriggle and twitch his body and utter piercing, ringing, and
43703 prolonged yells. On the other table, round which many people were
43704 crowding, a tall well-fed man lay on his back with his head thrown back.
43705 His curly hair, its color, and the shape of his head seemed strangely
43706 familiar to Prince Andrew. Several dressers were pressing on his chest
43707 to hold him down. One large, white, plump leg twitched rapidly all the
43708 time with a feverish tremor. The man was sobbing and choking
43709 convulsively. Two doctors--one of whom was pale and trembling--were
43710 silently doing something to this man's other, gory leg. When he had
43711 finished with the Tartar, whom they covered with an overcoat, the
43712 spectacled doctor came up to Prince Andrew, wiping his hands.
43714 He glanced at Prince Andrew's face and quickly turned away.
43716 "Undress him! What are you waiting for?" he cried angrily to the
43719 His very first, remotest recollections of childhood came back to Prince
43720 Andrew's mind when the dresser with sleeves rolled up began hastily to
43721 undo the buttons of his clothes and undressed him. The doctor bent down
43722 over the wound, felt it, and sighed deeply. Then he made a sign to
43723 someone, and the torturing pain in his abdomen caused Prince Andrew to
43724 lose consciousness. When he came to himself the splintered portions of
43725 his thighbone had been extracted, the torn flesh cut away, and the wound
43726 bandaged. Water was being sprinkled on his face. As soon as Prince
43727 Andrew opened his eyes, the doctor bent over, kissed him silently on the
43728 lips, and hurried away.
43730 After the sufferings he had been enduring, Prince Andrew enjoyed a
43731 blissful feeling such as he had not experienced for a long time. All the
43732 best and happiest moments of his life--especially his earliest
43733 childhood, when he used to be undressed and put to bed, and when leaning
43734 over him his nurse sang him to sleep and he, burying his head in the
43735 pillow, felt happy in the mere consciousness of life--returned to his
43736 memory, not merely as something past but as something present.
43738 The doctors were busily engaged with the wounded man the shape of whose
43739 head seemed familiar to Prince Andrew: they were lifting him up and
43740 trying to quiet him.
43742 "Show it to me.... Oh, ooh... Oh! Oh, ooh!" his frightened moans could
43743 be heard, subdued by suffering and broken by sobs.
43745 Hearing those moans Prince Andrew wanted to weep. Whether because he was
43746 dying without glory, or because he was sorry to part with life, or
43747 because of those memories of a childhood that could not return, or
43748 because he was suffering and others were suffering and that man near him
43749 was groaning so piteously--he felt like weeping childlike, kindly, and
43750 almost happy tears.
43752 The wounded man was shown his amputated leg stained with clotted blood
43753 and with the boot still on.
43755 "Oh! Oh, ooh!" he sobbed, like a woman.
43757 The doctor who had been standing beside him, preventing Prince Andrew
43758 from seeing his face, moved away.
43760 "My God! What is this? Why is he here?" said Prince Andrew to himself.
43762 In the miserable, sobbing, enfeebled man whose leg had just been
43763 amputated, he recognized Anatole Kuragin. Men were supporting him in
43764 their arms and offering him a glass of water, but his trembling, swollen
43765 lips could not grasp its rim. Anatole was sobbing painfully. "Yes, it is
43766 he! Yes, that man is somehow closely and painfully connected with me,"
43767 thought Prince Andrew, not yet clearly grasping what he saw before him.
43768 "What is the connection of that man with my childhood and life?" he
43769 asked himself without finding an answer. And suddenly a new unexpected
43770 memory from that realm of pure and loving childhood presented itself to
43771 him. He remembered Natasha as he had seen her for the first time at the
43772 ball in 1810, with her slender neck and arms and with a frightened happy
43773 face ready for rapture, and love and tenderness for her, stronger and
43774 more vivid than ever, awoke in his soul. He now remembered the
43775 connection that existed between himself and this man who was dimly
43776 gazing at him through tears that filled his swollen eyes. He remembered
43777 everything, and ecstatic pity and love for that man overflowed his happy
43780 Prince Andrew could no longer restrain himself and wept tender loving
43781 tears for his fellow men, for himself, and for his own and their errors.
43783 "Compassion, love of our brothers, for those who love us and for those
43784 who hate us, love of our enemies; yes, that love which God preached on
43785 earth and which Princess Mary taught me and I did not understand--that
43786 is what made me sorry to part with life, that is what remained for me
43787 had I lived. But now it is too late. I know it!"
43794 The terrible spectacle of the battlefield covered with dead and wounded,
43795 together with the heaviness of his head and the news that some twenty
43796 generals he knew personally had been killed or wounded, and the
43797 consciousness of the impotence of his once mighty arm, produced an
43798 unexpected impression on Napoleon who usually liked to look at the
43799 killed and wounded, thereby, he considered, testing his strength of
43800 mind. This day the horrible appearance of the battlefield overcame that
43801 strength of mind which he thought constituted his merit and his
43802 greatness. He rode hurriedly from the battlefield and returned to the
43803 Shevardino knoll, where he sat on his campstool, his sallow face swollen
43804 and heavy, his eyes dim, his nose red, and his voice hoarse,
43805 involuntarily listening, with downcast eyes, to the sounds of firing.
43806 With painful dejection he awaited the end of this action, in which he
43807 regarded himself as a participant and which he was unable to arrest. A
43808 personal, human feeling for a brief moment got the better of the
43809 artificial phantasm of life he had served so long. He felt in his own
43810 person the sufferings and death he had witnessed on the battlefield. The
43811 heaviness of his head and chest reminded him of the possibility of
43812 suffering and death for himself. At that moment he did not desire
43813 Moscow, or victory, or glory (what need had he for any more glory?). The
43814 one thing he wished for was rest, tranquillity, and freedom. But when he
43815 had been on the Semenovsk heights the artillery commander had proposed
43816 to him to bring several batteries of artillery up to those heights to
43817 strengthen the fire on the Russian troops crowded in front of Knyazkovo.
43818 Napoleon had assented and had given orders that news should be brought
43819 to him of the effect those batteries produced.
43821 An adjutant came now to inform him that the fire of two hundred guns had
43822 been concentrated on the Russians, as he had ordered, but that they
43823 still held their ground.
43825 "Our fire is mowing them down by rows, but still they hold on," said the
43828 "They want more!..." said Napoleon in a hoarse voice.
43830 "Sire?" asked the adjutant who had not heard the remark.
43832 "They want more!" croaked Napoleon frowning. "Let them have it!"
43834 Even before he gave that order the thing he did not desire, and for
43835 which he gave the order only because he thought it was expected of him,
43836 was being done. And he fell back into that artificial realm of imaginary
43837 greatness, and again--as a horse walking a treadmill thinks it is doing
43838 something for itself--he submissively fulfilled the cruel, sad, gloomy,
43839 and inhuman role predestined for him.
43841 And not for that day and hour alone were the mind and conscience
43842 darkened of this man on whom the responsibility for what was happening
43843 lay more than on all the others who took part in it. Never to the end of
43844 his life could he understand goodness, beauty, or truth, or the
43845 significance of his actions which were too contrary to goodness and
43846 truth, too remote from everything human, for him ever to be able to
43847 grasp their meaning. He could not disavow his actions, belauded as they
43848 were by half the world, and so he had to repudiate truth, goodness, and
43851 Not only on that day, as he rode over the battlefield strewn with men
43852 killed and maimed (by his will as he believed), did he reckon as he
43853 looked at them how many Russians there were for each Frenchman and,
43854 deceiving himself, find reason for rejoicing in the calculation that
43855 there were five Russians for every Frenchman. Not on that day alone did
43856 he write in a letter to Paris that "the battle field was superb,"
43857 because fifty thousand corpses lay there, but even on the island of St.
43858 Helena in the peaceful solitude where he said he intended to devote his
43859 leisure to an account of the great deeds he had done, he wrote:
43861 The Russian war should have been the most popular war of modern times:
43862 it was a war of good sense, for real interests, for the tranquillity and
43863 security of all; it was purely pacific and conservative.
43865 It was a war for a great cause, the end of uncertainties and the
43866 beginning of security. A new horizon and new labors were opening out,
43867 full of well-being and prosperity for all. The European system was
43868 already founded; all that remained was to organize it.
43870 Satisfied on these great points and with tranquility everywhere, I too
43871 should have had my Congress and my Holy Alliance. Those ideas were
43872 stolen from me. In that reunion of great sovereigns we should have
43873 discussed our interests like one family, and have rendered account to
43874 the peoples as clerk to master.
43876 Europe would in this way soon have been, in fact, but one people, and
43877 anyone who traveled anywhere would have found himself always in the
43878 common fatherland. I should have demanded the freedom of all navigable
43879 rivers for everybody, that the seas should be common to all, and that
43880 the great standing armies should be reduced henceforth to mere guards
43881 for the sovereigns.
43883 On returning to France, to the bosom of the great, strong, magnificent,
43884 peaceful, and glorious fatherland, I should have proclaimed her
43885 frontiers immutable; all future wars purely defensive, all
43886 aggrandizement antinational. I should have associated my son in the
43887 Empire; my dictatorship would have been finished, and his constitutional
43888 reign would have begun.
43890 Paris would have been the capital of the world, and the French the envy
43893 My leisure then, and my old age, would have been devoted, in company
43894 with the Empress and during the royal apprenticeship of my son, to
43895 leisurely visiting, with our own horses and like a true country couple,
43896 every corner of the Empire, receiving complaints, redressing wrongs, and
43897 scattering public buildings and benefactions on all sides and
43900 Napoleon, predestined by Providence for the gloomy role of executioner
43901 of the peoples, assured himself that the aim of his actions had been the
43902 peoples' welfare and that he could control the fate of millions and by
43903 the employment of power confer benefactions.
43905 "Of four hundred thousand who crossed the Vistula," he wrote further of
43906 the Russian war, "half were Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Poles,
43907 Bavarians, Wurttembergers, Mecklenburgers, Spaniards, Italians, and
43908 Neapolitans. The Imperial army, strictly speaking, was one third
43909 composed of Dutch, Belgians, men from the borders of the Rhine,
43910 Piedmontese, Swiss, Genevese, Tuscans, Romans, inhabitants of the
43911 Thirty-second Military Division, of Bremen, of Hamburg, and so on: it
43912 included scarcely a hundred and forty thousand who spoke French. The
43913 Russian expedition actually cost France less than fifty thousand men;
43914 the Russian army in its retreat from Vilna to Moscow lost in the various
43915 battles four times more men than the French army; the burning of Moscow
43916 cost the lives of a hundred thousand Russians who died of cold and want
43917 in the woods; finally, in its march from Moscow to the Oder the Russian
43918 army also suffered from the severity of the season; so that by the time
43919 it reached Vilna it numbered only fifty thousand, and at Kalisch less
43920 than eighteen thousand."
43922 He imagined that the war with Russia came about by his will, and the
43923 horrors that occurred did not stagger his soul. He boldly took the whole
43924 responsibility for what happened, and his darkened mind found
43925 justification in the belief that among the hundreds of thousands who
43926 perished there were fewer Frenchmen than Hessians and Bavarians.
43933 Several tens of thousands of the slain lay in diverse postures and
43934 various uniforms on the fields and meadows belonging to the Davydov
43935 family and to the crown serfs--those fields and meadows where for
43936 hundreds of years the peasants of Borodino, Gorki, Shevardino, and
43937 Semenovsk had reaped their harvests and pastured their cattle. At the
43938 dressing stations the grass and earth were soaked with blood for a space
43939 of some three acres around. Crowds of men of various arms, wounded and
43940 unwounded, with frightened faces, dragged themselves back to Mozhaysk
43941 from the one army and back to Valuevo from the other. Other crowds,
43942 exhausted and hungry, went forward led by their officers. Others held
43943 their ground and continued to fire.
43945 Over the whole field, previously so gaily beautiful with the glitter of
43946 bayonets and cloudlets of smoke in the morning sun, there now spread a
43947 mist of damp and smoke and a strange acid smell of saltpeter and blood.
43948 Clouds gathered and drops of rain began to fall on the dead and wounded,
43949 on the frightened, exhausted, and hesitating men, as if to say: "Enough,
43950 men! Enough! Cease... bethink yourselves! What are you doing?"
43952 To the men of both sides alike, worn out by want of food and rest, it
43953 began equally to appear doubtful whether they should continue to
43954 slaughter one another; all the faces expressed hesitation, and the
43955 question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be
43956 killed?... You may go and kill whom you please, but I don't want to do
43957 so anymore!" By evening this thought had ripened in every soul. At any
43958 moment these men might have been seized with horror at what they were
43959 doing and might have thrown up everything and run away anywhere.
43961 But though toward the end of the battle the men felt all the horror of
43962 what they were doing, though they would have been glad to leave off,
43963 some incomprehensible, mysterious power continued to control them, and
43964 they still brought up the charges, loaded, aimed, and applied the match,
43965 though only one artilleryman survived out of every three, and though
43966 they stumbled and panted with fatigue, perspiring and stained with blood
43967 and powder. The cannon balls flew just as swiftly and cruelly from both
43968 sides, crushing human bodies, and that terrible work which was not done
43969 by the will of a man but at the will of Him who governs men and worlds
43972 Anyone looking at the disorganized rear of the Russian army would have
43973 said that, if only the French made one more slight effort, it would
43974 disappear; and anyone looking at the rear of the French army would have
43975 said that the Russians need only make one more slight effort and the
43976 French would be destroyed. But neither the French nor the Russians made
43977 that effort, and the flame of battle burned slowly out.
43979 The Russians did not make that effort because they were not attacking
43980 the French. At the beginning of the battle they stood blocking the way
43981 to Moscow and they still did so at the end of the battle as at the
43982 beginning. But even had the aim of the Russians been to drive the French
43983 from their positions, they could not have made this last effort, for all
43984 the Russian troops had been broken up, there was no part of the Russian
43985 army that had not suffered in the battle, and though still holding their
43986 positions they had lost ONE HALF of their army.
43988 The French, with the memory of all their former victories during fifteen
43989 years, with the assurance of Napoleon's invincibility, with the
43990 consciousness that they had captured part of the battlefield and had
43991 lost only a quarter of their men and still had their Guards intact,
43992 twenty thousand strong, might easily have made that effort. The French
43993 who had attacked the Russian army in order to drive it from its position
43994 ought to have made that effort, for as long as the Russians continued to
43995 block the road to Moscow as before, the aim of the French had not been
43996 attained and all their efforts and losses were in vain. But the French
43997 did not make that effort. Some historians say that Napoleon need only
43998 have used his Old Guards, who were intact, and the battle would have
43999 been won. To speak of what would have happened had Napoleon sent his
44000 Guards is like talking of what would happen if autumn became spring. It
44001 could not be. Napoleon did not give his Guards, not because he did not
44002 want to, but because it could not be done. All the generals, officers,
44003 and soldiers of the French army knew it could not be done, because the
44004 flagging spirit of the troops would not permit it.
44006 It was not Napoleon alone who had experienced that nightmare feeling of
44007 the mighty arm being stricken powerless, but all the generals and
44008 soldiers of his army whether they had taken part in the battle or not,
44009 after all their experience of previous battles--when after one tenth of
44010 such efforts the enemy had fled--experienced a similar feeling of terror
44011 before an enemy who, after losing HALF his men, stood as threateningly
44012 at the end as at the beginning of the battle. The moral force of the
44013 attacking French army was exhausted. Not that sort of victory which is
44014 defined by the capture of pieces of material fastened to sticks, called
44015 standards, and of the ground on which the troops had stood and were
44016 standing, but a moral victory that convinces the enemy of the moral
44017 superiority of his opponent and of his own impotence was gained by the
44018 Russians at Borodino. The French invaders, like an infuriated animal
44019 that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were
44020 perishing, but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by
44021 one half, could help swerving. By impetus gained, the French army was
44022 still able to roll forward to Moscow, but there, without further effort
44023 on the part of the Russians, it had to perish, bleeding from the mortal
44024 wound it had received at Borodino. The direct consequence of the battle
44025 of Borodino was Napoleon's senseless flight from Moscow, his retreat
44026 along the old Smolensk road, the destruction of the invading army of
44027 five hundred thousand men, and the downfall of Napoleonic France, on
44028 which at Borodino for the first time the hand of an opponent of stronger
44029 spirit had been laid.
44038 Absolute continuity of motion is not comprehensible to the human mind.
44039 Laws of motion of any kind become comprehensible to man only when he
44040 examines arbitrarily selected elements of that motion; but at the same
44041 time, a large proportion of human error comes from the arbitrary
44042 division of continuous motion into discontinuous elements. There is a
44043 well known, so-called sophism of the ancients consisting in this, that
44044 Achilles could never catch up with a tortoise he was following, in spite
44045 of the fact that he traveled ten times as fast as the tortoise. By the
44046 time Achilles has covered the distance that separated him from the
44047 tortoise, the tortoise has covered one tenth of that distance ahead of
44048 him: when Achilles has covered that tenth, the tortoise has covered
44049 another one hundredth, and so on forever. This problem seemed to the
44050 ancients insoluble. The absurd answer (that Achilles could never
44051 overtake the tortoise) resulted from this: that motion was arbitrarily
44052 divided into discontinuous elements, whereas the motion both of Achilles
44053 and of the tortoise was continuous.
44055 By adopting smaller and smaller elements of motion we only approach a
44056 solution of the problem, but never reach it. Only when we have admitted
44057 the conception of the infinitely small, and the resulting geometrical
44058 progression with a common ratio of one tenth, and have found the sum of
44059 this progression to infinity, do we reach a solution of the problem.
44061 A modern branch of mathematics having achieved the art of dealing with
44062 the infinitely small can now yield solutions in other more complex
44063 problems of motion which used to appear insoluble.
44065 This modern branch of mathematics, unknown to the ancients, when dealing
44066 with problems of motion admits the conception of the infinitely small,
44067 and so conforms to the chief condition of motion (absolute continuity)
44068 and thereby corrects the inevitable error which the human mind cannot
44069 avoid when it deals with separate elements of motion instead of
44070 examining continuous motion.
44072 In seeking the laws of historical movement just the same thing happens.
44073 The movement of humanity, arising as it does from innumerable arbitrary
44074 human wills, is continuous.
44076 To understand the laws of this continuous movement is the aim of
44077 history. But to arrive at these laws, resulting from the sum of all
44078 those human wills, man's mind postulates arbitrary and disconnected
44079 units. The first method of history is to take an arbitrarily selected
44080 series of continuous events and examine it apart from others, though
44081 there is and can be no beginning to any event, for one event always
44082 flows uninterruptedly from another.
44084 The second method is to consider the actions of some one man--a king or
44085 a commander--as equivalent to the sum of many individual wills; whereas
44086 the sum of individual wills is never expressed by the activity of a
44087 single historic personage.
44089 Historical science in its endeavor to draw nearer to truth continually
44090 takes smaller and smaller units for examination. But however small the
44091 units it takes, we feel that to take any unit disconnected from others,
44092 or to assume a beginning of any phenomenon, or to say that the will of
44093 many men is expressed by the actions of any one historic personage, is
44096 It needs no critical exertion to reduce utterly to dust any deductions
44097 drawn from history. It is merely necessary to select some larger or
44098 smaller unit as the subject of observation--as criticism has every right
44099 to do, seeing that whatever unit history observes must always be
44100 arbitrarily selected.
44102 Only by taking infinitesimally small units for observation (the
44103 differential of history, that is, the individual tendencies of men) and
44104 attaining to the art of integrating them (that is, finding the sum of
44105 these infinitesimals) can we hope to arrive at the laws of history.
44107 The first fifteen years of the nineteenth century in Europe present an
44108 extraordinary movement of millions of people. Men leave their customary
44109 pursuits, hasten from one side of Europe to the other, plunder and
44110 slaughter one another, triumph and are plunged in despair, and for some
44111 years the whole course of life is altered and presents an intensive
44112 movement which first increases and then slackens. What was the cause of
44113 this movement, by what laws was it governed? asks the mind of man.
44115 The historians, replying to this question, lay before us the sayings and
44116 doings of a few dozen men in a building in the city of Paris, calling
44117 these sayings and doings "the Revolution"; then they give a detailed
44118 biography of Napoleon and of certain people favorable or hostile to him;
44119 tell of the influence some of these people had on others, and say: that
44120 is why this movement took place and those are its laws.
44122 But the mind of man not only refuses to believe this explanation, but
44123 plainly says that this method of explanation is fallacious, because in
44124 it a weaker phenomenon is taken as the cause of a stronger. The sum of
44125 human wills produced the Revolution and Napoleon, and only the sum of
44126 those wills first tolerated and then destroyed them.
44128 "But every time there have been conquests there have been conquerors;
44129 every time there has been a revolution in any state there have been
44130 great men," says history. And, indeed, human reason replies: every time
44131 conquerors appear there have been wars, but this does not prove that the
44132 conquerors caused the wars and that it is possible to find the laws of a
44133 war in the personal activity of a single man. Whenever I look at my
44134 watch and its hands point to ten, I hear the bells of the neighboring
44135 church; but because the bells begin to ring when the hands of the clock
44136 reach ten, I have no right to assume that the movement of the bells is
44137 caused by the position of the hands of the watch.
44139 Whenever I see the movement of a locomotive I hear the whistle and see
44140 the valves opening and wheels turning; but I have no right to conclude
44141 that the whistling and the turning of wheels are the cause of the
44142 movement of the engine.
44144 The peasants say that a cold wind blows in late spring because the oaks
44145 are budding, and really every spring cold winds do blow when the oak is
44146 budding. But though I do not know what causes the cold winds to blow
44147 when the oak buds unfold, I cannot agree with the peasants that the
44148 unfolding of the oak buds is the cause of the cold wind, for the force
44149 of the wind is beyond the influence of the buds. I see only a
44150 coincidence of occurrences such as happens with all the phenomena of
44151 life, and I see that however much and however carefully I observe the
44152 hands of the watch, and the valves and wheels of the engine, and the
44153 oak, I shall not discover the cause of the bells ringing, the engine
44154 moving, or of the winds of spring. To that I must entirely change my
44155 point of view and study the laws of the movement of steam, of the bells,
44156 and of the wind. History must do the same. And attempts in this
44157 direction have already been made.
44159 To study the laws of history we must completely change the subject of
44160 our observation, must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and
44161 study the common, infinitesimally small elements by which the masses are
44162 moved. No one can say in how far it is possible for man to advance in
44163 this way toward an understanding of the laws of history; but it is
44164 evident that only along that path does the possibility of discovering
44165 the laws of history lie, and that as yet not a millionth part as much
44166 mental effort has been applied in this direction by historians as has
44167 been devoted to describing the actions of various kings, commanders, and
44168 ministers and propounding the historians' own reflections concerning
44176 The forces of a dozen European nations burst into Russia. The Russian
44177 army and people avoided a collision till Smolensk was reached, and again
44178 from Smolensk to Borodino. The French army pushed on to Moscow, its
44179 goal, its impetus ever increasing as it neared its aim, just as the
44180 velocity of a falling body increases as it approaches the earth. Behind
44181 it were seven hundred miles of hunger-stricken, hostile country; ahead
44182 were a few dozen miles separating it from its goal. Every soldier in
44183 Napoleon's army felt this and the invasion moved on by its own momentum.
44185 The more the Russian army retreated the more fiercely a spirit of hatred
44186 of the enemy flared up, and while it retreated the army increased and
44187 consolidated. At Borodino a collision took place. Neither army was
44188 broken up, but the Russian army retreated immediately after the
44189 collision as inevitably as a ball recoils after colliding with another
44190 having a greater momentum, and with equal inevitability the ball of
44191 invasion that had advanced with such momentum rolled on for some
44192 distance, though the collision had deprived it of all its force.
44194 The Russians retreated eighty miles--to beyond Moscow--and the French
44195 reached Moscow and there came to a standstill. For five weeks after that
44196 there was not a single battle. The French did not move. As a bleeding,
44197 mortally wounded animal licks its wounds, they remained inert in Moscow
44198 for five weeks, and then suddenly, with no fresh reason, fled back: they
44199 made a dash for the Kaluga road, and (after a victory--for at Malo-
44200 Yaroslavets the field of conflict again remained theirs) without
44201 undertaking a single serious battle, they fled still more rapidly back
44202 to Smolensk, beyond Smolensk, beyond the Berezina, beyond Vilna, and
44205 On the evening of the twenty-sixth of August, Kutuzov and the whole
44206 Russian army were convinced that the battle of Borodino was a victory.
44207 Kutuzov reported so to the Emperor. He gave orders to prepare for a
44208 fresh conflict to finish the enemy and did this not to deceive anyone,
44209 but because he knew that the enemy was beaten, as everyone who had taken
44210 part in the battle knew it.
44212 But all that evening and next day reports came in one after another of
44213 unheard-of losses, of the loss of half the army, and a fresh battle
44214 proved physically impossible.
44216 It was impossible to give battle before information had been collected,
44217 the wounded gathered in, the supplies of ammunition replenished, the
44218 slain reckoned up, new officers appointed to replace those who had been
44219 killed, and before the men had had food and sleep. And meanwhile, the
44220 very next morning after the battle, the French army advanced of itself
44221 upon the Russians, carried forward by the force of its own momentum now
44222 seemingly increased in inverse proportion to the square of the distance
44223 from its aim. Kutuzov's wish was to attack next day, and the whole army
44224 desired to do so. But to make an attack the wish to do so is not
44225 sufficient, there must also be a possibility of doing it, and that
44226 possibility did not exist. It was impossible not to retreat a day's
44227 march, and then in the same way it was impossible not to retreat another
44228 and a third day's march, and at last, on the first of September when the
44229 army drew near Moscow--despite the strength of the feeling that had
44230 arisen in all ranks--the force of circumstances compelled it to retire
44231 beyond Moscow. And the troops retired one more, last, day's march, and
44232 abandoned Moscow to the enemy.
44234 For people accustomed to think that plans of campaign and battles are
44235 made by generals--as any one of us sitting over a map in his study may
44236 imagine how he would have arranged things in this or that battle--the
44237 questions present themselves: Why did Kutuzov during the retreat not do
44238 this or that? Why did he not take up a position before reaching Fili?
44239 Why did he not retire at once by the Kaluga road, abandoning Moscow? and
44240 so on. People accustomed to think in that way forget, or do not know,
44241 the inevitable conditions which always limit the activities of any
44242 commander in chief. The activity of a commander-in-chief does not at all
44243 resemble the activity we imagine to ourselves when we sit at ease in our
44244 studies examining some campaign on the map, with a certain number of
44245 troops on this and that side in a certain known locality, and begin our
44246 plans from some given moment. A commander-in-chief is never dealing with
44247 the beginning of any event--the position from which we always
44248 contemplate it. The commander-in-chief is always in the midst of a
44249 series of shifting events and so he never can at any moment consider the
44250 whole import of an event that is occurring. Moment by moment the event
44251 is imperceptibly shaping itself, and at every moment of this continuous,
44252 uninterrupted shaping of events the commander-in-chief is in the midst
44253 of a most complex play of intrigues, worries, contingencies,
44254 authorities, projects, counsels, threats, and deceptions and is
44255 continually obliged to reply to innumerable questions addressed to him,
44256 which constantly conflict with one another.
44258 Learned military authorities quite seriously tell us that Kutuzov should
44259 have moved his army to the Kaluga road long before reaching Fili, and
44260 that somebody actually submitted such a proposal to him. But a commander
44261 in chief, especially at a difficult moment, has always before him not
44262 one proposal but dozens simultaneously. And all these proposals, based
44263 on strategics and tactics, contradict each other.
44265 A commander-in-chief's business, it would seem, is simply to choose one
44266 of these projects. But even that he cannot do. Events and time do not
44267 wait. For instance, on the twenty-eighth it is suggested to him to cross
44268 to the Kaluga road, but just then an adjutant gallops up from
44269 Miloradovich asking whether he is to engage the French or retire. An
44270 order must be given him at once, that instant. And the order to retreat
44271 carries us past the turn to the Kaluga road. And after the adjutant
44272 comes the commissary general asking where the stores are to be taken,
44273 and the chief of the hospitals asks where the wounded are to go, and a
44274 courier from Petersburg brings a letter from the sovereign which does
44275 not admit of the possibility of abandoning Moscow, and the commander-in-
44276 chief's rival, the man who is undermining him (and there are always not
44277 merely one but several such), presents a new project diametrically
44278 opposed to that of turning to the Kaluga road, and the commander-in-
44279 chief himself needs sleep and refreshment to maintain his energy and a
44280 respectable general who has been overlooked in the distribution of
44281 rewards comes to complain, and the inhabitants of the district pray to
44282 be defended, and an officer sent to inspect the locality comes in and
44283 gives a report quite contrary to what was said by the officer previously
44284 sent; and a spy, a prisoner, and a general who has been on
44285 reconnaissance, all describe the position of the enemy's army
44286 differently. People accustomed to misunderstand or to forget these
44287 inevitable conditions of a commander-in-chief's actions describe to us,
44288 for instance, the position of the army at Fili and assume that the
44289 commander-in-chief could, on the first of September, quite freely decide
44290 whether to abandon Moscow or defend it; whereas, with the Russian army
44291 less than four miles from Moscow, no such question existed. When had
44292 that question been settled? At Drissa and at Smolensk and most palpably
44293 of all on the twenty-fourth of August at Shevardino and on the twenty-
44294 sixth at Borodino, and each day and hour and minute of the retreat from
44302 When Ermolov, having been sent by Kutuzov to inspect the position, told
44303 the field marshal that it was impossible to fight there before Moscow
44304 and that they must retreat, Kutuzov looked at him in silence.
44306 "Give me your hand," said he and, turning it over so as to feel the
44307 pulse, added: "You are not well, my dear fellow. Think what you are
44310 Kutuzov could not yet admit the possibility of retreating beyond Moscow
44313 On the Poklonny Hill, four miles from the Dorogomilov gate of Moscow,
44314 Kutuzov got out of his carriage and sat down on a bench by the roadside.
44315 A great crowd of generals gathered round him, and Count Rostopchin, who
44316 had come out from Moscow, joined them. This brilliant company separated
44317 into several groups who all discussed the advantages and disadvantages
44318 of the position, the state of the army, the plans suggested, the
44319 situation of Moscow, and military questions generally. Though they had
44320 not been summoned for the purpose, and though it was not so called, they
44321 all felt that this was really a council of war. The conversations all
44322 dealt with public questions. If anyone gave or asked for personal news,
44323 it was done in a whisper and they immediately reverted to general
44324 matters. No jokes, or laughter, or smiles even, were seen among all
44325 these men. They evidently all made an effort to hold themselves at the
44326 height the situation demanded. And all these groups, while talking among
44327 themselves, tried to keep near the commander-in-chief (whose bench
44328 formed the center of the gathering) and to speak so that he might
44329 overhear them. The commander in chief listened to what was being said
44330 and sometimes asked them to repeat their remarks, but did not himself
44331 take part in the conversations or express any opinion. After hearing
44332 what was being said by one or other of these groups he generally turned
44333 away with an air of disappointment, as though they were not speaking of
44334 anything he wished to hear. Some discussed the position that had been
44335 chosen, criticizing not the position itself so much as the mental
44336 capacity of those who had chosen it. Others argued that a mistake had
44337 been made earlier and that a battle should have been fought two days
44338 before. Others again spoke of the battle of Salamanca, which was
44339 described by Crosart, a newly arrived Frenchman in a Spanish uniform.
44340 (This Frenchman and one of the German princes serving with the Russian
44341 army were discussing the siege of Saragossa and considering the
44342 possibility of defending Moscow in a similar manner.) Count Rostopchin
44343 was telling a fourth group that he was prepared to die with the city
44344 train bands under the walls of the capital, but that he still could not
44345 help regretting having been left in ignorance of what was happening, and
44346 that had he known it sooner things would have been different.... A fifth
44347 group, displaying the profundity of their strategic perceptions,
44348 discussed the direction the troops would now have to take. A sixth group
44349 was talking absolute nonsense. Kutuzov's expression grew more and more
44350 preoccupied and gloomy. From all this talk he saw only one thing: that
44351 to defend Moscow was a physical impossibility in the full meaning of
44352 those words, that is to say, so utterly impossible that if any senseless
44353 commander were to give orders to fight, confusion would result but the
44354 battle would still not take place. It would not take place because the
44355 commanders not merely all recognized the position to be impossible, but
44356 in their conversations were only discussing what would happen after its
44357 inevitable abandonment. How could the commanders lead their troops to a
44358 field of battle they considered impossible to hold? The lower-grade
44359 officers and even the soldiers (who too reason) also considered the
44360 position impossible and therefore could not go to fight, fully convinced
44361 as they were of defeat. If Bennigsen insisted on the position being
44362 defended and others still discussed it, the question was no longer
44363 important in itself but only as a pretext for disputes and intrigue.
44364 This Kutuzov knew well.
44366 Bennigsen, who had chosen the position, warmly displayed his Russian
44367 patriotism (Kutuzov could not listen to this without wincing) by
44368 insisting that Moscow must be defended. His aim was as clear as daylight
44369 to Kutuzov: if the defense failed, to throw the blame on Kutuzov who had
44370 brought the army as far as the Sparrow Hills without giving battle; if
44371 it succeeded, to claim the success as his own; or if battle were not
44372 given, to clear himself of the crime of abandoning Moscow. But this
44373 intrigue did not now occupy the old man's mind. One terrible question
44374 absorbed him and to that question he heard no reply from anyone. The
44375 question for him now was: "Have I really allowed Napoleon to reach
44376 Moscow, and when did I do so? When was it decided? Can it have been
44377 yesterday when I ordered Platov to retreat, or was it the evening
44378 before, when I had a nap and told Bennigsen to issue orders? Or was it
44379 earlier still?... When, when was this terrible affair decided? Moscow
44380 must be abandoned. The army must retreat and the order to do so must be
44381 given." To give that terrible order seemed to him equivalent to
44382 resigning the command of the army. And not only did he love power to
44383 which he was accustomed (the honours awarded to Prince Prozorovski,
44384 under whom he had served in Turkey, galled him), but he was convinced
44385 that he was destined to save Russia and that that was why, against the
44386 Emperor's wish and by the will of the people, he had been chosen
44387 commander-in-chief. He was convinced that he alone could maintain
44388 command of the army in these difficult circumstances, and that in all
44389 the world he alone could encounter the invincible Napoleon without fear,
44390 and he was horrified at the thought of the order he had to issue. But
44391 something had to be decided, and these conversations around him which
44392 were assuming too free a character must be stopped.
44394 He called the most important generals to him.
44396 "My head, be it good or bad, must depend on itself," said he, rising
44397 from the bench, and he rode to Fili where his carriages were waiting.
44404 The Council of War began to assemble at two in the afternoon in the
44405 better and roomier part of Andrew Savostyanov's hut. The men, women, and
44406 children of the large peasant family crowded into the back room across
44407 the passage. Only Malasha, Andrew's six-year-old granddaughter whom his
44408 Serene Highness had petted and to whom he had given a lump of sugar
44409 while drinking his tea, remained on the top of the brick oven in the
44410 larger room. Malasha looked down from the oven with shy delight at the
44411 faces, uniforms, and decorations of the generals, who one after another
44412 came into the room and sat down on the broad benches in the corner under
44413 the icons. "Granddad" himself, as Malasha in her own mind called
44414 Kutuzov, sat apart in a dark corner behind the oven. He sat, sunk deep
44415 in a folding armchair, and continually cleared his throat and pulled at
44416 the collar of his coat which, though it was unbuttoned, still seemed to
44417 pinch his neck. Those who entered went up one by one to the field
44418 marshal; he pressed the hands of some and nodded to others. His adjutant
44419 Kaysarov was about to draw back the curtain of the window facing
44420 Kutuzov, but the latter moved his hand angrily and Kaysarov understood
44421 that his Serene Highness did not wish his face to be seen.
44423 Round the peasant's deal table, on which lay maps, plans, pencils, and
44424 papers, so many people gathered that the orderlies brought in another
44425 bench and put it beside the table. Ermolov, Kaysarov, and Toll, who had
44426 just arrived, sat down on this bench. In the foremost place, immediately
44427 under the icons, sat Barclay de Tolly, his high forehead merging into
44428 his bald crown. He had a St. George's Cross round his neck and looked
44429 pale and ill. He had been feverish for two days and was now shivering
44430 and in pain. Beside him sat Uvarov, who with rapid gesticulations was
44431 giving him some information, speaking in low tones as they all did.
44432 Chubby little Dokhturov was listening attentively with eyebrows raised
44433 and arms folded on his stomach. On the other side sat Count Ostermann-
44434 Tolstoy, seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts. His broad head with its
44435 bold features and glittering eyes was resting on his hand. Raevski,
44436 twitching forward the black hair on his temples as was his habit,
44437 glanced now at Kutuzov and now at the door with a look of impatience.
44438 Konovnitsyn's firm, handsome, and kindly face was lit up by a tender,
44439 sly smile. His glance met Malasha's, and the expression of his eyes
44440 caused the little girl to smile.
44442 They were all waiting for Bennigsen, who on the pretext of inspecting
44443 the position was finishing his savory dinner. They waited for him from
44444 four till six o'clock and did not begin their deliberations all that
44445 time but talked in low tones of other matters.
44447 Only when Bennigsen had entered the hut did Kutuzov leave his corner and
44448 draw toward the table, but not near enough for the candles that had been
44449 placed there to light up his face.
44451 Bennigsen opened the council with the question: "Are we to abandon
44452 Russia's ancient and sacred capital without a struggle, or are we to
44453 defend it?" A prolonged and general silence followed. There was a frown
44454 on every face and only Kutuzov's angry grunts and occasional cough broke
44455 the silence. All eyes were gazing at him. Malasha too looked at
44456 "Granddad." She was nearest to him and saw how his face puckered; he
44457 seemed about to cry, but this did not last long.
44459 "Russia's ancient and sacred capital!" he suddenly said, repeating
44460 Bennigsen's words in an angry voice and thereby drawing attention to the
44461 false note in them. "Allow me to tell you, your excellency, that that
44462 question has no meaning for a Russian." (He lurched his heavy body
44463 forward.) "Such a question cannot be put; it is senseless! The question
44464 I have asked these gentlemen to meet to discuss is a military one. The
44465 question is that of saving Russia. Is it better to give up Moscow
44466 without a battle, or by accepting battle to risk losing the army as well
44467 as Moscow? That is the question on which I want your opinion," and he
44468 sank back in his chair.
44470 The discussion began. Bennigsen did not yet consider his game lost.
44471 Admitting the view of Barclay and others that a defensive battle at Fili
44472 was impossible, but imbued with Russian patriotism and the love of
44473 Moscow, he proposed to move troops from the right to the left flank
44474 during the night and attack the French right flank the following day.
44475 Opinions were divided, and arguments were advanced for and against that
44476 project. Ermolov, Dokhturov, and Raevski agreed with Bennigsen. Whether
44477 feeling it necessary to make a sacrifice before abandoning the capital
44478 or guided by other, personal considerations, these generals seemed not
44479 to understand that this council could not alter the inevitable course of
44480 events and that Moscow was in effect already abandoned. The other
44481 generals, however, understood it and, leaving aside the question of
44482 Moscow, spoke of the direction the army should take in its retreat.
44483 Malasha, who kept her eyes fixed on what was going on before her,
44484 understood the meaning of the council differently. It seemed to her that
44485 it was only a personal struggle between "Granddad" and "Long-coat" as
44486 she termed Bennigsen. She saw that they grew spiteful when they spoke to
44487 one another, and in her heart she sided with "Granddad." In the midst of
44488 the conversation she noticed "Granddad" give Bennigsen a quick, subtle
44489 glance, and then to her joys he saw that "Granddad" said something to
44490 "Long-coat" which settled him. Bennigsen suddenly reddened and paced
44491 angrily up and down the room. What so affected him was Kutuzov's calm
44492 and quiet comment on the advantage or disadvantage of Bennigsen's
44493 proposal to move troops by night from the right to the left flank to
44494 attack the French right wing.
44496 "Gentlemen," said Kutuzov, "I cannot approve of the count's plan. Moving
44497 troops in close proximity to an enemy is always dangerous, and military
44498 history supports that view. For instance..." Kutuzov seemed to reflect,
44499 searching for an example, then with a clear, naive look at Bennigsen he
44500 added: "Oh yes; take the battle of Friedland, which I think the count
44501 well remembers, and which was... not fully successful, only because our
44502 troops were rearranged too near the enemy..."
44504 There followed a momentary pause, which seemed very long to them all.
44506 The discussion recommenced, but pauses frequently occurred and they all
44507 felt that there was no more to be said.
44509 During one of these pauses Kutuzov heaved a deep sigh as if preparing to
44510 speak. They all looked at him.
44512 "Well, gentlemen, I see that it is I who will have to pay for the broken
44513 crockery," said he, and rising slowly he moved to the table. "Gentlemen,
44514 I have heard your views. Some of you will not agree with me. But I," he
44515 paused, "by the authority entrusted to me by my Sovereign and country,
44518 After that the generals began to disperse with the solemnity and
44519 circumspect silence of people who are leaving, after a funeral.
44521 Some of the generals, in low tones and in a strain very different from
44522 the way they had spoken during the council, communicated something to
44523 their commander-in-chief.
44525 Malasha, who had long been expected for supper, climbed carefully
44526 backwards down from the oven, her bare little feet catching at its
44527 projections, and slipping between the legs of the generals she darted
44530 When he had dismissed the generals Kutuzov sat a long time with his
44531 elbows on the table, thinking always of the same terrible question:
44532 "When, when did the abandonment of Moscow become inevitable? When was
44533 that done which settled the matter? And who was to blame for it?"
44535 "I did not expect this," said he to his adjutant Schneider when the
44536 latter came in late that night. "I did not expect this! I did not think
44537 this would happen."
44539 "You should take some rest, your Serene Highness," replied Schneider.
44541 "But no! They shall eat horseflesh yet, like the Turks!" exclaimed
44542 Kutuzov without replying, striking the table with his podgy fist. "They
44543 shall too, if only..."
44550 At that very time, in circumstances even more important than retreating
44551 without a battle, namely the evacuation and burning of Moscow,
44552 Rostopchin, who is usually represented as being the instigator of that
44553 event, acted in an altogether different manner from Kutuzov.
44555 After the battle of Borodino the abandonment and burning of Moscow was
44556 as inevitable as the retreat of the army beyond Moscow without fighting.
44558 Every Russian might have predicted it, not by reasoning but by the
44559 feeling implanted in each of us and in our fathers.
44561 The same thing that took place in Moscow had happened in all the towns
44562 and villages on Russian soil beginning with Smolensk, without the
44563 participation of Count Rostopchin and his broadsheets. The people
44564 awaited the enemy unconcernedly, did not riot or become excited or tear
44565 anyone to pieces, but faced its fate, feeling within it the strength to
44566 find what it should do at that most difficult moment. And as soon as the
44567 enemy drew near the wealthy classes went away abandoning their property,
44568 while the poorer remained and burned and destroyed what was left.
44570 The consciousness that this would be so and would always be so was and
44571 is present in the heart of every Russian. And a consciousness of this,
44572 and a foreboding that Moscow would be taken, was present in Russian
44573 Moscow society in 1812. Those who had quitted Moscow already in July and
44574 at the beginning of August showed that they expected this. Those who
44575 went away, taking what they could and abandoning their houses and half
44576 their belongings, did so from the latent patriotism which expresses
44577 itself not by phrases or by giving one's children to save the fatherland
44578 and similar unnatural exploits, but unobtrusively, simply, organically,
44579 and therefore in the way that always produces the most powerful results.
44581 "It is disgraceful to run away from danger; only cowards are running
44582 away from Moscow," they were told. In his broadsheets Rostopchin
44583 impressed on them that to leave Moscow was shameful. They were ashamed
44584 to be called cowards, ashamed to leave, but still they left, knowing it
44585 had to be done. Why did they go? It is impossible to suppose that
44586 Rostopchin had scared them by his accounts of horrors Napoleon had
44587 committed in conquered countries. The first people to go away were the
44588 rich educated people who knew quite well that Vienna and Berlin had
44589 remained intact and that during Napoleon's occupation the inhabitants
44590 had spent their time pleasantly in the company of the charming Frenchmen
44591 whom the Russians, and especially the Russian ladies, then liked so
44594 They went away because for Russians there could be no question as to
44595 whether things would go well or ill under French rule in Moscow. It was
44596 out of the question to be under French rule, it would be the worst thing
44597 that could happen. They went away even before the battle of Borodino and
44598 still more rapidly after it, despite Rostopchin's calls to defend Moscow
44599 or the announcement of his intention to take the wonder-working icon of
44600 the Iberian Mother of God and go to fight, or of the balloons that were
44601 to destroy the French, and despite all the nonsense Rostopchin wrote in
44602 his broadsheets. They knew that it was for the army to fight, and that
44603 if it could not succeed it would not do to take young ladies and house
44604 serfs to the Three Hills quarter of Moscow to fight Napoleon, and that
44605 they must go away, sorry as they were to abandon their property to
44606 destruction. They went away without thinking of the tremendous
44607 significance of that immense and wealthy city being given over to
44608 destruction, for a great city with wooden buildings was certain when
44609 abandoned by its inhabitants to be burned. They went away each on his
44610 own account, and yet it was only in consequence of their going away that
44611 the momentous event was accomplished that will always remain the
44612 greatest glory of the Russian people. The lady who, afraid of being
44613 stopped by Count Rostopchin's orders, had already in June moved with her
44614 Negroes and her women jesters from Moscow to her Saratov estate, with a
44615 vague consciousness that she was not Bonaparte's servant, was really,
44616 simply, and truly carrying out the great work which saved Russia. But
44617 Count Rostopchin, who now taunted those who left Moscow and now had the
44618 government offices removed; now distributed quite useless weapons to the
44619 drunken rabble; now had processions displaying the icons, and now
44620 forbade Father Augustin to remove icons or the relics of saints; now
44621 seized all the private carts in Moscow and on one hundred and thirty-six
44622 of them removed the balloon that was being constructed by Leppich; now
44623 hinted that he would burn Moscow and related how he had set fire to his
44624 own house; now wrote a proclamation to the French solemnly upbraiding
44625 them for having destroyed his Orphanage; now claimed the glory of having
44626 hinted that he would burn Moscow and now repudiated the deed; now
44627 ordered the people to catch all spies and bring them to him, and now
44628 reproached them for doing so; now expelled all the French residents from
44629 Moscow, and now allowed Madame Aubert-Chalme (the center of the whole
44630 French colony in Moscow) to remain, but ordered the venerable old
44631 postmaster Klyucharev to be arrested and exiled for no particular
44632 offense; now assembled the people at the Three Hills to fight the French
44633 and now, to get rid of them, handed over to them a man to be killed and
44634 himself drove away by a back gate; now declared that he would not
44635 survive the fall of Moscow, and now wrote French verses in albums
44636 concerning his share in the affair--this man did not understand the
44637 meaning of what was happening but merely wanted to do something himself
44638 that would astonish people, to perform some patriotically heroic feat;
44639 and like a child he made sport of the momentous, and unavoidable event--
44640 the abandonment and burning of Moscow--and tried with his puny hand now
44641 to speed and now to stay the enormous, popular tide that bore him along
44649 Helene, having returned with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, found
44650 herself in a difficult position.
44652 In Petersburg she had enjoyed the special protection of a grandee who
44653 occupied one of the highest posts in the Empire. In Vilna she had formed
44654 an intimacy with a young foreign prince. When she returned to Petersburg
44655 both the magnate and the prince were there, and both claimed their
44656 rights. Helene was faced by a new problem--how to preserve her intimacy
44657 with both without offending either.
44659 What would have seemed difficult or even impossible to another woman did
44660 not cause the least embarrassment to Countess Bezukhova, who evidently
44661 deserved her reputation of being a very clever woman. Had she attempted
44662 concealment, or tried to extricate herself from her awkward position by
44663 cunning, she would have spoiled her case by acknowledging herself
44664 guilty. But Helene, like a really great man who can do whatever he
44665 pleases, at once assumed her own position to be correct, as she
44666 sincerely believed it to be, and that everyone else was to blame.
44668 The first time the young foreigner allowed himself to reproach her, she
44669 lifted her beautiful head and, half turning to him, said firmly: "That's
44670 just like a man--selfish and cruel! I expected nothing else. A woman
44671 sacrifices herself for you, she suffers, and this is her reward! What
44672 right have you, monseigneur, to demand an account of my attachments and
44673 friendships? He is a man who has been more than a father to me!" The
44674 prince was about to say something, but Helene interrupted him.
44676 "Well, yes," said she, "it may be that he has other sentiments for me
44677 than those of a father, but that is not a reason for me to shut my door
44678 on him. I am not a man, that I should repay kindness with ingratitude!
44679 Know, monseigneur, that in all that relates to my intimate feelings I
44680 render account only to God and to my conscience," she concluded, laying
44681 her hand on her beautiful, fully expanded bosom and looking up to
44684 "But for heaven's sake listen to me!"
44686 "Marry me, and I will be your slave!"
44688 "But that's impossible."
44690 "You won't deign to demean yourself by marrying me, you..." said Helene,
44693 The prince tried to comfort her, but Helene, as if quite distraught,
44694 said through her tears that there was nothing to prevent her marrying,
44695 that there were precedents (there were up to that time very few, but she
44696 mentioned Napoleon and some other exalted personages), that she had
44697 never been her husband's wife, and that she had been sacrificed.
44699 "But the law, religion..." said the prince, already yielding.
44701 "The law, religion... What have they been invented for if they can't
44702 arrange that?" said Helene.
44704 The prince was surprised that so simple an idea had not occurred to him,
44705 and he applied for advice to the holy brethren of the Society of Jesus,
44706 with whom he was on intimate terms.
44708 A few days later at one of those enchanting fetes which Helene gave at
44709 her country house on the Stone Island, the charming Monsieur de Jobert,
44710 a man no longer young, with snow white hair and brilliant black eyes, a
44711 Jesuit a robe courte * was presented to her, and in the garden by the
44712 light of the illuminations and to the sound of music talked to her for a
44713 long time of the love of God, of Christ, of the Sacred Heart, and of the
44714 consolations the one true Catholic religion affords in this world and
44715 the next. Helene was touched, and more than once tears rose to her eyes
44716 and to those of Monsieur de Jobert and their voices trembled. A dance,
44717 for which her partner came to seek her, put an end to her discourse with
44718 her future directeur de conscience, but the next evening Monsieur de
44719 Jobert came to see Helene when she was alone, and after that often came
44723 * Lay member of the Society of Jesus.
44725 One day he took the countess to a Roman Catholic church, where she knelt
44726 down before the altar to which she was led. The enchanting, middle-aged
44727 Frenchman laid his hands on her head and, as she herself afterward
44728 described it, she felt something like a fresh breeze wafted into her
44729 soul. It was explained to her that this was la grace.
44731 After that a long-frocked abbe was brought to her. She confessed to him,
44732 and he absolved her from her sins. Next day she received a box
44733 containing the Sacred Host, which was left at her house for her to
44734 partake of. A few days later Helene learned with pleasure that she had
44735 now been admitted to the true Catholic Church and that in a few days the
44736 Pope himself would hear of her and would send her a certain document.
44738 All that was done around her and to her at this time, all the attention
44739 devoted to her by so many clever men and expressed in such pleasant,
44740 refined ways, and the state of dove-like purity she was now in (she wore
44741 only white dresses and white ribbons all that time) gave her pleasure,
44742 but her pleasure did not cause her for a moment to forget her aim. And
44743 as it always happens in contests of cunning that a stupid person gets
44744 the better of cleverer ones, Helene--having realized that the main
44745 object of all these words and all this trouble was, after converting her
44746 to Catholicism, to obtain money from her for Jesuit institutions (as to
44747 which she received indications)-before parting with her money insisted
44748 that the various operations necessary to free her from her husband
44749 should be performed. In her view the aim of every religion was merely to
44750 preserve certain proprieties while affording satisfaction to human
44751 desires. And with this aim, in one of her talks with her Father
44752 Confessor, she insisted on an answer to the question, in how far was she
44753 bound by her marriage?
44755 They were sitting in the twilight by a window in the drawing room. The
44756 scent of flowers came in at the window. Helene was wearing a white
44757 dress, transparent over her shoulders and bosom. The abbe, a well-fed
44758 man with a plump, clean-shaven chin, a pleasant firm mouth, and white
44759 hands meekly folded on his knees, sat close to Helene and, with a subtle
44760 smile on his lips and a peaceful look of delight at her beauty,
44761 occasionally glanced at her face as he explained his opinion on the
44762 subject. Helene with an uneasy smile looked at his curly hair and his
44763 plump, clean-shaven, blackish cheeks and every moment expected the
44764 conversation to take a fresh turn. But the abbe, though he evidently
44765 enjoyed the beauty of his companion, was absorbed in his mastery of the
44768 The course of the Father Confessor's arguments ran as follows: "Ignorant
44769 of the import of what you were undertaking, you made a vow of conjugal
44770 fidelity to a man who on his part, by entering the married state without
44771 faith in the religious significance of marriage, committed an act of
44772 sacrilege. That marriage lacked the dual significance it should have
44773 had. Yet in spite of this your vow was binding. You swerved from it.
44774 What did you commit by so acting? A venial, or a mortal, sin? A venial
44775 sin, for you acted without evil intention. If now you married again with
44776 the object of bearing children, your sin might be forgiven. But the
44777 question is again a twofold one: firstly..."
44779 But suddenly Helene, who was getting bored, said with one of her
44780 bewitching smiles: "But I think that having espoused the true religion I
44781 cannot be bound by what a false religion laid upon me."
44783 The director of her conscience was astounded at having the case
44784 presented to him thus with the simplicity of Columbus' egg. He was
44785 delighted at the unexpected rapidity of his pupil's progress, but could
44786 not abandon the edifice of argument he had laboriously constructed.
44788 "Let us understand one another, Countess," said he with a smile, and
44789 began refuting his spiritual daughter's arguments.
44796 Helene understood that the question was very simple and easy from the
44797 ecclesiastical point of view, and that her directors were making
44798 difficulties only because they were apprehensive as to how the matter
44799 would be regarded by the secular authorities.
44801 So she decided that it was necessary to prepare the opinion of society.
44802 She provoked the jealousy of the elderly magnate and told him what she
44803 had told her other suitor; that is, she put the matter so that the only
44804 way for him to obtain a right over her was to marry her. The elderly
44805 magnate was at first as much taken aback by this suggestion of marriage
44806 with a woman whose husband was alive, as the younger man had been, but
44807 Helene's imperturbable conviction that it was as simple and natural as
44808 marrying a maiden had its effect on him too. Had Helene herself shown
44809 the least sign of hesitation, shame, or secrecy, her cause would
44810 certainly have been lost; but not only did she show no signs of secrecy
44811 or shame, on the contrary, with good-natured naivete she told her
44812 intimate friends (and these were all Petersburg) that both the prince
44813 and the magnate had proposed to her and that she loved both and was
44814 afraid of grieving either.
44816 A rumor immediately spread in Petersburg, not that Helene wanted to be
44817 divorced from her husband (had such a report spread many would have
44818 opposed so illegal an intention) but simply that the unfortunate and
44819 interesting Helene was in doubt which of the two men she should marry.
44820 The question was no longer whether this was possible, but only which was
44821 the better match and how the matter would be regarded at court. There
44822 were, it is true, some rigid individuals unable to rise to the height of
44823 such a question, who saw in the project a desecration of the sacrament
44824 of marriage, but there were not many such and they remained silent,
44825 while the majority were interested in Helene's good fortune and in the
44826 question which match would be the more advantageous. Whether it was
44827 right or wrong to remarry while one had a husband living they did not
44828 discuss, for that question had evidently been settled by people "wiser
44829 than you or me," as they said, and to doubt the correctness of that
44830 decision would be to risk exposing one's stupidity and incapacity to
44833 Only Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who had come to Petersburg that
44834 summer to see one of her sons, allowed herself plainly to express an
44835 opinion contrary to the general one. Meeting Helene at a ball she
44836 stopped her in the middle of the room and, amid general silence, said in
44837 her gruff voice: "So wives of living men have started marrying again!
44838 Perhaps you think you have invented a novelty? You have been
44839 forestalled, my dear! It was thought of long ago. It is done in all the
44840 brothels," and with these words Marya Dmitrievna, turning up her wide
44841 sleeves with her usual threatening gesture and glancing sternly round,
44842 moved across the room.
44844 Though people were afraid of Marya Dmitrievna she was regarded in
44845 Petersburg as a buffoon, and so of what she had said they only noticed,
44846 and repeated in a whisper, the one coarse word she had used, supposing
44847 the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word.
44849 Prince Vasili, who of late very often forgot what he had said and
44850 repeated one and the same thing a hundred times, remarked to his
44851 daughter whenever he chanced to see her:
44853 "Helene, I have a word to say to you," and he would lead her aside,
44854 drawing her hand downward. "I have heard of certain projects
44855 concerning... you know. Well my dear child, you know how your father's
44856 heart rejoices to know that you... You have suffered so much.... But, my
44857 dear child, consult only your own heart. That is all I have to say," and
44858 concealing his unvarying emotion he would press his cheek against his
44859 daughter's and move away.
44861 Bilibin, who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever man,
44862 and who was one of the disinterested friends so brilliant a woman as
44863 Helene always has--men friends who can never change into lovers--once
44864 gave her his view of the matter at a small and intimate gathering.
44866 "Listen, Bilibin," said Helene (she always called friends of that sort
44867 by their surnames), and she touched his coat sleeve with her white,
44868 beringed fingers. "Tell me, as you would a sister, what I ought to do.
44871 Bilibin wrinkled up the skin over his eyebrows and pondered, with a
44874 "You are not taking me unawares, you know," said he. "As a true friend,
44875 I have thought and thought again about your affair. You see, if you
44876 marry the prince"--he meant the younger man--and he crooked one finger,
44877 "you forever lose the chance of marrying the other, and you will
44878 displease the court besides. (You know there is some kind of
44879 connection.) But if you marry the old count you will make his last days
44880 happy, and as widow of the Grand... the prince would no longer be making
44881 a mesalliance by marrying you," and Bilibin smoothed out his forehead.
44883 "That's a true friend!" said Helene beaming, and again touching
44884 Bilibin's sleeve. "But I love them, you know, and don't want to distress
44885 either of them. I would give my life for the happiness of them both."
44887 Bilibin shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that not even he could
44888 help in that difficulty.
44890 "Une maitresse-femme! * That's what is called putting things squarely.
44891 She would like to be married to all three at the same time," thought he.
44894 * A masterly woman.
44896 "But tell me, how will your husband look at the matter?" Bilibin asked,
44897 his reputation being so well established that he did not fear to ask so
44898 naive a question. "Will he agree?"
44900 "Oh, he loves me so!" said Helene, who for some reason imagined that
44901 Pierre too loved her. "He will do anything for me."
44903 Bilibin puckered his skin in preparation for something witty.
44905 "Even divorce you?" said he.
44909 Among those who ventured to doubt the justifiability of the proposed
44910 marriage was Helene's mother, Princess Kuragina. She was continually
44911 tormented by jealousy of her daughter, and now that jealousy concerned a
44912 subject near to her own heart, she could not reconcile herself to the
44913 idea. She consulted a Russian priest as to the possibility of divorce
44914 and remarriage during a husband's lifetime, and the priest told her that
44915 it was impossible, and to her delight showed her a text in the Gospel
44916 which (as it seemed to him) plainly forbids remarriage while the husband
44919 Armed with these arguments, which appeared to her unanswerable, she
44920 drove to her daughter's early one morning so as to find her alone.
44922 Having listened to her mother's objections, Helene smiled blandly and
44925 "But it says plainly: 'Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced...'"
44926 said the old princess.
44928 "Ah, Maman, ne dites pas de betises. Vous ne comprenez rien. Dans ma
44929 position j'ai des devoirs," * said Helene changing from Russian, in
44930 which language she always felt that her case did not sound quite clear,
44931 into French which suited it better.
44934 * "Oh, Mamma, don't talk nonsense! You don't understand anything. In my
44935 position I have obligations."
44939 "Oh, Mamma, how is it you don't understand that the Holy Father, who has
44940 the right to grant dispensations..."
44942 Just then the lady companion who lived with Helene came in to announce
44943 that His Highness was in the ballroom and wished to see her.
44945 "Non, dites-lui que je ne veux pas le voir, que je suis furieuse contre
44946 lui, parce qu'il m'a manque parole." *
44949 * "No, tell him I don't wish to see him, I am furious with him for not
44950 keeping his word to me."
44952 "Comtesse, a tout peche misericorde," * said a fair-haired young man
44953 with a long face and nose, as he entered the room.
44956 * "Countess, there is mercy for every sin."
44958 The old princess rose respectfully and curtsied. The young man who had
44959 entered took no notice of her. The princess nodded to her daughter and
44960 sidled out of the room.
44962 "Yes, she is right," thought the old princess, all her convictions
44963 dissipated by the appearance of His Highness. "She is right, but how is
44964 it that we in our irrecoverable youth did not know it? Yet it is so
44965 simple," she thought as she got into her carriage.
44967 By the beginning of August Helene's affairs were clearly defined and she
44968 wrote a letter to her husband--who, as she imagined, loved her very
44969 much--informing him of her intention to marry N.N. and of her having
44970 embraced the one true faith, and asking him to carry out all the
44971 formalities necessary for a divorce, which would be explained to him by
44972 the bearer of the letter.
44974 And so I pray God to have you, my friend, in His holy and powerful
44975 keeping--Your friend Helene.
44977 This letter was brought to Pierre's house when he was on the field of
44985 Toward the end of the battle of Borodino, Pierre, having run down from
44986 Raevski's battery a second time, made his way through a gully to
44987 Knyazkovo with a crowd of soldiers, reached the dressing station, and
44988 seeing blood and hearing cries and groans hurried on, still entangled in
44989 the crowds of soldiers.
44991 The one thing he now desired with his whole soul was to get away quickly
44992 from the terrible sensations amid which he had lived that day and return
44993 to ordinary conditions of life and sleep quietly in a room in his own
44994 bed. He felt that only in the ordinary conditions of life would he be
44995 able to understand himself and all he had seen and felt. But such
44996 ordinary conditions of life were nowhere to be found.
44998 Though shells and bullets did not whistle over the road along which he
44999 was going, still on all sides there was what there had been on the field
45000 of battle. There were still the same suffering, exhausted, and sometimes
45001 strangely indifferent faces, the same blood, the same soldiers'
45002 overcoats, the same sounds of firing which, though distant now, still
45003 aroused terror, and besides this there were the foul air and the dust.
45005 Having gone a couple of miles along the Mozhaysk road, Pierre sat down
45008 Dusk had fallen, and the roar of guns died away. Pierre lay leaning on
45009 his elbow for a long time, gazing at the shadows that moved past him in
45010 the darkness. He was continually imagining that a cannon ball was flying
45011 toward him with a terrific whizz, and then he shuddered and sat up. He
45012 had no idea how long he had been there. In the middle of the night three
45013 soldiers, having brought some firewood, settled down near him and began
45016 The soldiers, who threw sidelong glances at Pierre, got the fire to burn
45017 and placed an iron pot on it into which they broke some dried bread and
45018 put a little dripping. The pleasant odor of greasy viands mingled with
45019 the smell of smoke. Pierre sat up and sighed. The three soldiers were
45020 eating and talking among themselves, taking no notice of him.
45022 "And who may you be?" one of them suddenly asked Pierre, evidently
45023 meaning what Pierre himself had in mind, namely: "If you want to eat
45024 we'll give you some food, only let us know whether you are an honest
45027 "I, I..." said Pierre, feeling it necessary to minimize his social
45028 position as much as possible so as to be nearer to the soldiers and
45029 better understood by them. "By rights I am a militia officer, but my men
45030 are not here. I came to the battle and have lost them."
45032 "There now!" said one of the soldiers.
45034 Another shook his head.
45036 "Would you like a little mash?" the first soldier asked, and handed
45037 Pierre a wooden spoon after licking it clean.
45039 Pierre sat down by the fire and began eating the mash, as they called
45040 the food in the cauldron, and he thought it more delicious than any food
45041 he had ever tasted. As he sat bending greedily over it, helping himself
45042 to large spoonfuls and chewing one after another, his face was lit up by
45043 the fire and the soldiers looked at him in silence.
45045 "Where have you to go to? Tell us!" said one of them.
45049 "You're a gentleman, aren't you?"
45053 "And what's your name?"
45057 "Well then, Peter Kirilych, come along with us, we'll take you there."
45059 In the total darkness the soldiers walked with Pierre to Mozhaysk.
45061 By the time they got near Mozhaysk and began ascending the steep hill
45062 into the town, the cocks were already crowing. Pierre went on with the
45063 soldiers, quite forgetting that his inn was at the bottom of the hill
45064 and that he had already passed it. He would not soon have remembered
45065 this, such was his state of forgetfulness, had he not halfway up the
45066 hill stumbled upon his groom, who had been to look for him in the town
45067 and was returning to the inn. The groom recognized Pierre in the
45068 darkness by his white hat.
45070 "Your excellency!" he said. "Why, we were beginning to despair! How is
45071 it you are on foot? And where are you going, please?"
45073 "Oh, yes!" said Pierre.
45075 The soldiers stopped.
45077 "So you've found your folk?" said one of them. "Well, good-by, Peter
45078 Kirilych--isn't it?"
45080 "Good-bye, Peter Kirilych!" Pierre heard the other voices repeat.
45082 "Good-bye!" he said and turned with his groom toward the inn.
45084 "I ought to give them something!" he thought, and felt in his pocket.
45085 "No, better not!" said another, inner voice.
45087 There was not a room to be had at the inn, they were all occupied.
45088 Pierre went out into the yard and, covering himself up head and all, lay
45089 down in his carriage.
45096 Scarcely had Pierre laid his head on the pillow before he felt himself
45097 falling asleep, but suddenly, almost with the distinctness of reality,
45098 he heard the boom, boom, boom of firing, the thud of projectiles, groans
45099 and cries, and smelled blood and powder, and a feeling of horror and
45100 dread of death seized him. Filled with fright he opened his eyes and
45101 lifted his head from under his cloak. All was tranquil in the yard. Only
45102 someone's orderly passed through the gateway, splashing through the mud,
45103 and talked to the innkeeper. Above Pierre's head some pigeons, disturbed
45104 by the movement he had made in sitting up, fluttered under the dark roof
45105 of the penthouse. The whole courtyard was permeated by a strong peaceful
45106 smell of stable yards, delightful to Pierre at that moment. He could see
45107 the clear starry sky between the dark roofs of two penthouses.
45109 "Thank God, there is no more of that!" he thought, covering up his head
45110 again. "Oh, what a terrible thing is fear, and how shamefully I yielded
45111 to it! But they... they were steady and calm all the time, to the
45112 end..." thought he.
45114 They, in Pierre's mind, were the soldiers, those who had been at the
45115 battery, those who had given him food, and those who had prayed before
45116 the icon. They, those strange men he had not previously known, stood out
45117 clearly and sharply from everyone else.
45119 "To be a soldier, just a soldier!" thought Pierre as he fell asleep, "to
45120 enter communal life completely, to be imbued by what makes them what
45121 they are. But how cast off all the superfluous, devilish burden of my
45122 outer man? There was a time when I could have done it. I could have run
45123 away from my father, as I wanted to. Or I might have been sent to serve
45124 as a soldier after the duel with Dolokhov." And the memory of the dinner
45125 at the English Club when he had challenged Dolokhov flashed through
45126 Pierre's mind, and then he remembered his benefactor at Torzhok. And now
45127 a picture of a solemn meeting of the lodge presented itself to his mind.
45128 It was taking place at the English Club and someone near and dear to him
45129 sat at the end of the table. "Yes, that is he! It is my benefactor. But
45130 he died!" thought Pierre. "Yes, he died, and I did not know he was
45131 alive. How sorry I am that he died, and how glad I am that he is alive
45132 again!" On one side of the table sat Anatole, Dolokhov, Nesvitski,
45133 Denisov, and others like them (in his dream the category to which these
45134 men belonged was as clearly defined in his mind as the category of those
45135 he termed they), and he heard those people, Anatole and Dolokhov,
45136 shouting and singing loudly; yet through their shouting the voice of his
45137 benefactor was heard speaking all the time and the sound of his words
45138 was as weighty and uninterrupted as the booming on the battlefield, but
45139 pleasant and comforting. Pierre did not understand what his benefactor
45140 was saying, but he knew (the categories of thoughts were also quite
45141 distinct in his dream) that he was talking of goodness and the
45142 possibility of being what they were. And they with their simple, kind,
45143 firm faces surrounded his benefactor on all sides. But though they were
45144 kindly they did not look at Pierre and did not know him. Wishing to
45145 speak and to attract their attention, he got up, but at that moment his
45146 legs grew cold and bare.
45148 He felt ashamed, and with one arm covered his legs from which his cloak
45149 had in fact slipped. For a moment as he was rearranging his cloak Pierre
45150 opened his eyes and saw the same penthouse roofs, posts, and yard, but
45151 now they were all bluish, lit up, and glittering with frost or dew.
45153 "It is dawn," thought Pierre. "But that's not what I want. I want to
45154 hear and understand my benefactor's words." Again he covered himself up
45155 with his cloak, but now neither the lodge nor his benefactor was there.
45156 There were only thoughts clearly expressed in words, thoughts that
45157 someone was uttering or that he himself was formulating.
45159 Afterwards when he recalled those thoughts Pierre was convinced that
45160 someone outside himself had spoken them, though the impressions of that
45161 day had evoked them. He had never, it seemed to him, been able to think
45162 and express his thoughts like that when awake.
45164 "To endure war is the most difficult subordination of man's freedom to
45165 the law of God," the voice had said. "Simplicity is submission to the
45166 will of God; you cannot escape from Him. And they are simple. They do
45167 not talk, but act. The spoken word is silver but the unspoken is golden.
45168 Man can be master of nothing while he fears death, but he who does not
45169 fear it possesses all. If there were no suffering, man would not know
45170 his limitations, would not know himself. The hardest thing (Pierre went
45171 on thinking, or hearing, in his dream) is to be able in your soul to
45172 unite the meaning of all. To unite all?" he asked himself. "No, not to
45173 unite. Thoughts cannot be united, but to harness all these thoughts
45174 together is what we need! Yes, one must harness them, must harness
45175 them!" he repeated to himself with inward rapture, feeling that these
45176 words and they alone expressed what he wanted to say and solved the
45177 question that tormented him.
45179 "Yes, one must harness, it is time to harness."
45181 "Time to harness, time to harness, your excellency! Your excellency!"
45182 some voice was repeating. "We must harness, it is time to harness...."
45184 It was the voice of the groom, trying to wake him. The sun shone
45185 straight into Pierre's face. He glanced at the dirty innyard in the
45186 middle of which soldiers were watering their lean horses at the pump
45187 while carts were passing out of the gate. Pierre turned away with
45188 repugnance, and closing his eyes quickly fell back on the carriage seat.
45189 "No, I don't want that, I don't want to see and understand that. I want
45190 to understand what was revealing itself to me in my dream. One second
45191 more and I should have understood it all! But what am I to do? Harness,
45192 but how can I harness everything?" and Pierre felt with horror that the
45193 meaning of all he had seen and thought in the dream had been destroyed.
45195 The groom, the coachman, and the innkeeper told Pierre that an officer
45196 had come with news that the French were already near Mozhaysk and that
45197 our men were leaving it.
45199 Pierre got up and, having told them to harness and overtake him, went on
45200 foot through the town.
45202 The troops were moving on, leaving about ten thousand wounded behind
45203 them. There were wounded in the yards, at the windows of the houses, and
45204 the streets were crowded with them. In the streets, around carts that
45205 were to take some of the wounded away, shouts, curses, and blows could
45206 be heard. Pierre offered the use of his carriage, which had overtaken
45207 him, to a wounded general he knew, and drove with him to Moscow. On the
45208 way Pierre was told of the death of his brother-in-law Anatole and of
45209 that of Prince Andrew.
45216 On the thirteenth of August Pierre reached Moscow. Close to the gates of
45217 the city he was met by Count Rostopchin's adjutant.
45219 "We have been looking for you everywhere," said the adjutant. "The count
45220 wants to see you particularly. He asks you to come to him at once on a
45221 very important matter."
45223 Without going home, Pierre took a cab and drove to see the Moscow
45224 commander-in-chief.
45226 Count Rostopchin had only that morning returned to town from his summer
45227 villa at Sokolniki. The anteroom and reception room of his house were
45228 full of officials who had been summoned or had come for orders.
45229 Vasilchikov and Platov had already seen the count and explained to him
45230 that it was impossible to defend Moscow and that it would have to be
45231 surrendered. Though this news was being concealed from the inhabitants,
45232 the officials--the heads of the various government departments--knew
45233 that Moscow would soon be in the enemy's hands, just as Count Rostopchin
45234 himself knew it, and to escape personal responsibility they had all come
45235 to the governor to ask how they were to deal with their various
45238 As Pierre was entering the reception room a courier from the army came
45239 out of Rostopchin's private room.
45241 In answer to questions with which he was greeted, the courier made a
45242 despairing gesture with his hand and passed through the room.
45244 While waiting in the reception room Pierre with weary eyes watched the
45245 various officials, old and young, military and civilian, who were there.
45246 They all seemed dissatisfied and uneasy. Pierre went up to a group of
45247 men, one of whom he knew. After greeting Pierre they continued their
45250 "If they're sent out and brought back again later on it will do no harm,
45251 but as things are now one can't answer for anything."
45253 "But you see what he writes..." said another, pointing to a printed
45254 sheet he held in his hand.
45256 "That's another matter. That's necessary for the people," said the
45259 "What is it?" asked Pierre.
45261 "Oh, it's a fresh broadsheet."
45263 Pierre took it and began reading.
45265 His Serene Highness has passed through Mozhaysk in order to join up with
45266 the troops moving toward him and has taken up a strong position where
45267 the enemy will not soon attack him. Forty eight guns with ammunition
45268 have been sent him from here, and his Serene Highness says he will
45269 defend Moscow to the last drop of blood and is even ready to fight in
45270 the streets. Do not be upset, brothers, that the law courts are closed;
45271 things have to be put in order, and we will deal with villains in our
45272 own way! When the time comes I shall want both town and peasant lads and
45273 will raise the cry a day or two beforehand, but they are not wanted yet
45274 so I hold my peace. An ax will be useful, a hunting spear not bad, but a
45275 three-pronged fork will be best of all: a Frenchman is no heavier than a
45276 sheaf of rye. Tomorrow after dinner I shall take the Iberian icon of the
45277 Mother of God to the wounded in the Catherine Hospital where we will
45278 have some water blessed. That will help them to get well quicker. I,
45279 too, am well now: one of my eyes was sore but now I am on the lookout
45282 "But military men have told me that it is impossible to fight in the
45283 town," said Pierre, "and that the position..."
45285 "Well, of course! That's what we were saying," replied the first
45288 "And what does he mean by 'One of my eyes was sore but now I am on the
45289 lookout with both'?" asked Pierre.
45291 "The count had a sty," replied the adjutant smiling, "and was very much
45292 upset when I told him people had come to ask what was the matter with
45293 him. By the by, Count," he added suddenly, addressing Pierre with a
45294 smile, "we heard that you have family troubles and that the countess,
45297 "I have heard nothing," Pierre replied unconcernedly. "But what have you
45300 "Oh, well, you know people often invent things. I only say what I
45303 "But what did you hear?"
45305 "Well, they say," continued the adjutant with the same smile, "that the
45306 countess, your wife, is preparing to go abroad. I expect it's
45309 "Possibly," remarked Pierre, looking about him absent-mindedly. "And who
45310 is that?" he asked, indicating a short old man in a clean blue peasant
45311 overcoat, with a big snow-white beard and eyebrows and a ruddy face.
45313 "He? That's a tradesman, that is to say, he's the restaurant keeper,
45314 Vereshchagin. Perhaps you have heard of that affair with the
45317 "Oh, so that is Vereshchagin!" said Pierre, looking at the firm, calm
45318 face of the old man and seeking any indication of his being a traitor.
45320 "That's not he himself, that's the father of the fellow who wrote the
45321 proclamation," said the adjutant. "The young man is in prison and I
45322 expect it will go hard with him."
45324 An old gentleman wearing a star and another official, a German wearing a
45325 cross round his neck, approached the speaker.
45328 "It's a complicated story, you know," said the adjutant. "That
45329 proclamation appeared about two months ago. The count was informed of
45330 it. He gave orders to investigate the matter. Gabriel Ivanovich here
45331 made the inquiries. The proclamation had passed through exactly sixty-
45332 three hands. He asked one, 'From whom did you get it?' 'From so-and-so.'
45333 He went to the next one. 'From whom did you get it?' and so on till he
45334 reached Vereshchagin, a half educated tradesman, you know, 'a pet of a
45335 trader,'" said the adjutant smiling. "They asked him, 'Who gave it you?'
45336 And the point is that we knew whom he had it from. He could only have
45337 had it from the Postmaster. But evidently they had come to some
45338 understanding. He replied: 'From no one; I made it up myself.' They
45339 threatened and questioned him, but he stuck to that: 'I made it up
45340 myself.' And so it was reported to the count, who sent for the man.
45341 'From whom did you get the proclamation?' 'I wrote it myself.' Well, you
45342 know the count," said the adjutant cheerfully, with a smile of pride,
45343 "he flared up dreadfully--and just think of the fellow's audacity,
45344 lying, and obstinacy!"
45346 "And the count wanted him to say it was from Klyucharev? I understand!"
45349 "Not at all," rejoined the adjutant in dismay. "Klyucharev had his own
45350 sins to answer for without that and that is why he has been banished.
45351 But the point is that the count was much annoyed. 'How could you have
45352 written it yourself?' said he, and he took up the Hamburg Gazette that
45353 was lying on the table. 'Here it is! You did not write it yourself but
45354 translated it, and translated it abominably, because you don't even know
45355 French, you fool.' And what do you think? 'No,' said he, 'I have not
45356 read any papers, I made it up myself.' 'If that's so, you're a traitor
45357 and I'll have you tried, and you'll be hanged! Say from whom you had
45358 it.' 'I have seen no papers, I made it up myself.' And that was the end
45359 of it. The count had the father fetched, but the fellow stuck to it. He
45360 was sent for trial and condemned to hard labor, I believe. Now the
45361 father has come to intercede for him. But he's a good-for-nothing lad!
45362 You know that sort of tradesman's son, a dandy and lady-killer. He
45363 attended some lectures somewhere and imagines that the devil is no match
45364 for him. That's the sort of fellow he is. His father keeps a cookshop
45365 here by the Stone Bridge, and you know there was a large icon of God
45366 Almighty painted with a scepter in one hand and an orb in the other.
45367 Well, he took that icon home with him for a few days and what did he do?
45368 He found some scoundrel of a painter..."
45375 In the middle of this fresh tale Pierre was summoned to the commander in
45378 When he entered the private room Count Rostopchin, puckering his face,
45379 was rubbing his forehead and eyes with his hand. A short man was saying
45380 something, but when Pierre entered he stopped speaking and went out.
45382 "Ah, how do you do, great warrior?" said Rostopchin as soon as the short
45383 man had left the room. "We have heard of your prowess. But that's not
45384 the point. Between ourselves, mon cher, do you belong to the Masons?" he
45385 went on severely, as though there were something wrong about it which he
45386 nevertheless intended to pardon. Pierre remained silent. "I am well
45387 informed, my friend, but I am aware that there are Masons and I hope
45388 that you are not one of those who on pretense of saving mankind wish to
45391 "Yes, I am a Mason," Pierre replied.
45393 "There, you see, mon cher! I expect you know that Messrs. Speranski and
45394 Magnitski have been deported to their proper place. Mr. Klyucharev has
45395 been treated in the same way, and so have others who on the plea of
45396 building up the temple of Solomon have tried to destroy the temple of
45397 their fatherland. You can understand that there are reasons for this and
45398 that I could not have exiled the Postmaster had he not been a harmful
45399 person. It has now come to my knowledge that you lent him your carriage
45400 for his removal from town, and that you have even accepted papers from
45401 him for safe custody. I like you and don't wish you any harm and--as you
45402 are only half my age--I advise you, as a father would, to cease all
45403 communication with men of that stamp and to leave here as soon as
45406 "But what did Klyucharev do wrong, Count?" asked Pierre.
45408 "That is for me to know, but not for you to ask," shouted Rostopchin.
45410 "If he is accused of circulating Napoleon's proclamation it is not
45411 proved that he did so," said Pierre without looking at Rostopchin, "and
45414 "There we are!" Rostopchin shouted at Pierre louder than before,
45415 frowning suddenly. "Vereshchagin is a renegade and a traitor who will be
45416 punished as he deserves," said he with the vindictive heat with which
45417 people speak when recalling an insult. "But I did not summon you to
45418 discuss my actions, but to give you advice--or an order if you prefer
45419 it. I beg you to leave the town and break off all communication with
45420 such men as Klyucharev. And I will knock the nonsense out of anybody"--
45421 but probably realizing that he was shouting at Bezukhov who so far was
45422 not guilty of anything, he added, taking Pierre's hand in a friendly
45423 manner, "We are on the eve of a public disaster and I haven't time to be
45424 polite to everybody who has business with me. My head is sometimes in a
45425 whirl. Well, mon cher, what are you doing personally?"
45427 "Why, nothing," answered Pierre without raising his eyes or changing the
45428 thoughtful expression of his face.
45432 "A word of friendly advice, mon cher. Be off as soon as you can, that's
45433 all I have to tell you. Happy he who has ears to hear. Good-bye, my dear
45434 fellow. Oh, by the by!" he shouted through the doorway after Pierre, "is
45435 it true that the countess has fallen into the clutches of the holy
45436 fathers of the Society of Jesus?"
45438 Pierre did not answer and left Rostopchin's room more sullen and angry
45439 than he had ever before shown himself.
45441 When he reached home it was already getting dark. Some eight people had
45442 come to see him that evening: the secretary of a committee, the colonel
45443 of his battalion, his steward, his major-domo, and various petitioners.
45444 They all had business with Pierre and wanted decisions from him. Pierre
45445 did not understand and was not interested in any of these questions and
45446 only answered them in order to get rid of these people. When left alone
45447 at last he opened and read his wife's letter.
45449 "They, the soldiers at the battery, Prince Andrew killed... that old
45450 man... Simplicity is submission to God. Suffering is necessary... the
45451 meaning of all... one must harness... my wife is getting married... One
45452 must forget and understand..." And going to his bed he threw himself on
45453 it without undressing and immediately fell asleep.
45455 When he awoke next morning the major-domo came to inform him that a
45456 special messenger, a police officer, had come from Count Rostopchin to
45457 know whether Count Bezukhov had left or was leaving the town.
45459 A dozen persons who had business with Pierre were awaiting him in the
45460 drawing room. Pierre dressed hurriedly and, instead of going to see
45461 them, went to the back porch and out through the gate.
45463 From that time till the end of the destruction of Moscow no one of
45464 Bezukhov's household, despite all the search they made, saw Pierre again
45465 or knew where he was.
45472 The Rostovs remained in Moscow till the first of September, that is,
45473 till the eve of the enemy's entry into the city.
45475 After Petya had joined Obolenski's regiment of Cossacks and left for
45476 Belaya Tserkov where that regiment was forming, the countess was seized
45477 with terror. The thought that both her sons were at the war, had both
45478 gone from under her wing, that today or tomorrow either or both of them
45479 might be killed like the three sons of one of her acquaintances, struck
45480 her that summer for the first time with cruel clearness. She tried to
45481 get Nicholas back and wished to go herself to join Petya, or to get him
45482 an appointment somewhere in Petersburg, but neither of these proved
45483 possible. Petya could not return unless his regiment did so or unless he
45484 was transferred to another regiment on active service. Nicholas was
45485 somewhere with the army and had not sent a word since his last letter,
45486 in which he had given a detailed account of his meeting with Princess
45487 Mary. The countess did not sleep at night, or when she did fall asleep
45488 dreamed that she saw her sons lying dead. After many consultations and
45489 conversations, the count at last devised means to tranquillize her. He
45490 got Petya transferred from Obolenski's regiment to Bezukhov's, which was
45491 in training near Moscow. Though Petya would remain in the service, this
45492 transfer would give the countess the consolation of seeing at least one
45493 of her sons under her wing, and she hoped to arrange matters for her
45494 Petya so as not to let him go again, but always get him appointed to
45495 places where he could not possibly take part in a battle. As long as
45496 Nicholas alone was in danger the countess imagined that she loved her
45497 first-born more than all her other children and even reproached herself
45498 for it; but when her youngest: the scapegrace who had been bad at
45499 lessons, was always breaking things in the house and making himself a
45500 nuisance to everybody, that snub-nosed Petya with his merry black eyes
45501 and fresh rosy cheeks where soft down was just beginning to show--when
45502 he was thrown amid those big, dreadful, cruel men who were fighting
45503 somewhere about something and apparently finding pleasure in it--then
45504 his mother thought she loved him more, much more, than all her other
45505 children. The nearer the time came for Petya to return, the more uneasy
45506 grew the countess. She began to think she would never live to see such
45507 happiness. The presence of Sonya, of her beloved Natasha, or even of her
45508 husband irritated her. "What do I want with them? I want no one but
45509 Petya," she thought.
45511 At the end of August the Rostovs received another letter from Nicholas.
45512 He wrote from the province of Voronezh where he had been sent to procure
45513 remounts, but that letter did not set the countess at ease. Knowing that
45514 one son was out of danger she became the more anxious about Petya.
45516 Though by the twentieth of August nearly all the Rostovs' acquaintances
45517 had left Moscow, and though everybody tried to persuade the countess to
45518 get away as quickly as possible, she would not hear of leaving before
45519 her treasure, her adored Petya, returned. On the twenty-eighth of August
45520 he arrived. The passionate tenderness with which his mother received him
45521 did not please the sixteen-year-old officer. Though she concealed from
45522 him her intention of keeping him under her wing, Petya guessed her
45523 designs, and instinctively fearing that he might give way to emotion
45524 when with her--might "become womanish" as he termed it to himself--he
45525 treated her coldly, avoided her, and during his stay in Moscow attached
45526 himself exclusively to Natasha for whom he had always had a particularly
45527 brotherly tenderness, almost lover-like.
45529 Owing to the count's customary carelessness nothing was ready for their
45530 departure by the twenty-eighth of August and the carts that were to come
45531 from their Ryazan and Moscow estates to remove their household
45532 belongings did not arrive till the thirtieth.
45534 From the twenty-eighth till the thirty-first all Moscow was in a bustle
45535 and commotion. Every day thousands of men wounded at Borodino were
45536 brought in by the Dorogomilov gate and taken to various parts of Moscow,
45537 and thousands of carts conveyed the inhabitants and their possessions
45538 out by the other gates. In spite of Rostopchin's broadsheets, or because
45539 of them or independently of them, the strangest and most contradictory
45540 rumors were current in the town. Some said that no one was to be allowed
45541 to leave the city, others on the contrary said that all the icons had
45542 been taken out of the churches and everybody was to be ordered to leave.
45543 Some said there had been another battle after Borodino at which the
45544 French had been routed, while others on the contrary reported that the
45545 Russian army had been destroyed. Some talked about the Moscow militia
45546 which, preceded by the clergy, would go to the Three Hills; others
45547 whispered that Augustin had been forbidden to leave, that traitors had
45548 been seized, that the peasants were rioting and robbing people on their
45549 way from Moscow, and so on. But all this was only talk; in reality
45550 (though the Council of Fili, at which it was decided to abandon Moscow,
45551 had not yet been held) both those who went away and those who remained
45552 behind felt, though they did not show it, that Moscow would certainly be
45553 abandoned, and that they ought to get away as quickly as possible and
45554 save their belongings. It was felt that everything would suddenly break
45555 up and change, but up to the first of September nothing had done so. As
45556 a criminal who is being led to execution knows that he must die
45557 immediately, but yet looks about him and straightens the cap that is
45558 awry on his head, so Moscow involuntarily continued its wonted life,
45559 though it knew that the time of its destruction was near when the
45560 conditions of life to which its people were accustomed to submit would
45561 be completely upset.
45563 During the three days preceding the occupation of Moscow the whole
45564 Rostov family was absorbed in various activities. The head of the
45565 family, Count Ilya Rostov, continually drove about the city collecting
45566 the current rumors from all sides and gave superficial and hasty orders
45567 at home about the preparations for their departure.
45569 The countess watched the things being packed, was dissatisfied with
45570 everything, was constantly in pursuit of Petya who was always running
45571 away from her, and was jealous of Natasha with whom he spent all his
45572 time. Sonya alone directed the practical side of matters by getting
45573 things packed. But of late Sonya had been particularly sad and silent.
45574 Nicholas' letter in which he mentioned Princess Mary had elicited, in
45575 her presence, joyous comments from the countess, who saw an intervention
45576 of Providence in this meeting of the princess and Nicholas.
45578 "I was never pleased at Bolkonski's engagement to Natasha," said the
45579 countess, "but I always wanted Nicholas to marry the princess, and had a
45580 presentiment that it would happen. What a good thing it would be!"
45582 Sonya felt that this was true: that the only possibility of retrieving
45583 the Rostovs' affairs was by Nicholas marrying a rich woman, and that the
45584 princess was a good match. It was very bitter for her. But despite her
45585 grief, or perhaps just because of it, she took on herself all the
45586 difficult work of directing the storing and packing of their things and
45587 was busy for whole days. The count and countess turned to her when they
45588 had any orders to give. Petya and Natasha on the contrary, far from
45589 helping their parents, were generally a nuisance and a hindrance to
45590 everyone. Almost all day long the house resounded with their running
45591 feet, their cries, and their spontaneous laughter. They laughed and were
45592 gay not because there was any reason to laugh, but because gaiety and
45593 mirth were in their hearts and so everything that happened was a cause
45594 for gaiety and laughter to them. Petya was in high spirits because
45595 having left home a boy he had returned (as everybody told him) a fine
45596 young man, because he was at home, because he had left Belaya Tserkov
45597 where there was no hope of soon taking part in a battle and had come to
45598 Moscow where there was to be fighting in a few days, and chiefly because
45599 Natasha, whose lead he always followed, was in high spirits. Natasha was
45600 gay because she had been sad too long and now nothing reminded her of
45601 the cause of her sadness, and because she was feeling well. She was also
45602 happy because she had someone to adore her: the adoration of others was
45603 a lubricant the wheels of her machine needed to make them run freely--
45604 and Petya adored her. Above all, they were gay because there was a war
45605 near Moscow, there would be fighting at the town gates, arms were being
45606 given out, everybody was escaping--going away somewhere, and in general
45607 something extraordinary was happening, and that is always exciting,
45608 especially to the young.
45615 On Saturday, the thirty-first of August, everything in the Rostovs'
45616 house seemed topsy-turvy. All the doors were open, all the furniture was
45617 being carried out or moved about, and the mirrors and pictures had been
45618 taken down. There were trunks in the rooms, and hay, wrapping paper, and
45619 ropes were scattered about. The peasants and house serfs carrying out
45620 the things were treading heavily on the parquet floors. The yard was
45621 crowded with peasant carts, some loaded high and already corded up,
45622 others still empty.
45624 The voices and footsteps of the many servants and of the peasants who
45625 had come with the carts resounded as they shouted to one another in the
45626 yard and in the house. The count had been out since morning. The
45627 countess had a headache brought on by all the noise and turmoil and was
45628 lying down in the new sitting room with a vinegar compress on her head.
45629 Petya was not at home, he had gone to visit a friend with whom he meant
45630 to obtain a transfer from the militia to the active army. Sonya was in
45631 the ballroom looking after the packing of the glass and china. Natasha
45632 was sitting on the floor of her dismantled room with dresses, ribbons,
45633 and scarves strewn all about her, gazing fixedly at the floor and
45634 holding in her hands the old ball dress (already out of fashion) which
45635 she had worn at her first Petersburg ball.
45637 Natasha was ashamed of doing nothing when everyone else was so busy, and
45638 several times that morning had tried to set to work, but her heart was
45639 not in it, and she could not and did not know how to do anything except
45640 with all her heart and all her might. For a while she had stood beside
45641 Sonya while the china was being packed and tried to help, but soon gave
45642 it up and went to her room to pack her own things. At first she found it
45643 amusing to give away dresses and ribbons to the maids, but when that was
45644 done and what was left had still to be packed, she found it dull.
45646 "Dunyasha, you pack! You will, won't you, dear?" And when Dunyasha
45647 willingly promised to do it all for her, Natasha sat down on the floor,
45648 took her old ball dress, and fell into a reverie quite unrelated to what
45649 ought to have occupied her thoughts now. She was roused from her reverie
45650 by the talk of the maids in the next room (which was theirs) and by the
45651 sound of their hurried footsteps going to the back porch. Natasha got up
45652 and looked out of the window. An enormously long row of carts full of
45653 wounded men had stopped in the street.
45655 The housekeeper, the old nurse, the cooks, coachmen, maids, footmen,
45656 postilions, and scullions stood at the gate, staring at the wounded.
45658 Natasha, throwing a clean pocket handkerchief over her hair and holding
45659 an end of it in each hand, went out into the street.
45661 The former housekeeper, old Mavra Kuzminichna, had stepped out of the
45662 crowd by the gate, gone up to a cart with a hood constructed of bast
45663 mats, and was speaking to a pale young officer who lay inside. Natasha
45664 moved a few steps forward and stopped shyly, still holding her
45665 handkerchief, and listened to what the housekeeper was saying.
45667 "Then you have nobody in Moscow?" she was saying. "You would be more
45668 comfortable somewhere in a house... in ours, for instance... the family
45671 "I don't know if it would be allowed," replied the officer in a weak
45672 voice. "Here is our commanding officer... ask him," and he pointed to a
45673 stout major who was walking back along the street past the row of carts.
45675 Natasha glanced with frightened eyes at the face of the wounded officer
45676 and at once went to meet the major.
45678 "May the wounded men stay in our house?" she asked.
45680 The major raised his hand to his cap with a smile.
45682 "Which one do you want, Ma'am'selle?" said he, screwing up his eyes and
45685 Natasha quietly repeated her question, and her face and whole manner
45686 were so serious, though she was still holding the ends of her
45687 handkerchief, that the major ceased smiling and after some reflection--
45688 as if considering in how far the thing was possible--replied in the
45691 "Oh yes, why not? They may," he said.
45693 With a slight inclination of her head, Natasha stepped back quickly to
45694 Mavra Kuzminichna, who stood talking compassionately to the officer.
45696 "They may. He says they may!" whispered Natasha.
45698 The cart in which the officer lay was turned into the Rostovs' yard, and
45699 dozens of carts with wounded men began at the invitation of the
45700 townsfolk to turn into the yards and to draw up at the entrances of the
45701 houses in Povarskaya Street. Natasha was evidently pleased to be dealing
45702 with new people outside the ordinary routine of her life. She and Mavra
45703 Kuzminichna tried to get as many of the wounded as possible into their
45706 "Your Papa must be told, though," said Mavra Kuzminichna.
45708 "Never mind, never mind, what does it matter? For one day we can move
45709 into the drawing room. They can have all our half of the house."
45711 "There now, young lady, you do take things into your head! Even if we
45712 put them into the wing, the men's room, or the nurse's room, we must ask
45717 Natasha ran into the house and went on tiptoe through the half-open door
45718 into the sitting room, where there was a smell of vinegar and Hoffman's
45721 "Are you asleep, Mamma?"
45723 "Oh, what sleep-?" said the countess, waking up just as she was dropping
45726 "Mamma darling!" said Natasha, kneeling by her mother and bringing her
45727 face close to her mother's, "I am sorry, forgive me, I'll never do it
45728 again; I woke you up! Mavra Kuzminichna has sent me: they have brought
45729 some wounded here--officers. Will you let them come? They have nowhere
45730 to go. I knew you'd let them come!" she said quickly all in one breath.
45732 "What officers? Whom have they brought? I don't understand anything
45733 about it," said the countess.
45735 Natasha laughed, and the countess too smiled slightly.
45737 "I knew you'd give permission... so I'll tell them," and, having kissed
45738 her mother, Natasha got up and went to the door.
45740 In the hall she met her father, who had returned with bad news.
45742 "We've stayed too long!" said the count with involuntary vexation. "The
45743 club is closed and the police are leaving."
45745 "Papa, is it all right--I've invited some of the wounded into the
45746 house?" said Natasha.
45748 "Of course it is," he answered absently. "That's not the point. I beg
45749 you not to indulge in trifles now, but to help to pack, and tomorrow we
45750 must go, go, go!...."
45752 And the count gave a similar order to the major-domo and the servants.
45754 At dinner Petya having returned home told them the news he had heard. He
45755 said the people had been getting arms in the Kremlin, and that though
45756 Rostopchin's broadsheet had said that he would sound a call two or three
45757 days in advance, the order had certainly already been given for everyone
45758 to go armed to the Three Hills tomorrow, and that there would be a big
45761 The countess looked with timid horror at her son's eager, excited face
45762 as he said this. She realized that if she said a word about his not
45763 going to the battle (she knew he enjoyed the thought of the impending
45764 engagement) he would say something about men, honor, and the fatherland-
45765 -something senseless, masculine, and obstinate which there would be no
45766 contradicting, and her plans would be spoiled; and so, hoping to arrange
45767 to leave before then and take Petya with her as their protector and
45768 defender, she did not answer him, but after dinner called the count
45769 aside and implored him with tears to take her away quickly, that very
45770 night if possible. With a woman's involuntary loving cunning she, who
45771 till then had not shown any alarm, said that she would die of fright if
45772 they did not leave that very night. Without any pretense she was now
45773 afraid of everything.
45780 Madame Schoss, who had been out to visit her daughter, increased the
45781 countess' fears still more by telling what she had seen at a spirit
45782 dealer's in Myasnitski Street. When returning by that street she had
45783 been unable to pass because of a drunken crowd rioting in front of the
45784 shop. She had taken a cab and driven home by a side street and the
45785 cabman had told her that the people were breaking open the barrels at
45786 the drink store, having received orders to do so.
45788 After dinner the whole Rostov household set to work with enthusiastic
45789 haste packing their belongings and preparing for their departure. The
45790 old count, suddenly setting to work, kept passing from the yard to the
45791 house and back again, shouting confused instructions to the hurrying
45792 people, and flurrying them still more. Petya directed things in the
45793 yard. Sonya, owing to the count's contradictory orders, lost her head
45794 and did not know what to do. The servants ran noisily about the house
45795 and yard, shouting and disputing. Natasha, with the ardor characteristic
45796 of all she did suddenly set to work too. At first her intervention in
45797 the business of packing was received skeptically. Everybody expected
45798 some prank from her and did not wish to obey her; but she resolutely and
45799 passionately demanded obedience, grew angry and nearly cried because
45800 they did not heed her, and at last succeeded in making them believe her.
45801 Her first exploit, which cost her immense effort and established her
45802 authority, was the packing of the carpets. The count had valuable
45803 Gobelin tapestries and Persian carpets in the house. When Natasha set to
45804 work two cases were standing open in the ballroom, one almost full up
45805 with crockery, the other with carpets. There was also much china
45806 standing on the tables, and still more was being brought in from the
45807 storeroom. A third case was needed and servants had gone to fetch it.
45809 "Sonya, wait a bit--we'll pack everything into these," said Natasha.
45811 "You can't, Miss, we have tried to," said the butler's assistant.
45813 "No, wait a minute, please."
45815 And Natasha began rapidly taking out of the case dishes and plates
45818 "The dishes must go in here among the carpets," said she.
45820 "Why, it's a mercy if we can get the carpets alone into three cases,"
45821 said the butler's assistant.
45823 "Oh, wait, please!" And Natasha began rapidly and deftly sorting out the
45824 things. "These aren't needed," said she, putting aside some plates of
45825 Kiev ware. "These--yes, these must go among the carpets," she said,
45826 referring to the Saxony china dishes.
45828 "Don't, Natasha! Leave it alone! We'll get it all packed," urged Sonya
45831 "What a young lady she is!" remarked the major-domo.
45833 But Natasha would not give in. She turned everything out and began
45834 quickly repacking, deciding that the inferior Russian carpets and
45835 unnecessary crockery should not be taken at all. When everything had
45836 been taken out of the cases, they recommenced packing, and it turned out
45837 that when the cheaper things not worth taking had nearly all been
45838 rejected, the valuable ones really did all go into the two cases. Only
45839 the lid of the case containing the carpets would not shut down. A few
45840 more things might have been taken out, but Natasha insisted on having
45841 her own way. She packed, repacked, pressed, made the butler's assistant
45842 and Petya--whom she had drawn into the business of packing--press on the
45843 lid, and made desperate efforts herself.
45845 "That's enough, Natasha," said Sonya. "I see you were right, but just
45846 take out the top one."
45848 "I won't!" cried Natasha, with one hand holding back the hair that hung
45849 over her perspiring face, while with the other she pressed down the
45850 carpets. "Now press, Petya! Press, Vasilich, press hard!" she cried.
45852 The carpets yielded and the lid closed; Natasha, clapping her hands,
45853 screamed with delight and tears fell from her eyes. But this only lasted
45854 a moment. She at once set to work afresh and they now trusted her
45855 completely. The count was not angry even when they told him that Natasha
45856 had countermanded an order of his, and the servants now came to her to
45857 ask whether a cart was sufficiently loaded, and whether it might be
45858 corded up. Thanks to Natasha's directions the work now went on
45859 expeditiously, unnecessary things were left, and the most valuable
45860 packed as compactly as possible.
45862 But hard as they all worked till quite late that night, they could not
45863 get everything packed. The countess had fallen asleep and the count,
45864 having put off their departure till next morning, went to bed.
45866 Sonya and Natasha slept in the sitting room without undressing.
45868 That night another wounded man was driven down the Povarskaya, and Mavra
45869 Kuzminichna, who was standing at the gate, had him brought into the
45870 Rostovs' yard. Mavra Kuzminichna concluded that he was a very important
45871 man. He was being conveyed in a caleche with a raised hood, and was
45872 quite covered by an apron. On the box beside the driver sat a venerable
45873 old attendant. A doctor and two soldiers followed the carriage in a
45876 "Please come in here. The masters are going away and the whole house
45877 will be empty," said the old woman to the old attendant.
45879 "Well, perhaps," said he with a sigh. "We don't expect to get him home
45880 alive! We have a house of our own in Moscow, but it's a long way from
45881 here, and there's nobody living in it."
45883 "Do us the honor to come in, there's plenty of everything in the
45884 master's house. Come in," said Mavra Kuzminichna. "Is he very ill?" she
45887 The attendant made a hopeless gesture.
45889 "We don't expect to get him home! We must ask the doctor."
45891 And the old servant got down from the box and went up to the cart.
45893 "All right!" said the doctor.
45895 The old servant returned to the caleche, looked into it, shook his head
45896 disconsolately, told the driver to turn into the yard, and stopped
45897 beside Mavra Kuzminichna.
45899 "O, Lord Jesus Christ!" she murmured.
45901 She invited them to take the wounded man into the house.
45903 "The masters won't object..." she said.
45905 But they had to avoid carrying the man upstairs, and so they took him
45906 into the wing and put him in the room that had been Madame Schoss'.
45908 This wounded man was Prince Andrew Bolkonski.
45915 Moscow's last day had come. It was a clear bright autumn day, a Sunday.
45916 The church bells everywhere were ringing for service, just as usual on
45917 Sundays. Nobody seemed yet to realize what awaited the city.
45919 Only two things indicated the social condition of Moscow--the rabble,
45920 that is the poor people, and the price of commodities. An enormous crowd
45921 of factory hands, house serfs, and peasants, with whom some officials,
45922 seminarists, and gentry were mingled, had gone early that morning to the
45923 Three Hills. Having waited there for Rostopchin who did not turn up,
45924 they became convinced that Moscow would be surrendered, and then
45925 dispersed all about the town to the public houses and cookshops. Prices
45926 too that day indicated the state of affairs. The price of weapons, of
45927 gold, of carts and horses, kept rising, but the value of paper money and
45928 city articles kept falling, so that by midday there were instances of
45929 carters removing valuable goods, such as cloth, and receiving in payment
45930 a half of what they carted, while peasant horses were fetching five
45931 hundred rubles each, and furniture, mirrors, and bronzes were being
45932 given away for nothing.
45934 In the Rostovs' staid old-fashioned house the dissolution of former
45935 conditions of life was but little noticeable. As to the serfs the only
45936 indication was that three out of their huge retinue disappeared during
45937 the night, but nothing was stolen; and as to the value of their
45938 possessions, the thirty peasant carts that had come in from their
45939 estates and which many people envied proved to be extremely valuable and
45940 they were offered enormous sums of money for them. Not only were huge
45941 sums offered for the horses and carts, but on the previous evening and
45942 early in the morning of the first of September, orderlies and servants
45943 sent by wounded officers came to the Rostovs' and wounded men dragged
45944 themselves there from the Rostovs' and from neighboring houses where
45945 they were accommodated, entreating the servants to try to get them a
45946 lift out of Moscow. The major-domo to whom these entreaties were
45947 addressed, though he was sorry for the wounded, resolutely refused,
45948 saying that he dare not even mention the matter to the count. Pity these
45949 wounded men as one might, it was evident that if they were given one
45950 cart there would be no reason to refuse another, or all the carts and
45951 one's own carriages as well. Thirty carts could not save all the wounded
45952 and in the general catastrophe one could not disregard oneself and one's
45953 own family. So thought the major-domo on his master's behalf.
45955 On waking up that morning Count Ilya Rostov left his bedroom softly, so
45956 as not to wake the countess who had fallen asleep only toward morning,
45957 and came out to the porch in his lilac silk dressing gown. In the yard
45958 stood the carts ready corded. The carriages were at the front porch. The
45959 major-domo stood at the porch talking to an elderly orderly and to a
45960 pale young officer with a bandaged arm. On seeing the count the major-
45961 domo made a significant and stern gesture to them both to go away.
45963 "Well, Vasilich, is everything ready?" asked the count, and stroking his
45964 bald head he looked good-naturedly at the officer and the orderly and
45965 nodded to them. (He liked to see new faces.)
45967 "We can harness at once, your excellency."
45969 "Well, that's right. As soon as the countess wakes we'll be off, God
45970 willing! What is it, gentlemen?" he added, turning to the officer. "Are
45971 you staying in my house?"
45973 The officer came nearer and suddenly his face flushed crimson.
45975 "Count, be so good as to allow me... for God's sake, to get into some
45976 corner of one of your carts! I have nothing here with me.... I shall be
45977 all right on a loaded cart..."
45979 Before the officer had finished speaking the orderly made the same
45980 request on behalf of his master.
45982 "Oh, yes, yes, yes!" said the count hastily. "I shall be very pleased,
45983 very pleased. Vasilich, you'll see to it. Just unload one or two carts.
45984 Well, what of it... do what's necessary..." said the count, muttering
45985 some indefinite order.
45987 But at the same moment an expression of warm gratitude on the officer's
45988 face had already sealed the order. The count looked around him. In the
45989 yard, at the gates, at the window of the wings, wounded officers and
45990 their orderlies were to be seen. They were all looking at the count and
45991 moving toward the porch.
45993 "Please step into the gallery, your excellency," said the major-domo.
45994 "What are your orders about the pictures?"
45996 The count went into the house with him, repeating his order not to
45997 refuse the wounded who asked for a lift.
45999 "Well, never mind, some of the things can be unloaded," he added in a
46000 soft, confidential voice, as though afraid of being overheard.
46002 At nine o'clock the countess woke up, and Matrena Timofeevna, who had
46003 been her lady's maid before her marriage and now performed a sort of
46004 chief gendarme's duty for her, came to say that Madame Schoss was much
46005 offended and the young ladies' summer dresses could not be left behind.
46006 On inquiry, the countess learned that Madame Schoss was offended because
46007 her trunk had been taken down from its cart, and all the loads were
46008 being uncorded and the luggage taken out of the carts to make room for
46009 wounded men whom the count in the simplicity of his heart had ordered
46010 that they should take with them. The countess sent for her husband.
46012 "What is this, my dear? I hear that the luggage is being unloaded."
46014 "You know, love, I wanted to tell you... Countess dear... an officer
46015 came to me to ask for a few carts for the wounded. After all, ours are
46016 things that can be bought but think what being left behind means to
46017 them!... Really now, in our own yard--we asked them in ourselves and
46018 there are officers among them.... You know, I think, my dear... let them
46019 be taken... where's the hurry?"
46021 The count spoke timidly, as he always did when talking of money matters.
46022 The countess was accustomed to this tone as a precursor of news of
46023 something detrimental to the children's interests, such as the building
46024 of a new gallery or conservatory, the inauguration of a private theater
46025 or an orchestra. She was accustomed always to oppose anything announced
46026 in that timid tone and considered it her duty to do so.
46028 She assumed her dolefully submissive manner and said to her husband:
46029 "Listen to me, Count, you have managed matters so that we are getting
46030 nothing for the house, and now you wish to throw away all our--all the
46031 children's property! You said yourself that we have a hundred thousand
46032 rubles' worth of things in the house. I don't consent, my dear, I don't!
46033 Do as you please! It's the government's business to look after the
46034 wounded; they know that. Look at the Lopukhins opposite, they cleared
46035 out everything two days ago. That's what other people do. It's only we
46036 who are such fools. If you have no pity on me, have some for the
46039 Flourishing his arms in despair the count left the room without
46042 "Papa, what are you doing that for?" asked Natasha, who had followed him
46043 into her mother's room.
46045 "Nothing! What business is it of yours?" muttered the count angrily.
46047 "But I heard," said Natasha. "Why does Mamma object?"
46049 "What business is it of yours?" cried the count.
46051 Natasha stepped up to the window and pondered.
46053 "Papa! Here's Berg coming to see us," said she, looking out of the
46061 Berg, the Rostovs' son-in-law, was already a colonel wearing the orders
46062 of Vladimir and Anna, and he still filled the quiet and agreeable post
46063 of assistant to the head of the staff of the assistant commander of the
46064 first division of the Second Army.
46066 On the first of September he had come to Moscow from the army.
46068 He had nothing to do in Moscow, but he had noticed that everyone in the
46069 army was asking for leave to visit Moscow and had something to do there.
46070 So he considered it necessary to ask for leave of absence for family and
46073 Berg drove up to his father-in-law's house in his spruce little trap
46074 with a pair of sleek roans, exactly like those of a certain prince. He
46075 looked attentively at the carts in the yard and while going up to the
46076 porch took out a clean pocket handkerchief and tied a knot in it.
46078 From the anteroom Berg ran with smooth though impatient steps into the
46079 drawing room, where he embraced the count, kissed the hands of Natasha
46080 and Sonya, and hastened to inquire after "Mamma's" health.
46082 "Health, at a time like this?" said the count. "Come, tell us the news!
46083 Is the army retreating or will there be another battle?"
46085 "God Almighty alone can decide the fate of our fatherland, Papa," said
46086 Berg. "The army is burning with a spirit of heroism and the leaders, so
46087 to say, have now assembled in council. No one knows what is coming. But
46088 in general I can tell you, Papa, that such a heroic spirit, the truly
46089 antique valor of the Russian army, which they--which it" (he corrected
46090 himself) "has shown or displayed in the battle of the twenty-sixth--
46091 there are no words worthy to do it justice! I tell you, Papa" (he smote
46092 himself on the breast as a general he had heard speaking had done, but
46093 Berg did it a trifle late for he should have struck his breast at the
46094 words "Russian army"), "I tell you frankly that we, the commanders, far
46095 from having to urge the men on or anything of that kind, could hardly
46096 restrain those... those... yes, those exploits of antique valor," he
46097 went on rapidly. "General Barclay de Tolly risked his life everywhere at
46098 the head of the troops, I can assure you. Our corps was stationed on a
46099 hillside. You can imagine!"
46101 And Berg related all that he remembered of the various tales he had
46102 heard those days. Natasha watched him with an intent gaze that confused
46103 him, as if she were trying to find in his face the answer to some
46106 "Altogether such heroism as was displayed by the Russian warriors cannot
46107 be imagined or adequately praised!" said Berg, glancing round at
46108 Natasha, and as if anxious to conciliate her, replying to her intent
46109 look with a smile. "'Russia is not in Moscow, she lives in the hearts of
46110 her sons!' Isn't it so, Papa?" said he.
46112 Just then the countess came in from the sitting room with a weary and
46113 dissatisfied expression. Berg hurriedly jumped up, kissed her hand,
46114 asked about her health, and, swaying his head from side to side to
46115 express sympathy, remained standing beside her.
46117 "Yes, Mamma, I tell you sincerely that these are hard and sad times for
46118 every Russian. But why are you so anxious? You have still time to get
46121 "I can't think what the servants are about," said the countess, turning
46122 to her husband. "I have just been told that nothing is ready yet.
46123 Somebody after all must see to things. One misses Mitenka at such times.
46124 There won't be any end to it."
46126 The count was about to say something, but evidently restrained himself.
46127 He got up from his chair and went to the door.
46129 At that moment Berg drew out his handkerchief as if to blow his nose
46130 and, seeing the knot in it, pondered, shaking his head sadly and
46133 "And I have a great favor to ask of you, Papa," said he.
46135 "Hm..." said the count, and stopped.
46137 "I was driving past Yusupov's house just now," said Berg with a laugh,
46138 "when the steward, a man I know, ran out and asked me whether I wouldn't
46139 buy something. I went in out of curiosity, you know, and there is a
46140 small chiffonier and a dressing table. You know how dear Vera wanted a
46141 chiffonier like that and how we had a dispute about it." (At the mention
46142 of the chiffonier and dressing table Berg involuntarily changed his tone
46143 to one of pleasure at his admirable domestic arrangements.) "And it's
46144 such a beauty! It pulls out and has a secret English drawer, you know!
46145 And dear Vera has long wanted one. I wish to give her a surprise, you
46146 see. I saw so many of those peasant carts in your yard. Please let me
46147 have one, I will pay the man well, and..."
46149 The count frowned and coughed.
46151 "Ask the countess, I don't give orders."
46153 "If it's inconvenient, please don't," said Berg. "Only I so wanted it,
46154 for dear Vera's sake."
46156 "Oh, go to the devil, all of you! To the devil, the devil, the devil..."
46157 cried the old count. "My head's in a whirl!"
46159 And he left the room. The countess began to cry.
46161 "Yes, Mamma! Yes, these are very hard times!" said Berg.
46163 Natasha left the room with her father and, as if finding it difficult to
46164 reach some decision, first followed him and then ran downstairs.
46166 Petya was in the porch, engaged in giving out weapons to the servants
46167 who were to leave Moscow. The loaded carts were still standing in the
46168 yard. Two of them had been uncorded and a wounded officer was climbing
46169 into one of them helped by an orderly.
46171 "Do you know what it's about?" Petya asked Natasha.
46173 She understood that he meant what were their parents quarreling about.
46174 She did not answer.
46176 "It's because Papa wanted to give up all the carts to the wounded," said
46177 Petya. "Vasilich told me. I consider..."
46179 "I consider," Natasha suddenly almost shouted, turning her angry face to
46180 Petya, "I consider it so horrid, so abominable, so... I don't know what.
46181 Are we despicable Germans?"
46183 Her throat quivered with convulsive sobs and, afraid of weakening and
46184 letting the force of her anger run to waste, she turned and rushed
46185 headlong up the stairs.
46187 Berg was sitting beside the countess consoling her with the respectful
46188 attention of a relative. The count, pipe in hand, was pacing up and down
46189 the room, when Natasha, her face distorted by anger, burst in like a
46190 tempest and approached her mother with rapid steps.
46192 "It's horrid! It's abominable!" she screamed. "You can't possibly have
46195 Berg and the countess looked at her, perplexed and frightened. The count
46196 stood still at the window and listened.
46198 "Mamma, it's impossible: see what is going on in the yard!" she cried.
46199 "They will be left!..."
46201 "What's the matter with you? Who are 'they'? What do you want?"
46203 "Why, the wounded! It's impossible, Mamma. It's monstrous!... No, Mamma
46204 darling, it's not the thing. Please forgive me, darling.... Mamma, what
46205 does it matter what we take away? Only look what is going on in the
46206 yard... Mamma!... It's impossible!"
46208 The count stood by the window and listened without turning round.
46209 Suddenly he sniffed and put his face closer to the window.
46211 The countess glanced at her daughter, saw her face full of shame for her
46212 mother, saw her agitation, and understood why her husband did not turn
46213 to look at her now, and she glanced round quite disconcerted.
46215 "Oh, do as you like! Am I hindering anyone?" she said, not surrendering
46218 "Mamma, darling, forgive me!"
46220 But the countess pushed her daughter away and went up to her husband.
46222 "My dear, you order what is right.... You know I don't understand about
46223 it," said she, dropping her eyes shamefacedly.
46225 "The eggs... the eggs are teaching the hen," muttered the count through
46226 tears of joy, and he embraced his wife who was glad to hide her look of
46227 shame on his breast.
46229 "Papa! Mamma! May I see to it? May I?..." asked Natasha. "We will still
46230 take all the most necessary things."
46232 The count nodded affirmatively, and Natasha, at the rapid pace at which
46233 she used to run when playing at tag, ran through the ballroom to the
46234 anteroom and downstairs into the yard.
46236 The servants gathered round Natasha, but could not believe the strange
46237 order she brought them until the count himself, in his wife's name,
46238 confirmed the order to give up all the carts to the wounded and take the
46239 trunks to the storerooms. When they understood that order the servants
46240 set to work at this new task with pleasure and zeal. It no longer seemed
46241 strange to them but on the contrary it seemed the only thing that could
46242 be done, just as a quarter of an hour before it had not seemed strange
46243 to anyone that the wounded should be left behind and the goods carted
46244 away but that had seemed the only thing to do.
46246 The whole household, as if to atone for not having done it sooner, set
46247 eagerly to work at the new task of placing the wounded in the carts. The
46248 wounded dragged themselves out of their rooms and stood with pale but
46249 happy faces round the carts. The news that carts were to be had spread
46250 to the neighboring houses, from which wounded men began to come into the
46251 Rostovs' yard. Many of the wounded asked them not to unload the carts
46252 but only to let them sit on the top of the things. But the work of
46253 unloading, once started, could not be arrested. It seemed not to matter
46254 whether all or only half the things were left behind. Cases full of
46255 china, bronzes, pictures, and mirrors that had been so carefully packed
46256 the night before now lay about the yard, and still they went on
46257 searching for and finding possibilities of unloading this or that and
46258 letting the wounded have another and yet another cart.
46260 "We can take four more men," said the steward. "They can have my trap,
46261 or else what is to become of them?"
46263 "Let them have my wardrobe cart," said the countess. "Dunyasha can go
46264 with me in the carriage."
46266 They unloaded the wardrobe cart and sent it to take wounded men from a
46267 house two doors off. The whole household, servants included, was bright
46268 and animated. Natasha was in a state of rapturous excitement such as she
46269 had not known for a long time.
46271 "What could we fasten this onto?" asked the servants, trying to fix a
46272 trunk on the narrow footboard behind a carriage. "We must keep at least
46275 "What's in it?" asked Natasha.
46277 "The count's books."
46279 "Leave it, Vasilich will put it away. It's not wanted."
46281 The phaeton was full of people and there was a doubt as to where Count
46284 "On the box. You'll sit on the box, won't you, Petya?" cried Natasha.
46286 Sonya too was busy all this time, but the aim of her efforts was quite
46287 different from Natasha's. She was putting away the things that had to be
46288 left behind and making a list of them as the countess wished, and she
46289 tried to get as much taken away with them as possible.
46296 Before two o'clock in the afternoon the Rostovs' four carriages, packed
46297 full and with the horses harnessed, stood at the front door. One by one
46298 the carts with the wounded had moved out of the yard.
46300 The caleche in which Prince Andrew was being taken attracted Sonya's
46301 attention as it passed the front porch. With the help of a maid she was
46302 arranging a seat for the countess in the huge high coach that stood at
46305 "Whose caleche is that?" she inquired, leaning out of the carriage
46308 "Why, didn't you know, Miss?" replied the maid. "The wounded prince: he
46309 spent the night in our house and is going with us."
46311 "But who is it? What's his name?"
46313 "It's our intended that was--Prince Bolkonski himself! They say he is
46314 dying," replied the maid with a sigh.
46316 Sonya jumped out of the coach and ran to the countess. The countess,
46317 tired out and already dressed in shawl and bonnet for her journey, was
46318 pacing up and down the drawing room, waiting for the household to
46319 assemble for the usual silent prayer with closed doors before starting.
46320 Natasha was not in the room.
46322 "Mamma," said Sonya, "Prince Andrew is here, mortally wounded. He is
46325 The countess opened her eyes in dismay and, seizing Sonya's arm, glanced
46328 "Natasha?" she murmured.
46330 At that moment this news had only one significance for both of them.
46331 They knew their Natasha, and alarm as to what would happen if she heard
46332 this news stifled all sympathy for the man they both liked.
46334 "Natasha does not know yet, but he is going with us," said Sonya.
46336 "You say he is dying?"
46340 The countess put her arms around Sonya and began to cry.
46342 "The ways of God are past finding out!" she thought, feeling that the
46343 Almighty Hand, hitherto unseen, was becoming manifest in all that was
46346 "Well, Mamma? Everything is ready. What's the matter?" asked Natasha, as
46347 with animated face she ran into the room.
46349 "Nothing," answered the countess. "If everything is ready let us start."
46351 And the countess bent over her reticule to hide her agitated face. Sonya
46352 embraced Natasha and kissed her.
46354 Natasha looked at her inquiringly.
46356 "What is it? What has happened?"
46360 "Is it something very bad for me? What is it?" persisted Natasha with
46361 her quick intuition.
46363 Sonya sighed and made no reply. The count, Petya, Madame Schoss, Mavra
46364 Kuzminichna, and Vasilich came into the drawing room and, having closed
46365 the doors, they all sat down and remained for some moments silently
46366 seated without looking at one another.
46368 The count was the first to rise, and with a loud sigh crossed himself
46369 before the icon. All the others did the same. Then the count embraced
46370 Mavra Kuzminichna and Vasilich, who were to remain in Moscow, and while
46371 they caught at his hand and kissed his shoulder he patted their backs
46372 lightly with some vaguely affectionate and comforting words. The
46373 countess went into the oratory and there Sonya found her on her knees
46374 before the icons that had been left here and there hanging on the wall.
46375 (The most precious ones, with which some family tradition was connected,
46376 were being taken with them.)
46378 In the porch and in the yard the men whom Petya had armed with swords
46379 and daggers, with trousers tucked inside their high boots and with belts
46380 and girdles tightened, were taking leave of those remaining behind.
46382 As is always the case at a departure, much had been forgotten or put in
46383 the wrong place, and for a long time two menservants stood one on each
46384 side of the open door and the carriage steps waiting to help the
46385 countess in, while maids rushed with cushions and bundles from the house
46386 to the carriages, the caleche, the phaeton, and back again.
46388 "They always will forget everything!" said the countess. "Don't you know
46389 I can't sit like that?"
46391 And Dunyasha, with clenched teeth, without replying but with an
46392 aggrieved look on her face, hastily got into the coach to rearrange the
46395 "Oh, those servants!" said the count, swaying his head.
46397 Efim, the old coachman, who was the only one the countess trusted to
46398 drive her, sat perched up high on the box and did not so much as glance
46399 round at what was going on behind him. From thirty years' experience he
46400 knew it would be some time yet before the order, "Be off, in God's
46401 name!" would be given him: and he knew that even when it was said he
46402 would be stopped once or twice more while they sent back to fetch
46403 something that had been forgotten, and even after that he would again be
46404 stopped and the countess herself would lean out of the window and beg
46405 him for the love of heaven to drive carefully down the hill. He knew all
46406 this and therefore waited calmly for what would happen, with more
46407 patience than the horses, especially the near one, the chestnut Falcon,
46408 who was pawing the ground and champing his bit. At last all were seated,
46409 the carriage steps were folded and pulled up, the door was shut,
46410 somebody was sent for a traveling case, and the countess leaned out and
46411 said what she had to say. Then Efim deliberately doffed his hat and
46412 began crossing himself. The postilion and all the other servants did the
46413 same. "Off, in God's name!" said Efim, putting on his hat. "Start!" The
46414 postilion started the horses, the off pole horse tugged at his collar,
46415 the high springs creaked, and the body of the coach swayed. The footman
46416 sprang onto the box of the moving coach which jolted as it passed out of
46417 the yard onto the uneven roadway; the other vehicles jolted in their
46418 turn, and the procession of carriages moved up the street. In the
46419 carriages, the caleche, and the phaeton, all crossed themselves as they
46420 passed the church opposite the house. Those who were to remain in Moscow
46421 walked on either side of the vehicles seeing the travelers off.
46423 Rarely had Natasha experienced so joyful a feeling as now, sitting in
46424 the carriage beside the countess and gazing at the slowly receding walls
46425 of forsaken, agitated Moscow. Occasionally she leaned out of the
46426 carriage window and looked back and then forward at the long train of
46427 wounded in front of them. Almost at the head of the line she could see
46428 the raised hood of Prince Andrew's caleche. She did not know who was in
46429 it, but each time she looked at the procession her eyes sought that
46430 caleche. She knew it was right in front.
46432 In Kudrino, from the Nikitski, Presnya, and Podnovinsk Streets came
46433 several other trains of vehicles similar to the Rostovs', and as they
46434 passed along the Sadovaya Street the carriages and carts formed two rows
46437 As they were going round the Sukharev water tower Natasha, who was
46438 inquisitively and alertly scrutinizing the people driving or walking
46439 past, suddenly cried out in joyful surprise:
46441 "Dear me! Mamma, Sonya, look, it's he!"
46445 "Look! Yes, on my word, it's Bezukhov!" said Natasha, putting her head
46446 out of the carriage and staring at a tall, stout man in a coachman's
46447 long coat, who from his manner of walking and moving was evidently a
46448 gentleman in disguise, and who was passing under the arch of the
46449 Sukharev tower accompanied by a small, sallow-faced, beardless old man
46452 "Yes, it really is Bezukhov in a coachman's coat, with a queer-looking
46453 old boy. Really," said Natasha, "look, look!"
46455 "No, it's not he. How can you talk such nonsense?"
46457 "Mamma," screamed Natasha, "I'll stake my head it's he! I assure you!
46458 Stop, stop!" she cried to the coachman.
46460 But the coachman could not stop, for from the Meshchanski Street came
46461 more carts and carriages, and the Rostovs were being shouted at to move
46462 on and not block the way.
46464 In fact, however, though now much farther off than before, the Rostovs
46465 all saw Pierre--or someone extraordinarily like him--in a coachman's
46466 coat, going down the street with head bent and a serious face beside a
46467 small, beardless old man who looked like a footman. That old man noticed
46468 a face thrust out of the carriage window gazing at them, and
46469 respectfully touching Pierre's elbow said something to him and pointed
46470 to the carriage. Pierre, evidently engrossed in thought, could not at
46471 first understand him. At length when he had understood and looked in the
46472 direction the old man indicated, he recognized Natasha, and following
46473 his first impulse stepped instantly and rapidly toward the coach. But
46474 having taken a dozen steps he seemed to remember something and stopped.
46476 Natasha's face, leaning out of the window, beamed with quizzical
46479 "Peter Kirilovich, come here! We have recognized you! This is
46480 wonderful!" she cried, holding out her hand to him. "What are you doing?
46481 Why are you like this?"
46483 Pierre took her outstretched hand and kissed it awkwardly as he walked
46484 along beside her while the coach still moved on.
46486 "What is the matter, Count?" asked the countess in a surprised and
46487 commiserating tone.
46489 "What? What? Why? Don't ask me," said Pierre, and looked round at
46490 Natasha whose radiant, happy expression--of which he was conscious
46491 without looking at her--filled him with enchantment.
46493 "Are you remaining in Moscow, then?"
46497 "In Moscow?" he said in a questioning tone. "Yes, in Moscow. Good-bye!"
46499 "Ah, if only I were a man? I'd certainly stay with you. How splendid!"
46500 said Natasha. "Mamma, if you'll let me, I'll stay!"
46502 Pierre glanced absently at Natasha and was about to say something, but
46503 the countess interrupted him.
46505 "You were at the battle, we heard."
46507 "Yes, I was," Pierre answered. "There will be another battle
46508 tomorrow..." he began, but Natasha interrupted him.
46510 "But what is the matter with you, Count? You are not like yourself...."
46512 "Oh, don't ask me, don't ask me! I don't know myself. Tomorrow... But
46513 no! Good-bye, good-by!" he muttered. "It's an awful time!" and dropping
46514 behind the carriage he stepped onto the pavement.
46516 Natasha continued to lean out of the window for a long time, beaming at
46517 him with her kindly, slightly quizzical, happy smile.
46524 For the last two days, ever since leaving home, Pierre had been living
46525 in the empty house of his deceased benefactor, Bazdeev. This is how it
46528 When he woke up on the morning after his return to Moscow and his
46529 interview with Count Rostopchin, he could not for some time make out
46530 where he was and what was expected of him. When he was informed that
46531 among others awaiting him in his reception room there was a Frenchman
46532 who had brought a letter from his wife, the Countess Helene, he felt
46533 suddenly overcome by that sense of confusion and hopelessness to which
46534 he was apt to succumb. He felt that everything was now at an end, all
46535 was in confusion and crumbling to pieces, that nobody was right or
46536 wrong, the future held nothing, and there was no escape from this
46537 position. Smiling unnaturally and muttering to himself, he first sat
46538 down on the sofa in an attitude of despair, then rose, went to the door
46539 of the reception room and peeped through the crack, returned flourishing
46540 his arms, and took up a book. His major-domo came in a second time to
46541 say that the Frenchman who had brought the letter from the countess was
46542 very anxious to see him if only for a minute, and that someone from
46543 Bazdeev's widow had called to ask Pierre to take charge of her husband's
46544 books, as she herself was leaving for the country.
46546 "Oh, yes, in a minute; wait... or no! No, of course... go and say I will
46547 come directly," Pierre replied to the major-domo.
46549 But as soon as the man had left the room Pierre took up his hat which
46550 was lying on the table and went out of his study by the other door.
46551 There was no one in the passage. He went along the whole length of this
46552 passage to the stairs and, frowning and rubbing his forehead with both
46553 hands, went down as far as the first landing. The hall porter was
46554 standing at the front door. From the landing where Pierre stood there
46555 was a second staircase leading to the back entrance. He went down that
46556 staircase and out into the yard. No one had seen him. But there were
46557 some carriages waiting, and as soon as Pierre stepped out of the gate
46558 the coachmen and the yard porter noticed him and raised their caps to
46559 him. When he felt he was being looked at he behaved like an ostrich
46560 which hides its head in a bush in order not to be seen: he hung his head
46561 and quickening his pace went down the street.
46563 Of all the affairs awaiting Pierre that day the sorting of Joseph
46564 Bazdeev's books and papers appeared to him the most necessary.
46566 He hired the first cab he met and told the driver to go to the
46567 Patriarch's Ponds, where the widow Bazdeev's house was.
46569 Continually turning round to look at the rows of loaded carts that were
46570 making their way from all sides out of Moscow, and balancing his bulky
46571 body so as not to slip out of the ramshackle old vehicle, Pierre,
46572 experiencing the joyful feeling of a boy escaping from school, began to
46573 talk to his driver.
46575 The man told him that arms were being distributed today at the Kremlin
46576 and that tomorrow everyone would be sent out beyond the Three Hills
46577 gates and a great battle would be fought there.
46579 Having reached the Patriarch's Ponds Pierre found the Bazdeevs' house,
46580 where he had not been for a long time past. He went up to the gate.
46581 Gerasim, that sallow beardless old man Pierre had seen at Torzhok five
46582 years before with Joseph Bazdeev, came out in answer to his knock.
46584 "At home?" asked Pierre.
46586 "Owing to the present state of things Sophia Danilovna has gone to the
46587 Torzhok estate with the children, your excellency."
46589 "I will come in all the same, I have to look through the books," said
46592 "Be so good as to step in. Makar Alexeevich, the brother of my late
46593 master--may the kingdom of heaven be his--has remained here, but he is
46594 in a weak state as you know," said the old servant.
46596 Pierre knew that Makar Alexeevich was Joseph Bazdeev's half-insane
46597 brother and a hard drinker.
46599 "Yes, yes, I know. Let us go in..." said Pierre and entered the house.
46601 A tall, bald-headed old man with a red nose, wearing a dressing gown and
46602 with galoshes on his bare feet, stood in the anteroom. On seeing Pierre
46603 he muttered something angrily and went away along the passage.
46605 "He was a very clever man but has now grown quite feeble, as your honor
46606 sees," said Gerasim. "Will you step into the study?" Pierre nodded. "As
46607 it was sealed up so it has remained, but Sophia Danilovna gave orders
46608 that if anyone should come from you they were to have the books."
46610 Pierre went into that gloomy study which he had entered with such
46611 trepidation in his benefactor's lifetime. The room, dusty and untouched
46612 since the death of Joseph Bazdeev was now even gloomier.
46614 Gerasim opened one of the shutters and left the room on tiptoe. Pierre
46615 went round the study, approached the cupboard in which the manuscripts
46616 were kept, and took out what had once been one of the most important,
46617 the holy of holies of the order. This was the authentic Scotch Acts with
46618 Bazdeev's notes and explanations. He sat down at the dusty writing
46619 table, and, having laid the manuscripts before him, opened them out,
46620 closed them, finally pushed them away, and resting his head on his hand
46621 sank into meditation.
46623 Gerasim looked cautiously into the study several times and saw Pierre
46624 always sitting in the same attitude.
46626 More than two hours passed and Gerasim took the liberty of making a
46627 slight noise at the door to attract his attention, but Pierre did not
46630 "Is the cabman to be discharged, your honor?"
46632 "Oh yes!" said Pierre, rousing himself and rising hurriedly. "Look
46633 here," he added, taking Gerasim by a button of his coat and looking down
46634 at the old man with moist, shining, and ecstatic eyes, "I say, do you
46635 know that there is going to be a battle tomorrow?"
46637 "We heard so," replied the man.
46639 "I beg you not to tell anyone who I am, and to do what I ask you."
46641 "Yes, your excellency," replied Gerasim. "Will you have something to
46644 "No, but I want something else. I want peasant clothes and a pistol,"
46645 said Pierre, unexpectedly blushing.
46647 "Yes, your excellency," said Gerasim after thinking for a moment.
46649 All the rest of that day Pierre spent alone in his benefactor's study,
46650 and Gerasim heard him pacing restlessly from one corner to another and
46651 talking to himself. And he spent the night on a bed made up for him
46654 Gerasim, being a servant who in his time had seen many strange things,
46655 accepted Pierre's taking up his residence in the house without surprise,
46656 and seemed pleased to have someone to wait on. That same evening--
46657 without even asking himself what they were wanted for--he procured a
46658 coachman's coat and cap for Pierre, and promised to get him the pistol
46659 next day. Makar Alexeevich came twice that evening shuffling along in
46660 his galoshes as far as the door and stopped and looked ingratiatingly at
46661 Pierre. But as soon as Pierre turned toward him he wrapped his dressing
46662 gown around him with a shamefaced and angry look and hurried away. It
46663 was when Pierre (wearing the coachman's coat which Gerasim had procured
46664 for him and had disinfected by steam) was on his way with the old man to
46665 buy the pistol at the Sukharev market that he met the Rostovs.
46672 Kutuzov's order to retreat through Moscow to the Ryazan road was issued
46673 at night on the first of September.
46675 The first troops started at once, and during the night they marched
46676 slowly and steadily without hurry. At daybreak, however, those nearing
46677 the town at the Dorogomilov bridge saw ahead of them masses of soldiers
46678 crowding and hurrying across the bridge, ascending on the opposite side
46679 and blocking the streets and alleys, while endless masses of troops were
46680 bearing down on them from behind, and an unreasoning hurry and alarm
46681 overcame them. They all rushed forward to the bridge, onto it, and to
46682 the fords and the boats. Kutuzov himself had driven round by side
46683 streets to the other side of Moscow.
46685 By ten o'clock in the morning of the second of September, only the rear
46686 guard remained in the Dorogomilov suburb, where they had ample room. The
46687 main army was on the other side of Moscow or beyond it.
46689 At that very time, at ten in the morning of the second of September,
46690 Napoleon was standing among his troops on the Poklonny Hill looking at
46691 the panorama spread out before him. From the twenty-sixth of August to
46692 the second of September, that is from the battle of Borodino to the
46693 entry of the French into Moscow, during the whole of that agitating,
46694 memorable week, there had been the extraordinary autumn weather that
46695 always comes as a surprise, when the sun hangs low and gives more heat
46696 than in spring, when everything shines so brightly in the rare clear
46697 atmosphere that the eyes smart, when the lungs are strengthened and
46698 refreshed by inhaling the aromatic autumn air, when even the nights are
46699 warm, and when in those dark warm nights, golden stars startle and
46700 delight us continually by falling from the sky.
46702 At ten in the morning of the second of September this weather still
46705 The brightness of the morning was magical. Moscow seen from the Poklonny
46706 Hill lay spaciously spread out with her river, her gardens, and her
46707 churches, and she seemed to be living her usual life, her cupolas
46708 glittering like stars in the sunlight.
46710 The view of the strange city with its peculiar architecture, such as he
46711 had never seen before, filled Napoleon with the rather envious and
46712 uneasy curiosity men feel when they see an alien form of life that has
46713 no knowledge of them. This city was evidently living with the full force
46714 of its own life. By the indefinite signs which, even at a distance,
46715 distinguish a living body from a dead one, Napoleon from the Poklonny
46716 Hill perceived the throb of life in the town and felt, as it were, the
46717 breathing of that great and beautiful body.
46719 Every Russian looking at Moscow feels her to be a mother; every
46720 foreigner who sees her, even if ignorant of her significance as the
46721 mother city, must feel her feminine character, and Napoleon felt it.
46723 "Cette ville asiatique aux innombrables eglises, Moscou la sainte. La
46724 voila done enfin, cette fameuse ville! Il etait temps," * said he, and
46725 dismounting he ordered a plan of Moscow to be spread out before him, and
46726 summoned Lelorgne d'Ideville, the interpreter.
46729 * "That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, holy Moscow! Here it
46730 is then at last, that famous city. It was high time."
46732 "A town captured by the enemy is like a maid who has lost her honor,"
46733 thought he (he had said so to Tuchkov at Smolensk). From that point of
46734 view he gazed at the Oriental beauty he had not seen before. It seemed
46735 strange to him that his long-felt wish, which had seemed unattainable,
46736 had at last been realized. In the clear morning light he gazed now at
46737 the city and now at the plan, considering its details, and the assurance
46738 of possessing it agitated and awed him.
46740 "But could it be otherwise?" he thought. "Here is this capital at my
46741 feet. Where is Alexander now, and of what is he thinking? A strange,
46742 beautiful, and majestic city; and a strange and majestic moment! In what
46743 light must I appear to them!" thought he, thinking of his troops. "Here
46744 she is, the reward for all those fainthearted men," he reflected,
46745 glancing at those near him and at the troops who were approaching and
46746 forming up. "One word from me, one movement of my hand, and that ancient
46747 capital of the Tsars would perish. But my clemency is always ready to
46748 descend upon the vanquished. I must be magnanimous and truly great. But
46749 no, it can't be true that I am in Moscow," he suddenly thought. "Yet
46750 here she is lying at my feet, with her golden domes and crosses
46751 scintillating and twinkling in the sunshine. But I shall spare her. On
46752 the ancient monuments of barbarism and despotism I will inscribe great
46753 words of justice and mercy.... It is just this which Alexander will feel
46754 most painfully, I know him." (It seemed to Napoleon that the chief
46755 import of what was taking place lay in the personal struggle between
46756 himself and Alexander.) "From the height of the Kremlin--yes, there is
46757 the Kremlin, yes--I will give them just laws; I will teach them the
46758 meaning of true civilization, I will make generations of boyars remember
46759 their conqueror with love. I will tell the deputation that I did not,
46760 and do not, desire war, that I have waged war only against the false
46761 policy of their court; that I love and respect Alexander and that in
46762 Moscow I will accept terms of peace worthy of myself and of my people. I
46763 do not wish to utilize the fortunes of war to humiliate an honored
46764 monarch. 'Boyars,' I will say to them, 'I do not desire war, I desire
46765 the peace and welfare of all my subjects.' However, I know their
46766 presence will inspire me, and I shall speak to them as I always do:
46767 clearly, impressively, and majestically. But can it be true that I am in
46768 Moscow? Yes, there she lies."
46770 "Qu'on m'amene les boyars," * said he to his suite.
46773 * "Bring the boyars to me."
46775 A general with a brilliant suite galloped off at once to fetch the
46778 Two hours passed. Napoleon had lunched and was again standing in the
46779 same place on the Poklonny Hill awaiting the deputation. His speech to
46780 the boyars had already taken definite shape in his imagination. That
46781 speech was full of dignity and greatness as Napoleon understood it.
46783 He was himself carried away by the tone of magnanimity he intended to
46784 adopt toward Moscow. In his imagination he appointed days for assemblies
46785 at the palace of the Tsars, at which Russian notables and his own would
46786 mingle. He mentally appointed a governor, one who would win the hearts
46787 of the people. Having learned that there were many charitable
46788 institutions in Moscow he mentally decided that he would shower favors
46789 on them all. He thought that, as in Africa he had to put on a burnoose
46790 and sit in a mosque, so in Moscow he must be beneficent like the Tsars.
46791 And in order finally to touch the hearts of the Russians--and being like
46792 all Frenchmen unable to imagine anything sentimental without a reference
46793 to ma chere, ma tendre, ma pauvre mere * --he decided that he would
46794 place an inscription on all these establishments in large letters: "This
46795 establishment is dedicated to my dear mother." Or no, it should be
46796 simply: Maison de ma Mere, *(2) he concluded. "But am I really in
46797 Moscow? Yes, here it lies before me, but why is the deputation from the
46798 city so long in appearing?" he wondered.
46801 * "My dear, my tender, my poor mother."
46803 * (2) "House of my Mother."
46805 Meanwhile an agitated consultation was being carried on in whispers
46806 among his generals and marshals at the rear of his suite. Those sent to
46807 fetch the deputation had returned with the news that Moscow was empty,
46808 that everyone had left it. The faces of those who were not conferring
46809 together were pale and perturbed. They were not alarmed by the fact that
46810 Moscow had been abandoned by its inhabitants (grave as that fact
46811 seemed), but by the question how to tell the Emperor--without putting
46812 him in the terrible position of appearing ridiculous--that he had been
46813 awaiting the boyars so long in vain: that there were drunken mobs left
46814 in Moscow but no one else. Some said that a deputation of some sort must
46815 be scraped together, others disputed that opinion and maintained that
46816 the Emperor should first be carefully and skillfully prepared, and then
46819 "He will have to be told, all the same," said some gentlemen of the
46820 suite. "But, gentlemen..."
46822 The position was the more awkward because the Emperor, meditating upon
46823 his magnanimous plans, was pacing patiently up and down before the
46824 outspread map, occasionally glancing along the road to Moscow from under
46825 his lifted hand with a bright and proud smile.
46827 "But it's impossible..." declared the gentlemen of the suite, shrugging
46828 their shoulders but not venturing to utter the implied word--le
46831 At last the Emperor, tired of futile expectation, his actor's instinct
46832 suggesting to him that the sublime moment having been too long drawn out
46833 was beginning to lose its sublimity, gave a sign with his hand. A single
46834 report of a signaling gun followed, and the troops, who were already
46835 spread out on different sides of Moscow, moved into the city through
46836 Tver, Kaluga, and Dorogomilov gates. Faster and faster, vying with one
46837 another, they moved at the double or at a trot, vanishing amid the
46838 clouds of dust they raised and making the air ring with a deafening roar
46839 of mingling shouts.
46841 Drawn on by the movement of his troops Napoleon rode with them as far as
46842 the Dorogomilov gate, but there again stopped and, dismounting from his
46843 horse, paced for a long time by the Kammer-Kollezski rampart, awaiting
46851 Meanwhile Moscow was empty. There were still people in it, perhaps a
46852 fiftieth part of its former inhabitants had remained, but it was empty.
46853 It was empty in the sense that a dying queenless hive is empty.
46855 In a queenless hive no life is left though to a superficial glance it
46856 seems as much alive as other hives.
46858 The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday
46859 sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of
46860 honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one
46861 has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any
46862 life in it. The bees do not fly in the same way, the smell and the sound
46863 that meet the beekeeper are not the same. To the beekeeper's tap on the
46864 wall of the sick hive, instead of the former instant unanimous humming
46865 of tens of thousands of bees with their abdomens threateningly
46866 compressed, and producing by the rapid vibration of their wings an
46867 aerial living sound, the only reply is a disconnected buzzing from
46868 different parts of the deserted hive. From the alighting board, instead
46869 of the former spirituous fragrant smell of honey and venom, and the warm
46870 whiffs of crowded life, comes an odor of emptiness and decay mingling
46871 with the smell of honey. There are no longer sentinels sounding the
46872 alarm with their abdomens raised, and ready to die in defense of the
46873 hive. There is no longer the measured quiet sound of throbbing activity,
46874 like the sound of boiling water, but diverse discordant sounds of
46875 disorder. In and out of the hive long black robber bees smeared with
46876 honey fly timidly and shiftily. They do not sting, but crawl away from
46877 danger. Formerly only bees laden with honey flew into the hive, and they
46878 flew out empty; now they fly out laden. The beekeeper opens the lower
46879 part of the hive and peers in. Instead of black, glossy bees--tamed by
46880 toil, clinging to one another's legs and drawing out the wax, with a
46881 ceaseless hum of labor--that used to hang in long clusters down to the
46882 floor of the hive, drowsy shriveled bees crawl about separately in
46883 various directions on the floor and walls of the hive. Instead of a
46884 neatly glued floor, swept by the bees with the fanning of their wings,
46885 there is a floor littered with bits of wax, excrement, dying bees
46886 scarcely moving their legs, and dead ones that have not been cleared
46889 The beekeeper opens the upper part of the hive and examines the super.
46890 Instead of serried rows of bees sealing up every gap in the combs and
46891 keeping the brood warm, he sees the skillful complex structures of the
46892 combs, but no longer in their former state of purity. All is neglected
46893 and foul. Black robber bees are swiftly and stealthily prowling about
46894 the combs, and the short home bees, shriveled and listless as if they
46895 were old, creep slowly about without trying to hinder the robbers,
46896 having lost all motive and all sense of life. Drones, bumblebees, wasps,
46897 and butterflies knock awkwardly against the walls of the hive in their
46898 flight. Here and there among the cells containing dead brood and honey
46899 an angry buzzing can sometimes be heard. Here and there a couple of
46900 bees, by force of habit and custom cleaning out the brood cells, with
46901 efforts beyond their strength laboriously drag away a dead bee or
46902 bumblebee without knowing why they do it. In another corner two old bees
46903 are languidly fighting, or cleaning themselves, or feeding one another,
46904 without themselves knowing whether they do it with friendly or hostile
46905 intent. In a third place a crowd of bees, crushing one another, attack
46906 some victim and fight and smother it, and the victim, enfeebled or
46907 killed, drops from above slowly and lightly as a feather, among the heap
46908 of corpses. The keeper opens the two center partitions to examine the
46909 brood cells. In place of the former close dark circles formed by
46910 thousands of bees sitting back to back and guarding the high mystery of
46911 generation, he sees hundreds of dull, listless, and sleepy shells of
46912 bees. They have almost all died unawares, sitting in the sanctuary they
46913 had guarded and which is now no more. They reek of decay and death. Only
46914 a few of them still move, rise, and feebly fly to settle on the enemy's
46915 hand, lacking the spirit to die stinging him; the rest are dead and fall
46916 as lightly as fish scales. The beekeeper closes the hive, chalks a mark
46917 on it, and when he has time tears out its contents and burns it clean.
46919 So in the same way Moscow was empty when Napoleon, weary, uneasy, and
46920 morose, paced up and down in front of the Kammer-Kollezski rampart,
46921 awaiting what to his mind was a necessary, if but formal, observance of
46922 the proprieties--a deputation.
46924 In various corners of Moscow there still remained a few people aimlessly
46925 moving about, following their old habits and hardly aware of what they
46928 When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was
46929 empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently
46930 continued to walk to and fro.
46932 "My carriage!" he said.
46934 He took his seat beside the aide-de-camp on duty and drove into the
46935 suburb. "Moscow deserted!" he said to himself. "What an incredible
46938 He did not drive into the town, but put up at an inn in the Dorogomilov
46941 The coup de theatre had not come off.
46948 The Russian troops were passing through Moscow from two o'clock at night
46949 till two in the afternoon and bore away with them the wounded and the
46950 last of the inhabitants who were leaving.
46952 The greatest crush during the movement of the troops took place at the
46953 Stone, Moskva, and Yauza bridges.
46955 While the troops, dividing into two parts when passing around the
46956 Kremlin, were thronging the Moskva and the Stone bridges, a great many
46957 soldiers, taking advantage of the stoppage and congestion, turned back
46958 from the bridges and slipped stealthily and silently past the church of
46959 Vasili the Beatified and under the Borovitski gate, back up the hill to
46960 the Red Square where some instinct told them they could easily take
46961 things not belonging to them. Crowds of the kind seen at cheap sales
46962 filled all the passages and alleys of the Bazaar. But there were no
46963 dealers with voices of ingratiating affability inviting customers to
46964 enter; there were no hawkers, nor the usual motley crowd of female
46965 purchasers--but only soldiers, in uniforms and overcoats though without
46966 muskets, entering the Bazaar empty-handed and silently making their way
46967 out through its passages with bundles. Tradesmen and their assistants
46968 (of whom there were but few) moved about among the soldiers quite
46969 bewildered. They unlocked their shops and locked them up again, and
46970 themselves carried goods away with the help of their assistants. On the
46971 square in front of the Bazaar were drummers beating the muster call. But
46972 the roll of the drums did not make the looting soldiers run in the
46973 direction of the drum as formerly, but made them, on the contrary, run
46974 farther away. Among the soldiers in the shops and passages some men were
46975 to be seen in gray coats, with closely shaven heads. Two officers, one
46976 with a scarf over his uniform and mounted on a lean, dark-gray horse,
46977 the other in an overcoat and on foot, stood at the corner of Ilyinka
46978 Street, talking. A third officer galloped up to them.
46980 "The general orders them all to be driven out at once, without fail.
46981 This is outrageous! Half the men have dispersed."
46983 "Where are you off to?... Where?..." he shouted to three infantrymen
46984 without muskets who, holding up the skirts of their overcoats, were
46985 slipping past him into the Bazaar passage. "Stop, you rascals!"
46987 "But how are you going to stop them?" replied another officer. "There is
46988 no getting them together. The army should push on before the rest bolt,
46991 "How can one push on? They are stuck there, wedged on the bridge, and
46992 don't move. Shouldn't we put a cordon round to prevent the rest from
46995 "Come, go in there and drive them out!" shouted the senior officer.
46997 The officer in the scarf dismounted, called up a drummer, and went with
46998 him into the arcade. Some soldiers started running away in a group. A
46999 shopkeeper with red pimples on his cheeks near the nose, and a calm,
47000 persistent, calculating expression on his plump face, hurriedly and
47001 ostentatiously approached the officer, swinging his arms.
47003 "Your honor!" said he. "Be so good as to protect us! We won't grudge
47004 trifles, you are welcome to anything--we shall be delighted! Pray!...
47005 I'll fetch a piece of cloth at once for such an honorable gentleman, or
47006 even two pieces with pleasure. For we feel how it is; but what's all
47007 this--sheer robbery! If you please, could not guards be placed if only
47008 to let us close the shop...."
47010 Several shopkeepers crowded round the officer.
47012 "Eh, what twaddle!" said one of them, a thin, stern-looking man. "When
47013 one's head is gone one doesn't weep for one's hair! Take what any of you
47014 like!" And flourishing his arm energetically he turned sideways to the
47017 "It's all very well for you, Ivan Sidorych, to talk," said the first
47018 tradesman angrily. "Please step inside, your honor!"
47020 "Talk indeed!" cried the thin one. "In my three shops here I have a
47021 hundred thousand rubles' worth of goods. Can they be saved when the army
47022 has gone? Eh, what people! 'Against God's might our hands can't fight.'"
47024 "Come inside, your honor!" repeated the tradesman, bowing.
47026 The officer stood perplexed and his face showed indecision.
47028 "It's not my business!" he exclaimed, and strode on quickly down one of
47031 From one open shop came the sound of blows and vituperation, and just as
47032 the officer came up to it a man in a gray coat with a shaven head was
47033 flung out violently.
47035 This man, bent double, rushed past the tradesman and the officer. The
47036 officer pounced on the soldiers who were in the shops, but at that
47037 moment fearful screams reached them from the huge crowd on the Moskva
47038 bridge and the officer ran out into the square.
47040 "What is it? What is it?" he asked, but his comrade was already
47041 galloping off past Vasili the Beatified in the direction from which the
47044 The officer mounted his horse and rode after him. When he reached the
47045 bridge he saw two unlimbered guns, the infantry crossing the bridge,
47046 several overturned carts, and frightened and laughing faces among the
47047 troops. Beside the cannon a cart was standing to which two horses were
47048 harnessed. Four borzois with collars were pressing close to the wheels.
47049 The cart was loaded high, and at the very top, beside a child's chair
47050 with its legs in the air, sat a peasant woman uttering piercing and
47051 desperate shrieks. He was told by his fellow officers that the screams
47052 of the crowd and the shrieks of the woman were due to the fact that
47053 General Ermolov, coming up to the crowd and learning that soldiers were
47054 dispersing among the shops while crowds of civilians blocked the bridge,
47055 had ordered two guns to be unlimbered and made a show of firing at the
47056 bridge. The crowd, crushing one another, upsetting carts, and shouting
47057 and squeezing desperately, had cleared off the bridge and the troops
47058 were now moving forward.
47065 Meanwhile, the city itself was deserted. There was hardly anyone in the
47066 streets. The gates and shops were all closed, only here and there round
47067 the taverns solitary shouts or drunken songs could be heard. Nobody
47068 drove through the streets and footsteps were rarely heard. The
47069 Povarskaya was quite still and deserted. The huge courtyard of the
47070 Rostovs' house was littered with wisps of hay and with dung from the
47071 horses, and not a soul was to be seen there. In the great drawing room
47072 of the house, which had been left with all it contained, were two
47073 people. They were the yard porter Ignat, and the page boy Mishka,
47074 Vasilich's grandson who had stayed in Moscow with his grandfather.
47075 Mishka had opened the clavichord and was strumming on it with one
47076 finger. The yard porter, his arms akimbo, stood smiling with
47077 satisfaction before the large mirror.
47079 "Isn't it fine, eh, Uncle Ignat?" said the boy, suddenly beginning to
47080 strike the keyboard with both hands.
47082 "Only fancy!" answered Ignat, surprised at the broadening grin on his
47083 face in the mirror.
47085 "Impudence! Impudence!" they heard behind them the voice of Mavra
47086 Kuzminichna who had entered silently. "How he's grinning, the fat mug!
47087 Is that what you're here for? Nothing's cleared away down there and
47088 Vasilich is worn out. Just you wait a bit!"
47090 Ignat left off smiling, adjusted his belt, and went out of the room with
47091 meekly downcast eyes.
47093 "Aunt, I did it gently," said the boy.
47095 "I'll give you something gently, you monkey you!" cried Mavra
47096 Kuzminichna, raising her arm threateningly. "Go and get the samovar to
47097 boil for your grandfather."
47099 Mavra Kuzminichna flicked the dust off the clavichord and closed it, and
47100 with a deep sigh left the drawing room and locked its main door.
47102 Going out into the yard she paused to consider where she should go next-
47103 -to drink tea in the servants' wing with Vasilich, or into the storeroom
47104 to put away what still lay about.
47106 She heard the sound of quick footsteps in the quiet street. Someone
47107 stopped at the gate, and the latch rattled as someone tried to open it.
47108 Mavra Kuzminichna went to the gate.
47112 "The count--Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov."
47116 "An officer, I have to see him," came the reply in a pleasant, well-bred
47119 Mavra Kuzminichna opened the gate and an officer of eighteen, with the
47120 round face of a Rostov, entered the yard.
47122 "They have gone away, sir. Went away yesterday at vespertime," said
47123 Mavra Kuzminichna cordially.
47125 The young officer standing in the gateway, as if hesitating whether to
47126 enter or not, clicked his tongue.
47128 "Ah, how annoying!" he muttered. "I should have come yesterday.... Ah,
47131 Meanwhile, Mavra Kuzminichna was attentively and sympathetically
47132 examining the familiar Rostov features of the young man's face, his
47133 tattered coat and trodden-down boots.
47135 "What did you want to see the count for?" she asked.
47137 "Oh well... it can't be helped!" said he in a tone of vexation and
47138 placed his hand on the gate as if to leave.
47140 He again paused in indecision.
47142 "You see," he suddenly said, "I am a kinsman of the count's and he has
47143 been very kind to me. As you see" (he glanced with an amused air and
47144 good-natured smile at his coat and boots) "my things are worn out and I
47145 have no money, so I was going to ask the count..."
47147 Mavra Kuzminichna did not let him finish.
47149 "Just wait a minute, sir. One little moment," said she.
47151 And as soon as the officer let go of the gate handle she turned and,
47152 hurrying away on her old legs, went through the back yard to the
47153 servants' quarters.
47155 While Mavra Kuzminichna was running to her room the officer walked about
47156 the yard gazing at his worn-out boots with lowered head and a faint
47157 smile on his lips. "What a pity I've missed Uncle! What a nice old
47158 woman! Where has she run off to? And how am I to find the nearest way to
47159 overtake my regiment, which must by now be getting near the Rogozhski
47160 gate?" thought he. Just then Mavra Kuzminichna appeared from behind the
47161 corner of the house with a frightened yet resolute look, carrying a
47162 rolled-up check kerchief in her hand. While still a few steps from the
47163 officer she unfolded the kerchief and took out of it a white twenty-
47164 five-ruble assignat and hastily handed it to him.
47166 "If his excellency had been at home, as a kinsman he would of course...
47169 Mavra Kuzminichna grew abashed and confused. The officer did not
47170 decline, but took the note quietly and thanked her.
47172 "If the count had been at home..." Mavra Kuzminichna went on
47173 apologetically. "Christ be with you, sir! May God preserve you!" said
47174 she, bowing as she saw him out.
47176 Swaying his head and smiling as if amused at himself, the officer ran
47177 almost at a trot through the deserted streets toward the Yauza bridge to
47178 overtake his regiment.
47180 But Mavra Kuzminichna stood at the closed gate for some time with moist
47181 eyes, pensively swaying her head and feeling an unexpected flow of
47182 motherly tenderness and pity for the unknown young officer.
47189 From an unfinished house on the Varvarka, the ground floor of which was
47190 a dramshop, came drunken shouts and songs. On benches round the tables
47191 in a dirty little room sat some ten factory hands. Tipsy and perspiring,
47192 with dim eyes and wide-open mouths, they were all laboriously singing
47193 some song or other. They were singing discordantly, arduously, and with
47194 great effort, evidently not because they wished to sing, but because
47195 they wanted to show they were drunk and on a spree. One, a tall, fair-
47196 haired lad in a clean blue coat, was standing over the others. His face
47197 with its fine straight nose would have been handsome had it not been for
47198 his thin, compressed, twitching lips and dull, gloomy, fixed eyes.
47199 Evidently possessed by some idea, he stood over those who were singing,
47200 and solemnly and jerkily flourished above their heads his white arm with
47201 the sleeve turned up to the elbow, trying unnaturally to spread out his
47202 dirty fingers. The sleeve of his coat kept slipping down and he always
47203 carefully rolled it up again with his left hand, as if it were most
47204 important that the sinewy white arm he was flourishing should be bare.
47205 In the midst of the song cries were heard, and fighting and blows in the
47206 passage and porch. The tall lad waved his arm.
47208 "Stop it!" he exclaimed peremptorily. "There's a fight, lads!" And,
47209 still rolling up his sleeve, he went out to the porch.
47211 The factory hands followed him. These men, who under the leadership of
47212 the tall lad were drinking in the dramshop that morning, had brought the
47213 publican some skins from the factory and for this had had drink served
47214 them. The blacksmiths from a neighboring smithy, hearing the sounds of
47215 revelry in the tavern and supposing it to have been broken into, wished
47216 to force their way in too and a fight in the porch had resulted.
47218 The publican was fighting one of the smiths at the door, and when the
47219 workmen came out the smith, wrenching himself free from the tavern
47220 keeper, fell face downward on the pavement.
47222 Another smith tried to enter the doorway, pressing against the publican
47225 The lad with the turned-up sleeve gave the smith a blow in the face and
47226 cried wildly: "They're fighting us, lads!"
47228 At that moment the first smith got up and, scratching his bruised face
47229 to make it bleed, shouted in a tearful voice: "Police! Murder!...
47230 They've killed a man, lads!"
47232 "Oh, gracious me, a man beaten to death--killed!..." screamed a woman
47233 coming out of a gate close by.
47235 A crowd gathered round the bloodstained smith.
47237 "Haven't you robbed people enough--taking their last shirts?" said a
47238 voice addressing the publican. "What have you killed a man for, you
47241 The tall lad, standing in the porch, turned his bleared eyes from the
47242 publican to the smith and back again as if considering whom he ought to
47245 "Murderer!" he shouted suddenly to the publican. "Bind him, lads!"
47247 "I daresay you would like to bind me!" shouted the publican, pushing
47248 away the men advancing on him, and snatching his cap from his head he
47249 flung it on the ground.
47251 As if this action had some mysterious and menacing significance, the
47252 workmen surrounding the publican paused in indecision.
47254 "I know the law very well, mates! I'll take the matter to the captain of
47255 police. You think I won't get to him? Robbery is not permitted to
47256 anybody now a days!" shouted the publican, picking up his cap.
47258 "Come along then! Come along then!" the publican and the tall young
47259 fellow repeated one after the other, and they moved up the street
47262 The bloodstained smith went beside them. The factory hands and others
47263 followed behind, talking and shouting.
47265 At the corner of the Moroseyka, opposite a large house with closed
47266 shutters and bearing a bootmaker's signboard, stood a score of thin,
47267 worn-out, gloomy-faced bootmakers, wearing overalls and long tattered
47270 "He should pay folks off properly," a thin workingman, with frowning
47271 brows and a straggly beard, was saying.
47273 "But he's sucked our blood and now he thinks he's quit of us. He's been
47274 misleading us all the week and now that he's brought us to this pass
47277 On seeing the crowd and the bloodstained man the workman ceased
47278 speaking, and with eager curiosity all the bootmakers joined the moving
47281 "Where are all the folks going?"
47283 "Why, to the police, of course!"
47285 "I say, is it true that we have been beaten?" "And what did you think?
47286 Look what folks are saying."
47288 Questions and answers were heard. The publican, taking advantage of the
47289 increased crowd, dropped behind and returned to his tavern.
47291 The tall youth, not noticing the disappearance of his foe, waved his
47292 bare arm and went on talking incessantly, attracting general attention
47293 to himself. It was around him that the people chiefly crowded, expecting
47294 answers from him to the questions that occupied all their minds.
47296 "He must keep order, keep the law, that's what the government is there
47297 for. Am I not right, good Christians?" said the tall youth, with a
47298 scarcely perceptible smile. "He thinks there's no government! How can
47299 one do without government? Or else there would be plenty who'd rob us."
47301 "Why talk nonsense?" rejoined voices in the crowd. "Will they give up
47302 Moscow like this? They told you that for fun, and you believed it!
47303 Aren't there plenty of troops on the march? Let him in, indeed! That's
47304 what the government is for. You'd better listen to what people are
47305 saying," said some of the mob pointing to the tall youth.
47307 By the wall of China-Town a smaller group of people were gathered round
47308 a man in a frieze coat who held a paper in his hand.
47310 "An ukase, they are reading an ukase! Reading an ukase!" cried voices in
47311 the crowd, and the people rushed toward the reader.
47313 The man in the frieze coat was reading the broadsheet of August 31. When
47314 the crowd collected round him he seemed confused, but at the demand of
47315 the tall lad who had pushed his way up to him, he began in a rather
47316 tremulous voice to read the sheet from the beginning.
47318 "Early tomorrow I shall go to his Serene Highness," he read ("Sirin
47319 Highness," said the tall fellow with a triumphant smile on his lips and
47320 a frown on his brow), "to consult with him to act, and to aid the army
47321 to exterminate these scoundrels. We too will take part..." the reader
47322 went on, and then paused ("Do you see," shouted the youth victoriously,
47323 "he's going to clear up the whole affair for you...."), "in destroying
47324 them, and will send these visitors to the devil. I will come back to
47325 dinner, and we'll set to work. We will do, completely do, and undo these
47328 The last words were read out in the midst of complete silence. The tall
47329 lad hung his head gloomily. It was evident that no one had understood
47330 the last part. In particular, the words "I will come back to dinner,"
47331 evidently displeased both reader and audience. The people's minds were
47332 tuned to a high pitch and this was too simple and needlessly
47333 comprehensible--it was what any one of them might have said and
47334 therefore was what an ukase emanating from the highest authority should
47337 They all stood despondent and silent. The tall youth moved his lips and
47338 swayed from side to side.
47340 "We should ask him... that's he himself?"... "Yes, ask him indeed!...
47341 Why not? He'll explain"... voices in the rear of the crowd were suddenly
47342 heard saying, and the general attention turned to the police
47343 superintendent's trap which drove into the square attended by two
47346 The superintendent of police, who had gone that morning by Count
47347 Rostopchin's orders to burn the barges and had in connection with that
47348 matter acquired a large sum of money which was at that moment in his
47349 pocket, on seeing a crowd bearing down upon him told his coachman to
47352 "What people are these?" he shouted to the men, who were moving singly
47353 and timidly in the direction of his trap.
47355 "What people are these?" he shouted again, receiving no answer.
47357 "Your honor..." replied the shopman in the frieze coat, "your honor, in
47358 accord with the proclamation of his highest excellency the count, they
47359 desire to serve, not sparing their lives, and it is not any kind of
47360 riot, but as his highest excellence said..."
47362 "The count has not left, he is here, and an order will be issued
47363 concerning you," said the superintendent of police. "Go on!" he ordered
47366 The crowd halted, pressing around those who had heard what the
47367 superintendent had said, and looking at the departing trap.
47369 The superintendent of police turned round at that moment with a scared
47370 look, said something to his coachman, and his horses increased their
47373 "It's a fraud, lads! Lead the way to him, himself!" shouted the tall
47374 youth. "Don't let him go, lads! Let him answer us! Keep him!" shouted
47375 different people and the people dashed in pursuit of the trap.
47377 Following the superintendent of police and talking loudly the crowd went
47378 in the direction of the Lubyanka Street.
47380 "There now, the gentry and merchants have gone away and left us to
47381 perish. Do they think we're dogs?" voices in the crowd were heard saying
47382 more and more frequently.
47389 On the evening of the first of September, after his interview with
47390 Kutuzov, Count Rostopchin had returned to Moscow mortified and offended
47391 because he had not been invited to attend the council of war, and
47392 because Kutuzov had paid no attention to his offer to take part in the
47393 defense of the city; amazed also at the novel outlook revealed to him at
47394 the camp, which treated the tranquillity of the capital and its
47395 patriotic fervor as not merely secondary but quite irrelevant and
47396 unimportant matters. Distressed, offended, and surprised by all this,
47397 Rostopchin had returned to Moscow. After supper he lay down on a sofa
47398 without undressing, and was awakened soon after midnight by a courier
47399 bringing him a letter from Kutuzov. This letter requested the count to
47400 send police officers to guide the troops through the town, as the army
47401 was retreating to the Ryazan road beyond Moscow. This was not news to
47402 Rostopchin. He had known that Moscow would be abandoned not merely since
47403 his interview the previous day with Kutuzov on the Poklonny Hill but
47404 ever since the battle of Borodino, for all the generals who came to
47405 Moscow after that battle had said unanimously that it was impossible to
47406 fight another battle, and since then the government property had been
47407 removed every night, and half the inhabitants had left the city with
47408 Rostopchin's own permission. Yet all the same this information
47409 astonished and irritated the count, coming as it did in the form of a
47410 simple note with an order from Kutuzov, and received at night, breaking
47411 in on his beauty sleep.
47413 When later on in his memoirs Count Rostopchin explained his actions at
47414 this time, he repeatedly says that he was then actuated by two important
47415 considerations: to maintain tranquillity in Moscow and expedite the
47416 departure of the inhabitants. If one accepts this twofold aim all
47417 Rostopchin's actions appear irreproachable. "Why were the holy relics,
47418 the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, and stores of corn not removed? Why
47419 were thousands of inhabitants deceived into believing that Moscow would
47420 not be given up--and thereby ruined?" "To preserve the tranquillity of
47421 the city," explains Count Rostopchin. "Why were bundles of useless
47422 papers from the government offices, and Leppich's balloon and other
47423 articles removed?" "To leave the town empty," explains Count Rostopchin.
47424 One need only admit that public tranquillity is in danger and any action
47425 finds a justification.
47427 All the horrors of the reign of terror were based only on solicitude for
47428 public tranquillity.
47430 On what, then, was Count Rostopchin's fear for the tranquillity of
47431 Moscow based in 1812? What reason was there for assuming any probability
47432 of an uprising in the city? The inhabitants were leaving it and the
47433 retreating troops were filling it. Why should that cause the masses to
47436 Neither in Moscow nor anywhere in Russia did anything resembling an
47437 insurrection ever occur when the enemy entered a town. More than ten
47438 thousand people were still in Moscow on the first and second of
47439 September, and except for a mob in the governor's courtyard, assembled
47440 there at his bidding, nothing happened. It is obvious that there would
47441 have been even less reason to expect a disturbance among the people if
47442 after the battle of Borodino, when the surrender of Moscow became
47443 certain or at least probable, Rostopchin instead of exciting the people
47444 by distributing arms and broadsheets had taken steps to remove all the
47445 holy relics, the gunpowder, munitions, and money, and had told the
47446 population plainly that the town would be abandoned.
47448 Rostopchin, though he had patriotic sentiments, was a sanguine and
47449 impulsive man who had always moved in the highest administrative circles
47450 and had no understanding at all of the people he supposed himself to be
47451 guiding. Ever since the enemy's entry into Smolensk he had in
47452 imagination been playing the role of director of the popular feeling of
47453 "the heart of Russia." Not only did it seem to him (as to all
47454 administrators) that he controlled the external actions of Moscow's
47455 inhabitants, but he also thought he controlled their mental attitude by
47456 means of his broadsheets and posters, written in a coarse tone which the
47457 people despise in their own class and do not understand from those in
47458 authority. Rostopchin was so pleased with the fine role of leader of
47459 popular feeling, and had grown so used to it, that the necessity of
47460 relinquishing that role and abandoning Moscow without any heroic display
47461 took him unawares and he suddenly felt the ground slip away from under
47462 his feet, so that he positively did not know what to do. Though he knew
47463 it was coming, he did not till the last moment wholeheartedly believe
47464 that Moscow would be abandoned, and did not prepare for it. The
47465 inhabitants left against his wishes. If the government offices were
47466 removed, this was only done on the demand of officials to whom the count
47467 yielded reluctantly. He was absorbed in the role he had created for
47468 himself. As is often the case with those gifted with an ardent
47469 imagination, though he had long known that Moscow would be abandoned he
47470 knew it only with his intellect, he did not believe it in his heart and
47471 did not adapt himself mentally to this new position of affairs.
47473 All his painstaking and energetic activity (in how far it was useful and
47474 had any effect on the people is another question) had been simply
47475 directed toward arousing in the masses his own feeling of patriotic
47476 hatred of the French.
47478 But when events assumed their true historical character, when expressing
47479 hatred for the French in words proved insufficient, when it was not even
47480 possible to express that hatred by fighting a battle, when self-
47481 confidence was of no avail in relation to the one question before
47482 Moscow, when the whole population streamed out of Moscow as one man,
47483 abandoning their belongings and proving by that negative action all the
47484 depth of their national feeling, then the role chosen by Rostopchin
47485 suddenly appeared senseless. He unexpectedly felt himself ridiculous,
47486 weak, and alone, with no ground to stand on.
47488 When, awakened from his sleep, he received that cold, peremptory note
47489 from Kutuzov, he felt the more irritated the more he felt himself to
47490 blame. All that he had been specially put in charge of, the state
47491 property which he should have removed, was still in Moscow and it was no
47492 longer possible to take the whole of it away.
47494 "Who is to blame for it? Who has let things come to such a pass?" he
47495 ruminated. "Not I, of course. I had everything ready. I had Moscow
47496 firmly in hand. And this is what they have let it come to! Villains!
47497 Traitors!" he thought, without clearly defining who the villains and
47498 traitors were, but feeling it necessary to hate those traitors whoever
47499 they might be who were to blame for the false and ridiculous position in
47500 which he found himself.
47502 All that night Count Rostopchin issued orders, for which people came to
47503 him from all parts of Moscow. Those about him had never seen the count
47504 so morose and irritable.
47506 "Your excellency, the Director of the Registrar's Department has sent
47507 for instructions... From the Consistory, from the Senate, from the
47508 University, from the Foundling Hospital, the Suffragan has sent...
47509 asking for information.... What are your orders about the Fire Brigade?
47510 From the governor of the prison... from the superintendent of the
47511 lunatic asylum..." All night long such announcements were continually
47512 being received by the count.
47514 To all these inquiries he gave brief and angry replies indicating that
47515 orders from him were not now needed, that the whole affair, carefully
47516 prepared by him, had now been ruined by somebody, and that that somebody
47517 would have to bear the whole responsibility for all that might happen.
47519 "Oh, tell that blockhead," he said in reply to the question from the
47520 Registrar's Department, "that he should remain to guard his documents.
47521 Now why are you asking silly questions about the Fire Brigade? They have
47522 horses, let them be off to Vladimir, and not leave them to the French."
47524 "Your excellency, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum has come:
47525 what are your commands?"
47527 "My commands? Let them go away, that's all.... And let the lunatics out
47528 into the town. When lunatics command our armies God evidently means
47529 these other madmen to be free."
47531 In reply to an inquiry about the convicts in the prison, Count
47532 Rostopchin shouted angrily at the governor:
47534 "Do you expect me to give you two battalions--which we have not got--for
47535 a convoy? Release them, that's all about it!"
47537 "Your excellency, there are some political prisoners, Meshkov,
47540 "Vereshchagin! Hasn't he been hanged yet?" shouted Rostopchin. "Bring
47548 Toward nine o'clock in the morning, when the troops were already moving
47549 through Moscow, nobody came to the count any more for instructions.
47550 Those who were able to get away were going of their own accord, those
47551 who remained behind decided for themselves what they must do.
47553 The count ordered his carriage that he might drive to Sokolniki, and sat
47554 in his study with folded hands, morose, sallow, and taciturn.
47556 In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is
47557 only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept
47558 going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every
47559 administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the
47560 sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark,
47561 holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself
47562 moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding
47563 on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the
47564 ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves
47565 independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer
47566 reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of
47567 appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant,
47568 useless, feeble man.
47570 Rostopchin felt this, and it was this which exasperated him.
47572 The superintendent of police, whom the crowd had stopped, went in to see
47573 him at the same time as an adjutant who informed the count that the
47574 horses were harnessed. They were both pale, and the superintendent of
47575 police, after reporting that he had executed the instructions he had
47576 received, informed the count that an immense crowd had collected in the
47577 courtyard and wished to see him.
47579 Without saying a word Rostopchin rose and walked hastily to his light,
47580 luxurious drawing room, went to the balcony door, took hold of the
47581 handle, let it go again, and went to the window from which he had a
47582 better view of the whole crowd. The tall lad was standing in front,
47583 flourishing his arm and saying something with a stern look. The blood-
47584 stained smith stood beside him with a gloomy face. A drone of voices was
47585 audible through the closed window.
47587 "Is my carriage ready?" asked Rostopchin, stepping back from the window.
47589 "It is, your excellency," replied the adjutant.
47591 Rostopchin went again to the balcony door.
47593 "But what do they want?" he asked the superintendent of police.
47595 "Your excellency, they say they have got ready, according to your
47596 orders, to go against the French, and they shouted something about
47597 treachery. But it is a turbulent crowd, your excellency--I hardly
47598 managed to get away from it. Your excellency, I venture to suggest..."
47600 "You may go. I don't need you to tell me what to do!" exclaimed
47601 Rostopchin angrily.
47603 He stood by the balcony door looking at the crowd.
47605 "This is what they have done with Russia! This is what they have done
47606 with me!" thought he, full of an irrepressible fury that welled up
47607 within him against the someone to whom what was happening might be
47608 attributed. As often happens with passionate people, he was mastered by
47609 anger but was still seeking an object on which to vent it. "Here is that
47610 mob, the dregs of the people," he thought as he gazed at the crowd:
47611 "this rabble they have roused by their folly! They want a victim," he
47612 thought as he looked at the tall lad flourishing his arm. And this
47613 thought occurred to him just because he himself desired a victim,
47614 something on which to vent his rage.
47616 "Is the carriage ready?" he asked again.
47618 "Yes, your excellency. What are your orders about Vereshchagin? He is
47619 waiting at the porch," said the adjutant.
47621 "Ah!" exclaimed Rostopchin, as if struck by an unexpected recollection.
47623 And rapidly opening the door he went resolutely out onto the balcony.
47624 The talking instantly ceased, hats and caps were doffed, and all eyes
47625 were raised to the count.
47627 "Good morning, lads!" said the count briskly and loudly. "Thank you for
47628 coming. I'll come out to you in a moment, but we must first settle with
47629 the villain. We must punish the villain who has caused the ruin of
47630 Moscow. Wait for me!"
47632 And the count stepped as briskly back into the room and slammed the door
47635 A murmur of approbation and satisfaction ran through the crowd. "He'll
47636 settle with all the villains, you'll see! And you said the French...
47637 He'll show you what law is!" the mob were saying as if reproving one
47638 another for their lack of confidence.
47640 A few minutes later an officer came hurriedly out of the front door,
47641 gave an order, and the dragoons formed up in line. The crowd moved
47642 eagerly from the balcony toward the porch. Rostopchin, coming out there
47643 with quick angry steps, looked hastily around as if seeking someone.
47645 "Where is he?" he inquired. And as he spoke he saw a young man coming
47646 round the corner of the house between two dragoons. He had a long thin
47647 neck, and his head, that had been half shaved, was again covered by
47648 short hair. This young man was dressed in a threadbare blue cloth coat
47649 lined with fox fur, that had once been smart, and dirty hempen convict
47650 trousers, over which were pulled his thin, dirty, trodden-down boots. On
47651 his thin, weak legs were heavy chains which hampered his irresolute
47654 "Ah!" said Rostopchin, hurriedly turning away his eyes from the young
47655 man in the fur-lined coat and pointing to the bottom step of the porch.
47658 The young man in his clattering chains stepped clumsily to the spot
47659 indicated, holding away with one finger the coat collar which chafed his
47660 neck, turned his long neck twice this way and that, sighed, and
47661 submissively folded before him his thin hands, unused to work.
47663 For several seconds while the young man was taking his place on the step
47664 the silence continued. Only among the back rows of the people, who were
47665 all pressing toward the one spot, could sighs, groans, and the shuffling
47668 While waiting for the young man to take his place on the step Rostopchin
47669 stood frowning and rubbing his face with his hand.
47671 "Lads!" said he, with a metallic ring in his voice. "This man,
47672 Vereshchagin, is the scoundrel by whose doing Moscow is perishing."
47674 The young man in the fur-lined coat, stooping a little, stood in a
47675 submissive attitude, his fingers clasped before him. His emaciated young
47676 face, disfigured by the half-shaven head, hung down hopelessly. At the
47677 count's first words he raised it slowly and looked up at him as if
47678 wishing to say something or at least to meet his eye. But Rostopchin did
47679 not look at him. A vein in the young man's long thin neck swelled like a
47680 cord and went blue behind the ear, and suddenly his face flushed.
47682 All eyes were fixed on him. He looked at the crowd, and rendered more
47683 hopeful by the expression he read on the faces there, he smiled sadly
47684 and timidly, and lowering his head shifted his feet on the step.
47686 "He has betrayed his Tsar and his country, he has gone over to
47687 Bonaparte. He alone of all the Russians has disgraced the Russian name,
47688 he has caused Moscow to perish," said Rostopchin in a sharp, even voice,
47689 but suddenly he glanced down at Vereshchagin who continued to stand in
47690 the same submissive attitude. As if inflamed by the sight, he raised his
47691 arm and addressed the people, almost shouting:
47693 "Deal with him as you think fit! I hand him over to you."
47695 The crowd remained silent and only pressed closer and closer to one
47696 another. To keep one another back, to breathe in that stifling
47697 atmosphere, to be unable to stir, and to await something unknown,
47698 uncomprehended, and terrible, was becoming unbearable. Those standing in
47699 front, who had seen and heard what had taken place before them, all
47700 stood with wide-open eyes and mouths, straining with all their strength,
47701 and held back the crowd that was pushing behind them.
47703 "Beat him!... Let the traitor perish and not disgrace the Russian name!"
47704 shouted Rostopchin. "Cut him down. I command it."
47706 Hearing not so much the words as the angry tone of Rostopchin's voice,
47707 the crowd moaned and heaved forward, but again paused.
47709 "Count!" exclaimed the timid yet theatrical voice of Vereshchagin in the
47710 midst of the momentary silence that ensued, "Count! One God is above us
47711 both...." He lifted his head and again the thick vein in his thin neck
47712 filled with blood and the color rapidly came and went in his face.
47714 He did not finish what he wished to say.
47716 "Cut him down! I command it..." shouted Rostopchin, suddenly growing
47717 pale like Vereshchagin.
47719 "Draw sabers!" cried the dragoon officer, drawing his own.
47721 Another still stronger wave flowed through the crowd and reaching the
47722 front ranks carried it swaying to the very steps of the porch. The tall
47723 youth, with a stony look on his face, and rigid and uplifted arm, stood
47724 beside Vereshchagin.
47726 "Saber him!" the dragoon officer almost whispered.
47728 And one of the soldiers, his face all at once distorted with fury,
47729 struck Vereshchagin on the head with the blunt side of his saber.
47731 "Ah!" cried Vereshchagin in meek surprise, looking round with a
47732 frightened glance as if not understanding why this was done to him. A
47733 similar moan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd. "O Lord!"
47734 exclaimed a sorrowful voice.
47736 But after the exclamation of surprise that had escaped from Vereshchagin
47737 he uttered a plaintive cry of pain, and that cry was fatal. The barrier
47738 of human feeling, strained to the utmost, that had held the crowd in
47739 check suddenly broke. The crime had begun and must now be completed. The
47740 plaintive moan of reproach was drowned by the threatening and angry roar
47741 of the crowd. Like the seventh and last wave that shatters a ship, that
47742 last irresistible wave burst from the rear and reached the front ranks,
47743 carrying them off their feet and engulfing them all. The dragoon was
47744 about to repeat his blow. Vereshchagin with a cry of horror, covering
47745 his head with his hands, rushed toward the crowd. The tall youth,
47746 against whom he stumbled, seized his thin neck with his hands and,
47747 yelling wildly, fell with him under the feet of the pressing, struggling
47750 Some beat and tore at Vereshchagin, others at the tall youth. And the
47751 screams of those that were being trampled on and of those who tried to
47752 rescue the tall lad only increased the fury of the crowd. It was a long
47753 time before the dragoons could extricate the bleeding youth, beaten
47754 almost to death. And for a long time, despite the feverish haste with
47755 which the mob tried to end the work that had been begun, those who were
47756 hitting, throttling, and tearing at Vereshchagin were unable to kill
47757 him, for the crowd pressed from all sides, swaying as one mass with them
47758 in the center and rendering it impossible for them either to kill him or
47761 "Hit him with an ax, eh!... Crushed?... Traitor, he sold Christ....
47762 Still alive... tenacious... serves him right! Torture serves a thief
47763 right. Use the hatchet!... What--still alive?"
47765 Only when the victim ceased to struggle and his cries changed to a long-
47766 drawn, measured death rattle did the crowd around his prostrate,
47767 bleeding corpse begin rapidly to change places. Each one came up,
47768 glanced at what had been done, and with horror, reproach, and
47769 astonishment pushed back again.
47771 "O Lord! The people are like wild beasts! How could he be alive?" voices
47772 in the crowd could be heard saying. "Quite a young fellow too... must
47773 have been a merchant's son. What men!... and they say he's not the right
47774 one.... How not the right one?... O Lord! And there's another has been
47775 beaten too--they say he's nearly done for.... Oh, the people... Aren't
47776 they afraid of sinning?..." said the same mob now, looking with pained
47777 distress at the dead body with its long, thin, half-severed neck and its
47778 livid face stained with blood and dust.
47780 A painstaking police officer, considering the presence of a corpse in
47781 his excellency's courtyard unseemly, told the dragoons to take it away.
47782 Two dragoons took it by its distorted legs and dragged it along the
47783 ground. The gory, dust-stained, half-shaven head with its long neck
47784 trailed twisting along the ground. The crowd shrank back from it.
47786 At the moment when Vereshchagin fell and the crowd closed in with savage
47787 yells and swayed about him, Rostopchin suddenly turned pale and, instead
47788 of going to the back entrance where his carriage awaited him, went with
47789 hurried steps and bent head, not knowing where and why, along the
47790 passage leading to the rooms on the ground floor. The count's face was
47791 white and he could not control the feverish twitching of his lower jaw.
47793 "This way, your excellency... Where are you going?... This way,
47794 please..." said a trembling, frightened voice behind him.
47796 Count Rostopchin was unable to reply and, turning obediently, went in
47797 the direction indicated. At the back entrance stood his caleche. The
47798 distant roar of the yelling crowd was audible even there. He hastily
47799 took his seat and told the coachman to drive him to his country house in
47802 When they reached the Myasnitski Street and could no longer hear the
47803 shouts of the mob, the count began to repent. He remembered with
47804 dissatisfaction the agitation and fear he had betrayed before his
47805 subordinates. "The mob is terrible--disgusting," he said to himself in
47806 French. "They are like wolves whom nothing but flesh can appease."
47807 "Count! One God is above us both!"--Vereshchagin's words suddenly
47808 recurred to him, and a disagreeable shiver ran down his back. But this
47809 was only a momentary feeling and Count Rostopchin smiled disdainfully at
47810 himself. "I had other duties," thought he. "The people had to be
47811 appeased. Many other victims have perished and are perishing for the
47812 public good"--and he began thinking of his social duties to his family
47813 and to the city entrusted to him, and of himself--not himself as
47814 Theodore Vasilyevich Rostopchin (he fancied that Theodore Vasilyevich
47815 Rostopchin was sacrificing himself for the public good) but himself as
47816 governor, the representative of authority and of the Tsar. "Had I been
47817 simply Theodore Vasilyevich my course of action would have been quite
47818 different, but it was my duty to safeguard my life and dignity as
47819 commander-in-chief."
47821 Lightly swaying on the flexible springs of his carriage and no longer
47822 hearing the terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin grew physically
47823 calm and, as always happens, as soon as he became physically tranquil
47824 his mind devised reasons why he should be mentally tranquil too. The
47825 thought which tranquillized Rostopchin was not a new one. Since the
47826 world began and men have killed one another no one has ever committed
47827 such a crime against his fellow man without comforting himself with this
47828 same idea. This idea is le bien public, the hypothetical welfare of
47831 To a man not swayed by passion that welfare is never certain, but he who
47832 commits such a crime always knows just where that welfare lies. And
47833 Rostopchin now knew it.
47835 Not only did his reason not reproach him for what he had done, but he
47836 even found cause for self-satisfaction in having so successfully
47837 contrived to avail himself of a convenient opportunity to punish a
47838 criminal and at the same time pacify the mob.
47840 "Vereshchagin was tried and condemned to death," thought Rostopchin
47841 (though the Senate had only condemned Vereshchagin to hard labor), "he
47842 was a traitor and a spy. I could not let him go unpunished and so I have
47843 killed two birds with one stone: to appease the mob I gave them a victim
47844 and at the same time punished a miscreant."
47846 Having reached his country house and begun to give orders about domestic
47847 arrangements, the count grew quite tranquil.
47849 Half an hour later he was driving with his fast horses across the
47850 Sokolniki field, no longer thinking of what had occurred but considering
47851 what was to come. He was driving to the Yauza bridge where he had heard
47852 that Kutuzov was. Count Rostopchin was mentally preparing the angry and
47853 stinging reproaches he meant to address to Kutuzov for his deception. He
47854 would make that foxy old courtier feel that the responsibility for all
47855 the calamities that would follow the abandonment of the city and the
47856 ruin of Russia (as Rostopchin regarded it) would fall upon his doting
47857 old head. Planning beforehand what he would say to Kutuzov, Rostopchin
47858 turned angrily in his caleche and gazed sternly from side to side.
47860 The Sokolniki field was deserted. Only at the end of it, in front of the
47861 almshouse and the lunatic asylum, could be seen some people in white and
47862 others like them walking singly across the field shouting and
47865 One of these was running to cross the path of Count Rostopchin's
47866 carriage, and the count himself, his coachman, and his dragoons looked
47867 with vague horror and curiosity at these released lunatics and
47868 especially at the one running toward them.
47870 Swaying from side to side on his long, thin legs in his fluttering
47871 dressing gown, this lunatic was running impetuously, his gaze fixed on
47872 Rostopchin, shouting something in a hoarse voice and making signs to him
47873 to stop. The lunatic's solemn, gloomy face was thin and yellow, with its
47874 beard growing in uneven tufts. His black, agate pupils with saffron-
47875 yellow whites moved restlessly near the lower eyelids.
47877 "Stop! Pull up, I tell you!" he cried in a piercing voice, and again
47878 shouted something breathlessly with emphatic intonations and gestures.
47880 Coming abreast of the caleche he ran beside it.
47882 "Thrice have they slain me, thrice have I risen from the dead. They
47883 stoned me, crucified me... I shall rise... shall rise... shall rise.
47884 They have torn my body. The kingdom of God will be overthrown... Thrice
47885 will I overthrow it and thrice re-establish it!" he cried, raising his
47886 voice higher and higher.
47888 Count Rostopchin suddenly grew pale as he had done when the crowd closed
47889 in on Vereshchagin. He turned away. "Go fas... faster!" he cried in a
47890 trembling voice to his coachman. The caleche flew over the ground as
47891 fast as the horses could draw it, but for a long time Count Rostopchin
47892 still heard the insane despairing screams growing fainter in the
47893 distance, while his eyes saw nothing but the astonished, frightened,
47894 bloodstained face of "the traitor" in the fur-lined coat.
47896 Recent as that mental picture was, Rostopchin already felt that it had
47897 cut deep into his heart and drawn blood. Even now he felt clearly that
47898 the gory trace of that recollection would not pass with time, but that
47899 the terrible memory would, on the contrary, dwell in his heart ever more
47900 cruelly and painfully to the end of his life. He seemed still to hear
47901 the sound of his own words: "Cut him down! I command it...."
47903 "Why did I utter those words? It was by some accident I said them.... I
47904 need not have said them," he thought. "And then nothing would have
47905 happened." He saw the frightened and then infuriated face of the dragoon
47906 who dealt the blow, the look of silent, timid reproach that boy in the
47907 fur-lined coat had turned upon him. "But I did not do it for my own
47908 sake. I was bound to act that way.... The mob, the traitor... the public
47909 welfare," thought he.
47911 Troops were still crowding at the Yauza bridge. It was hot. Kutuzov,
47912 dejected and frowning, sat on a bench by the bridge toying with his whip
47913 in the sand when a caleche dashed up noisily. A man in a general's
47914 uniform with plumes in his hat went up to Kutuzov and said something in
47915 French. It was Count Rostopchin. He told Kutuzov that he had come
47916 because Moscow, the capital, was no more and only the army remained.
47918 "Things would have been different if your Serene Highness had not told
47919 me that you would not abandon Moscow without another battle; all this
47920 would not have happened," he said.
47922 Kutuzov looked at Rostopchin as if, not grasping what was said to him,
47923 he was trying to read something peculiar written at that moment on the
47924 face of the man addressing him. Rostopchin grew confused and became
47925 silent. Kutuzov slightly shook his head and not taking his penetrating
47926 gaze from Rostopchin's face muttered softly:
47928 "No! I shall not give up Moscow without a battle!"
47930 Whether Kutuzov was thinking of something entirely different when he
47931 spoke those words, or uttered them purposely, knowing them to be
47932 meaningless, at any rate Rostopchin made no reply and hastily left him.
47933 And strange to say, the Governor of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin,
47934 took up a Cossack whip and went to the bridge where he began with shouts
47935 to drive on the carts that blocked the way.
47942 Toward four o'clock in the afternoon Murat's troops were entering
47943 Moscow. In front rode a detachment of Wurttemberg hussars and behind
47944 them rode the King of Naples himself accompanied by a numerous suite.
47946 About the middle of the Arbat Street, near the Church of the Miraculous
47947 Icon of St. Nicholas, Murat halted to await news from the advanced
47948 detachment as to the condition in which they had found the citadel, le
47951 Around Murat gathered a group of those who had remained in Moscow. They
47952 all stared in timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired commander
47953 dressed up in feathers and gold.
47955 "Is that their Tsar himself? He's not bad!" low voices could be heard
47958 An interpreter rode up to the group.
47960 "Take off your cap... your caps!" These words went from one to another
47961 in the crowd. The interpreter addressed an old porter and asked if it
47962 was far to the Kremlin. The porter, listening in perplexity to the
47963 unfamiliar Polish accent and not realizing that the interpreter was
47964 speaking Russian, did not understand what was being said to him and
47965 slipped behind the others.
47967 Murat approached the interpreter and told him to ask where the Russian
47968 army was. One of the Russians understood what was asked and several
47969 voices at once began answering the interpreter. A French officer,
47970 returning from the advanced detachment, rode up to Murat and reported
47971 that the gates of the citadel had been barricaded and that there was
47972 probably an ambuscade there.
47974 "Good!" said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen in his suite,
47975 ordered four light guns to be moved forward to fire at the gates.
47977 The guns emerged at a trot from the column following Murat and advanced
47978 up the Arbat. When they reached the end of the Vozdvizhenka Street they
47979 halted and drew in the Square. Several French officers superintended the
47980 placing of the guns and looked at the Kremlin through field glasses.
47982 The bells in the Kremlin were ringing for vespers, and this sound
47983 troubled the French. They imagined it to be a call to arms. A few
47984 infantrymen ran to the Kutafyev Gate. Beams and wooden screens had been
47985 put there, and two musket shots rang out from under the gate as soon as
47986 an officer and men began to run toward it. A general who was standing by
47987 the guns shouted some words of command to the officer, and the latter
47988 ran back again with his men.
47990 The sound of three more shots came from the gate.
47992 One shot struck a French soldier's foot, and from behind the screens
47993 came the strange sound of a few voices shouting. Instantly as at a word
47994 of command the expression of cheerful serenity on the faces of the
47995 French general, officers, and men changed to one of determined
47996 concentrated readiness for strife and suffering. To all of them from the
47997 marshal to the least soldier, that place was not the Vozdvizhenka,
47998 Mokhavaya, or Kutafyev Street, nor the Troitsa Gate (places familiar in
47999 Moscow), but a new battlefield which would probably prove sanguinary.
48000 And all made ready for that battle. The cries from the gates ceased. The
48001 guns were advanced, the artillerymen blew the ash off their linstocks,
48002 and an officer gave the word "Fire!" This was followed by two whistling
48003 sounds of canister shot, one after another. The shot rattled against the
48004 stone of the gate and upon the wooden beams and screens, and two
48005 wavering clouds of smoke rose over the Square.
48007 A few instants after the echo of the reports resounding over the stone-
48008 built Kremlin had died away the French heard a strange sound above their
48009 head. Thousands of crows rose above the walls and circled in the air,
48010 cawing and noisily flapping their wings. Together with that sound came a
48011 solitary human cry from the gateway and amid the smoke appeared the
48012 figure of a bareheaded man in a peasant's coat. He grasped a musket and
48013 took aim at the French. "Fire!" repeated the officer once more, and the
48014 reports of a musket and of two cannon shots were heard simultaneously.
48015 The gate was again hidden by smoke.
48017 Nothing more stirred behind the screens and the French infantry soldiers
48018 and officers advanced to the gate. In the gateway lay three wounded and
48019 four dead. Two men in peasant coats ran away at the foot of the wall,
48020 toward the Znamenka.
48022 "Clear that away!" said the officer, pointing to the beams and the
48023 corpses, and the French soldiers, after dispatching the wounded, threw
48024 the corpses over the parapet.
48026 Who these men were nobody knew. "Clear that away!" was all that was said
48027 of them, and they were thrown over the parapet and removed later on that
48028 they might not stink. Thiers alone dedicates a few eloquent lines to
48029 their memory: "These wretches had occupied the sacred citadel, having
48030 supplied themselves with guns from the arsenal, and fired" (the
48031 wretches) "at the French. Some of them were sabered and the Kremlin was
48032 purged of their presence."
48034 Murat was informed that the way had been cleared. The French entered the
48035 gates and began pitching their camp in the Senate Square. Out of the
48036 windows of the Senate House the soldiers threw chairs into the Square
48037 for fuel and kindled fires there.
48039 Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and encamped along the
48040 Moroseyka, the Lubyanka, and Pokrovka Streets. Others quartered
48041 themselves along the Vozdvizhenka, the Nikolski, and the Tverskoy
48042 Streets. No masters of the houses being found anywhere, the French were
48043 not billeted on the inhabitants as is usual in towns but lived in it as
48046 Though tattered, hungry, worn out, and reduced to a third of their
48047 original number, the French entered Moscow in good marching order. It
48048 was a weary and famished, but still a fighting and menacing army. But it
48049 remained an army only until its soldiers had dispersed into their
48050 different lodgings. As soon as the men of the various regiments began to
48051 disperse among the wealthy and deserted houses, the army was lost
48052 forever and there came into being something nondescript, neither
48053 citizens nor soldiers but what are known as marauders. When five weeks
48054 later these same men left Moscow, they no longer formed an army. They
48055 were a mob of marauders, each carrying a quantity of articles which
48056 seemed to him valuable or useful. The aim of each man when he left
48057 Moscow was no longer, as it had been, to conquer, but merely to keep
48058 what he had acquired. Like a monkey which puts its paw into the narrow
48059 neck of a jug, and having seized a handful of nuts will not open its
48060 fist for fear of losing what it holds, and therefore perishes, the
48061 French when they left Moscow had inevitably to perish because they
48062 carried their loot with them, yet to abandon what they had stolen was as
48063 impossible for them as it is for the monkey to open its paw and let go
48064 of its nuts. Ten minutes after each regiment had entered a Moscow
48065 district, not a soldier or officer was left. Men in military uniforms
48066 and Hessian boots could be seen through the windows, laughing and
48067 walking through the rooms. In cellars and storerooms similar men were
48068 busy among the provisions, and in the yards unlocking or breaking open
48069 coach house and stable doors, lighting fires in kitchens and kneading
48070 and baking bread with rolled-up sleeves, and cooking; or frightening,
48071 amusing, or caressing women and children. There were many such men both
48072 in the shops and houses--but there was no army.
48074 Order after order was issued by the French commanders that day
48075 forbidding the men to disperse about the town, sternly forbidding any
48076 violence to the inhabitants or any looting, and announcing a roll call
48077 for that very evening. But despite all these measures the men, who had
48078 till then constituted an army, flowed all over the wealthy, deserted
48079 city with its comforts and plentiful supplies. As a hungry herd of
48080 cattle keeps well together when crossing a barren field, but gets out of
48081 hand and at once disperses uncontrollably as soon as it reaches rich
48082 pastures, so did the army disperse all over the wealthy city.
48084 No residents were left in Moscow, and the soldiers--like water
48085 percolating through sand--spread irresistibly through the city in all
48086 directions from the Kremlin into which they had first marched. The
48087 cavalry, on entering a merchant's house that had been abandoned and
48088 finding there stabling more than sufficient for their horses, went on,
48089 all the same, to the next house which seemed to them better. Many of
48090 them appropriated several houses, chalked their names on them, and
48091 quarreled and even fought with other companies for them. Before they had
48092 had time to secure quarters the soldiers ran out into the streets to see
48093 the city and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to
48094 places where valuables were to be had for the taking. The officers
48095 followed to check the soldiers and were involuntarily drawn into doing
48096 the same. In Carriage Row carriages had been left in the shops, and
48097 generals flocked there to select caleches and coaches for themselves.
48098 The few inhabitants who had remained invited commanding officers to
48099 their houses, hoping thereby to secure themselves from being plundered.
48100 There were masses of wealth and there seemed no end to it. All around
48101 the quarters occupied by the French were other regions still unexplored
48102 and unoccupied where, they thought, yet greater riches might be found.
48103 And Moscow engulfed the army ever deeper and deeper. When water is
48104 spilled on dry ground both the dry ground and the water disappear and
48105 mud results; and in the same way the entry of the famished army into the
48106 rich and deserted city resulted in fires and looting and the destruction
48107 of both the army and the wealthy city.
48109 The French attributed the Fire of Moscow au patriotisme feroce de
48110 Rostopchine, * the Russians to the barbarity of the French. In reality,
48111 however, it was not, and could not be, possible to explain the burning
48112 of Moscow by making any individual, or any group of people, responsible
48113 for it. Moscow was burned because it found itself in a position in which
48114 any town built of wood was bound to burn, quite apart from whether it
48115 had, or had not, a hundred and thirty inferior fire engines. Deserted
48116 Moscow had to burn as inevitably as a heap of shavings has to burn on
48117 which sparks continually fall for several days. A town built of wood,
48118 where scarcely a day passes without conflagrations when the house owners
48119 are in residence and a police force is present, cannot help burning when
48120 its inhabitants have left it and it is occupied by soldiers who smoke
48121 pipes, make campfires of the Senate chairs in the Senate Square, and
48122 cook themselves meals twice a day. In peacetime it is only necessary to
48123 billet troops in the villages of any district and the number of fires in
48124 that district immediately increases. How much then must the probability
48125 of fire be increased in an abandoned, wooden town where foreign troops
48126 are quartered. "Le patriotisme feroce de Rostopchine" and the barbarity
48127 of the French were not to blame in the matter. Moscow was set on fire by
48128 the soldiers' pipes, kitchens, and campfires, and by the carelessness of
48129 enemy soldiers occupying houses they did not own. Even if there was any
48130 arson (which is very doubtful, for no one had any reason to burn the
48131 houses--in any case a troublesome and dangerous thing to do), arson
48132 cannot be regarded as the cause, for the same thing would have happened
48133 without any incendiarism.
48136 * To Rostopchin's ferocious patriotism.
48138 However tempting it might be for the French to blame Rostopchin's
48139 ferocity and for Russians to blame the scoundrel Bonaparte, or later on
48140 to place an heroic torch in the hands of their own people, it is
48141 impossible not to see that there could be no such direct cause of the
48142 fire, for Moscow had to burn as every village, factory, or house must
48143 burn which is left by its owners and in which strangers are allowed to
48144 live and cook their porridge. Moscow was burned by its inhabitants, it
48145 is true, but by those who had abandoned it and not by those who remained
48146 in it. Moscow when occupied by the enemy did not remain intact like
48147 Berlin, Vienna, and other towns, simply because its inhabitants
48148 abandoned it and did not welcome the French with bread and salt, nor
48149 bring them the keys of the city.
48156 The absorption of the French by Moscow, radiating starwise as it did,
48157 only reached the quarter where Pierre was staying by the evening of the
48158 second of September.
48160 After the last two days spent in solitude and unusual circumstances,
48161 Pierre was in a state bordering on insanity. He was completely obsessed
48162 by one persistent thought. He did not know how or when this thought had
48163 taken such possession of him, but he remembered nothing of the past,
48164 understood nothing of the present, and all he saw and heard appeared to
48167 He had left home only to escape the intricate tangle of life's demands
48168 that enmeshed him, and which in his present condition he was unable to
48169 unravel. He had gone to Joseph Alexeevich's house, on the plea of
48170 sorting the deceased's books and papers, only in search of rest from
48171 life's turmoil, for in his mind the memory of Joseph Alexeevich was
48172 connected with a world of eternal, solemn, and calm thoughts, quite
48173 contrary to the restless confusion into which he felt himself being
48174 drawn. He sought a quiet refuge, and in Joseph Alexeevich's study he
48175 really found it. When he sat with his elbows on the dusty writing table
48176 in the deathlike stillness of the study, calm and significant memories
48177 of the last few days rose one after another in his imagination,
48178 particularly of the battle of Borodino and of that vague sense of his
48179 own insignificance and insincerity compared with the truth, simplicity,
48180 and strength of the class of men he mentally classed as they. When
48181 Gerasim roused him from his reverie the idea occurred to him of taking
48182 part in the popular defense of Moscow which he knew was projected. And
48183 with that object he had asked Gerasim to get him a peasant's coat and a
48184 pistol, confiding to him his intentions of remaining in Joseph
48185 Alexeevich's house and keeping his name secret. Then during the first
48186 day spent in inaction and solitude (he tried several times to fix his
48187 attention on the masonic manuscripts, but was unable to do so) the idea
48188 that had previously occurred to him of the cabalistic significance of
48189 his name in connection with Bonaparte's more than once vaguely presented
48190 itself. But the idea that he, L'russe Besuhof, was destined to set a
48191 limit to the power of the Beast was as yet only one of the fancies that
48192 often passed through his mind and left no trace behind.
48194 When, having bought the coat merely with the object of taking part among
48195 the people in the defense of Moscow, Pierre had met the Rostovs and
48196 Natasha had said to him: "Are you remaining in Moscow?... How splendid!"
48197 the thought flashed into his mind that it really would be a good thing,
48198 even if Moscow were taken, for him to remain there and do what he was
48201 Next day, with the sole idea of not sparing himself and not lagging in
48202 any way behind them, Pierre went to the Three Hills gate. But when he
48203 returned to the house convinced that Moscow would not be defended, he
48204 suddenly felt that what before had seemed to him merely a possibility
48205 had now become absolutely necessary and inevitable. He must remain in
48206 Moscow, concealing his name, and must meet Napoleon and kill him, and
48207 either perish or put an end to the misery of all Europe--which it seemed
48208 to him was solely due to Napoleon.
48210 Pierre knew all the details of the attempt on Bonaparte's life in 1809
48211 by a German student in Vienna, and knew that the student had been shot.
48212 And the risk to which he would expose his life by carrying out his
48213 design excited him still more.
48215 Two equally strong feelings drew Pierre irresistibly to this purpose.
48216 The first was a feeling of the necessity of sacrifice and suffering in
48217 view of the common calamity, the same feeling that had caused him to go
48218 to Mozhaysk on the twenty-fifth and to make his way to the very thick of
48219 the battle and had now caused him to run away from his home and, in
48220 place of the luxury and comfort to which he was accustomed, to sleep on
48221 a hard sofa without undressing and eat the same food as Gerasim. The
48222 other was that vague and quite Russian feeling of contempt for
48223 everything conventional, artificial, and human--for everything the
48224 majority of men regard as the greatest good in the world. Pierre had
48225 first experienced this strange and fascinating feeling at the Sloboda
48226 Palace, when he had suddenly felt that wealth, power, and life--all that
48227 men so painstakingly acquire and guard--if it has any worth has so only
48228 by reason of the joy with which it can all be renounced.
48230 It was the feeling that induces a volunteer recruit to spend his last
48231 penny on drink, and a drunken man to smash mirrors or glasses for no
48232 apparent reason and knowing that it will cost him all the money he
48233 possesses: the feeling which causes a man to perform actions which from
48234 an ordinary point of view are insane, to test, as it were, his personal
48235 power and strength, affirming the existence of a higher, nonhuman
48238 From the very day Pierre had experienced this feeling for the first time
48239 at the Sloboda Palace he had been continuously under its influence, but
48240 only now found full satisfaction for it. Moreover, at this moment Pierre
48241 was supported in his design and prevented from renouncing it by what he
48242 had already done in that direction. If he were now to leave Moscow like
48243 everyone else, his flight from home, the peasant coat, the pistol, and
48244 his announcement to the Rostovs that he would remain in Moscow would all
48245 become not merely meaningless but contemptible and ridiculous, and to
48246 this Pierre was very sensitive.
48248 Pierre's physical condition, as is always the case, corresponded to his
48249 mental state. The unaccustomed coarse food, the vodka he drank during
48250 those days, the absence of wine and cigars, his dirty unchanged linen,
48251 two almost sleepless nights passed on a short sofa without bedding--all
48252 this kept him in a state of excitement bordering on insanity.
48254 It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The French had already entered
48255 Moscow. Pierre knew this, but instead of acting he only thought about
48256 his undertaking, going over its minutest details in his mind. In his
48257 fancy he did not clearly picture to himself either the striking of the
48258 blow or the death of Napoleon, but with extraordinary vividness and
48259 melancholy enjoyment imagined his own destruction and heroic endurance.
48261 "Yes, alone, for the sake of all, I must do it or perish!" he thought.
48262 "Yes, I will approach... and then suddenly... with pistol or dagger? But
48263 that is all the same! 'It is not I but the hand of Providence that
48264 punishes thee,' I shall say," thought he, imagining what he would say
48265 when killing Napoleon. "Well then, take me and execute me!" he went on,
48266 speaking to himself and bowing his head with a sad but firm expression.
48268 While Pierre, standing in the middle of the room, was talking to himself
48269 in this way, the study door opened and on the threshold appeared the
48270 figure of Makar Alexeevich, always so timid before but now quite
48273 His dressing gown was unfastened, his face red and distorted. He was
48274 obviously drunk. On seeing Pierre he grew confused at first, but
48275 noticing embarrassment on Pierre's face immediately grew bold and,
48276 staggering on his thin legs, advanced into the middle of the room.
48278 "They're frightened," he said confidentially in a hoarse voice. "I say I
48279 won't surrender, I say... Am I not right, sir?"
48281 He paused and then suddenly seeing the pistol on the table seized it
48282 with unexpected rapidity and ran out into the corridor.
48284 Gerasim and the porter, who had followed Makar Alexeevich, stopped him
48285 in the vestibule and tried to take the pistol from him. Pierre, coming
48286 out into the corridor, looked with pity and repulsion at the half-crazy
48287 old man. Makar Alexeevich, frowning with exertion, held on to the pistol
48288 and screamed hoarsely, evidently with some heroic fancy in his head.
48290 "To arms! Board them! No, you shan't get it," he yelled.
48292 "That will do, please, that will do. Have the goodness--please, sir, to
48293 let go! Please, sir..." pleaded Gerasim, trying carefully to steer Makar
48294 Alexeevich by the elbows back to the door.
48296 "Who are you? Bonaparte!..." shouted Makar Alexeevich.
48298 "That's not right, sir. Come to your room, please, and rest. Allow me to
48301 "Be off, thou base slave! Touch me not! See this?" shouted Makar
48302 Alexeevich, brandishing the pistol. "Board them!"
48304 "Catch hold!" whispered Gerasim to the porter.
48306 They seized Makar Alexeevich by the arms and dragged him to the door.
48308 The vestibule was filled with the discordant sounds of a struggle and of
48309 a tipsy, hoarse voice.
48311 Suddenly a fresh sound, a piercing feminine scream, reverberated from
48312 the porch and the cook came running into the vestibule.
48314 "It's them! Gracious heavens! O Lord, four of them, horsemen!" she
48317 Gerasim and the porter let Makar Alexeevich go, and in the now silent
48318 corridor the sound of several hands knocking at the front door could be
48326 Pierre, having decided that until he had carried out his design he would
48327 disclose neither his identity nor his knowledge of French, stood at the
48328 half-open door of the corridor, intending to conceal himself as soon as
48329 the French entered. But the French entered and still Pierre did not
48330 retire--an irresistible curiosity kept him there.
48332 There were two of them. One was an officer--a tall, soldierly, handsome
48333 man--the other evidently a private or an orderly, sunburned, short, and
48334 thin, with sunken cheeks and a dull expression. The officer walked in
48335 front, leaning on a stick and slightly limping. When he had advanced a
48336 few steps he stopped, having apparently decided that these were good
48337 quarters, turned round to the soldiers standing at the entrance, and in
48338 a loud voice of command ordered them to put up the horses. Having done
48339 that, the officer, lifting his elbow with a smart gesture, stroked his
48340 mustache and lightly touched his hat.
48342 "Bonjour, la compagnie!" * said he gaily, smiling and looking about him.
48345 * "Good day, everybody!"
48347 No one gave any reply.
48349 "Vous etes le bourgeois?" * the officer asked Gerasim.
48352 * "Are you the master here?"
48354 Gerasim gazed at the officer with an alarmed and inquiring look.
48356 "Quartier, quartier, logement!" said the officer, looking down at the
48357 little man with a condescending and good-natured smile. "Les francais
48358 sont de bons enfants. Que diable! Voyons! Ne nous fachons pas, mon
48359 vieux!" * added he, clapping the scared and silent Gerasim on the
48360 shoulder. "Well, does no one speak French in this establishment?" he
48361 asked again in French, looking around and meeting Pierre's eyes. Pierre
48362 moved away from the door.
48365 * "Quarters, quarters, lodgings! The French are good fellows. What the
48366 devil! There, don't let us be cross, old fellow!"
48368 Again the officer turned to Gerasim and asked him to show him the rooms
48371 "Master, not here--don't understand... me, you..." said Gerasim, trying
48372 to render his words more comprehensible by contorting them.
48374 Still smiling, the French officer spread out his hands before Gerasim's
48375 nose, intimating that he did not understand him either, and moved,
48376 limping, to the door at which Pierre was standing. Pierre wished to go
48377 away and conceal himself, but at that moment he saw Makar Alexeevich
48378 appearing at the open kitchen door with the pistol in his hand. With a
48379 madman's cunning, Makar Alexeevich eyed the Frenchman, raised his
48380 pistol, and took aim.
48382 "Board them!" yelled the tipsy man, trying to press the trigger. Hearing
48383 the yell the officer turned round, and at the same moment Pierre threw
48384 himself on the drunkard. Just when Pierre snatched at and struck up the
48385 pistol Makar Alexeevich at last got his fingers on the trigger, there
48386 was a deafening report, and all were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The
48387 Frenchman turned pale and rushed to the door.
48389 Forgetting his intention of concealing his knowledge of French, Pierre,
48390 snatching away the pistol and throwing it down, ran up to the officer
48391 and addressed him in French.
48393 "You are not wounded?" he asked.
48395 "I think not," answered the Frenchman, feeling himself over. "But I have
48396 had a lucky escape this time," he added, pointing to the damaged plaster
48397 of the wall. "Who is that man?" said he, looking sternly at Pierre.
48399 "Oh, I am really in despair at what has occurred," said Pierre rapidly,
48400 quite forgetting the part he had intended to play. "He is an unfortunate
48401 madman who did not know what he was doing."
48403 The officer went up to Makar Alexeevich and took him by the collar.
48405 Makar Alexeevich was standing with parted lips, swaying, as if about to
48406 fall asleep, as he leaned against the wall.
48408 "Brigand! You shall pay for this," said the Frenchman, letting go of
48409 him. "We French are merciful after victory, but we do not pardon
48410 traitors," he added, with a look of gloomy dignity and a fine energetic
48413 Pierre continued, in French, to persuade the officer not to hold that
48414 drunken imbecile to account. The Frenchman listened in silence with the
48415 same gloomy expression, but suddenly turned to Pierre with a smile. For
48416 a few seconds he looked at him in silence. His handsome face assumed a
48417 melodramatically gentle expression and he held out his hand.
48419 "You have saved my life. You are French," said he.
48421 For a Frenchman that deduction was indubitable. Only a Frenchman could
48422 perform a great deed, and to save his life--the life of M. Ramballe,
48423 captain of the 13th Light Regiment--was undoubtedly a very great deed.
48425 But however indubitable that conclusion and the officer's conviction
48426 based upon it, Pierre felt it necessary to disillusion him.
48428 "I am Russian," he said quickly.
48430 "Tut, tut, tut! Tell that to others," said the officer, waving his
48431 finger before his nose and smiling. "You shall tell me all about that
48432 presently. I am delighted to meet a compatriot. Well, and what are we to
48433 do with this man?" he added, addressing himself to Pierre as to a
48436 Even if Pierre were not a Frenchman, having once received that loftiest
48437 of human appellations he could not renounce it, said the officer's look
48438 and tone. In reply to his last question Pierre again explained who Makar
48439 Alexeevich was and how just before their arrival that drunken imbecile
48440 had seized the loaded pistol which they had not had time to recover from
48441 him, and begged the officer to let the deed go unpunished.
48443 The Frenchman expanded his chest and made a majestic gesture with his
48446 "You have saved my life! You are French. You ask his pardon? I grant it
48447 you. Lead that man away!" said he quickly and energetically, and taking
48448 the arm of Pierre whom he had promoted to be a Frenchman for saving his
48449 life, he went with him into the room.
48451 The soldiers in the yard, hearing the shot, came into the passage asking
48452 what had happened, and expressed their readiness to punish the culprits,
48453 but the officer sternly checked them.
48455 "You will be called in when you are wanted," he said.
48457 The soldiers went out again, and the orderly, who had meanwhile had time
48458 to visit the kitchen, came up to his officer.
48460 "Captain, there is soup and a leg of mutton in the kitchen," said he.
48461 "Shall I serve them up?"
48463 "Yes, and some wine," answered the captain.
48470 When the French officer went into the room with Pierre the latter again
48471 thought it his duty to assure him that he was not French and wished to
48472 go away, but the officer would not hear of it. He was so very polite,
48473 amiable, good-natured, and genuinely grateful to Pierre for saving his
48474 life that Pierre had not the heart to refuse, and sat down with him in
48475 the parlor--the first room they entered. To Pierre's assurances that he
48476 was not a Frenchman, the captain, evidently not understanding how anyone
48477 could decline so flattering an appellation, shrugged his shoulders and
48478 said that if Pierre absolutely insisted on passing for a Russian let it
48479 be so, but for all that he would be forever bound to Pierre by gratitude
48480 for saving his life.
48482 Had this man been endowed with the slightest capacity for perceiving the
48483 feelings of others, and had he at all understood what Pierre's feelings
48484 were, the latter would probably have left him, but the man's animated
48485 obtuseness to everything other than himself disarmed Pierre.
48487 "A Frenchman or a Russian prince incognito," said the officer, looking
48488 at Pierre's fine though dirty linen and at the ring on his finger. "I
48489 owe my life to you and offer you my friendship. A Frenchman never
48490 forgets either an insult or a service. I offer you my friendship. That
48493 There was so much good nature and nobility (in the French sense of the
48494 word) in the officer's voice, in the expression of his face and in his
48495 gestures, that Pierre, unconsciously smiling in response to the
48496 Frenchman's smile, pressed the hand held out to him.
48498 "Captain Ramballe, of the 13th Light Regiment, Chevalier of the Legion
48499 of Honor for the affair on the seventh of September," he introduced
48500 himself, a self-satisfied irrepressible smile puckering his lips under
48501 his mustache. "Will you now be so good as to tell me with whom I have
48502 the honor of conversing so pleasantly, instead of being in the ambulance
48503 with that maniac's bullet in my body?"
48505 Pierre replied that he could not tell him his name and, blushing, began
48506 to try to invent a name and to say something about his reason for
48507 concealing it, but the Frenchman hastily interrupted him.
48509 "Oh, please!" said he. "I understand your reasons. You are an officer...
48510 a superior officer perhaps. You have borne arms against us. That's not
48511 my business. I owe you my life. That is enough for me. I am quite at
48512 your service. You belong to the gentry?" he concluded with a shade of
48513 inquiry in his tone. Pierre bent his head. "Your baptismal name, if you
48514 please. That is all I ask. Monsieur Pierre, you say.... That's all I
48517 When the mutton and an omelet had been served and a samovar and vodka
48518 brought, with some wine which the French had taken from a Russian cellar
48519 and brought with them, Ramballe invited Pierre to share his dinner, and
48520 himself began to eat greedily and quickly like a healthy and hungry man,
48521 munching his food rapidly with his strong teeth, continually smacking
48522 his lips, and repeating--"Excellent! Delicious!" His face grew red and
48523 was covered with perspiration. Pierre was hungry and shared the dinner
48524 with pleasure. Morel, the orderly, brought some hot water in a saucepan
48525 and placed a bottle of claret in it. He also brought a bottle of kvass,
48526 taken from the kitchen for them to try. That beverage was already known
48527 to the French and had been given a special name. They called it limonade
48528 de cochon (pig's lemonade), and Morel spoke well of the limonade de
48529 cochon he had found in the kitchen. But as the captain had the wine they
48530 had taken while passing through Moscow, he left the kvass to Morel and
48531 applied himself to the bottle of Bordeaux. He wrapped the bottle up to
48532 its neck in a table napkin and poured out wine for himself and for
48533 Pierre. The satisfaction of his hunger and the wine rendered the captain
48534 still more lively and he chatted incessantly all through dinner.
48536 "Yes, my dear Monsieur Pierre, I owe you a fine votive candle for saving
48537 me from that maniac.... You see, I have bullets enough in my body
48538 already. Here is one I got at Wagram" (he touched his side) "and a
48539 second at Smolensk"--he showed a scar on his cheek--"and this leg which
48540 as you see does not want to march, I got that on the seventh at the
48541 great battle of la Moskowa. Sacre Dieu! It was splendid! That deluge of
48542 fire was worth seeing. It was a tough job you set us there, my word! You
48543 may be proud of it! And on my honor, in spite of the cough I caught
48544 there, I should be ready to begin again. I pity those who did not see
48547 "I was there," said Pierre.
48549 "Bah, really? So much the better! You are certainly brave foes. The
48550 great redoubt held out well, by my pipe!" continued the Frenchman. "And
48551 you made us pay dear for it. I was at it three times--sure as I sit
48552 here. Three times we reached the guns and three times we were thrown
48553 back like cardboard figures. Oh, it was beautiful, Monsieur Pierre! Your
48554 grenadiers were splendid, by heaven! I saw them close up their ranks six
48555 times in succession and march as if on parade. Fine fellows! Our King of
48556 Naples, who knows what's what, cried 'Bravo!' Ha, ha! So you are one of
48557 us soldiers!" he added, smiling, after a momentary pause. "So much the
48558 better, so much the better, Monsieur Pierre! Terrible in battle...
48559 gallant... with the fair" (he winked and smiled), "that's what the
48560 French are, Monsieur Pierre, aren't they?"
48562 The captain was so naively and good-humoredly gay, so real, and so
48563 pleased with himself that Pierre almost winked back as he looked merrily
48564 at him. Probably the word "gallant" turned the captain's thoughts to the
48567 "Apropos, tell me please, is it true that the women have all left
48568 Moscow? What a queer idea! What had they to be afraid of?"
48570 "Would not the French ladies leave Paris if the Russians entered it?"
48573 "Ha, ha, ha!" The Frenchman emitted a merry, sanguine chuckle, patting
48574 Pierre on the shoulder. "What a thing to say!" he exclaimed. "Paris?...
48575 But Paris, Paris..."
48577 "Paris--the capital of the world," Pierre finished his remark for him.
48579 The captain looked at Pierre. He had a habit of stopping short in the
48580 middle of his talk and gazing intently with his laughing, kindly eyes.
48582 "Well, if you hadn't told me you were Russian, I should have wagered
48583 that you were Parisian! You have that... I don't know what, that..." and
48584 having uttered this compliment, he again gazed at him in silence.
48586 "I have been in Paris. I spent years there," said Pierre.
48588 "Oh yes, one sees that plainly. Paris!... A man who doesn't know Paris
48589 is a savage. You can tell a Parisian two leagues off. Paris is Talma, la
48590 Duchenois, Potier, the Sorbonne, the boulevards," and noticing that his
48591 conclusion was weaker than what had gone before, he added quickly:
48592 "There is only one Paris in the world. You have been to Paris and have
48593 remained Russian. Well, I don't esteem you the less for it."
48595 Under the influence of the wine he had drunk, and after the days he had
48596 spent alone with his depressing thoughts, Pierre involuntarily enjoyed
48597 talking with this cheerful and good-natured man.
48599 "To return to your ladies--I hear they are lovely. What a wretched idea
48600 to go and bury themselves in the steppes when the French army is in
48601 Moscow. What a chance those girls have missed! Your peasants, now--
48602 that's another thing; but you civilized people, you ought to know us
48603 better than that. We took Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Naples, Rome, Warsaw,
48604 all the world's capitals.... We are feared, but we are loved. We are
48605 nice to know. And then the Emperor..." he began, but Pierre interrupted
48608 "The Emperor," Pierre repeated, and his face suddenly became sad and
48609 embarrassed, "is the Emperor...?"
48611 "The Emperor? He is generosity, mercy, justice, order, genius--that's
48612 what the Emperor is! It is I, Ramballe, who tell you so.... I assure you
48613 I was his enemy eight years ago. My father was an emigrant count.... But
48614 that man has vanquished me. He has taken hold of me. I could not resist
48615 the sight of the grandeur and glory with which he has covered France.
48616 When I understood what he wanted--when I saw that he was preparing a bed
48617 of laurels for us, you know, I said to myself: 'That is a monarch,' and
48618 I devoted myself to him! So there! Oh yes, mon cher, he is the greatest
48619 man of the ages past or future."
48621 "Is he in Moscow?" Pierre stammered with a guilty look.
48623 The Frenchman looked at his guilty face and smiled.
48625 "No, he will make his entry tomorrow," he replied, and continued his
48628 Their conversation was interrupted by the cries of several voices at the
48629 gate and by Morel, who came to say that some Wurttemberg hussars had
48630 come and wanted to put up their horses in the yard where the captain's
48631 horses were. This difficulty had arisen chiefly because the hussars did
48632 not understand what was said to them in French.
48634 The captain had their senior sergeant called in, and in a stern voice
48635 asked him to what regiment he belonged, who was his commanding officer,
48636 and by what right he allowed himself to claim quarters that were already
48637 occupied. The German who knew little French, answered the two first
48638 questions by giving the names of his regiment and of his commanding
48639 officer, but in reply to the third question which he did not understand
48640 said, introducing broken French into his own German, that he was the
48641 quartermaster of the regiment and his commander had ordered him to
48642 occupy all the houses one after another. Pierre, who knew German,
48643 translated what the German said to the captain and gave the captain's
48644 reply to the Wurttemberg hussar in German. When he had understood what
48645 was said to him, the German submitted and took his men elsewhere. The
48646 captain went out into the porch and gave some orders in a loud voice.
48648 When he returned to the room Pierre was sitting in the same place as
48649 before, with his head in his hands. His face expressed suffering. He
48650 really was suffering at that moment. When the captain went out and he
48651 was left alone, suddenly he came to himself and realized the position he
48652 was in. It was not that Moscow had been taken or that the happy
48653 conquerors were masters in it and were patronizing him. Painful as that
48654 was it was not that which tormented Pierre at the moment. He was
48655 tormented by the consciousness of his own weakness. The few glasses of
48656 wine he had drunk and the conversation with this good-natured man had
48657 destroyed the mood of concentrated gloom in which he had spent the last
48658 few days and which was essential for the execution of his design. The
48659 pistol, dagger, and peasant coat were ready. Napoleon was to enter the
48660 town next day. Pierre still considered that it would be a useful and
48661 worthy action to slay the evildoer, but now he felt that he would not do
48662 it. He did not know why, but he felt a foreboding that he would not
48663 carry out his intention. He struggled against the confession of his
48664 weakness but dimly felt that he could not overcome it and that his
48665 former gloomy frame of mind, concerning vengeance, killing, and self-
48666 sacrifice, had been dispersed like dust by contact with the first man he
48669 The captain returned to the room, limping slightly and whistling a tune.
48671 The Frenchman's chatter which had previously amused Pierre now repelled
48672 him. The tune he was whistling, his gait, and the gesture with which he
48673 twirled his mustache, all now seemed offensive. "I will go away
48674 immediately. I won't say another word to him," thought Pierre. He
48675 thought this, but still sat in the same place. A strange feeling of
48676 weakness tied him to the spot; he wished to get up and go away, but
48679 The captain, on the other hand, seemed very cheerful. He paced up and
48680 down the room twice. His eyes shone and his mustache twitched as if he
48681 were smiling to himself at some amusing thought.
48683 "The colonel of those Wurttembergers is delightful," he suddenly said.
48684 "He's a German, but a nice fellow all the same.... But he's a German."
48685 He sat down facing Pierre. "By the way, you know German, then?"
48687 Pierre looked at him in silence.
48689 "What is the German for 'shelter'?"
48691 "Shelter?" Pierre repeated. "The German for shelter is Unterkunft."
48693 "How do you say it?" the captain asked quickly and doubtfully.
48695 "Unterkunft," Pierre repeated.
48697 "Onterkoff," said the captain and looked at Pierre for some seconds with
48698 laughing eyes. "These Germans are first-rate fools, don't you think so,
48699 Monsieur Pierre?" he concluded.
48701 "Well, let's have another bottle of this Moscow Bordeaux, shall we?
48702 Morel will warm us up another little bottle. Morel!" he called out
48705 Morel brought candles and a bottle of wine. The captain looked at Pierre
48706 by the candlelight and was evidently struck by the troubled expression
48707 on his companion's face. Ramballe, with genuine distress and sympathy in
48708 his face, went up to Pierre and bent over him.
48710 "There now, we're sad," said he, touching Pierre's hand. "Have I upset
48711 you? No, really, have you anything against me?" he asked Pierre.
48712 "Perhaps it's the state of affairs?"
48714 Pierre did not answer, but looked cordially into the Frenchman's eyes
48715 whose expression of sympathy was pleasing to him.
48717 "Honestly, without speaking of what I owe you, I feel friendship for
48718 you. Can I do anything for you? Dispose of me. It is for life and death.
48719 I say it with my hand on my heart!" said he, striking his chest.
48721 "Thank you," said Pierre.
48723 The captain gazed intently at him as he had done when he learned that
48724 "shelter" was Unterkunft in German, and his face suddenly brightened.
48726 "Well, in that case, I drink to our friendship!" he cried gaily, filling
48727 two glasses with wine.
48729 Pierre took one of the glasses and emptied it. Ramballe emptied his too,
48730 again pressed Pierre's hand, and leaned his elbows on the table in a
48733 "Yes, my dear friend," he began, "such is fortune's caprice. Who would
48734 have said that I should be a soldier and a captain of dragoons in the
48735 service of Bonaparte, as we used to call him? Yet here I am in Moscow
48736 with him. I must tell you, mon cher," he continued in the sad and
48737 measured tones of a man who intends to tell a long story, "that our name
48738 is one of the most ancient in France."
48740 And with a Frenchman's easy and naive frankness the captain told Pierre
48741 the story of his ancestors, his childhood, youth, and manhood, and all
48742 about his relations and his financial and family affairs, "ma pauvre
48743 mere" playing of course an important part in the story.
48745 "But all that is only life's setting, the real thing is love--love! Am I
48746 not right, Monsieur Pierre?" said he, growing animated. "Another glass?"
48748 Pierre again emptied his glass and poured himself out a third.
48750 "Oh, women, women!" and the captain, looking with glistening eyes at
48751 Pierre, began talking of love and of his love affairs.
48753 There were very many of these, as one could easily believe, looking at
48754 the officer's handsome, self-satisfied face, and noting the eager
48755 enthusiasm with which he spoke of women. Though all Ramballe's love
48756 stories had the sensual character which Frenchmen regard as the special
48757 charm and poetry of love, yet he told his story with such sincere
48758 conviction that he alone had experienced and known all the charm of love
48759 and he described women so alluringly that Pierre listened to him with
48762 It was plain that l'amour which the Frenchman was so fond of was not
48763 that low and simple kind that Pierre had once felt for his wife, nor was
48764 it the romantic love stimulated by himself that he experienced for
48765 Natasha. (Ramballe despised both these kinds of love equally: the one he
48766 considered the "love of clodhoppers" and the other the "love of
48767 simpletons.") L'amour which the Frenchman worshiped consisted
48768 principally in the unnaturalness of his relation to the woman and in a
48769 combination of incongruities giving the chief charm to the feeling.
48771 Thus the captain touchingly recounted the story of his love for a
48772 fascinating marquise of thirty-five and at the same time for a charming,
48773 innocent child of seventeen, daughter of the bewitching marquise. The
48774 conflict of magnanimity between the mother and the daughter, ending in
48775 the mother's sacrificing herself and offering her daughter in marriage
48776 to her lover, even now agitated the captain, though it was the memory of
48777 a distant past. Then he recounted an episode in which the husband played
48778 the part of the lover, and he--the lover--assumed the role of the
48779 husband, as well as several droll incidents from his recollections of
48780 Germany, where "shelter" is called Unterkunft and where the husbands eat
48781 sauerkraut and the young girls are "too blonde."
48783 Finally, the latest episode in Poland still fresh in the captain's
48784 memory, and which he narrated with rapid gestures and glowing face, was
48785 of how he had saved the life of a Pole (in general, the saving of life
48786 continually occurred in the captain's stories) and the Pole had
48787 entrusted to him his enchanting wife (parisienne de coeur) while himself
48788 entering the French service. The captain was happy, the enchanting
48789 Polish lady wished to elope with him, but, prompted by magnanimity, the
48790 captain restored the wife to the husband, saying as he did so: "I have
48791 saved your life, and I save your honor!" Having repeated these words the
48792 captain wiped his eyes and gave himself a shake, as if driving away the
48793 weakness which assailed him at this touching recollection.
48795 Listening to the captain's tales, Pierre--as often happens late in the
48796 evening and under the influence of wine--followed all that was told him,
48797 understood it all, and at the same time followed a train of personal
48798 memories which, he knew not why, suddenly arose in his mind. While
48799 listening to these love stories his own love for Natasha unexpectedly
48800 rose to his mind, and going over the pictures of that love in his
48801 imagination he mentally compared them with Ramballe's tales. Listening
48802 to the story of the struggle between love and duty, Pierre saw before
48803 his eyes every minutest detail of his last meeting with the object of
48804 his love at the Sukharev water tower. At the time of that meeting it had
48805 not produced an effect upon him--he had not even once recalled it. But
48806 now it seemed to him that that meeting had had in it something very
48807 important and poetic.
48809 "Peter Kirilovich, come here! We have recognized you," he now seemed to
48810 hear the words she had uttered and to see before him her eyes, her
48811 smile, her traveling hood, and a stray lock of her hair... and there
48812 seemed to him something pathetic and touching in all this.
48814 Having finished his tale about the enchanting Polish lady, the captain
48815 asked Pierre if he had ever experienced a similar impulse to sacrifice
48816 himself for love and a feeling of envy of the legitimate husband.
48818 Challenged by this question Pierre raised his head and felt a need to
48819 express the thoughts that filled his mind. He began to explain that he
48820 understood love for a women somewhat differently. He said that in all
48821 his life he had loved and still loved only one woman, and that she could
48824 "Tiens!" said the captain.
48826 Pierre then explained that he had loved this woman from his earliest
48827 years, but that he had not dared to think of her because she was too
48828 young, and because he had been an illegitimate son without a name.
48829 Afterwards when he had received a name and wealth he dared not think of
48830 her because he loved her too well, placing her far above everything in
48831 the world, and especially therefore above himself.
48833 When he had reached this point, Pierre asked the captain whether he
48836 The captain made a gesture signifying that even if he did not understand
48837 it he begged Pierre to continue.
48839 "Platonic love, clouds..." he muttered.
48841 Whether it was the wine he had drunk, or an impulse of frankness, or the
48842 thought that this man did not, and never would, know any of those who
48843 played a part in his story, or whether it was all these things together,
48844 something loosened Pierre's tongue. Speaking thickly and with a faraway
48845 look in his shining eyes, he told the whole story of his life: his
48846 marriage, Natasha's love for his best friend, her betrayal of him, and
48847 all his own simple relations with her. Urged on by Ramballe's questions
48848 he also told what he had at first concealed--his own position and even
48851 More than anything else in Pierre's story the captain was impressed by
48852 the fact that Pierre was very rich, had two mansions in Moscow, and that
48853 he had abandoned everything and not left the city, but remained there
48854 concealing his name and station.
48856 When it was late at night they went out together into the street. The
48857 night was warm and light. To the left of the house on the Pokrovka a
48858 fire glowed--the first of those that were beginning in Moscow. To the
48859 right and high up in the sky was the sickle of the waning moon and
48860 opposite to it hung that bright comet which was connected in Pierre's
48861 heart with his love. At the gate stood Gerasim, the cook, and two
48862 Frenchmen. Their laughter and their mutually incomprehensible remarks in
48863 two languages could be heard. They were looking at the glow seen in the
48866 There was nothing terrible in the one small, distant fire in the immense
48869 Gazing at the high starry sky, at the moon, at the comet, and at the
48870 glow from the fire, Pierre experienced a joyful emotion. "There now, how
48871 good it is, what more does one need?" thought he. And suddenly
48872 remembering his intention he grew dizzy and felt so faint that he leaned
48873 against the fence to save himself from falling.
48875 Without taking leave of his new friend, Pierre left the gate with
48876 unsteady steps and returning to his room lay down on the sofa and
48877 immediately fell asleep.
48884 The glow of the first fire that began on the second of September was
48885 watched from the various roads by the fugitive Muscovites and by the
48886 retreating troops, with many different feelings.
48888 The Rostov party spent the night at Mytishchi, fourteen miles from
48889 Moscow. They had started so late on the first of September, the road had
48890 been so blocked by vehicles and troops, so many things had been
48891 forgotten for which servants were sent back, that they had decided to
48892 spend that night at a place three miles out of Moscow. The next morning
48893 they woke late and were again delayed so often that they only got as far
48894 as Great Mytishchi. At ten o'clock that evening the Rostov family and
48895 the wounded traveling with them were all distributed in the yards and
48896 huts of that large village. The Rostovs' servants and coachmen and the
48897 orderlies of the wounded officers, after attending to their masters, had
48898 supper, fed the horses, and came out into the porches.
48900 In a neighboring hut lay Raevski's adjutant with a fractured wrist. The
48901 awful pain he suffered made him moan incessantly and piteously, and his
48902 moaning sounded terrible in the darkness of the autumn night. He had
48903 spent the first night in the same yard as the Rostovs. The countess said
48904 she had been unable to close her eyes on account of his moaning, and at
48905 Mytishchi she moved into a worse hut simply to be farther away from the
48908 In the darkness of the night one of the servants noticed, above the high
48909 body of a coach standing before the porch, the small glow of another
48910 fire. One glow had long been visible and everybody knew that it was
48911 Little Mytishchi burning--set on fire by Mamonov's Cossacks.
48913 "But look here, brothers, there's another fire!" remarked an orderly.
48915 All turned their attention to the glow.
48917 "But they told us Little Mytishchi had been set on fire by Mamonov's
48920 "But that's not Mytishchi, it's farther away."
48922 "Look, it must be in Moscow!"
48924 Two of the gazers went round to the other side of the coach and sat down
48927 "It's more to the left, why, Little Mytishchi is over there, and this is
48928 right on the other side."
48930 Several men joined the first two.
48932 "See how it's flaring," said one. "That's a fire in Moscow: either in
48933 the Sushchevski or the Rogozhski quarter."
48935 No one replied to this remark and for some time they all gazed silently
48936 at the spreading flames of the second fire in the distance.
48938 Old Daniel Terentich, the count's valet (as he was called), came up to
48939 the group and shouted at Mishka.
48941 "What are you staring at, you good-for-nothing?... The count will be
48942 calling and there's nobody there; go and gather the clothes together."
48944 "I only ran out to get some water," said Mishka.
48946 "But what do you think, Daniel Terentich? Doesn't it look as if that
48947 glow were in Moscow?" remarked one of the footmen.
48949 Daniel Terentich made no reply, and again for a long time they were all
48950 silent. The glow spread, rising and falling, farther and farther still.
48952 "God have mercy.... It's windy and dry..." said another voice.
48954 "Just look! See what it's doing now. O Lord! You can even see the crows
48955 flying. Lord have mercy on us sinners!"
48957 "They'll put it out, no fear!"
48959 "Who's to put it out?" Daniel Terentich, who had hitherto been silent,
48960 was heard to say. His voice was calm and deliberate. "Moscow it is,
48961 brothers," said he. "Mother Moscow, the white..." his voice faltered,
48962 and he gave way to an old man's sob.
48964 And it was as if they had all only waited for this to realize the
48965 significance for them of the glow they were watching. Sighs were heard,
48966 words of prayer, and the sobbing of the count's old valet.
48973 The valet, returning to the cottage, informed the count that Moscow was
48974 burning. The count donned his dressing gown and went out to look. Sonya
48975 and Madame Schoss, who had not yet undressed, went out with him. Only
48976 Natasha and the countess remained in the room. Petya was no longer with
48977 the family, he had gone on with his regiment which was making for
48980 The countess, on hearing that Moscow was on fire, began to cry. Natasha,
48981 pale, with a fixed look, was sitting on the bench under the icons just
48982 where she had sat down on arriving and paid no attention to her father's
48983 words. She was listening to the ceaseless moaning of the adjutant, three
48986 "Oh, how terrible," said Sonya returning from the yard chilled and
48987 frightened. "I believe the whole of Moscow will burn, there's an awful
48988 glow! Natasha, do look! You can see it from the window," she said to her
48989 cousin, evidently wishing to distract her mind.
48991 But Natasha looked at her as if not understanding what was said to her
48992 and again fixed her eyes on the corner of the stove. She had been in
48993 this condition of stupor since the morning, when Sonya, to the surprise
48994 and annoyance of the countess, had for some unaccountable reason found
48995 it necessary to tell Natasha of Prince Andrew's wound and of his being
48996 with their party. The countess had seldom been so angry with anyone as
48997 she was with Sonya. Sonya had cried and begged to be forgiven and now,
48998 as if trying to atone for her fault, paid unceasing attention to her
49001 "Look, Natasha, how dreadfully it is burning!" said she.
49003 "What's burning?" asked Natasha. "Oh, yes, Moscow."
49005 And as if in order not to offend Sonya and to get rid of her, she turned
49006 her face to the window, looked out in such a way that it was evident
49007 that she could not see anything, and again settled down in her former
49010 "But you didn't see it!"
49012 "Yes, really I did," Natasha replied in a voice that pleaded to be left
49015 Both the countess and Sonya understood that, naturally, neither Moscow
49016 nor the burning of Moscow nor anything else could seem of importance to
49019 The count returned and lay down behind the partition. The countess went
49020 up to her daughter and touched her head with the back of her hand as she
49021 was wont to do when Natasha was ill, then touched her forehead with her
49022 lips as if to feel whether she was feverish, and finally kissed her.
49024 "You are cold. You are trembling all over. You'd better lie down," said
49027 "Lie down? All right, I will. I'll lie down at once," said Natasha.
49029 When Natasha had been told that morning that Prince Andrew was seriously
49030 wounded and was traveling with their party, she had at first asked many
49031 questions: Where was he going? How was he wounded? Was it serious? And
49032 could she see him? But after she had been told that she could not see
49033 him, that he was seriously wounded but that his life was not in danger,
49034 she ceased to ask questions or to speak at all, evidently disbelieving
49035 what they told her, and convinced that say what she might she would
49036 still be told the same. All the way she had sat motionless in a corner
49037 of the coach with wide open eyes, and the expression in them which the
49038 countess knew so well and feared so much, and now she sat in the same
49039 way on the bench where she had seated herself on arriving. She was
49040 planning something and either deciding or had already decided something
49041 in her mind. The countess knew this, but what it might be she did not
49042 know, and this alarmed and tormented her.
49044 "Natasha, undress, darling; lie down on my bed."
49046 A bed had been made on a bedstead for the countess only. Madame Schoss
49047 and the two girls were to sleep on some hay on the floor.
49049 "No, Mamma, I will lie down here on the floor," Natasha replied
49050 irritably and she went to the window and opened it. Through the open
49051 window the moans of the adjutant could be heard more distinctly. She put
49052 her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her slim neck
49053 shaking with sobs and throbbing against the window frame. Natasha knew
49054 it was not Prince Andrew who was moaning. She knew Prince Andrew was in
49055 the same yard as themselves and in a part of the hut across the passage;
49056 but this dreadful incessant moaning made her sob. The countess exchanged
49059 "Lie down, darling; lie down, my pet," said the countess, softly
49060 touching Natasha's shoulders. "Come, lie down."
49062 "Oh, yes... I'll lie down at once," said Natasha, and began hurriedly
49063 undressing, tugging at the tapes of her petticoat.
49065 When she had thrown off her dress and put on a dressing jacket, she sat
49066 down with her foot under her on the bed that had been made up on the
49067 floor, jerked her thin and rather short plait of hair to the front, and
49068 began replaiting it. Her long, thin, practiced fingers rapidly
49069 unplaited, replaited, and tied up her plait. Her head moved from side to
49070 side from habit, but her eyes, feverishly wide, looked fixedly before
49071 her. When her toilet for the night was finished she sank gently onto the
49072 sheet spread over the hay on the side nearest the door.
49074 "Natasha, you'd better lie in the middle," said Sonya.
49076 "I'll stay here," muttered Natasha. "Do lie down," she added crossly,
49077 and buried her face in the pillow.
49079 The countess, Madame Schoss, and Sonya undressed hastily and lay down.
49080 The small lamp in front of the icons was the only light left in the
49081 room. But in the yard there was a light from the fire at Little
49082 Mytishchi a mile and a half away, and through the night came the noise
49083 of people shouting at a tavern Mamonov's Cossacks had set up across the
49084 street, and the adjutant's unceasing moans could still be heard.
49086 For a long time Natasha listened attentively to the sounds that reached
49087 her from inside and outside the room and did not move. First she heard
49088 her mother praying and sighing and the creaking of her bed under her,
49089 then Madame Schoss' familiar whistling snore and Sonya's gentle
49090 breathing. Then the countess called to Natasha. Natasha did not answer.
49092 "I think she's asleep, Mamma," said Sonya softly.
49094 After a short silence the countess spoke again but this time no one
49097 Soon after that Natasha heard her mother's even breathing. Natasha did
49098 not move, though her little bare foot, thrust out from under the quilt,
49099 was growing cold on the bare floor.
49101 As if to celebrate a victory over everybody, a cricket chirped in a
49102 crack in the wall. A cock crowed far off and another replied near by.
49103 The shouting in the tavern had died down; only the moaning of the
49104 adjutant was heard. Natasha sat up.
49106 "Sonya, are you asleep? Mamma?" she whispered.
49108 No one replied. Natasha rose slowly and carefully, crossed herself, and
49109 stepped cautiously on the cold and dirty floor with her slim, supple,
49110 bare feet. The boards of the floor creaked. Stepping cautiously from one
49111 foot to the other she ran like a kitten the few steps to the door and
49112 grasped the cold door handle.
49114 It seemed to her that something heavy was beating rhythmically against
49115 all the walls of the room: it was her own heart, sinking with alarm and
49116 terror and overflowing with love.
49118 She opened the door and stepped across the threshold and onto the cold,
49119 damp earthen floor of the passage. The cold she felt refreshed her. With
49120 her bare feet she touched a sleeping man, stepped over him, and opened
49121 the door into the part of the hut where Prince Andrew lay. It was dark
49122 in there. In the farthest corner, on a bench beside a bed on which
49123 something was lying, stood a tallow candle with a long, thick, and
49126 From the moment she had been told that morning of Prince Andrew's wound
49127 and his presence there, Natasha had resolved to see him. She did not
49128 know why she had to, she knew the meeting would be painful, but felt the
49129 more convinced that it was necessary.
49131 All day she had lived only in hope of seeing him that night. But now
49132 that the moment had come she was filled with dread of what she might
49133 see. How was he maimed? What was left of him? Was he like that incessant
49134 moaning of the adjutant's? Yes, he was altogether like that. In her
49135 imagination he was that terrible moaning personified. When she saw an
49136 indistinct shape in the corner, and mistook his knees raised under the
49137 quilt for his shoulders, she imagined a horrible body there, and stood
49138 still in terror. But an irresistible impulse drew her forward. She
49139 cautiously took one step and then another, and found herself in the
49140 middle of a small room containing baggage. Another man--Timokhin--was
49141 lying in a corner on the benches beneath the icons, and two others--the
49142 doctor and a valet--lay on the floor.
49144 The valet sat up and whispered something. Timokhin, kept awake by the
49145 pain in his wounded leg, gazed with wide-open eyes at this strange
49146 apparition of a girl in a white chemise, dressing jacket, and nightcap.
49147 The valet's sleepy, frightened exclamation, "What do you want? What's
49148 the matter?" made Natasha approach more swiftly to what was lying in the
49149 corner. Horribly unlike a man as that body looked, she must see him. She
49150 passed the valet, the snuff fell from the candle wick, and she saw
49151 Prince Andrew clearly with his arms outside the quilt, and such as she
49152 had always seen him.
49154 He was the same as ever, but the feverish color of his face, his
49155 glittering eyes rapturously turned toward her, and especially his neck,
49156 delicate as a child's, revealed by the turn-down collar of his shirt,
49157 gave him a peculiarly innocent, childlike look, such as she had never
49158 seen on him before. She went up to him and with a swift, flexible,
49159 youthful movement dropped on her knees.
49161 He smiled and held out his hand to her.
49168 Seven days had passed since Prince Andrew found himself in the ambulance
49169 station on the field of Borodino. His feverish state and the
49170 inflammation of his bowels, which were injured, were in the doctor's
49171 opinion sure to carry him off. But on the seventh day he ate with
49172 pleasure a piece of bread with some tea, and the doctor noticed that his
49173 temperature was lower. He had regained consciousness that morning. The
49174 first night after they left Moscow had been fairly warm and he had
49175 remained in the caleche, but at Mytishchi the wounded man himself asked
49176 to be taken out and given some tea. The pain caused by his removal into
49177 the hut had made him groan aloud and again lose consciousness. When he
49178 had been placed on his camp bed he lay for a long time motionless with
49179 closed eyes. Then he opened them and whispered softly: "And the tea?"
49180 His remembering such a small detail of everyday life astonished the
49181 doctor. He felt Prince Andrew's pulse, and to his surprise and
49182 dissatisfaction found it had improved. He was dissatisfied because he
49183 knew by experience that if his patient did not die now, he would do so a
49184 little later with greater suffering. Timokhin, the red-nosed major of
49185 Prince Andrew's regiment, had joined him in Moscow and was being taken
49186 along with him, having been wounded in the leg at the battle of
49187 Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, Prince Andrew's valet, his
49188 coachman, and two orderlies.
49190 They gave Prince Andrew some tea. He drank it eagerly, looking with
49191 feverish eyes at the door in front of him as if trying to understand and
49192 remember something.
49194 "I don't want any more. Is Timokhin here?" he asked.
49196 Timokhin crept along the bench to him.
49198 "I am here, your excellency."
49200 "How's your wound?"
49202 "Mine, sir? All right. But how about you?"
49204 Prince Andrew again pondered as if trying to remember something.
49206 "Couldn't one get a book?" he asked.
49210 "The Gospels. I haven't one."
49212 The doctor promised to procure it for him and began to ask how he was
49213 feeling. Prince Andrew answered all his questions reluctantly but
49214 reasonably, and then said he wanted a bolster placed under him as he was
49215 uncomfortable and in great pain. The doctor and valet lifted the cloak
49216 with which he was covered and, making wry faces at the noisome smell of
49217 mortifying flesh that came from the wound, began examining that dreadful
49218 place. The doctor was very much displeased about something and made a
49219 change in the dressings, turning the wounded man over so that he groaned
49220 again and grew unconscious and delirious from the agony. He kept asking
49221 them to get him the book and put it under him.
49223 "What trouble would it be to you?" he said. "I have not got one. Please
49224 get it for me and put it under for a moment," he pleaded in a piteous
49227 The doctor went into the passage to wash his hands.
49229 "You fellows have no conscience," said he to the valet who was pouring
49230 water over his hands. "For just one moment I didn't look after you...
49231 It's such pain, you know, that I wonder how he can bear it."
49233 "By the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought we had put something under him!"
49236 The first time Prince Andrew understood where he was and what was the
49237 matter with him and remembered being wounded and how was when he asked
49238 to be carried into the hut after his caleche had stopped at Mytishchi.
49239 After growing confused from pain while being carried into the hut he
49240 again regained consciousness, and while drinking tea once more recalled
49241 all that had happened to him, and above all vividly remembered the
49242 moment at the ambulance station when, at the sight of the sufferings of
49243 a man he disliked, those new thoughts had come to him which promised him
49244 happiness. And those thoughts, though now vague and indefinite, again
49245 possessed his soul. He remembered that he had now a new source of
49246 happiness and that this happiness had something to do with the Gospels.
49247 That was why he asked for a copy of them. The uncomfortable position in
49248 which they had put him and turned him over again confused his thoughts,
49249 and when he came to himself a third time it was in the complete
49250 stillness of the night. Everybody near him was sleeping. A cricket
49251 chirped from across the passage; someone was shouting and singing in the
49252 street; cockroaches rustled on the table, on the icons, and on the
49253 walls, and a big fly flopped at the head of the bed and around the
49254 candle beside him, the wick of which was charred and had shaped itself
49257 His mind was not in a normal state. A healthy man usually thinks of,
49258 feels, and remembers innumerable things simultaneously, but has the
49259 power and will to select one sequence of thoughts or events on which to
49260 fix his whole attention. A healthy man can tear himself away from the
49261 deepest reflections to say a civil word to someone who comes in and can
49262 then return again to his own thoughts. But Prince Andrew's mind was not
49263 in a normal state in that respect. All the powers of his mind were more
49264 active and clearer than ever, but they acted apart from his will. Most
49265 diverse thoughts and images occupied him simultaneously. At times his
49266 brain suddenly began to work with a vigor, clearness, and depth it had
49267 never reached when he was in health, but suddenly in the midst of its
49268 work it would turn to some unexpected idea and he had not the strength
49269 to turn it back again.
49271 "Yes, a new happiness was revealed to me of which man cannot be
49272 deprived," he thought as he lay in the semidarkness of the quiet hut,
49273 gazing fixedly before him with feverish wide open eyes. "A happiness
49274 lying beyond material forces, outside the material influences that act
49275 on man--a happiness of the soul alone, the happiness of loving. Every
49276 man can understand it, but to conceive it and enjoin it was possible
49277 only for God. But how did God enjoin that law? And why was the Son...?"
49279 And suddenly the sequence of these thoughts broke off, and Prince Andrew
49280 heard (without knowing whether it was a delusion or reality) a soft
49281 whispering voice incessantly and rhythmically repeating "piti-piti-
49282 piti," and then "titi," and then again "piti-piti-piti," and "ti-ti"
49283 once more. At the same time he felt that above his face, above the very
49284 middle of it, some strange airy structure was being erected out of
49285 slender needles or splinters, to the sound of this whispered music. He
49286 felt that he had to balance carefully (though it was difficult) so that
49287 this airy structure should not collapse; but nevertheless it kept
49288 collapsing and again slowly rising to the sound of whispered rhythmic
49289 music--"it stretches, stretches, spreading out and stretching," said
49290 Prince Andrew to himself. While listening to this whispering and feeling
49291 the sensation of this drawing out and the construction of this edifice
49292 of needles, he also saw by glimpses a red halo round the candle, and
49293 heard the rustle of the cockroaches and the buzzing of the fly that
49294 flopped against his pillow and his face. Each time the fly touched his
49295 face it gave him a burning sensation and yet to his surprise it did not
49296 destroy the structure, though it knocked against the very region of his
49297 face where it was rising. But besides this there was something else of
49298 importance. It was something white by the door--the statue of a sphinx,
49299 which also oppressed him.
49301 "But perhaps that's my shirt on the table," he thought, "and that's my
49302 legs, and that is the door, but why is it always stretching and drawing
49303 itself out, and 'piti-piti-piti' and 'ti-ti' and 'piti-piti-piti'...?
49304 That's enough, please leave off!" Prince Andrew painfully entreated
49305 someone. And suddenly thoughts and feelings again swam to the surface of
49306 his mind with peculiar clearness and force.
49308 "Yes--love," he thought again quite clearly. "But not love which loves
49309 for something, for some quality, for some purpose, or for some reason,
49310 but the love which I--while dying--first experienced when I saw my enemy
49311 and yet loved him. I experienced that feeling of love which is the very
49312 essence of the soul and does not require an object. Now again I feel
49313 that bliss. To love one's neighbors, to love one's enemies, to love
49314 everything, to love God in all His manifestations. It is possible to
49315 love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved
49316 by divine love. That is why I experienced such joy when I felt that I
49317 loved that man. What has become of him? Is he alive?...
49319 "When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but
49320 divine love cannot change. No, neither death nor anything else can
49321 destroy it. It is the very essence of the soul. Yet how many people have
49322 I hated in my life? And of them all, I loved and hated none as I did
49323 her." And he vividly pictured to himself Natasha, not as he had done in
49324 the past with nothing but her charms which gave him delight, but for the
49325 first time picturing to himself her soul. And he understood her
49326 feelings, her sufferings, shame, and remorse. He now understood for the
49327 first time all the cruelty of his rejection of her, the cruelty of his
49328 rupture with her. "If only it were possible for me to see her once more!
49329 Just once, looking into those eyes to say..."
49331 "Piti-piti-piti and ti-ti and piti-piti-piti boom!" flopped the fly...
49332 And his attention was suddenly carried into another world, a world of
49333 reality and delirium in which something particular was happening. In
49334 that world some structure was still being erected and did not fall,
49335 something was still stretching out, and the candle with its red halo was
49336 still burning, and the same shirtlike sphinx lay near the door; but
49337 besides all this something creaked, there was a whiff of fresh air, and
49338 a new white sphinx appeared, standing at the door. And that sphinx had
49339 the pale face and shining eyes of the very Natasha of whom he had just
49342 "Oh, how oppressive this continual delirium is," thought Prince Andrew,
49343 trying to drive that face from his imagination. But the face remained
49344 before him with the force of reality and drew nearer. Prince Andrew
49345 wished to return to that former world of pure thought, but he could not,
49346 and delirium drew him back into its domain. The soft whispering voice
49347 continued its rhythmic murmur, something oppressed him and stretched
49348 out, and the strange face was before him. Prince Andrew collected all
49349 his strength in an effort to recover his senses, he moved a little, and
49350 suddenly there was a ringing in his ears, a dimness in his eyes, and
49351 like a man plunged into water he lost consciousness. When he came to
49352 himself, Natasha, that same living Natasha whom of all people he most
49353 longed to love with this new pure divine love that had been revealed to
49354 him, was kneeling before him. He realized that it was the real living
49355 Natasha, and he was not surprised but quietly happy. Natasha, motionless
49356 on her knees (she was unable to stir), with frightened eyes riveted on
49357 him, was restraining her sobs. Her face was pale and rigid. Only in the
49358 lower part of it something quivered.
49360 Prince Andrew sighed with relief, smiled, and held out his hand.
49362 "You?" he said. "How fortunate!"
49364 With a rapid but careful movement Natasha drew nearer to him on her
49365 knees and, taking his hand carefully, bent her face over it and began
49366 kissing it, just touching it lightly with her lips.
49368 "Forgive me!" she whispered, raising her head and glancing at him.
49371 "I love you," said Prince Andrew.
49375 "Forgive what?" he asked.
49377 "Forgive me for what I ha-ve do-ne!" faltered Natasha in a scarcely
49378 audible, broken whisper, and began kissing his hand more rapidly, just
49379 touching it with her lips.
49381 "I love you more, better than before," said Prince Andrew, lifting her
49382 face with his hand so as to look into her eyes.
49384 Those eyes, filled with happy tears, gazed at him timidly,
49385 compassionately, and with joyous love. Natasha's thin pale face, with
49386 its swollen lips, was more than plain--it was dreadful. But Prince
49387 Andrew did not see that, he saw her shining eyes which were beautiful.
49388 They heard the sound of voices behind them.
49390 Peter the valet, who was now wide awake, had roused the doctor.
49391 Timokhin, who had not slept at all because of the pain in his leg, had
49392 long been watching all that was going on, carefully covering his bare
49393 body with the sheet as he huddled up on his bench.
49395 "What's this?" said the doctor, rising from his bed. "Please go away,
49398 At that moment a maid sent by the countess, who had noticed her
49399 daughter's absence, knocked at the door.
49401 Like a somnambulist aroused from her sleep Natasha went out of the room
49402 and, returning to her hut, fell sobbing on her bed.
49404 From that time, during all the rest of the Rostovs' journey, at every
49405 halting place and wherever they spent a night, Natasha never left the
49406 wounded Bolkonski, and the doctor had to admit that he had not expected
49407 from a young girl either such firmness or such skill in nursing a
49410 Dreadful as the countess imagined it would be should Prince Andrew die
49411 in her daughter's arms during the journey--as, judging by what the
49412 doctor said, it seemed might easily happen--she could not oppose
49413 Natasha. Though with the intimacy now established between the wounded
49414 man and Natasha the thought occurred that should he recover their former
49415 engagement would be renewed, no one--least of all Natasha and Prince
49416 Andrew--spoke of this: the unsettled question of life and death, which
49417 hung not only over Bolkonski but over all Russia, shut out all other
49425 On the third of September Pierre awoke late. His head was aching, the
49426 clothes in which he had slept without undressing felt uncomfortable on
49427 his body, and his mind had a dim consciousness of something shameful he
49428 had done the day before. That something shameful was his yesterday's
49429 conversation with Captain Ramballe.
49431 It was eleven by the clock, but it seemed peculiarly dark out of doors.
49432 Pierre rose, rubbed his eyes, and seeing the pistol with an engraved
49433 stock which Gerasim had replaced on the writing table, he remembered
49434 where he was and what lay before him that very day.
49436 "Am I not too late?" he thought. "No, probably he won't make his entry
49437 into Moscow before noon."
49439 Pierre did not allow himself to reflect on what lay before him, but
49442 After arranging his clothes, he took the pistol and was about to go out.
49443 But it then occurred to him for the first time that he certainly could
49444 not carry the weapon in his hand through the streets. It was difficult
49445 to hide such a big pistol even under his wide coat. He could not carry
49446 it unnoticed in his belt or under his arm. Besides, it had been
49447 discharged, and he had not had time to reload it. "No matter, dagger
49448 will do," he said to himself, though when planning his design he had
49449 more than once come to the conclusion that the chief mistake made by the
49450 student in 1809 had been to try to kill Napoleon with a dagger. But as
49451 his chief aim consisted not in carrying out his design, but in proving
49452 to himself that he would not abandon his intention and was doing all he
49453 could to achieve it, Pierre hastily took the blunt jagged dagger in a
49454 green sheath which he had bought at the Sukharev market with the pistol,
49455 and hid it under his waistcoat.
49457 Having tied a girdle over his coat and pulled his cap low on his head,
49458 Pierre went down the corridor, trying to avoid making a noise or meeting
49459 the captain, and passed out into the street.
49461 The conflagration, at which he had looked with so much indifference the
49462 evening before, had greatly increased during the night. Moscow was on
49463 fire in several places. The buildings in Carriage Row, across the river,
49464 in the Bazaar and the Povarskoy, as well as the barges on the Moskva
49465 River and the timber yards by the Dorogomilov Bridge, were all ablaze.
49467 Pierre's way led through side streets to the Povarskoy and from there to
49468 the church of St. Nicholas on the Arbat, where he had long before
49469 decided that the deed should be done. The gates of most of the houses
49470 were locked and the shutters up. The streets and lanes were deserted.
49471 The air was full of smoke and the smell of burning. Now and then he met
49472 Russians with anxious and timid faces, and Frenchmen with an air not of
49473 the city but of the camp, walking in the middle of the streets. Both the
49474 Russians and the French looked at Pierre with surprise. Besides his
49475 height and stoutness, and the strange morose look of suffering in his
49476 face and whole figure, the Russians stared at Pierre because they could
49477 not make out to what class he could belong. The French followed him with
49478 astonishment in their eyes chiefly because Pierre, unlike all the other
49479 Russians who gazed at the French with fear and curiosity, paid no
49480 attention to them. At the gate of one house three Frenchmen, who were
49481 explaining something to some Russians who did not understand them,
49482 stopped Pierre asking if he did not know French.
49484 Pierre shook his head and went on. In another side street a sentinel
49485 standing beside a green caisson shouted at him, but only when the shout
49486 was threateningly repeated and he heard the click of the man's musket as
49487 he raised it did Pierre understand that he had to pass on the other side
49488 of the street. He heard nothing and saw nothing of what went on around
49489 him. He carried his resolution within himself in terror and haste, like
49490 something dreadful and alien to him, for, after the previous night's
49491 experience, he was afraid of losing it. But he was not destined to bring
49492 his mood safely to his destination. And even had he not been hindered by
49493 anything on the way, his intention could not now have been carried out,
49494 for Napoleon had passed the Arbat more than four hours previously on his
49495 way from the Dorogomilov suburb to the Kremlin, and was now sitting in a
49496 very gloomy frame of mind in a royal study in the Kremlin, giving
49497 detailed and exact orders as to measures to be taken immediately to
49498 extinguish the fire, to prevent looting, and to reassure the
49499 inhabitants. But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in
49500 what lay before him, and was tortured--as those are who obstinately
49501 undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its
49502 difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures--by the
49503 fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem.
49505 Though he heard and saw nothing around him he found his way by instinct
49506 and did not go wrong in the side streets that led to the Povarskoy.
49508 As Pierre approached that street the smoke became denser and denser--he
49509 even felt the heat of the fire. Occasionally curly tongues of flame rose
49510 from under the roofs of the houses. He met more people in the streets
49511 and they were more excited. But Pierre, though he felt that something
49512 unusual was happening around him, did not realize that he was
49513 approaching the fire. As he was going along a foot path across a wide-
49514 open space adjoining the Povarskoy on one side and the gardens of Prince
49515 Gruzinski's house on the other, Pierre suddenly heard the desperate
49516 weeping of a woman close to him. He stopped as if awakening from a dream
49517 and lifted his head.
49519 By the side of the path, on the dusty dry grass, all sorts of household
49520 goods lay in a heap: featherbeds, a samovar, icons, and trunks. On the
49521 ground, beside the trunks, sat a thin woman no longer young, with long,
49522 prominent upper teeth, and wearing a black cloak and cap. This woman,
49523 swaying to and fro and muttering something, was choking with sobs. Two
49524 girls of about ten and twelve, dressed in dirty short frocks and cloaks,
49525 were staring at their mother with a look of stupefaction on their pale
49526 frightened faces. The youngest child, a boy of about seven, who wore an
49527 overcoat and an immense cap evidently not his own, was crying in his old
49528 nurse's arms. A dirty, barefooted maid was sitting on a trunk, and,
49529 having undone her pale-colored plait, was pulling it straight and
49530 sniffing at her singed hair. The woman's husband, a short, round-
49531 shouldered man in the undress uniform of a civilian official, with
49532 sausage-shaped whiskers and showing under his square-set cap the hair
49533 smoothly brushed forward over his temples, with expressionless face was
49534 moving the trunks, which were placed one on another, and was dragging
49535 some garments from under them.
49537 As soon as she saw Pierre, the woman almost threw herself at his feet.
49539 "Dear people, good Christians, save me, help me, dear friends... help
49540 us, somebody," she muttered between her sobs. "My girl... My daughter!
49541 My youngest daughter is left behind. She's burned! Ooh! Was it for this
49542 I nursed you.... Ooh!"
49544 "Don't, Mary Nikolievna!" said her husband to her in a low voice,
49545 evidently only to justify himself before the stranger. "Sister must have
49546 taken her, or else where can she be?" he added.
49548 "Monster! Villain!" shouted the woman angrily, suddenly ceasing to weep.
49549 "You have no heart, you don't feel for your own child! Another man would
49550 have rescued her from the fire. But this is a monster and neither a man
49551 nor a father! You, honored sir, are a noble man," she went on,
49552 addressing Pierre rapidly between her sobs. "The fire broke out
49553 alongside, and blew our way, the maid called out 'Fire!' and we rushed
49554 to collect our things. We ran out just as we were.... This is what we
49555 have brought away.... The icons, and my dowry bed, all the rest is lost.
49556 We seized the children. But not Katie! Ooh! O Lord!..." and again she
49557 began to sob. "My child, my dear one! Burned, burned!"
49559 "But where was she left?" asked Pierre.
49561 From the expression of his animated face the woman saw that this man
49564 "Oh, dear sir!" she cried, seizing him by the legs. "My benefactor, set
49565 my heart at ease.... Aniska, go, you horrid girl, show him the way!" she
49566 cried to the maid, angrily opening her mouth and still farther exposing
49569 "Show me the way, show me, I... I'll do it," gasped Pierre rapidly.
49571 The dirty maidservant stepped from behind the trunk, put up her plait,
49572 sighed, and went on her short, bare feet along the path. Pierre felt as
49573 if he had come back to life after a heavy swoon. He held his head
49574 higher, his eyes shone with the light of life, and with swift steps he
49575 followed the maid, overtook her, and came out on the Povarskoy. The
49576 whole street was full of clouds of black smoke. Tongues of flame here
49577 and there broke through that cloud. A great number of people crowded in
49578 front of the conflagration. In the middle of the street stood a French
49579 general saying something to those around him. Pierre, accompanied by the
49580 maid, was advancing to the spot where the general stood, but the French
49581 soldiers stopped him.
49583 "On ne passe pas!" * cried a voice.
49586 * "You can't pass!"
49588 "This way, uncle," cried the girl. "We'll pass through the side street,
49591 Pierre turned back, giving a spring now and then to keep up with her.
49592 She ran across the street, turned down a side street to the left, and,
49593 passing three houses, turned into a yard on the right.
49595 "It's here, close by," said she and, running across the yard, opened a
49596 gate in a wooden fence and, stopping, pointed out to him a small wooden
49597 wing of the house, which was burning brightly and fiercely. One of its
49598 sides had fallen in, another was on fire, and bright flames issued from
49599 the openings of the windows and from under the roof.
49601 As Pierre passed through the fence gate, he was enveloped by hot air and
49602 involuntarily stopped.
49604 "Which is it? Which is your house?" he asked.
49606 "Ooh!" wailed the girl, pointing to the wing. "That's it, that was our
49607 lodging. You've burned to death, our treasure, Katie, my precious little
49608 missy! Ooh!" lamented Aniska, who at the sight of the fire felt that she
49609 too must give expression to her feelings.
49611 Pierre rushed to the wing, but the heat was so great that he
49612 involuntarily passed round in a curve and came upon the large house that
49613 was as yet burning only at one end, just below the roof, and around
49614 which swarmed a crowd of Frenchmen. At first Pierre did not realize what
49615 these men, who were dragging something out, were about; but seeing
49616 before him a Frenchman hitting a peasant with a blunt saber and trying
49617 to take from him a fox-fur coat, he vaguely understood that looting was
49618 going on there, but he had no time to dwell on that idea.
49620 The sounds of crackling and the din of falling walls and ceilings, the
49621 whistle and hiss of the flames, the excited shouts of the people, and
49622 the sight of the swaying smoke, now gathering into thick black clouds
49623 and now soaring up with glittering sparks, with here and there dense
49624 sheaves of flame (now red and now like golden fish scales creeping along
49625 the walls), and the heat and smoke and rapidity of motion, produced on
49626 Pierre the usual animating effects of a conflagration. It had a
49627 peculiarly strong effect on him because at the sight of the fire he felt
49628 himself suddenly freed from the ideas that had weighed him down. He felt
49629 young, bright, adroit, and resolute. He ran round to the other side of
49630 the lodge and was about to dash into that part of it which was still
49631 standing, when just above his head he heard several voices shouting and
49632 then a cracking sound and the ring of something heavy falling close
49635 Pierre looked up and saw at a window of the large house some Frenchmen
49636 who had just thrown out the drawer of a chest, filled with metal
49637 articles. Other French soldiers standing below went up to the drawer.
49639 "What does this fellow want?" shouted one of them referring to Pierre.
49641 "There's a child in that house. Haven't you seen a child?" cried Pierre.
49643 "What's he talking about? Get along!" said several voices, and one of
49644 the soldiers, evidently afraid that Pierre might want to take from them
49645 some of the plate and bronzes that were in the drawer, moved
49646 threateningly toward him.
49648 "A child?" shouted a Frenchman from above. "I did hear something
49649 squealing in the garden. Perhaps it's his brat that the fellow is
49650 looking for. After all, one must be human, you know...."
49652 "Where is it? Where?" said Pierre.
49654 "There! There!" shouted the Frenchman at the window, pointing to the
49655 garden at the back of the house. "Wait a bit--I'm coming down."
49657 And a minute or two later the Frenchman, a black-eyed fellow with a spot
49658 on his cheek, in shirt sleeves, really did jump out of a window on the
49659 ground floor, and clapping Pierre on the shoulder ran with him into the
49662 "Hurry up, you others!" he called out to his comrades. "It's getting
49665 When they reached a gravel path behind the house the Frenchman pulled
49666 Pierre by the arm and pointed to a round, graveled space where a three-
49667 year-old girl in a pink dress was lying under a seat.
49669 "There is your child! Oh, a girl, so much the better!" said the
49670 Frenchman. "Good-bye, Fatty. We must be human, we are all mortal you
49671 know!" and the Frenchman with the spot on his cheek ran back to his
49674 Breathless with joy, Pierre ran to the little girl and was going to take
49675 her in his arms. But seeing a stranger the sickly, scrofulous-looking
49676 child, unattractively like her mother, began to yell and run away.
49677 Pierre, however, seized her and lifted her in his arms. She screamed
49678 desperately and angrily and tried with her little hands to pull Pierre's
49679 hands away and to bite them with her slobbering mouth. Pierre was seized
49680 by a sense of horror and repulsion such as he had experienced when
49681 touching some nasty little animal. But he made an effort not to throw
49682 the child down and ran with her to the large house. It was now, however,
49683 impossible to get back the way he had come; the maid, Aniska, was no
49684 longer there, and Pierre with a feeling of pity and disgust pressed the
49685 wet, painfully sobbing child to himself as tenderly as he could and ran
49686 with her through the garden seeking another way out.
49693 Having run through different yards and side streets, Pierre got back
49694 with his little burden to the Gruzinski garden at the corner of the
49695 Povarskoy. He did not at first recognize the place from which he had set
49696 out to look for the child, so crowded was it now with people and goods
49697 that had been dragged out of the houses. Besides Russian families who
49698 had taken refuge here from the fire with their belongings, there were
49699 several French soldiers in a variety of clothing. Pierre took no notice
49700 of them. He hurried to find the family of that civil servant in order to
49701 restore the daughter to her mother and go to save someone else. Pierre
49702 felt that he had still much to do and to do quickly. Glowing with the
49703 heat and from running, he felt at that moment more strongly than ever
49704 the sense of youth, animation, and determination that had come on him
49705 when he ran to save the child. She had now become quiet and, clinging
49706 with her little hands to Pierre's coat, sat on his arm gazing about her
49707 like some little wild animal. He glanced at her occasionally with a
49708 slight smile. He fancied he saw something pathetically innocent in that
49709 frightened, sickly little face.
49711 He did not find the civil servant or his wife where he had left them. He
49712 walked among the crowd with rapid steps, scanning the various faces he
49713 met. Involuntarily he noticed a Georgian or Armenian family consisting
49714 of a very handsome old man of Oriental type, wearing a new, cloth-
49715 covered, sheepskin coat and new boots, an old woman of similar type, and
49716 a young woman. That very young woman seemed to Pierre the perfection of
49717 Oriental beauty, with her sharply outlined, arched, black eyebrows and
49718 the extraordinarily soft, bright color of her long, beautiful,
49719 expressionless face. Amid the scattered property and the crowd on the
49720 open space, she, in her rich satin cloak with a bright lilac shawl on
49721 her head, suggested a delicate exotic plant thrown out onto the snow.
49722 She was sitting on some bundles a little behind the old woman, and
49723 looked from under her long lashes with motionless, large, almond-shaped
49724 eyes at the ground before her. Evidently she was aware of her beauty and
49725 fearful because of it. Her face struck Pierre and, hurrying along by the
49726 fence, he turned several times to look at her. When he had reached the
49727 fence, still without finding those he sought, he stopped and looked
49730 With the child in his arms his figure was now more conspicuous than
49731 before, and a group of Russians, both men and women, gathered about him.
49733 "Have you lost anyone, my dear fellow? You're of the gentry yourself,
49734 aren't you? Whose child is it?" they asked him.
49736 Pierre replied that the child belonged to a woman in a black coat who
49737 had been sitting there with her other children, and he asked whether
49738 anyone knew where she had gone.
49740 "Why, that must be the Anferovs," said an old deacon, addressing a
49741 pockmarked peasant woman. "Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy!" he added
49742 in his customary bass.
49744 "The Anferovs? No," said the woman. "They left in the morning. That must
49745 be either Mary Nikolievna's or the Ivanovs'!"
49747 "He says 'a woman,' and Mary Nikolievna is a lady," remarked a house
49750 "Do you know her? She's thin, with long teeth," said Pierre.
49752 "That's Mary Nikolievna! They went inside the garden when these wolves
49753 swooped down," said the woman, pointing to the French soldiers.
49755 "O Lord, have mercy!" added the deacon.
49757 "Go over that way, they're there. It's she! She kept on lamenting and
49758 crying," continued the woman. "It's she. Here, this way!"
49760 But Pierre was not listening to the woman. He had for some seconds been
49761 intently watching what was going on a few steps away. He was looking at
49762 the Armenian family and at two French soldiers who had gone up to them.
49763 One of these, a nimble little man, was wearing a blue coat tied round
49764 the waist with a rope. He had a nightcap on his head and his feet were
49765 bare. The other, whose appearance particularly struck Pierre, was a
49766 long, lank, round-shouldered, fair-haired man, slow in his movements and
49767 with an idiotic expression of face. He wore a woman's loose gown of
49768 frieze, blue trousers, and large torn Hessian boots. The little
49769 barefooted Frenchman in the blue coat went up to the Armenians and,
49770 saying something, immediately seized the old man by his legs and the old
49771 man at once began pulling off his boots. The other in the frieze gown
49772 stopped in front of the beautiful Armenian girl and with his hands in
49773 his pockets stood staring at her, motionless and silent.
49775 "Here, take the child!" said Pierre peremptorily and hurriedly to the
49776 woman, handing the little girl to her. "Give her back to them, give her
49777 back!" he almost shouted, putting the child, who began screaming, on the
49778 ground, and again looking at the Frenchman and the Armenian family.
49780 The old man was already sitting barefoot. The little Frenchman had
49781 secured his second boot and was slapping one boot against the other. The
49782 old man was saying something in a voice broken by sobs, but Pierre
49783 caught but a glimpse of this, his whole attention was directed to the
49784 Frenchman in the frieze gown who meanwhile, swaying slowly from side to
49785 side, had drawn nearer to the young woman and taking his hands from his
49786 pockets had seized her by the neck.
49788 The beautiful Armenian still sat motionless and in the same attitude,
49789 with her long lashes drooping as if she did not see or feel what the
49790 soldier was doing to her.
49792 While Pierre was running the few steps that separated him from the
49793 Frenchman, the tall marauder in the frieze gown was already tearing from
49794 her neck the necklace the young Armenian was wearing, and the young
49795 woman, clutching at her neck, screamed piercingly.
49797 "Let that woman alone!" exclaimed Pierre hoarsely in a furious voice,
49798 seizing the soldier by his round shoulders and throwing him aside.
49800 The soldier fell, got up, and ran away. But his comrade, throwing down
49801 the boots and drawing his sword, moved threateningly toward Pierre.
49803 "Voyons, Pas de betises!" * he cried.
49806 * "Look here, no nonsense!"
49808 Pierre was in such a transport of rage that he remembered nothing and
49809 his strength increased tenfold. He rushed at the barefooted Frenchman
49810 and, before the latter had time to draw his sword, knocked him off his
49811 feet and hammered him with his fists. Shouts of approval were heard from
49812 the crowd around, and at the same moment a mounted patrol of French
49813 uhlans appeared from round the corner. The uhlans came up at a trot to
49814 Pierre and the Frenchman and surrounded them. Pierre remembered nothing
49815 of what happened after that. He only remembered beating someone and
49816 being beaten and finally feeling that his hands were bound and that a
49817 crowd of French soldiers stood around him and were searching him.
49819 "Lieutenant, he has a dagger," were the first words Pierre understood.
49821 "Ah, a weapon?" said the officer and turned to the barefooted soldier
49822 who had been arrested with Pierre. "All right, you can tell all about it
49823 at the court-martial." Then he turned to Pierre. "Do you speak French?"
49825 Pierre looked around him with bloodshot eyes and did not reply. His face
49826 probably looked very terrible, for the officer said something in a
49827 whisper and four more uhlans left the ranks and placed themselves on
49828 both sides of Pierre.
49830 "Do you speak French?" the officer asked again, keeping at a distance
49831 from Pierre. "Call the interpreter."
49833 A little man in Russian civilian clothes rode out from the ranks, and by
49834 his clothes and manner of speaking Pierre at once knew him to be a
49835 French salesman from one of the Moscow shops.
49837 "He does not look like a common man," said the interpreter, after a
49838 searching look at Pierre.
49840 "Ah, he looks very much like an incendiary," remarked the officer. "And
49841 ask him who he is," he added.
49843 "Who are you?" asked the interpreter in poor Russian. "You must answer
49846 "I will not tell you who I am. I am your prisoner--take me!" Pierre
49847 suddenly replied in French.
49849 "Ah, ah!" muttered the officer with a frown. "Well then, march!"
49851 A crowd had collected round the uhlans. Nearest to Pierre stood the
49852 pockmarked peasant woman with the little girl, and when the patrol
49853 started she moved forward.
49855 "Where are they taking you to, you poor dear?" said she. "And the little
49856 girl, the little girl, what am I to do with her if she's not theirs?"
49859 "What does that woman want?" asked the officer.
49861 Pierre was as if intoxicated. His elation increased at the sight of the
49862 little girl he had saved.
49864 "What does she want?" he murmured. "She is bringing me my daughter whom
49865 I have just saved from the flames," said he. "Good-bye!" And without
49866 knowing how this aimless lie had escaped him, he went along with
49867 resolute and triumphant steps between the French soldiers.
49869 The French patrol was one of those sent out through the various streets
49870 of Moscow by Durosnel's order to put a stop to the pillage, and
49871 especially to catch the incendiaries who, according to the general
49872 opinion which had that day originated among the higher French officers,
49873 were the cause of the conflagrations. After marching through a number of
49874 streets the patrol arrested five more Russian suspects: a small
49875 shopkeeper, two seminary students, a peasant, and a house serf, besides
49876 several looters. But of all these various suspected characters, Pierre
49877 was considered to be the most suspicious of all. When they had all been
49878 brought for the night to a large house on the Zubov Rampart that was
49879 being used as a guardhouse, Pierre was placed apart under strict guard.
49888 In Petersburg at that time a complicated struggle was being carried on
49889 with greater heat than ever in the highest circles, between the parties
49890 of Rumyantsev, the French, Marya Fedorovna, the Tsarevich, and others,
49891 drowned as usual by the buzzing of the court drones. But the calm,
49892 luxurious life of Petersburg, concerned only about phantoms and
49893 reflections of real life, went on in its old way and made it hard,
49894 except by a great effort, to realize the danger and the difficult
49895 position of the Russian people. There were the same receptions and
49896 balls, the same French theater, the same court interests and service
49897 interests and intrigues as usual. Only in the very highest circles were
49898 attempts made to keep in mind the difficulties of the actual position.
49899 Stories were whispered of how differently the two Empresses behaved in
49900 these difficult circumstances. The Empress Marya, concerned for the
49901 welfare of the charitable and educational institutions under her
49902 patronage, had given directions that they should all be removed to
49903 Kazan, and the things belonging to these institutions had already been
49904 packed up. The Empress Elisabeth, however, when asked what instructions
49905 she would be pleased to give--with her characteristic Russian patriotism
49906 had replied that she could give no directions about state institutions
49907 for that was the affair of the sovereign, but as far as she personally
49908 was concerned she would be the last to quit Petersburg.
49910 At Anna Pavlovna's on the twenty-sixth of August, the very day of the
49911 battle of Borodino, there was a soiree, the chief feature of which was
49912 to be the reading of a letter from His Lordship the Bishop when sending
49913 the Emperor an icon of the Venerable Sergius. It was regarded as a model
49914 of ecclesiastical, patriotic eloquence. Prince Vasili himself, famed for
49915 his elocution, was to read it. (He used to read at the Empress'.) The
49916 art of his reading was supposed to lie in rolling out the words, quite
49917 independently of their meaning, in a loud and singsong voice alternating
49918 between a despairing wail and a tender murmur, so that the wail fell
49919 quite at random on one word and the murmur on another. This reading, as
49920 was always the case at Anna Pavlovna's soirees, had a political
49921 significance. That evening she expected several important personages who
49922 had to be made ashamed of their visits to the French theater and aroused
49923 to a patriotic temper. A good many people had already arrived, but Anna
49924 Pavlovna, not yet seeing all those whom she wanted in her drawing room,
49925 did not let the reading begin but wound up the springs of a general
49928 The news of the day in Petersburg was the illness of Countess Bezukhova.
49929 She had fallen ill unexpectedly a few days previously, had missed
49930 several gatherings of which she was usually ornament, and was said to be
49931 receiving no one, and instead of the celebrated Petersburg doctors who
49932 usually attended her had entrusted herself to some Italian doctor who
49933 was treating her in some new and unusual way.
49935 They all knew very well that the enchanting countess' illness arose from
49936 an inconvenience resulting from marrying two husbands at the same time,
49937 and that the Italian's cure consisted in removing such inconvenience;
49938 but in Anna Pavlovna's presence no one dared to think of this or even
49941 "They say the poor countess is very ill. The doctor says it is angina
49944 "Angina? Oh, that's a terrible illness!"
49946 "They say that the rivals are reconciled, thanks to the angina..." and
49947 the word angina was repeated with great satisfaction.
49949 "The count is pathetic, they say. He cried like a child when the doctor
49950 told him the case was dangerous."
49952 "Oh, it would be a terrible loss, she is an enchanting woman."
49954 "You are speaking of the poor countess?" said Anna Pavlovna, coming up
49955 just then. "I sent to ask for news, and hear that she is a little
49956 better. Oh, she is certainly the most charming woman in the world," she
49957 went on, with a smile at her own enthusiasm. "We belong to different
49958 camps, but that does not prevent my esteeming her as she deserves. She
49959 is very unfortunate!" added Anna Pavlovna.
49961 Supposing that by these words Anna Pavlovna was somewhat lifting the
49962 veil from the secret of the countess' malady, an unwary young man
49963 ventured to express surprise that well known doctors had not been called
49964 in and that the countess was being attended by a charlatan who might
49965 employ dangerous remedies.
49967 "Your information may be better than mine," Anna Pavlovna suddenly and
49968 venomously retorted on the inexperienced young man, "but I know on good
49969 authority that this doctor is a very learned and able man. He is private
49970 physician to the Queen of Spain."
49972 And having thus demolished the young man, Anna Pavlovna turned to
49973 another group where Bilibin was talking about the Austrians: having
49974 wrinkled up his face he was evidently preparing to smooth it out again
49975 and utter one of his mots.
49977 "I think it is delightful," he said, referring to a diplomatic note that
49978 had been sent to Vienna with some Austrian banners captured from the
49979 French by Wittgenstein, "the hero of Petropol" as he was then called in
49982 "What? What's that?" asked Anna Pavlovna, securing silence for the mot,
49983 which she had heard before.
49985 And Bilibin repeated the actual words of the diplomatic dispatch, which
49986 he had himself composed.
49988 "The Emperor returns these Austrian banners," said Bilibin, "friendly
49989 banners gone astray and found on a wrong path," and his brow became
49992 "Charming, charming!" observed Prince Vasili.
49994 "The path to Warsaw, perhaps," Prince Hippolyte remarked loudly and
49995 unexpectedly. Everybody looked at him, understanding what he meant.
49996 Prince Hippolyte himself glanced around with amused surprise. He knew no
49997 more than the others what his words meant. During his diplomatic career
49998 he had more than once noticed that such utterances were received as very
49999 witty, and at every opportunity he uttered in that way the first words
50000 that entered his head. "It may turn out very well," he thought, "but if
50001 not, they'll know how to arrange matters." And really, during the
50002 awkward silence that ensued, that insufficiently patriotic person
50003 entered whom Anna Pavlovna had been waiting for and wished to convert,
50004 and she, smiling and shaking a finger at Hippolyte, invited Prince
50005 Vasili to the table and bringing him two candles and the manuscript
50006 begged him to begin. Everyone became silent.
50008 "Most Gracious Sovereign and Emperor!" Prince Vasili sternly declaimed,
50009 looking round at his audience as if to inquire whether anyone had
50010 anything to say to the contrary. But no one said anything. "Moscow, our
50011 ancient capital, the New Jerusalem, receives her Christ"--he placed a
50012 sudden emphasis on the word her--"as a mother receives her zealous sons
50013 into her arms, and through the gathering mists, foreseeing the brilliant
50014 glory of thy rule, sings in exultation, 'Hosanna, blessed is he that
50017 Prince Vasili pronounced these last words in a tearful voice.
50019 Bilibin attentively examined his nails, and many of those present
50020 appeared intimidated, as if asking in what they were to blame. Anna
50021 Pavlovna whispered the next words in advance, like an old woman
50022 muttering the prayer at Communion: "Let the bold and insolent
50023 Goliath..." she whispered.
50025 Prince Vasili continued.
50027 "Let the bold and insolent Goliath from the borders of France encompass
50028 the realms of Russia with death-bearing terrors; humble Faith, the sling
50029 of the Russian David, shall suddenly smite his head in his bloodthirsty
50030 pride. This icon of the Venerable Sergius, the servant of God and
50031 zealous champion of old of our country's weal, is offered to Your
50032 Imperial Majesty. I grieve that my waning strength prevents rejoicing in
50033 the sight of your most gracious presence. I raise fervent prayers to
50034 Heaven that the Almighty may exalt the race of the just, and mercifully
50035 fulfill the desires of Your Majesty."
50037 "What force! What a style!" was uttered in approval both of reader and
50040 Animated by that address Anna Pavlovna's guests talked for a long time
50041 of the state of the fatherland and offered various conjectures as to the
50042 result of the battle to be fought in a few days.
50044 "You will see," said Anna Pavlovna, "that tomorrow, on the Emperor's
50045 birthday, we shall receive news. I have a favorable presentiment!"
50052 Anna Pavlovna's presentiment was in fact fulfilled. Next day during the
50053 service at the palace church in honor of the Emperor's birthday, Prince
50054 Volkonski was called out of the church and received a dispatch from
50055 Prince Kutuzov. It was Kutuzov's report, written from Tatarinova on the
50056 day of the battle. Kutuzov wrote that the Russians had not retreated a
50057 step, that the French losses were much heavier than ours, and that he
50058 was writing in haste from the field of battle before collecting full
50059 information. It followed that there must have been a victory. And at
50060 once, without leaving the church, thanks were rendered to the Creator
50061 for His help and for the victory.
50063 Anna Pavlovna's presentiment was justified, and all that morning a
50064 joyously festive mood reigned in the city. Everyone believed the victory
50065 to have been complete, and some even spoke of Napoleon's having been
50066 captured, of his deposition, and of the choice of a new ruler for
50069 It is very difficult for events to be reflected in their real strength
50070 and completeness amid the conditions of court life and far from the
50071 scene of action. General events involuntarily group themselves around
50072 some particular incident. So now the courtiers' pleasure was based as
50073 much on the fact that the news had arrived on the Emperor's birthday as
50074 on the fact of the victory itself. It was like a successfully arranged
50075 surprise. Mention was made in Kutuzov's report of the Russian losses,
50076 among which figured the names of Tuchkov, Bagration, and Kutaysov. In
50077 the Petersburg world this sad side of the affair again involuntarily
50078 centered round a single incident: Kutaysov's death. Everybody knew him,
50079 the Emperor liked him, and he was young and interesting. That day
50080 everyone met with the words:
50082 "What a wonderful coincidence! Just during the service. But what a loss
50083 Kutaysov is! How sorry I am!"
50085 "What did I tell about Kutuzov?" Prince Vasili now said with a prophet's
50086 pride. "I always said he was the only man capable of defeating
50089 But next day no news arrived from the army and the public mood grew
50090 anxious. The courtiers suffered because of the suffering the suspense
50091 occasioned the Emperor.
50093 "Fancy the Emperor's position!" said they, and instead of extolling
50094 Kutuzov as they had done the day before, they condemned him as the cause
50095 of the Emperor's anxiety. That day Prince Vasili no longer boasted of
50096 his protege Kutuzov, but remained silent when the commander-in-chief was
50097 mentioned. Moreover, toward evening, as if everything conspired to make
50098 Petersburg society anxious and uneasy, a terrible piece of news was
50099 added. Countess Helene Bezukhova had suddenly died of that terrible
50100 malady it had been so agreeable to mention. Officially, at large
50101 gatherings, everyone said that Countess Bezukhova had died of a terrible
50102 attack of angina pectoris, but in intimate circles details were
50103 mentioned of how the private physician of the Queen of Spain had
50104 prescribed small doses of a certain drug to produce a certain effect;
50105 but Helene, tortured by the fact that the old count suspected her and
50106 that her husband to whom she had written (that wretched, profligate
50107 Pierre) had not replied, had suddenly taken a very large dose of the
50108 drug, and had died in agony before assistance could be rendered her. It
50109 was said that Prince Vasili and the old count had turned upon the
50110 Italian, but the latter had produced such letters from the unfortunate
50111 deceased that they had immediately let the matter drop.
50113 Talk in general centered round three melancholy facts: the Emperor's
50114 lack of news, the loss of Kutuzov, and the death of Helene.
50116 On the third day after Kutuzov's report a country gentleman arrived from
50117 Moscow, and news of the surrender of Moscow to the French spread through
50118 the whole town. This was terrible! What a position for the Emperor to be
50119 in! Kutuzov was a traitor, and Prince Vasili during the visits of
50120 condolence paid to him on the occasion of his daughter's death said of
50121 Kutuzov, whom he had formerly praised (it was excusable for him in his
50122 grief to forget what he had said), that it was impossible to expect
50123 anything else from a blind and depraved old man.
50125 "I only wonder that the fate of Russia could have been entrusted to such
50128 As long as this news remained unofficial it was possible to doubt it,
50129 but the next day the following communication was received from Count
50132 Prince Kutuzov's adjutant has brought me a letter in which he demands
50133 police officers to guide the army to the Ryazan road. He writes that he
50134 is regretfully abandoning Moscow. Sire! Kutuzov's action decides the
50135 fate of the capital and of your empire! Russia will shudder to learn of
50136 the abandonment of the city in which her greatness is centered and in
50137 which lie the ashes of your ancestors! I shall follow the army. I have
50138 had everything removed, and it only remains for me to weep over the fate
50141 On receiving this dispatch the Emperor sent Prince Volkonski to Kutuzov
50142 with the following rescript:
50144 Prince Michael Ilarionovich! Since the twenty-ninth of August I have
50145 received no communication from you, yet on the first of September I
50146 received from the commander-in-chief of Moscow, via Yaroslavl, the sad
50147 news that you, with the army, have decided to abandon Moscow. You can
50148 yourself imagine the effect this news has had on me, and your silence
50149 increases my astonishment. I am sending this by Adjutant-General Prince
50150 Volkonski, to hear from you the situation of the army and the reasons
50151 that have induced you to take this melancholy decision.
50158 Nine days after the abandonment of Moscow, a messenger from Kutuzov
50159 reached Petersburg with the official announcement of that event. This
50160 messenger was Michaud, a Frenchman who did not know Russian, but who was
50161 quoique etranger, russe de coeur et d'ame, * as he said of himself.
50164 * Though a foreigner, Russian in heart and soul.
50166 The Emperor at once received this messenger in his study at the palace
50167 on Stone Island. Michaud, who had never seen Moscow before the campaign
50168 and who did not know Russian, yet felt deeply moved (as he wrote) when
50169 he appeared before notre tres gracieux souverain * with the news of the
50170 burning of Moscow, dont les flammes eclairaient sa route. *(2)
50173 * Our most gracious sovereign.
50175 * (2) Whose flames illumined his route.
50177 Though the source of M. Michaud's chagrin must have been different from
50178 that which caused Russians to grieve, he had such a sad face when shown
50179 into the Emperor's study that the latter at once asked:
50181 "Have you brought me sad news, Colonel?"
50183 "Very sad, sire," replied Michaud, lowering his eyes with a sigh. "The
50184 abandonment of Moscow."
50186 "Have they surrendered my ancient capital without a battle?" asked the
50187 Emperor quickly, his face suddenly flushing.
50189 Michaud respectfully delivered the message Kutuzov had entrusted to him,
50190 which was that it had been impossible to fight before Moscow, and that
50191 as the only remaining choice was between losing the army as well as
50192 Moscow, or losing Moscow alone, the field marshal had to choose the
50195 The Emperor listened in silence, not looking at Michaud.
50197 "Has the enemy entered the city?" he asked.
50199 "Yes, sire, and Moscow is now in ashes. I left it all in flames,"
50200 replied Michaud in a decided tone, but glancing at the Emperor he was
50201 frightened by what he had done.
50203 The Emperor began to breathe heavily and rapidly, his lower lip
50204 trembled, and tears instantly appeared in his fine blue eyes.
50206 But this lasted only a moment. He suddenly frowned, as if blaming
50207 himself for his weakness, and raising his head addressed Michaud in a
50210 "I see, Colonel, from all that is happening, that Providence requires
50211 great sacrifices of us... I am ready to submit myself in all things to
50212 His will; but tell me, Michaud, how did you leave the army when it saw
50213 my ancient capital abandoned without a battle? Did you not notice
50214 discouragement?..."
50216 Seeing that his most gracious ruler was calm once more, Michaud also
50217 grew calm, but was not immediately ready to reply to the Emperor's
50218 direct and relevant question which required a direct answer.
50220 "Sire, will you allow me to speak frankly as befits a loyal soldier?" he
50221 asked to gain time.
50223 "Colonel, I always require it," replied the Emperor. "Conceal nothing
50224 from me, I wish to know absolutely how things are."
50226 "Sire!" said Michaud with a subtle, scarcely perceptible smile on his
50227 lips, having now prepared a well-phrased reply, "sire, I left the whole
50228 army, from its chiefs to the lowest soldier, without exception in
50229 desperate and agonized terror..."
50231 "How is that?" the Emperor interrupted him, frowning sternly. "Would
50232 misfortune make my Russians lose heart?... Never!"
50234 Michaud had only waited for this to bring out the phrase he had
50237 "Sire," he said, with respectful playfulness, "they are only afraid lest
50238 Your Majesty, in the goodness of your heart, should allow yourself to be
50239 persuaded to make peace. They are burning for the combat," declared this
50240 representative of the Russian nation, "and to prove to Your Majesty by
50241 the sacrifice of their lives how devoted they are...."
50243 "Ah!" said the Emperor reassured, and with a kindly gleam in his eyes,
50244 he patted Michaud on the shoulder. "You set me at ease, Colonel."
50246 He bent his head and was silent for some time.
50248 "Well, then, go back to the army," he said, drawing himself up to his
50249 full height and addressing Michaud with a gracious and majestic gesture,
50250 "and tell our brave men and all my good subjects wherever you go that
50251 when I have not a soldier left I shall put myself at the head of my
50252 beloved nobility and my good peasants and so use the last resources of
50253 my empire. It still offers me more than my enemies suppose," said the
50254 Emperor growing more and more animated; "but should it ever be ordained
50255 by Divine Providence," he continued, raising to heaven his fine eyes
50256 shining with emotion, "that my dynasty should cease to reign on the
50257 throne of my ancestors, then after exhausting all the means at my
50258 command, I shall let my beard grow to here" (he pointed halfway down his
50259 chest) "and go and eat potatoes with the meanest of my peasants, rather
50260 than sign the disgrace of my country and of my beloved people whose
50261 sacrifices I know how to appreciate."
50263 Having uttered these words in an agitated voice the Emperor suddenly
50264 turned away as if to hide from Michaud the tears that rose to his eyes,
50265 and went to the further end of his study. Having stood there a few
50266 moments, he strode back to Michaud and pressed his arm below the elbow
50267 with a vigorous movement. The Emperor's mild and handsome face was
50268 flushed and his eyes gleamed with resolution and anger.
50270 "Colonel Michaud, do not forget what I say to you here, perhaps we may
50271 recall it with pleasure someday... Napoleon or I," said the Emperor,
50272 touching his breast. "We can no longer both reign together. I have
50273 learned to know him, and he will not deceive me any more...."
50275 And the Emperor paused, with a frown.
50277 When he heard these words and saw the expression of firm resolution in
50278 the Emperor's eyes, Michaud--quoique etranger, russe de coeur et d'ame--
50279 at that solemn moment felt himself enraptured by all that he had heard
50280 (as he used afterwards to say), and gave expression to his own feelings
50281 and those of the Russian people whose representative he considered
50282 himself to be, in the following words:
50284 "Sire!" said he, "Your Majesty is at this moment signing the glory of
50285 the nation and the salvation of Europe!"
50287 With an inclination of the head the Emperor dismissed him.
50294 It is natural for us who were not living in those days to imagine that
50295 when half Russia had been conquered and the inhabitants were fleeing to
50296 distant provinces, and one levy after another was being raised for the
50297 defense of the fatherland, all Russians from the greatest to the least
50298 were solely engaged in sacrificing themselves, saving their fatherland,
50299 or weeping over its downfall. The tales and descriptions of that time
50300 without exception speak only of the self-sacrifice, patriotic devotion,
50301 despair, grief, and the heroism of the Russians. But it was not really
50302 so. It appears so to us because we see only the general historic
50303 interest of that time and do not see all the personal human interests
50304 that people had. Yet in reality those personal interests of the moment
50305 so much transcend the general interests that they always prevent the
50306 public interest from being felt or even noticed. Most of the people at
50307 that time paid no attention to the general progress of events but were
50308 guided only by their private interests, and they were the very people
50309 whose activities at that period were most useful.
50311 Those who tried to understand the general course of events and to take
50312 part in it by self-sacrifice and heroism were the most useless members
50313 of society, they saw everything upside down, and all they did for the
50314 common good turned out to be useless and foolish--like Pierre's and
50315 Mamonov's regiments which looted Russian villages, and the lint the
50316 young ladies prepared and that never reached the wounded, and so on.
50317 Even those, fond of intellectual talk and of expressing their feelings,
50318 who discussed Russia's position at the time involuntarily introduced
50319 into their conversation either a shade of pretense and falsehood or
50320 useless condemnation and anger directed against people accused of
50321 actions no one could possibly be guilty of. In historic events the rule
50322 forbidding us to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge is specially
50323 applicable. Only unconscious action bears fruit, and he who plays a part
50324 in an historic event never understands its significance. If he tries to
50325 realize it his efforts are fruitless.
50327 The more closely a man was engaged in the events then taking place in
50328 Russia the less did he realize their significance. In Petersburg and in
50329 the provinces at a distance from Moscow, ladies, and gentlemen in
50330 militia uniforms, wept for Russia and its ancient capital and talked of
50331 self-sacrifice and so on; but in the army which retired beyond Moscow
50332 there was little talk or thought of Moscow, and when they caught sight
50333 of its burned ruins no one swore to be avenged on the French, but they
50334 thought about their next pay, their next quarters, of Matreshka the
50335 vivandiere, and like matters.
50337 As the war had caught him in the service, Nicholas Rostov took a close
50338 and prolonged part in the defense of his country, but did so casually,
50339 without any aim at self-sacrifice, and he therefore looked at what was
50340 going on in Russia without despair and without dismally racking his
50341 brains over it. Had he been asked what he thought of the state of
50342 Russia, he would have said that it was not his business to think about
50343 it, that Kutuzov and others were there for that purpose, but that he had
50344 heard that the regiments were to be made up to their full strength, that
50345 fighting would probably go on for a long time yet, and that things being
50346 so it was quite likely he might be in command of a regiment in a couple
50349 As he looked at the matter in this way, he learned that he was being
50350 sent to Voronezh to buy remounts for his division, not only without
50351 regret at being prevented from taking part in the coming battle, but
50352 with the greatest pleasure--which he did not conceal and which his
50353 comrades fully understood.
50355 A few days before the battle of Borodino, Nicholas received the
50356 necessary money and warrants, and having sent some hussars on in
50357 advance, he set out with post horses for Voronezh.
50359 Only a man who has experienced it--that is, has passed some months
50360 continuously in an atmosphere of campaigning and war--can understand the
50361 delight Nicholas felt when he escaped from the region covered by the
50362 army's foraging operations, provision trains, and hospitals. When--free
50363 from soldiers, wagons, and the filthy traces of a camp--he saw villages
50364 with peasants and peasant women, gentlemen's country houses, fields
50365 where cattle were grazing, posthouses with stationmasters asleep in
50366 them, he rejoiced as though seeing all this for the first time. What for
50367 a long while specially surprised and delighted him were the women, young
50368 and healthy, without a dozen officers making up to each of them; women,
50369 too, who were pleased and flattered that a passing officer should joke
50372 In the highest spirits Nicholas arrived at night at a hotel in Voronezh,
50373 ordered things he had long been deprived of in camp, and next day, very
50374 clean-shaven and in a full-dress uniform he had not worn for a long
50375 time, went to present himself to the authorities.
50377 The commander of the militia was a civilian general, an old man who was
50378 evidently pleased with his military designation and rank. He received
50379 Nicholas brusquely (imagining this to be characteristically military)
50380 and questioned him with an important air, as if considering the general
50381 progress of affairs and approving and disapproving with full right to do
50382 so. Nicholas was in such good spirits that this merely amused him.
50384 From the commander of the militia he drove to the governor. The governor
50385 was a brisk little man, very simple and affable. He indicated the stud
50386 farms at which Nicholas might procure horses, recommended to him a horse
50387 dealer in the town and a landowner fourteen miles out of town who had
50388 the best horses, and promised to assist him in every way.
50390 "You are Count Ilya Rostov's son? My wife was a great friend of your
50391 mother's. We are at home on Thursdays--today is Thursday, so please come
50392 and see us quite informally," said the governor, taking leave of him.
50394 Immediately on leaving the governor's, Nicholas hired post horses and,
50395 taking his squadron quartermaster with him, drove at a gallop to the
50396 landowner, fourteen miles away, who had the stud. Everything seemed to
50397 him pleasant and easy during that first part of his stay in Voronezh
50398 and, as usually happens when a man is in a pleasant state of mind,
50399 everything went well and easily.
50401 The landowner to whom Nicholas went was a bachelor, an old cavalryman, a
50402 horse fancier, a sportsman, the possessor of some century-old brandy and
50403 some old Hungarian wine, who had a snuggery where he smoked, and who
50404 owned some splendid horses.
50406 In very few words Nicholas bought seventeen picked stallions for six
50407 thousand rubles--to serve, as he said, as samples of his remounts. After
50408 dining and taking rather too much of the Hungarian wine, Nicholas--
50409 having exchanged kisses with the landowner, with whom he was already on
50410 the friendliest terms--galloped back over abominable roads, in the
50411 brightest frame of mind, continually urging on the driver so as to be in
50412 time for the governor's party.
50414 When he had changed, poured water over his head, and scented himself,
50415 Nicholas arrived at the governor's rather late, but with the phrase
50416 "better late than never" on his lips.
50418 It was not a ball, nor had dancing been announced, but everyone knew
50419 that Catherine Petrovna would play valses and the ecossaise on the
50420 clavichord and that there would be dancing, and so everyone had come as
50423 Provincial life in 1812 went on very much as usual, but with this
50424 difference, that it was livelier in the towns in consequence of the
50425 arrival of many wealthy families from Moscow, and as in everything that
50426 went on in Russia at that time a special recklessness was noticeable, an
50427 "in for a penny, in for a pound--who cares?" spirit, and the inevitable
50428 small talk, instead of turning on the weather and mutual acquaintances,
50429 now turned on Moscow, the army, and Napoleon.
50431 The society gathered together at the governor's was the best in
50434 There were a great many ladies and some of Nicholas' Moscow
50435 acquaintances, but there were no men who could at all vie with the
50436 cavalier of St. George, the hussar remount officer, the good-natured and
50437 well-bred Count Rostov. Among the men was an Italian prisoner, an
50438 officer of the French army; and Nicholas felt that the presence of that
50439 prisoner enhanced his own importance as a Russian hero. The Italian was,
50440 as it were, a war trophy. Nicholas felt this, it seemed to him that
50441 everyone regarded the Italian in the same light, and he treated him
50442 cordially though with dignity and restraint.
50444 As soon as Nicholas entered in his hussar uniform, diffusing around him
50445 a fragrance of perfume and wine, and had uttered the words "better late
50446 than never" and heard them repeated several times by others, people
50447 clustered around him; all eyes turned on him, and he felt at once that
50448 he had entered into his proper position in the province--that of a
50449 universal favorite: a very pleasant position, and intoxicatingly so
50450 after his long privations. At posting stations, at inns, and in the
50451 landowner's snuggery, maidservants had been flattered by his notice, and
50452 here too at the governor's party there were (as it seemed to Nicholas)
50453 an inexhaustible number of pretty young women, married and unmarried,
50454 impatiently awaiting his notice. The women and girls flirted with him
50455 and, from the first day, the people concerned themselves to get this
50456 fine young daredevil of an hussar married and settled down. Among these
50457 was the governor's wife herself, who welcomed Rostov as a near relative
50458 and called him "Nicholas."
50460 Catherine Petrovna did actually play valses and the ecossaise, and
50461 dancing began in which Nicholas still further captivated the provincial
50462 society by his agility. His particularly free manner of dancing even
50463 surprised them all. Nicholas was himself rather surprised at the way he
50464 danced that evening. He had never danced like that in Moscow and would
50465 even have considered such a very free and easy manner improper and in
50466 bad form, but here he felt it incumbent on him to astonish them all by
50467 something unusual, something they would have to accept as the regular
50468 thing in the capital though new to them in the provinces.
50470 All the evening Nicholas paid attention to a blue-eyed, plump and
50471 pleasing little blonde, the wife of one of the provincial officials.
50472 With the naive conviction of young men in a merry mood that other men's
50473 wives were created for them, Rostov did not leave the lady's side and
50474 treated her husband in a friendly and conspiratorial style, as if,
50475 without speaking of it, they knew how capitally Nicholas and the lady
50476 would get on together. The husband, however, did not seem to share that
50477 conviction and tried to behave morosely with Rostov. But the latter's
50478 good-natured naivete was so boundless that sometimes even he
50479 involuntarily yielded to Nicholas' good humor. Toward the end of the
50480 evening, however, as the wife's face grew more flushed and animated, the
50481 husband's became more and more melancholy and solemn, as though there
50482 were but a given amount of animation between them and as the wife's
50483 share increased the husband's diminished.
50490 Nicholas sat leaning slightly forward in an armchair, bending closely
50491 over the blonde lady and paying her mythological compliments with a
50492 smile that never left his face. Jauntily shifting the position of his
50493 legs in their tight riding breeches, diffusing an odor of perfume, and
50494 admiring his partner, himself, and the fine outlines of his legs in
50495 their well-fitting Hessian boots, Nicholas told the blonde lady that he
50496 wished to run away with a certain lady here in Voronezh.
50500 "A charming lady, a divine one. Her eyes" (Nicholas looked at his
50501 partner) "are blue, her mouth coral and ivory; her figure" (he glanced
50502 at her shoulders) "like Diana's...."
50504 The husband came up and sullenly asked his wife what she was talking
50507 "Ah, Nikita Ivanych!" cried Nicholas, rising politely, and as if wishing
50508 Nikita Ivanych to share his joke, he began to tell him of his intention
50509 to elope with a blonde lady.
50511 The husband smiled gloomily, the wife gaily. The governor's good-natured
50512 wife came up with a look of disapproval.
50514 "Anna Ignatyevna wants to see you, Nicholas," said she, pronouncing the
50515 name so that Nicholas at once understood that Anna Ignatyevna was a very
50516 important person. "Come, Nicholas! You know you let me call you so?"
50518 "Oh, yes, Aunt. Who is she?"
50520 "Anna Ignatyevna Malvintseva. She has heard from her niece how you
50521 rescued her... Can you guess?"
50523 "I rescued such a lot of them!" said Nicholas.
50525 "Her niece, Princess Bolkonskaya. She is here in Voronezh with her aunt.
50526 Oho! How you blush. Why, are...?"
50528 "Not a bit! Please don't, Aunt!"
50530 "Very well, very well!... Oh, what a fellow you are!"
50532 The governor's wife led him up to a tall and very stout old lady with a
50533 blue headdress, who had just finished her game of cards with the most
50534 important personages of the town. This was Malvintseva, Princess Mary's
50535 aunt on her mother's side, a rich, childless widow who always lived in
50536 Voronezh. When Rostov approached her she was standing settling up for
50537 the game. She looked at him and, screwing up her eyes sternly, continued
50538 to upbraid the general who had won from her.
50540 "Very pleased, mon cher," she then said, holding out her hand to
50541 Nicholas. "Pray come and see me."
50543 After a few words about Princess Mary and her late father, whom
50544 Malvintseva had evidently not liked, and having asked what Nicholas knew
50545 of Prince Andrew, who also was evidently no favorite of hers, the
50546 important old lady dismissed Nicholas after repeating her invitation to
50549 Nicholas promised to come and blushed again as he bowed. At the mention
50550 of Princess Mary he experienced a feeling of shyness and even of fear,
50551 which he himself did not understand.
50553 When he had parted from Malvintseva Nicholas wished to return to the
50554 dancing, but the governor's little wife placed her plump hand on his
50555 sleeve and, saying that she wanted to have a talk with him, led him to
50556 her sitting room, from which those who were there immediately withdrew
50557 so as not to be in her way.
50559 "Do you know, dear boy," began the governor's wife with a serious
50560 expression on her kind little face, "that really would be the match for
50561 you: would you like me to arrange it?"
50563 "Whom do you mean, Aunt?" asked Nicholas.
50565 "I will make a match for you with the princess. Catherine Petrovna
50566 speaks of Lily, but I say, no--the princess! Do you want me to do it? I
50567 am sure your mother will be grateful to me. What a charming girl she is,
50568 really! And she is not at all so plain, either."
50570 "Not at all," replied Nicholas as if offended at the idea. "As befits a
50571 soldier, Aunt, I don't force myself on anyone or refuse anything," he
50572 said before he had time to consider what he was saying.
50574 "Well then, remember, this is not a joke!"
50578 "Yes, yes," the governor's wife said as if talking to herself. "But, my
50579 dear boy, among other things you are too attentive to the other, the
50580 blonde. One is sorry for the husband, really...."
50582 "Oh no, we are good friends with him," said Nicholas in the simplicity
50583 of his heart; it did not enter his head that a pastime so pleasant to
50584 himself might not be pleasant to someone else.
50586 "But what nonsense I have been saying to the governor's wife!" thought
50587 Nicholas suddenly at supper. "She will really begin to arrange a
50588 match... and Sonya...?" And on taking leave of the governor's wife, when
50589 she again smilingly said to him, "Well then, remember!" he drew her
50592 "But see here, to tell the truth, Aunt..."
50594 "What is it, my dear? Come, let's sit down here," said she.
50596 Nicholas suddenly felt a desire and need to tell his most intimate
50597 thoughts (which he would not have told to his mother, his sister, or his
50598 friend) to this woman who was almost a stranger. When he afterwards
50599 recalled that impulse to unsolicited and inexplicable frankness which
50600 had very important results for him, it seemed to him--as it seems to
50601 everyone in such cases--that it was merely some silly whim that seized
50602 him: yet that burst of frankness, together with other trifling events,
50603 had immense consequences for him and for all his family.
50605 "You see, Aunt, Mamma has long wanted me to marry an heiress, but the
50606 very idea of marrying for money is repugnant to me."
50608 "Oh yes, I understand," said the governor's wife.
50610 "But Princess Bolkonskaya--that's another matter. I will tell you the
50611 truth. In the first place I like her very much, I feel drawn to her; and
50612 then, after I met her under such circumstances--so strangely, the idea
50613 often occurred to me: 'This is fate.' Especially if you remember that
50614 Mamma had long been thinking of it; but I had never happened to meet her
50615 before, somehow it had always happened that we did not meet. And as long
50616 as my sister Natasha was engaged to her brother it was of course out of
50617 the question for me to think of marrying her. And it must needs happen
50618 that I should meet her just when Natasha's engagement had been broken
50619 off... and then everything... So you see... I never told this to anyone
50620 and never will, only to you."
50622 The governor's wife pressed his elbow gratefully.
50624 "You know Sonya, my cousin? I love her, and promised to marry her, and
50625 will do so.... So you see there can be no question about-" said Nicholas
50626 incoherently and blushing.
50628 "My dear boy, what a way to look at it! You know Sonya has nothing and
50629 you yourself say your Papa's affairs are in a very bad way. And what
50630 about your mother? It would kill her, that's one thing. And what sort of
50631 life would it be for Sonya--if she's a girl with a heart? Your mother in
50632 despair, and you all ruined.... No, my dear, you and Sonya ought to
50635 Nicholas remained silent. It comforted him to hear these arguments.
50637 "All the same, Aunt, it is impossible," he rejoined with a sigh, after a
50638 short pause. "Besides, would the princess have me? And besides, she is
50639 now in mourning. How can one think of it!"
50641 "But you don't suppose I'm going to get you married at once? There is
50642 always a right way of doing things," replied the governor's wife.
50644 "What a matchmaker you are, Aunt..." said Nicholas, kissing her plump
50652 On reaching Moscow after her meeting with Rostov, Princess Mary had
50653 found her nephew there with his tutor, and a letter from Prince Andrew
50654 giving her instructions how to get to her Aunt Malvintseva at Voronezh.
50655 That feeling akin to temptation which had tormented her during her
50656 father's illness, since his death, and especially since her meeting with
50657 Rostov was smothered by arrangements for the journey, anxiety about her
50658 brother, settling in a new house, meeting new people, and attending to
50659 her nephew's education. She was sad. Now, after a month passed in quiet
50660 surroundings, she felt more and more deeply the loss of her father which
50661 was associated in her mind with the ruin of Russia. She was agitated and
50662 incessantly tortured by the thought of the dangers to which her brother,
50663 the only intimate person now remaining to her, was exposed. She was
50664 worried too about her nephew's education for which she had always felt
50665 herself incompetent, but in the depths of her soul she felt at peace--a
50666 peace arising from consciousness of having stifled those personal dreams
50667 and hopes that had been on the point of awakening within her and were
50668 related to her meeting with Rostov.
50670 The day after her party the governor's wife came to see Malvintseva and,
50671 after discussing her plan with the aunt, remarked that though under
50672 present circumstances a formal betrothal was, of course, not to be
50673 thought of, all the same the young people might be brought together and
50674 could get to know one another. Malvintseva expressed approval, and the
50675 governor's wife began to speak of Rostov in Mary's presence, praising
50676 him and telling how he had blushed when Princess Mary's name was
50677 mentioned. But Princess Mary experienced a painful rather than a joyful
50678 feeling--her mental tranquillity was destroyed, and desires, doubts,
50679 self-reproach, and hopes reawoke.
50681 During the two days that elapsed before Rostov called, Princess Mary
50682 continually thought of how she ought to behave to him. First she decided
50683 not to come to the drawing room when he called to see her aunt--that it
50684 would not be proper for her, in her deep mourning, to receive visitors;
50685 then she thought this would be rude after what he had done for her; then
50686 it occurred to her that her aunt and the governor's wife had intentions
50687 concerning herself and Rostov--their looks and words at times seemed to
50688 confirm this supposition--then she told herself that only she, with her
50689 sinful nature, could think this of them: they could not forget that
50690 situated as she was, while still wearing deep mourning, such matchmaking
50691 would be an insult to her and to her father's memory. Assuming that she
50692 did go down to see him, Princess Mary imagined the words he would say to
50693 her and what she would say to him, and these words sometimes seemed
50694 undeservedly cold and then to mean too much. More than anything she
50695 feared lest the confusion she felt might overwhelm her and betray her as
50696 soon as she saw him.
50698 But when on Sunday after church the footman announced in the drawing
50699 room that Count Rostov had called, the princess showed no confusion,
50700 only a slight blush suffused her cheeks and her eyes lit up with a new
50703 "You have met him, Aunt?" said she in a calm voice, unable herself to
50704 understand that she could be outwardly so calm and natural.
50706 When Rostov entered the room, the princess dropped her eyes for an
50707 instant, as if to give the visitor time to greet her aunt, and then just
50708 as Nicholas turned to her she raised her head and met his look with
50709 shining eyes. With a movement full of dignity and grace she half rose
50710 with a smile of pleasure, held out her slender, delicate hand to him,
50711 and began to speak in a voice in which for the first time new deep
50712 womanly notes vibrated. Mademoiselle Bourienne, who was in the drawing
50713 room, looked at Princess Mary in bewildered surprise. Herself a
50714 consummate coquette, she could not have maneuvered better on meeting a
50715 man she wished to attract.
50717 "Either black is particularly becoming to her or she really has greatly
50718 improved without my having noticed it. And above all, what tact and
50719 grace!" thought Mademoiselle Bourienne.
50721 Had Princess Mary been capable of reflection at that moment, she would
50722 have been more surprised than Mademoiselle Bourienne at the change that
50723 had taken place in herself. From the moment she recognized that dear,
50724 loved face, a new life force took possession of her and compelled her to
50725 speak and act apart from her own will. From the time Rostov entered, her
50726 face became suddenly transformed. It was as if a light had been kindled
50727 in a carved and painted lantern and the intricate, skillful, artistic
50728 work on its sides, that previously seemed dark, coarse, and meaningless,
50729 was suddenly shown up in unexpected and striking beauty. For the first
50730 time all that pure, spiritual, inward travail through which she had
50731 lived appeared on the surface. All her inward labor, her dissatisfaction
50732 with herself, her sufferings, her strivings after goodness, her
50733 meekness, love, and self-sacrifice--all this now shone in those radiant
50734 eyes, in her delicate smile, and in every trait of her gentle face.
50736 Rostov saw all this as clearly as if he had known her whole life. He
50737 felt that the being before him was quite different from, and better
50738 than, anyone he had met before, and above all better than himself.
50740 Their conversation was very simple and unimportant. They spoke of the
50741 war, and like everyone else unconsciously exaggerated their sorrow about
50742 it; they spoke of their last meeting--Nicholas trying to change the
50743 subject--they talked of the governor's kind wife, of Nicholas'
50744 relations, and of Princess Mary's.
50746 She did not talk about her brother, diverting the conversation as soon
50747 as her aunt mentioned Andrew. Evidently she could speak of Russia's
50748 misfortunes with a certain artificiality, but her brother was too near
50749 her heart and she neither could nor would speak lightly of him. Nicholas
50750 noticed this, as he noticed every shade of Princess Mary's character
50751 with an observation unusual to him, and everything confirmed his
50752 conviction that she was a quite unusual and extraordinary being.
50753 Nicholas blushed and was confused when people spoke to him about the
50754 princess (as she did when he was mentioned) and even when he thought of
50755 her, but in her presence he felt quite at ease, and said not at all what
50756 he had prepared, but what, quite appropriately, occurred to him at the
50759 When a pause occurred during his short visit, Nicholas, as is usual when
50760 there are children, turned to Prince Andrew's little son, caressing him
50761 and asking whether he would like to be an hussar. He took the boy on his
50762 knee, played with him, and looked round at Princess Mary. With a
50763 softened, happy, timid look she watched the boy she loved in the arms of
50764 the man she loved. Nicholas also noticed that look and, as if
50765 understanding it, flushed with pleasure and began to kiss the boy with
50766 good natured playfulness.
50768 As she was in mourning Princess Mary did not go out into society, and
50769 Nicholas did not think it the proper thing to visit her again; but all
50770 the same the governor's wife went on with her matchmaking, passing on to
50771 Nicholas the flattering things Princess Mary said of him and vice versa,
50772 and insisting on his declaring himself to Princess Mary. For this
50773 purpose she arranged a meeting between the young people at the bishop's
50776 Though Rostov told the governor's wife that he would not make any
50777 declaration to Princess Mary, he promised to go.
50779 As at Tilsit Rostov had not allowed himself to doubt that what everybody
50780 considered right was right, so now, after a short but sincere struggle
50781 between his effort to arrange his life by his own sense of justice, and
50782 in obedient submission to circumstances, he chose the latter and yielded
50783 to the power he felt irresistibly carrying him he knew not where. He
50784 knew that after his promise to Sonya it would be what he deemed base to
50785 declare his feelings to Princess Mary. And he knew that he would never
50786 act basely. But he also knew (or rather felt at the bottom of his heart)
50787 that by resigning himself now to the force of circumstances and to those
50788 who were guiding him, he was not only doing nothing wrong, but was doing
50789 something very important--more important than anything he had ever done
50792 After meeting Princess Mary, though the course of his life went on
50793 externally as before, all his former amusements lost their charm for him
50794 and he often thought about her. But he never thought about her as he had
50795 thought of all the young ladies without exception whom he had met in
50796 society, nor as he had for a long time, and at one time rapturously,
50797 thought about Sonya. He had pictured each of those young ladies as
50798 almost all honest-hearted young men do, that is, as a possible wife,
50799 adapting her in his imagination to all the conditions of married life: a
50800 white dressing gown, his wife at the tea table, his wife's carriage,
50801 little ones, Mamma and Papa, their relations to her, and so on--and
50802 these pictures of the future had given him pleasure. But with Princess
50803 Mary, to whom they were trying to get him engaged, he could never
50804 picture anything of future married life. If he tried, his pictures
50805 seemed incongruous and false. It made him afraid.
50812 The dreadful news of the battle of Borodino, of our losses in killed and
50813 wounded, and the still more terrible news of the loss of Moscow reached
50814 Voronezh in the middle of September. Princess Mary, having learned of
50815 her brother's wound only from the Gazette and having no definite news of
50816 him, prepared (so Nicholas heard, he had not seen her again himself) to
50817 set off in search of Prince Andrew.
50819 When he received the news of the battle of Borodino and the abandonment
50820 of Moscow, Rostov was not seized with despair, anger, the desire for
50821 vengeance, or any feeling of that kind, but everything in Voronezh
50822 suddenly seemed to him dull and tiresome, and he experienced an
50823 indefinite feeling of shame and awkwardness. The conversations he heard
50824 seemed to him insincere; he did not know how to judge all these affairs
50825 and felt that only in the regiment would everything again become clear
50826 to him. He made haste to finish buying the horses, and often became
50827 unreasonably angry with his servant and squadron quartermaster.
50829 A few days before his departure a special thanksgiving, at which
50830 Nicholas was present, was held in the cathedral for the Russian victory.
50831 He stood a little behind the governor and held himself with military
50832 decorum through the service, meditating on a great variety of subjects.
50833 When the service was over the governor's wife beckoned him to her.
50835 "Have you seen the princess?" she asked, indicating with a movement of
50836 her head a lady standing on the opposite side, beyond the choir.
50838 Nicholas immediately recognized Princess Mary not so much by the profile
50839 he saw under her bonnet as by the feeling of solicitude, timidity, and
50840 pity that immediately overcame him. Princess Mary, evidently engrossed
50841 by her thoughts, was crossing herself for the last time before leaving
50844 Nicholas looked at her face with surprise. It was the same face he had
50845 seen before, there was the same general expression of refined, inner,
50846 spiritual labor, but now it was quite differently lit up. There was a
50847 pathetic expression of sorrow, prayer, and hope in it. As had occurred
50848 before when she was present, Nicholas went up to her without waiting to
50849 be prompted by the governor's wife and not asking himself whether or not
50850 it was right and proper to address her here in church, and told her he
50851 had heard of her trouble and sympathized with his whole soul. As soon as
50852 she heard his voice a vivid glow kindled in her face, lighting up both
50853 her sorrow and her joy.
50855 "There is one thing I wanted to tell you, Princess," said Rostov. "It is
50856 that if your brother, Prince Andrew Nikolievich, were not living, it
50857 would have been at once announced in the Gazette, as he is a colonel."
50859 The princess looked at him, not grasping what he was saying, but cheered
50860 by the expression of regretful sympathy on his face.
50862 "And I have known so many cases of a splinter wound" (the Gazette said
50863 it was a shell) "either proving fatal at once or being very slight,"
50864 continued Nicholas. "We must hope for the best, and I am sure..."
50866 Princess Mary interrupted him.
50868 "Oh, that would be so dread..." she began and, prevented by agitation
50869 from finishing, she bent her head with a movement as graceful as
50870 everything she did in his presence and, looking up at him gratefully,
50871 went out, following her aunt.
50873 That evening Nicholas did not go out, but stayed at home to settle some
50874 accounts with the horse dealers. When he had finished that business it
50875 was already too late to go anywhere but still too early to go to bed,
50876 and for a long time he paced up and down the room, reflecting on his
50877 life, a thing he rarely did.
50879 Princess Mary had made an agreeable impression on him when he had met
50880 her in Smolensk province. His having encountered her in such exceptional
50881 circumstances, and his mother having at one time mentioned her to him as
50882 a good match, had drawn his particular attention to her. When he met her
50883 again in Voronezh the impression she made on him was not merely pleasing
50884 but powerful. Nicholas had been struck by the peculiar moral beauty he
50885 observed in her at this time. He was, however, preparing to go away and
50886 it had not entered his head to regret that he was thus depriving himself
50887 of chances of meeting her. But that day's encounter in church had, he
50888 felt, sunk deeper than was desirable for his peace of mind. That pale,
50889 sad, refined face, that radiant look, those gentle graceful gestures,
50890 and especially the deep and tender sorrow expressed in all her features
50891 agitated him and evoked his sympathy. In men Rostov could not bear to
50892 see the expression of a higher spiritual life (that was why he did not
50893 like Prince Andrew) and he referred to it contemptuously as philosophy
50894 and dreaminess, but in Princess Mary that very sorrow which revealed the
50895 depth of a whole spiritual world foreign to him was an irresistible
50898 "She must be a wonderful woman. A real angel!" he said to himself. "Why
50899 am I not free? Why was I in such a hurry with Sonya?" And he
50900 involuntarily compared the two: the lack of spirituality in the one and
50901 the abundance of it in the other--a spirituality he himself lacked and
50902 therefore valued most highly. He tried to picture what would happen were
50903 he free. How he would propose to her and how she would become his wife.
50904 But no, he could not imagine that. He felt awed, and no clear picture
50905 presented itself to his mind. He had long ago pictured to himself a
50906 future with Sonya, and that was all clear and simple just because it had
50907 all been thought out and he knew all there was in Sonya, but it was
50908 impossible to picture a future with Princess Mary, because he did not
50909 understand her but simply loved her.
50911 Reveries about Sonya had had something merry and playful in them, but to
50912 dream of Princess Mary was always difficult and a little frightening.
50914 "How she prayed!" he thought. "It was plain that her whole soul was in
50915 her prayer. Yes, that was the prayer that moves mountains, and I am sure
50916 her prayer will be answered. Why don't I pray for what I want?" he
50917 suddenly thought. "What do I want? To be free, released from Sonya...
50918 She was right," he thought, remembering what the governor's wife had
50919 said: "Nothing but misfortune can come of marrying Sonya. Muddles, grief
50920 for Mamma... business difficulties... muddles, terrible muddles!
50921 Besides, I don't love her--not as I should. O, God! release me from this
50922 dreadful, inextricable position!" he suddenly began to pray. "Yes,
50923 prayer can move mountains, but one must have faith and not pray as
50924 Natasha and I used to as children, that the snow might turn into sugar--
50925 and then run out into the yard to see whether it had done so. No, but I
50926 am not praying for trifles now," he thought as he put his pipe down in a
50927 corner, and folding his hands placed himself before the icon. Softened
50928 by memories of Princess Mary he began to pray as he had not done for a
50929 long time. Tears were in his eyes and in his throat when the door opened
50930 and Lavrushka came in with some papers.
50932 "Blockhead! Why do you come in without being called?" cried Nicholas,
50933 quickly changing his attitude.
50935 "From the governor," said Lavrushka in a sleepy voice. "A courier has
50936 arrived and there's a letter for you."
50938 "Well, all right, thanks. You can go!"
50940 Nicholas took the two letters, one of which was from his mother and the
50941 other from Sonya. He recognized them by the handwriting and opened
50942 Sonya's first. He had read only a few lines when he turned pale and his
50943 eyes opened wide with fear and joy.
50945 "No, it's not possible!" he cried aloud.
50947 Unable to sit still he paced up and down the room holding the letter and
50948 reading it. He glanced through it, then read it again, and then again,
50949 and standing still in the middle of the room he raised his shoulders,
50950 stretching out his hands, with his mouth wide open and his eyes fixed.
50951 What he had just been praying for with confidence that God would hear
50952 him had come to pass; but Nicholas was as much astonished as if it were
50953 something extraordinary and unexpected, and as if the very fact that it
50954 had happened so quickly proved that it had not come from God to whom he
50955 had prayed, but by some ordinary coincidence.
50957 This unexpected and, as it seemed to Nicholas, quite voluntary letter
50958 from Sonya freed him from the knot that fettered him and from which
50959 there had seemed no escape. She wrote that the last unfortunate events--
50960 the loss of almost the whole of the Rostovs' Moscow property--and the
50961 countess' repeatedly expressed wish that Nicholas should marry Princess
50962 Bolkonskaya, together with his silence and coldness of late, had all
50963 combined to make her decide to release him from his promise and set him
50966 It would be too painful to me to think that I might be a cause of sorrow
50967 or discord in the family that has been so good to me (she wrote), and my
50968 love has no aim but the happiness of those I love; so, Nicholas, I beg
50969 you to consider yourself free, and to be assured that, in spite of
50970 everything, no one can love you more than does
50974 Both letters were written from Troitsa. The other, from the countess,
50975 described their last days in Moscow, their departure, the fire, and the
50976 destruction of all their property. In this letter the countess also
50977 mentioned that Prince Andrew was among the wounded traveling with them;
50978 his state was very critical, but the doctor said there was now more
50979 hope. Sonya and Natasha were nursing him.
50981 Next day Nicholas took his mother's letter and went to see Princess
50982 Mary. Neither he nor she said a word about what "Natasha nursing him"
50983 might mean, but thanks to this letter Nicholas suddenly became almost as
50984 intimate with the princess as if they were relations.
50986 The following day he saw Princess Mary off on her journey to Yaroslavl,
50987 and a few days later left to rejoin his regiment.
50994 Sonya's letter written from Troitsa, which had come as an answer to
50995 Nicholas' prayer, was prompted by this: the thought of getting Nicholas
50996 married to an heiress occupied the old countess' mind more and more. She
50997 knew that Sonya was the chief obstacle to this happening, and Sonya's
50998 life in the countess' house had grown harder and harder, especially
50999 after they had received a letter from Nicholas telling of his meeting
51000 with Princess Mary in Bogucharovo. The countess let no occasion slip of
51001 making humiliating or cruel allusions to Sonya.
51003 But a few days before they left Moscow, moved and excited by all that
51004 was going on, she called Sonya to her and, instead of reproaching and
51005 making demands on her, tearfully implored her to sacrifice herself and
51006 repay all that the family had done for her by breaking off her
51007 engagement with Nicholas.
51009 "I shall not be at peace till you promise me this."
51011 Sonya burst into hysterical tears and replied through her sobs that she
51012 would do anything and was prepared for anything, but gave no actual
51013 promise and could not bring herself to decide to do what was demanded of
51014 her. She must sacrifice herself for the family that had reared and
51015 brought her up. To sacrifice herself for others was Sonya's habit. Her
51016 position in the house was such that only by sacrifice could she show her
51017 worth, and she was accustomed to this and loved doing it. But in all her
51018 former acts of self-sacrifice she had been happily conscious that they
51019 raised her in her own esteem and in that of others, and so made her more
51020 worthy of Nicholas whom she loved more than anything in the world. But
51021 now they wanted her to sacrifice the very thing that constituted the
51022 whole reward for her self-sacrifice and the whole meaning of her life.
51023 And for the first time she felt bitterness against those who had been
51024 her benefactors only to torture her the more painfully; she felt jealous
51025 of Natasha who had never experienced anything of this sort, had never
51026 needed to sacrifice herself, but made others sacrifice themselves for
51027 her and yet was beloved by everybody. And for the first time Sonya felt
51028 that out of her pure, quiet love for Nicholas a passionate feeling was
51029 beginning to grow up which was stronger than principle, virtue, or
51030 religion. Under the influence of this feeling Sonya, whose life of
51031 dependence had taught her involuntarily to be secretive, having answered
51032 the countess in vague general terms, avoided talking with her and
51033 resolved to wait till she should see Nicholas, not in order to set him
51034 free but on the contrary at that meeting to bind him to her forever.
51036 The bustle and terror of the Rostovs' last days in Moscow stifled the
51037 gloomy thoughts that oppressed Sonya. She was glad to find escape from
51038 them in practical activity. But when she heard of Prince Andrew's
51039 presence in their house, despite her sincere pity for him and for
51040 Natasha, she was seized by a joyful and superstitious feeling that God
51041 did not intend her to be separated from Nicholas. She knew that Natasha
51042 loved no one but Prince Andrew and had never ceased to love him. She
51043 knew that being thrown together again under such terrible circumstances
51044 they would again fall in love with one another, and that Nicholas would
51045 then not be able to marry Princess Mary as they would be within the
51046 prohibited degrees of affinity. Despite all the terror of what had
51047 happened during those last days and during the first days of their
51048 journey, this feeling that Providence was intervening in her personal
51049 affairs cheered Sonya.
51051 At the Troitsa monastery the Rostovs first broke their journey for a
51054 Three large rooms were assigned to them in the monastery hostelry, one
51055 of which was occupied by Prince Andrew. The wounded man was much better
51056 that day and Natasha was sitting with him. In the next room sat the
51057 count and countess respectfully conversing with the prior, who was
51058 calling on them as old acquaintances and benefactors of the monastery.
51059 Sonya was there too, tormented by curiosity as to what Prince Andrew and
51060 Natasha were talking about. She heard the sound of their voices through
51061 the door. That door opened and Natasha came out, looking excited. Not
51062 noticing the monk, who had risen to greet her and was drawing back the
51063 wide sleeve on his right arm, she went up to Sonya and took her hand.
51065 "Natasha, what are you about? Come here!" said the countess.
51067 Natasha went up to the monk for his blessing, and he advised her to pray
51068 for aid to God and His saint.
51070 As soon as the prior withdrew, Natasha took her friend by the hand and
51071 went with her into the unoccupied room.
51073 "Sonya, will he live?" she asked. "Sonya, how happy I am, and how
51074 unhappy!... Sonya, dovey, everything is as it used to be. If only he
51075 lives! He cannot... because... because... of" and Natasha burst into
51078 "Yes! I knew it! Thank God!" murmured Sonya. "He will live."
51080 Sonya was not less agitated than her friend by the latter's fear and
51081 grief and by her own personal feelings which she shared with no one.
51082 Sobbing, she kissed and comforted Natasha. "If only he lives!" she
51083 thought. Having wept, talked, and wiped away their tears, the two
51084 friends went together to Prince Andrew's door. Natasha opened it
51085 cautiously and glanced into the room, Sonya standing beside her at the
51088 Prince Andrew was lying raised high on three pillows. His pale face was
51089 calm, his eyes closed, and they could see his regular breathing.
51091 "O, Natasha!" Sonya suddenly almost screamed, catching her companion's
51092 arm and stepping back from the door.
51094 "What? What is it?" asked Natasha.
51096 "It's that, that..." said Sonya, with a white face and trembling lips.
51098 Natasha softly closed the door and went with Sonya to the window, not
51099 yet understanding what the latter was telling her.
51101 "You remember," said Sonya with a solemn and frightened expression. "You
51102 remember when I looked in the mirror for you... at Otradnoe at
51103 Christmas? Do you remember what I saw?"
51105 "Yes, yes!" cried Natasha opening her eyes wide, and vaguely recalling
51106 that Sonya had told her something about Prince Andrew whom she had seen
51109 "You remember?" Sonya went on. "I saw it then and told everybody, you
51110 and Dunyasha. I saw him lying on a bed," said she, making a gesture with
51111 her hand and a lifted finger at each detail, "and that he had his eyes
51112 closed and was covered just with a pink quilt, and that his hands were
51113 folded," she concluded, convincing herself that the details she had just
51114 seen were exactly what she had seen in the mirror.
51116 She had in fact seen nothing then but had mentioned the first thing that
51117 came into her head, but what she had invented then seemed to her now as
51118 real as any other recollection. She not only remembered what she had
51119 then said--that he turned to look at her and smiled and was covered with
51120 something red--but was firmly convinced that she had then seen and said
51121 that he was covered with a pink quilt and that his eyes were closed.
51123 "Yes, yes, it really was pink!" cried Natasha, who now thought she too
51124 remembered the word pink being used, and saw in this the most
51125 extraordinary and mysterious part of the prediction.
51127 "But what does it mean?" she added meditatively.
51129 "Oh, I don't know, it is all so strange," replied Sonya, clutching at
51132 A few minutes later Prince Andrew rang and Natasha went to him, but
51133 Sonya, feeling unusually excited and touched, remained at the window
51134 thinking about the strangeness of what had occurred.
51136 They had an opportunity that day to send letters to the army, and the
51137 countess was writing to her son.
51139 "Sonya!" said the countess, raising her eyes from her letter as her
51140 niece passed, "Sonya, won't you write to Nicholas?" She spoke in a soft,
51141 tremulous voice, and in the weary eyes that looked over her spectacles
51142 Sonya read all that the countess meant to convey with these words. Those
51143 eyes expressed entreaty, shame at having to ask, fear of a refusal, and
51144 readiness for relentless hatred in case of such refusal.
51146 Sonya went up to the countess and, kneeling down, kissed her hand.
51148 "Yes, Mamma, I will write," said she.
51150 Sonya was softened, excited, and touched by all that had occurred that
51151 day, especially by the mysterious fulfillment she had just seen of her
51152 vision. Now that she knew that the renewal of Natasha's relations with
51153 Prince Andrew would prevent Nicholas from marrying Princess Mary, she
51154 was joyfully conscious of a return of that self-sacrificing spirit in
51155 which she was accustomed to live and loved to live. So with a joyful
51156 consciousness of performing a magnanimous deed--interrupted several
51157 times by the tears that dimmed her velvety black eyes--she wrote that
51158 touching letter the arrival of which had so amazed Nicholas.
51165 The officer and soldiers who had arrested Pierre treated him with
51166 hostility but yet with respect, in the guardhouse to which he was taken.
51167 In their attitude toward him could still be felt both uncertainty as to
51168 who he might be--perhaps a very important person--and hostility as a
51169 result of their recent personal conflict with him.
51171 But when the guard was relieved next morning, Pierre felt that for the
51172 new guard--both officers and men--he was not as interesting as he had
51173 been to his captors; and in fact the guard of the second day did not
51174 recognize in this big, stout man in a peasant coat the vigorous person
51175 who had fought so desperately with the marauder and the convoy and had
51176 uttered those solemn words about saving a child; they saw in him only
51177 No. 17 of the captured Russians, arrested and detained for some reason
51178 by order of the Higher Command. If they noticed anything remarkable
51179 about Pierre, it was only his unabashed, meditative concentration and
51180 thoughtfulness, and the way he spoke French, which struck them as
51181 surprisingly good. In spite of this he was placed that day with the
51182 other arrested suspects, as the separate room he had occupied was
51183 required by an officer.
51185 All the Russians confined with Pierre were men of the lowest class and,
51186 recognizing him as a gentleman, they all avoided him, more especially as
51187 he spoke French. Pierre felt sad at hearing them making fun of him.
51189 That evening he learned that all these prisoners (he, probably, among
51190 them) were to be tried for incendiarism. On the third day he was taken
51191 with the others to a house where a French general with a white mustache
51192 sat with two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their arms.
51193 With the precision and definiteness customary in addressing prisoners,
51194 and which is supposed to preclude human frailty, Pierre like the others
51195 was questioned as to who he was, where he had been, with what object,
51198 These questions, like questions put at trials generally, left the
51199 essence of the matter aside, shut out the possibility of that essence's
51200 being revealed, and were designed only to form a channel through which
51201 the judges wished the answers of the accused to flow so as to lead to
51202 the desired result, namely a conviction. As soon as Pierre began to say
51203 anything that did not fit in with that aim, the channel was removed and
51204 the water could flow to waste. Pierre felt, moreover, what the accused
51205 always feel at their trial, perplexity as to why these questions were
51206 put to him. He had a feeling that it was only out of condescension or a
51207 kind of civility that this device of placing a channel was employed. He
51208 knew he was in these men's power, that only by force had they brought
51209 him there, that force alone gave them the right to demand answers to
51210 their questions, and that the sole object of that assembly was to
51211 inculpate him. And so, as they had the power and wish to inculpate him,
51212 this expedient of an inquiry and trial seemed unnecessary. It was
51213 evident that any answer would lead to conviction. When asked what he was
51214 doing when he was arrested, Pierre replied in a rather tragic manner
51215 that he was restoring to its parents a child he had saved from the
51216 flames. Why had he fought the marauder? Pierre answered that he "was
51217 protecting a woman," and that "to protect a woman who was being insulted
51218 was the duty of every man; that..." They interrupted him, for this was
51219 not to the point. Why was he in the yard of a burning house where
51220 witnesses had seen him? He replied that he had gone out to see what was
51221 happening in Moscow. Again they interrupted him: they had not asked
51222 where he was going, but why he was found near the fire? Who was he? they
51223 asked, repeating their first question, which he had declined to answer.
51224 Again he replied that he could not answer it.
51226 "Put that down, that's bad... very bad," sternly remarked the general
51227 with the white mustache and red flushed face.
51229 On the fourth day fires broke out on the Zubovski rampart.
51231 Pierre and thirteen others were moved to the coach house of a merchant's
51232 house near the Crimean bridge. On his way through the streets Pierre
51233 felt stifled by the smoke which seemed to hang over the whole city.
51234 Fires were visible on all sides. He did not then realize the
51235 significance of the burning of Moscow, and looked at the fires with
51238 He passed four days in the coach house near the Crimean bridge and
51239 during that time learned, from the talk of the French soldiers, that all
51240 those confined there were awaiting a decision which might come any day
51241 from the marshal. What marshal this was, Pierre could not learn from the
51242 soldiers. Evidently for them "the marshal" represented a very high and
51243 rather mysterious power.
51245 These first days, before the eighth of September when the prisoners were
51246 had up for a second examination, were the hardest of all for Pierre.
51253 On the eighth of September an officer--a very important one judging by
51254 the respect the guards showed him--entered the coach house where the
51255 prisoners were. This officer, probably someone on the staff, was holding
51256 a paper in his hand, and called over all the Russians there, naming
51257 Pierre as "the man who does not give his name." Glancing indolently and
51258 indifferently at all the prisoners, he ordered the officer in charge to
51259 have them decently dressed and tidied up before taking them to the
51260 marshal. An hour later a squad of soldiers arrived and Pierre with
51261 thirteen others was led to the Virgin's Field. It was a fine day, sunny
51262 after rain, and the air was unusually pure. The smoke did not hang low
51263 as on the day when Pierre had been taken from the guardhouse on the
51264 Zubovski rampart, but rose through the pure air in columns. No flames
51265 were seen, but columns of smoke rose on all sides, and all Moscow as far
51266 as Pierre could see was one vast charred ruin. On all sides there were
51267 waste spaces with only stoves and chimney stacks still standing, and
51268 here and there the blackened walls of some brick houses. Pierre gazed at
51269 the ruins and did not recognize districts he had known well. Here and
51270 there he could see churches that had not been burned. The Kremlin, which
51271 was not destroyed, gleamed white in the distance with its towers and the
51272 belfry of Ivan the Great. The domes of the New Convent of the Virgin
51273 glittered brightly and its bells were ringing particularly clearly.
51274 These bells reminded Pierre that it was Sunday and the feast of the
51275 Nativity of the Virgin. But there seemed to be no one to celebrate this
51276 holiday: everywhere were blackened ruins, and the few Russians to be
51277 seen were tattered and frightened people who tried to hide when they saw
51280 It was plain that the Russian nest was ruined and destroyed, but in
51281 place of the Russian order of life that had been destroyed, Pierre
51282 unconsciously felt that a quite different, firm, French order had been
51283 established over this ruined nest. He felt this in the looks of the
51284 soldiers who, marching in regular ranks briskly and gaily, were
51285 escorting him and the other criminals; he felt it in the looks of an
51286 important French official in a carriage and pair driven by a soldier,
51287 whom they met on the way. He felt it in the merry sounds of regimental
51288 music he heard from the left side of the field, and felt and realized it
51289 especially from the list of prisoners the French officer had read out
51290 when he came that morning. Pierre had been taken by one set of soldiers
51291 and led first to one and then to another place with dozens of other men,
51292 and it seemed that they might have forgotten him, or confused him with
51293 the others. But no: the answers he had given when questioned had come
51294 back to him in his designation as "the man who does not give his name,"
51295 and under that appellation, which to Pierre seemed terrible, they were
51296 now leading him somewhere with unhesitating assurance on their faces
51297 that he and all the other prisoners were exactly the ones they wanted
51298 and that they were being taken to the proper place. Pierre felt himself
51299 to be an insignificant chip fallen among the wheels of a machine whose
51300 action he did not understand but which was working well.
51302 He and the other prisoners were taken to the right side of the Virgin's
51303 Field, to a large white house with an immense garden not far from the
51304 convent. This was Prince Shcherbitov's house, where Pierre had often
51305 been in other days, and which, as he learned from the talk of the
51306 soldiers, was now occupied by the marshal, the Duke of Eckmuhl (Davout).
51308 They were taken to the entrance and led into the house one by one.
51309 Pierre was the sixth to enter. He was conducted through a glass gallery,
51310 an anteroom, and a hall, which were familiar to him, into a long low
51311 study at the door of which stood an adjutant.
51313 Davout, spectacles on nose, sat bent over a table at the further end of
51314 the room. Pierre went close up to him, but Davout, evidently consulting
51315 a paper that lay before him, did not look up. Without raising his eyes,
51316 he said in a low voice:
51320 Pierre was silent because he was incapable of uttering a word. To him
51321 Davout was not merely a French general, but a man notorious for his
51322 cruelty. Looking at his cold face, as he sat like a stern schoolmaster
51323 who was prepared to wait awhile for an answer, Pierre felt that every
51324 instant of delay might cost him his life; but he did not know what to
51325 say. He did not venture to repeat what he had said at his first
51326 examination, yet to disclose his rank and position was dangerous and
51327 embarrassing. So he was silent. But before he had decided what to do,
51328 Davout raised his head, pushed his spectacles back on his forehead,
51329 screwed up his eyes, and looked intently at him.
51331 "I know that man," he said in a cold, measured tone, evidently
51332 calculated to frighten Pierre.
51334 The chill that had been running down Pierre's back now seized his head
51337 "You cannot know me, General, I have never seen you..."
51339 "He is a Russian spy," Davout interrupted, addressing another general
51340 who was present, but whom Pierre had not noticed.
51342 Davout turned away. With an unexpected reverberation in his voice Pierre
51345 "No, monseigneur," he said, suddenly remembering that Davout was a duke.
51346 "No, monseigneur, you cannot have known me. I am a militia officer and
51347 have not quitted Moscow."
51349 "Your name?" asked Davout.
51353 "What proof have I that you are not lying?"
51355 "Monseigneur!" exclaimed Pierre, not in an offended but in a pleading
51358 Davout looked up and gazed intently at him. For some seconds they looked
51359 at one another, and that look saved Pierre. Apart from conditions of war
51360 and law, that look established human relations between the two men. At
51361 that moment an immense number of things passed dimly through both their
51362 minds, and they realized that they were both children of humanity and
51365 At the first glance, when Davout had only raised his head from the
51366 papers where human affairs and lives were indicated by numbers, Pierre
51367 was merely a circumstance, and Davout could have shot him without
51368 burdening his conscience with an evil deed, but now he saw in him a
51369 human being. He reflected for a moment.
51371 "How can you show me that you are telling the truth?" said Davout
51374 Pierre remembered Ramballe, and named him and his regiment and the
51375 street where the house was.
51377 "You are not what you say," returned Davout.
51379 In a trembling, faltering voice Pierre began adducing proofs of the
51380 truth of his statements.
51382 But at that moment an adjutant entered and reported something to Davout.
51384 Davout brightened up at the news the adjutant brought, and began
51385 buttoning up his uniform. It seemed that he had quite forgotten Pierre.
51387 When the adjutant reminded him of the prisoner, he jerked his head in
51388 Pierre's direction with a frown and ordered him to be led away. But
51389 where they were to take him Pierre did not know: back to the coach house
51390 or to the place of execution his companions had pointed out to him as
51391 they crossed the Virgin's Field.
51393 He turned his head and saw that the adjutant was putting another
51394 question to Davout.
51396 "Yes, of course!" replied Davout, but what this "yes" meant, Pierre did
51399 Pierre could not afterwards remember how he went, whether it was far, or
51400 in which direction. His faculties were quite numbed, he was stupefied,
51401 and noticing nothing around him went on moving his legs as the others
51402 did till they all stopped and he stopped too. The only thought in his
51403 mind at that time was: who was it that had really sentenced him to
51404 death? Not the men on the commission that had first examined him--not
51405 one of them wished to or, evidently, could have done it. It was not
51406 Davout, who had looked at him in so human a way. In another moment
51407 Davout would have realized that he was doing wrong, but just then the
51408 adjutant had come in and interrupted him. The adjutant, also, had
51409 evidently had no evil intent though he might have refrained from coming
51410 in. Then who was executing him, killing him, depriving him of life--him,
51411 Pierre, with all his memories, aspirations, hopes, and thoughts? Who was
51412 doing this? And Pierre felt that it was no one.
51414 It was a system--a concurrence of circumstances.
51416 A system of some sort was killing him--Pierre--depriving him of life, of
51417 everything, annihilating him.
51424 From Prince Shcherbatov's house the prisoners were led straight down the
51425 Virgin's Field, to the left of the nunnery, as far as a kitchen garden
51426 in which a post had been set up. Beyond that post a fresh pit had been
51427 dug in the ground, and near the post and the pit a large crowd stood in
51428 a semicircle. The crowd consisted of a few Russians and many of
51429 Napoleon's soldiers who were not on duty--Germans, Italians, and
51430 Frenchmen, in a variety of uniforms. To the right and left of the post
51431 stood rows of French troops in blue uniforms with red epaulets and high
51434 The prisoners were placed in a certain order, according to the list
51435 (Pierre was sixth), and were led to the post. Several drums suddenly
51436 began to beat on both sides of them, and at that sound Pierre felt as if
51437 part of his soul had been torn away. He lost the power of thinking or
51438 understanding. He could only hear and see. And he had only one wish--
51439 that the frightful thing that had to happen should happen quickly.
51440 Pierre looked round at his fellow prisoners and scrutinized them.
51442 The two first were convicts with shaven heads. One was tall and thin,
51443 the other dark, shaggy, and sinewy, with a flat nose. The third was a
51444 domestic serf, about forty-five years old, with grizzled hair and a
51445 plump, well-nourished body. The fourth was a peasant, a very handsome
51446 man with a broad, light-brown beard and black eyes. The fifth was a
51447 factory hand, a thin, sallow-faced lad of eighteen in a loose coat.
51449 Pierre heard the French consulting whether to shoot them separately or
51450 two at a time. "In couples," replied the officer in command in a calm
51451 voice. There was a stir in the ranks of the soldiers and it was evident
51452 that they were all hurrying--not as men hurry to do something they
51453 understand, but as people hurry to finish a necessary but unpleasant and
51454 incomprehensible task.
51456 A French official wearing a scarf came up to the right of the row of
51457 prisoners and read out the sentence in Russian and in French.
51459 Then two pairs of Frenchmen approached the criminals and at the
51460 officer's command took the two convicts who stood first in the row. The
51461 convicts stopped when they reached the post and, while sacks were being
51462 brought, looked dumbly around as a wounded beast looks at an approaching
51463 huntsman. One crossed himself continually, the other scratched his back
51464 and made a movement of the lips resembling a smile. With hurried hands
51465 the soldiers blindfolded them, drawing the sacks over their heads, and
51466 bound them to the post.
51468 Twelve sharpshooters with muskets stepped out of the ranks with a firm
51469 regular tread and halted eight paces from the post. Pierre turned away
51470 to avoid seeing what was going to happen. Suddenly a crackling, rolling
51471 noise was heard which seemed to him louder than the most terrific
51472 thunder, and he looked round. There was some smoke, and the Frenchmen
51473 were doing something near the pit, with pale faces and trembling hands.
51474 Two more prisoners were led up. In the same way and with similar looks,
51475 these two glanced vainly at the onlookers with only a silent appeal for
51476 protection in their eyes, evidently unable to understand or believe what
51477 was going to happen to them. They could not believe it because they
51478 alone knew what their life meant to them, and so they neither understood
51479 nor believed that it could be taken from them.
51481 Again Pierre did not wish to look and again turned away; but again the
51482 sound as of a frightful explosion struck his ear, and at the same moment
51483 he saw smoke, blood, and the pale, scared faces of the Frenchmen who
51484 were again doing something by the post, their trembling hands impeding
51485 one another. Pierre, breathing heavily, looked around as if asking what
51486 it meant. The same question was expressed in all the looks that met his.
51488 On the faces of all the Russians and of the French soldiers and officers
51489 without exception, he read the same dismay, horror, and conflict that
51490 were in his own heart. "But who, after all, is doing this? They are all
51491 suffering as I am. Who then is it? Who?" flashed for an instant through
51494 "Sharpshooters of the 86th, forward!" shouted someone. The fifth
51495 prisoner, the one next to Pierre, was led away--alone. Pierre did not
51496 understand that he was saved, that he and the rest had been brought
51497 there only to witness the execution. With ever-growing horror, and no
51498 sense of joy or relief, he gazed at what was taking place. The fifth man
51499 was the factory lad in the loose cloak. The moment they laid hands on
51500 him he sprang aside in terror and clutched at Pierre. (Pierre shuddered
51501 and shook himself free.) The lad was unable to walk. They dragged him
51502 along, holding him up under the arms, and he screamed. When they got him
51503 to the post he grew quiet, as if he suddenly understood something.
51504 Whether he understood that screaming was useless or whether he thought
51505 it incredible that men should kill him, at any rate he took his stand at
51506 the post, waiting to be blindfolded like the others, and like a wounded
51507 animal looked around him with glittering eyes.
51509 Pierre was no longer able to turn away and close his eyes. His curiosity
51510 and agitation, like that of the whole crowd, reached the highest pitch
51511 at this fifth murder. Like the others this fifth man seemed calm; he
51512 wrapped his loose cloak closer and rubbed one bare foot with the other.
51514 When they began to blindfold him he himself adjusted the knot which hurt
51515 the back of his head; then when they propped him against the
51516 bloodstained post, he leaned back and, not being comfortable in that
51517 position, straightened himself, adjusted his feet, and leaned back again
51518 more comfortably. Pierre did not take his eyes from him and did not miss
51519 his slightest movement.
51521 Probably a word of command was given and was followed by the reports of
51522 eight muskets; but try as he would Pierre could not afterwards remember
51523 having heard the slightest sound of the shots. He only saw how the
51524 workman suddenly sank down on the cords that held him, how blood showed
51525 itself in two places, how the ropes slackened under the weight of the
51526 hanging body, and how the workman sat down, his head hanging unnaturally
51527 and one leg bent under him. Pierre ran up to the post. No one hindered
51528 him. Pale, frightened people were doing something around the workman.
51529 The lower jaw of an old Frenchman with a thick mustache trembled as he
51530 untied the ropes. The body collapsed. The soldiers dragged it awkwardly
51531 from the post and began pushing it into the pit.
51533 They all plainly and certainly knew that they were criminals who must
51534 hide the traces of their guilt as quickly as possible.
51536 Pierre glanced into the pit and saw that the factory lad was lying with
51537 his knees close up to his head and one shoulder higher than the other.
51538 That shoulder rose and fell rhythmically and convulsively, but spadefuls
51539 of earth were already being thrown over the whole body. One of the
51540 soldiers, evidently suffering, shouted gruffly and angrily at Pierre to
51541 go back. But Pierre did not understand him and remained near the post,
51542 and no one drove him away.
51544 When the pit had been filled up a command was given. Pierre was taken
51545 back to his place, and the rows of troops on both sides of the post made
51546 a half turn and went past it at a measured pace. The twenty-four
51547 sharpshooters with discharged muskets, standing in the center of the
51548 circle, ran back to their places as the companies passed by.
51550 Pierre gazed now with dazed eyes at these sharpshooters who ran in
51551 couples out of the circle. All but one rejoined their companies. This
51552 one, a young soldier, his face deadly pale, his shako pushed back, and
51553 his musket resting on the ground, still stood near the pit at the spot
51554 from which he had fired. He swayed like a drunken man, taking some steps
51555 forward and back to save himself from falling. An old, noncommissioned
51556 officer ran out of the ranks and taking him by the elbow dragged him to
51557 his company. The crowd of Russians and Frenchmen began to disperse. They
51558 all went away silently and with drooping heads.
51560 "That will teach them to start fires," said one of the Frenchmen.
51562 Pierre glanced round at the speaker and saw that it was a soldier who
51563 was trying to find some relief after what had been done, but was not
51564 able to do so. Without finishing what he had begun to say he made a
51565 hopeless movement with his arm and went away.
51572 After the execution Pierre was separated from the rest of the prisoners
51573 and placed alone in a small, ruined, and befouled church.
51575 Toward evening a noncommissioned officer entered with two soldiers and
51576 told him that he had been pardoned and would now go to the barracks for
51577 the prisoners of war. Without understanding what was said to him, Pierre
51578 got up and went with the soldiers. They took him to the upper end of the
51579 field, where there were some sheds built of charred planks, beams, and
51580 battens, and led him into one of them. In the darkness some twenty
51581 different men surrounded Pierre. He looked at them without understanding
51582 who they were, why they were there, or what they wanted of him. He heard
51583 what they said, but did not understand the meaning of the words and made
51584 no kind of deduction from or application of them. He replied to
51585 questions they put to him, but did not consider who was listening to his
51586 replies, nor how they would understand them. He looked at their faces
51587 and figures, but they all seemed to him equally meaningless.
51589 From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by
51590 men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of his
51591 life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear
51592 alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything had collapsed into
51593 a heap of meaningless rubbish. Though he did not acknowledge it to
51594 himself, his faith in the right ordering of the universe, in humanity,
51595 in his own soul, and in God, had been destroyed. He had experienced this
51596 before, but never so strongly as now. When similar doubts had assailed
51597 him before, they had been the result of his own wrongdoing, and at the
51598 bottom of his heart he had felt that relief from his despair and from
51599 those doubts was to be found within himself. But now he felt that the
51600 universe had crumbled before his eyes and only meaningless ruins
51601 remained, and this not by any fault of his own. He felt that it was not
51602 in his power to regain faith in the meaning of life.
51604 Around him in the darkness men were standing and evidently something
51605 about him interested them greatly. They were telling him something and
51606 asking him something. Then they led him away somewhere, and at last he
51607 found himself in a corner of the shed among men who were laughing and
51608 talking on all sides.
51610 "Well, then, mates... that very prince who..." some voice at the other
51611 end of the shed was saying, with a strong emphasis on the word who.
51613 Sitting silent and motionless on a heap of straw against the wall,
51614 Pierre sometimes opened and sometimes closed his eyes. But as soon as he
51615 closed them he saw before him the dreadful face of the factory lad--
51616 especially dreadful because of its simplicity--and the faces of the
51617 murderers, even more dreadful because of their disquiet. And he opened
51618 his eyes again and stared vacantly into the darkness around him.
51620 Beside him in a stooping position sat a small man of whose presence he
51621 was first made aware by a strong smell of perspiration which came from
51622 him every time he moved. This man was doing something to his legs in the
51623 darkness, and though Pierre could not see his face he felt that the man
51624 continually glanced at him. On growing used to the darkness Pierre saw
51625 that the man was taking off his leg bands, and the way he did it aroused
51628 Having unwound the string that tied the band on one leg, he carefully
51629 coiled it up and immediately set to work on the other leg, glancing up
51630 at Pierre. While one hand hung up the first string the other was already
51631 unwinding the band on the second leg. In this way, having carefully
51632 removed the leg bands by deft circular motions of his arm following one
51633 another uninterruptedly, the man hung the leg bands up on some pegs
51634 fixed above his head. Then he took out a knife, cut something, closed
51635 the knife, placed it under the head of his bed, and, seating himself
51636 comfortably, clasped his arms round his lifted knees and fixed his eyes
51637 on Pierre. The latter was conscious of something pleasant, comforting,
51638 and well-rounded in these deft movements, in the man's well-ordered
51639 arrangements in his corner, and even in his very smell, and he looked at
51640 the man without taking his eyes from him.
51642 "You've seen a lot of trouble, sir, eh?" the little man suddenly said.
51644 And there was so much kindliness and simplicity in his singsong voice
51645 that Pierre tried to reply, but his jaw trembled and he felt tears
51646 rising to his eyes. The little fellow, giving Pierre no time to betray
51647 his confusion, instantly continued in the same pleasant tones:
51649 "Eh, lad, don't fret!" said he, in the tender singsong caressing voice
51650 old Russian peasant women employ. "Don't fret, friend--'suffer an hour,
51651 live for an age!' that's how it is, my dear fellow. And here we live,
51652 thank heaven, without offense. Among these folk, too, there are good men
51653 as well as bad," said he, and still speaking, he turned on his knees
51654 with a supple movement, got up, coughed, and went off to another part of
51657 "Eh, you rascal!" Pierre heard the same kind voice saying at the other
51658 end of the shed. "So you've come, you rascal? She remembers... Now, now,
51661 And the soldier, pushing away a little dog that was jumping up at him,
51662 returned to his place and sat down. In his hands he had something
51665 "Here, eat a bit, sir," said he, resuming his former respectful tone as
51666 he unwrapped and offered Pierre some baked potatoes. "We had soup for
51667 dinner and the potatoes are grand!"
51669 Pierre had not eaten all day and the smell of the potatoes seemed
51670 extremely pleasant to him. He thanked the soldier and began to eat.
51672 "Well, are they all right?" said the soldier with a smile. "You should
51675 He took a potato, drew out his clasp knife, cut the potato into two
51676 equal halves on the palm of his hand, sprinkled some salt on it from the
51677 rag, and handed it to Pierre.
51679 "The potatoes are grand!" he said once more. "Eat some like that!"
51681 Pierre thought he had never eaten anything that tasted better.
51683 "Oh, I'm all right," said he, "but why did they shoot those poor
51684 fellows? The last one was hardly twenty."
51686 "Tss, tt...!" said the little man. "Ah, what a sin... what a sin!" he
51687 added quickly, and as if his words were always waiting ready in his
51688 mouth and flew out involuntarily he went on: "How was it, sir, that you
51691 "I didn't think they would come so soon. I stayed accidentally," replied
51694 "And how did they arrest you, dear lad? At your house?"
51696 "No, I went to look at the fire, and they arrested me there, and tried
51697 me as an incendiary."
51699 "Where there's law there's injustice," put in the little man.
51701 "And have you been here long?" Pierre asked as he munched the last of
51704 "I? It was last Sunday they took me, out of a hospital in Moscow."
51706 "Why, are you a soldier then?"
51708 "Yes, we are soldiers of the Apsheron regiment. I was dying of fever. We
51709 weren't told anything. There were some twenty of us lying there. We had
51710 no idea, never guessed at all."
51712 "And do you feel sad here?" Pierre inquired.
51714 "How can one help it, lad? My name is Platon, and the surname is
51715 Karataev," he added, evidently wishing to make it easier for Pierre to
51716 address him. "They call me 'little falcon' in the regiment. How is one
51717 to help feeling sad? Moscow--she's the mother of cities. How can one see
51718 all this and not feel sad? But 'the maggot gnaws the cabbage, yet dies
51719 first'; that's what the old folks used to tell us," he added rapidly.
51721 "What? What did you say?" asked Pierre.
51723 "Who? I?" said Karataev. "I say things happen not as we plan but as God
51724 judges," he replied, thinking that he was repeating what he had said
51725 before, and immediately continued:
51727 "Well, and you, have you a family estate, sir? And a house? So you have
51728 abundance, then? And a housewife? And your old parents, are they still
51731 And though it was too dark for Pierre to see, he felt that a suppressed
51732 smile of kindliness puckered the soldier's lips as he put these
51733 questions. He seemed grieved that Pierre had no parents, especially that
51736 "A wife for counsel, a mother-in-law for welcome, but there's none as
51737 dear as one's own mother!" said he. "Well, and have you little ones?" he
51740 Again Pierre's negative answer seemed to distress him, and he hastened
51743 "Never mind! You're young folks yet, and please God may still have some.
51744 The great thing is to live in harmony...."
51746 "But it's all the same now," Pierre could not help saying.
51748 "Ah, my dear fellow!" rejoined Karataev, "never decline a prison or a
51751 He seated himself more comfortably and coughed, evidently preparing to
51754 "Well, my dear fellow, I was still living at home," he began. "We had a
51755 well-to-do homestead, plenty of land, we peasants lived well and our
51756 house was one to thank God for. When Father and we went out mowing there
51757 were seven of us. We lived well. We were real peasants. It so
51760 And Platon Karataev told a long story of how he had gone into someone's
51761 copse to take wood, how he had been caught by the keeper, had been
51762 tried, flogged, and sent to serve as a soldier.
51764 "Well, lad," and a smile changed the tone of his voice "we thought it
51765 was a misfortune but it turned out a blessing! If it had not been for my
51766 sin, my brother would have had to go as a soldier. But he, my younger
51767 brother, had five little ones, while I, you see, only left a wife
51768 behind. We had a little girl, but God took her before I went as a
51769 soldier. I come home on leave and I'll tell you how it was, I look and
51770 see that they are living better than before. The yard full of cattle,
51771 the women at home, two brothers away earning wages, and only Michael the
51772 youngest, at home. Father, he says, 'All my children are the same to me:
51773 it hurts the same whichever finger gets bitten. But if Platon hadn't
51774 been shaved for a soldier, Michael would have had to go.' called us all
51775 to him and, will you believe it, placed us in front of the icons.
51776 'Michael,' he says, 'come here and bow down to his feet; and you, young
51777 woman, you bow down too; and you, grandchildren, also bow down before
51778 him! Do you understand?' he says. That's how it is, dear fellow. Fate
51779 looks for a head. But we are always judging, 'that's not well--that's
51780 not right!' Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it
51781 bulges, but when you've drawn it out it's empty! That's how it is."
51783 And Platon shifted his seat on the straw.
51785 After a short silence he rose.
51787 "Well, I think you must be sleepy," said he, and began rapidly crossing
51788 himself and repeating:
51790 "Lord Jesus Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus
51791 Christ, holy Saint Nicholas, Frola and Lavra! Lord Jesus Christ, have
51792 mercy on us and save us!" he concluded, then bowed to the ground, got
51793 up, sighed, and sat down again on his heap of straw. "That's the way.
51794 Lay me down like a stone, O God, and raise me up like a loaf," he
51795 muttered as he lay down, pulling his coat over him.
51797 "What prayer was that you were saying?" asked Pierre.
51799 "Eh?" murmured Platon, who had almost fallen asleep. "What was I saying?
51800 I was praying. Don't you pray?"
51802 "Yes, I do," said Pierre. "But what was that you said: Frola and Lavra?"
51804 "Well, of course," replied Platon quickly, "the horses' saints. One must
51805 pity the animals too. Eh, the rascal! Now you've curled up and got warm,
51806 you daughter of a bitch!" said Karataev, touching the dog that lay at
51807 his feet, and again turning over he fell asleep immediately.
51809 Sounds of crying and screaming came from somewhere in the distance
51810 outside, and flames were visible through the cracks of the shed, but
51811 inside it was quiet and dark. For a long time Pierre did not sleep, but
51812 lay with eyes open in the darkness, listening to the regular snoring of
51813 Platon who lay beside him, and he felt that the world that had been
51814 shattered was once more stirring in his soul with a new beauty and on
51815 new and unshakable foundations.
51822 Twenty-three soldiers, three officers, and two officials were confined
51823 in the shed in which Pierre had been placed and where he remained for
51826 When Pierre remembered them afterwards they all seemed misty figures to
51827 him except Platon Karataev, who always remained in his mind a most vivid
51828 and precious memory and the personification of everything Russian,
51829 kindly, and round. When Pierre saw his neighbor next morning at dawn the
51830 first impression of him, as of something round, was fully confirmed:
51831 Platon's whole figure--in a French overcoat girdled with a cord, a
51832 soldier's cap, and bast shoes--was round. His head was quite round, his
51833 back, chest, shoulders, and even his arms, which he held as if ever
51834 ready to embrace something, were rounded, his pleasant smile and his
51835 large, gentle brown eyes were also round.
51837 Platon Karataev must have been fifty, judging by his stories of
51838 campaigns he had been in, told as by an old soldier. He did not himself
51839 know his age and was quite unable to determine it. But his brilliantly
51840 white, strong teeth which showed in two unbroken semicircles when he
51841 laughed--as he often did--were all sound and good, there was not a gray
51842 hair in his beard or on his head, and his whole body gave an impression
51843 of suppleness and especially of firmness and endurance.
51845 His face, despite its fine, rounded wrinkles, had an expression of
51846 innocence and youth, his voice was pleasant and musical. But the chief
51847 peculiarity of his speech was its directness and appositeness. It was
51848 evident that he never considered what he had said or was going to say,
51849 and consequently the rapidity and justice of his intonation had an
51850 irresistible persuasiveness.
51852 His physical strength and agility during the first days of his
51853 imprisonment were such that he seemed not to know what fatigue and
51854 sickness meant. Every night before lying down, he said: "Lord, lay me
51855 down as a stone and raise me up as a loaf!" and every morning on getting
51856 up, he said: "I lay down and curled up, I get up and shake myself." And
51857 indeed he only had to lie down, to fall asleep like a stone, and he only
51858 had to shake himself, to be ready without a moment's delay for some
51859 work, just as children are ready to play directly they awake. He could
51860 do everything, not very well but not badly. He baked, cooked, sewed,
51861 planed, and mended boots. He was always busy, and only at night allowed
51862 himself conversation--of which he was fond--and songs. He did not sing
51863 like a trained singer who knows he is listened to, but like the birds,
51864 evidently giving vent to the sounds in the same way that one stretches
51865 oneself or walks about to get rid of stiffness, and the sounds were
51866 always high-pitched, mournful, delicate, and almost feminine, and his
51867 face at such times was very serious.
51869 Having been taken prisoner and allowed his beard to grow, he seemed to
51870 have thrown off all that had been forced upon him--everything military
51871 and alien to himself--and had returned to his former peasant habits.
51873 "A soldier on leave--a shirt outside breeches," he would say.
51875 He did not like talking about his life as a soldier, though he did not
51876 complain, and often mentioned that he had not been flogged once during
51877 the whole of his army service. When he related anything it was generally
51878 some old and evidently precious memory of his "Christian" life, as he
51879 called his peasant existence. The proverbs, of which his talk was full,
51880 were for the most part not the coarse and indecent saws soldiers employ,
51881 but those folk sayings which taken without a context seem so
51882 insignificant, but when used appositely suddenly acquire a significance
51883 of profound wisdom.
51885 He would often say the exact opposite of what he had said on a previous
51886 occasion, yet both would be right. He liked to talk and he talked well,
51887 adorning his speech with terms of endearment and with folk sayings which
51888 Pierre thought he invented himself, but the chief charm of his talk lay
51889 in the fact that the commonest events--sometimes just such as Pierre had
51890 witnessed without taking notice of them--assumed in Karataev's a
51891 character of solemn fitness. He liked to hear the folk tales one of the
51892 soldiers used to tell of an evening (they were always the same), but
51893 most of all he liked to hear stories of real life. He would smile
51894 joyfully when listening to such stories, now and then putting in a word
51895 or asking a question to make the moral beauty of what he was told clear
51896 to himself. Karataev had no attachments, friendships, or love, as Pierre
51897 understood them, but loved and lived affectionately with everything life
51898 brought him in contact with, particularly with man--not any particular
51899 man, but those with whom he happened to be. He loved his dog, his
51900 comrades, the French, and Pierre who was his neighbor, but Pierre felt
51901 that in spite of Karataev's affectionate tenderness for him (by which he
51902 unconsciously gave Pierre's spiritual life its due) he would not have
51903 grieved for a moment at parting from him. And Pierre began to feel in
51904 the same way toward Karataev.
51906 To all the other prisoners Platon Karataev seemed a most ordinary
51907 soldier. They called him "little falcon" or "Platosha," chaffed him
51908 good-naturedly, and sent him on errands. But to Pierre he always
51909 remained what he had seemed that first night: an unfathomable, rounded,
51910 eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth.
51912 Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart except his prayers. When he began
51913 to speak he seemed not to know how he would conclude.
51915 Sometimes Pierre, struck by the meaning of his words, would ask him to
51916 repeat them, but Platon could never recall what he had said a moment
51917 before, just as he never could repeat to Pierre the words of his
51918 favorite song: native and birch tree and my heart is sick occurred in
51919 it, but when spoken and not sung, no meaning could be got out of it. He
51920 did not, and could not, understand the meaning of words apart from their
51921 context. Every word and action of his was the manifestation of an
51922 activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he
51923 regarded it, had no meaning as a separate thing. It had meaning only as
51924 part of a whole of which he was always conscious. His words and actions
51925 flowed from him as evenly, inevitably, and spontaneously as fragrance
51926 exhales from a flower. He could not understand the value or significance
51927 of any word or deed taken separately.
51934 When Princess Mary heard from Nicholas that her brother was with the
51935 Rostovs at Yaroslavl she at once prepared to go there, in spite of her
51936 aunt's efforts to dissuade her--and not merely to go herself but to take
51937 her nephew with her. Whether it were difficult or easy, possible or
51938 impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know: it was her duty,
51939 not only to herself, to be near her brother who was perhaps dying, but
51940 to do everything possible to take his son to him, and so she prepared to
51941 set off. That she had not heard from Prince Andrew himself, Princess
51942 Mary attributed to his being too weak to write or to his considering the
51943 long journey too hard and too dangerous for her and his son.
51945 In a few days Princess Mary was ready to start. Her equipages were the
51946 huge family coach in which she had traveled to Voronezh, a semiopen
51947 trap, and a baggage cart. With her traveled Mademoiselle Bourienne,
51948 little Nicholas and his tutor, her old nurse, three maids, Tikhon, and a
51949 young footman and courier her aunt had sent to accompany her.
51951 The usual route through Moscow could not be thought of, and the
51952 roundabout way Princess Mary was obliged to take through Lipetsk,
51953 Ryazan, Vladimir, and Shuya was very long and, as post horses were not
51954 everywhere obtainable, very difficult, and near Ryazan where the French
51955 were said to have shown themselves was even dangerous.
51957 During this difficult journey Mademoiselle Bourienne, Dessalles, and
51958 Princess Mary's servants were astonished at her energy and firmness of
51959 spirit. She went to bed later and rose earlier than any of them, and no
51960 difficulties daunted her. Thanks to her activity and energy, which
51961 infected her fellow travelers, they approached Yaroslavl by the end of
51964 The last days of her stay in Voronezh had been the happiest of her life.
51965 Her love for Rostov no longer tormented or agitated her. It filled her
51966 whole soul, had become an integral part of herself, and she no longer
51967 struggled against it. Latterly she had become convinced that she loved
51968 and was beloved, though she never said this definitely to herself in
51969 words. She had become convinced of it at her last interview with
51970 Nicholas, when he had come to tell her that her brother was with the
51971 Rostovs. Not by a single word had Nicholas alluded to the fact that
51972 Prince Andrew's relations with Natasha might, if he recovered, be
51973 renewed, but Princess Mary saw by his face that he knew and thought of
51976 Yet in spite of that, his relation to her--considerate, delicate, and
51977 loving--not only remained unchanged, but it sometimes seemed to Princess
51978 Mary that he was even glad that the family connection between them
51979 allowed him to express his friendship more freely. She knew that she
51980 loved for the first and only time in her life and felt that she was
51981 beloved, and was happy in regard to it.
51983 But this happiness on one side of her spiritual nature did not prevent
51984 her feeling grief for her brother with full force; on the contrary, that
51985 spiritual tranquility on the one side made it the more possible for her
51986 to give full play to her feeling for her brother. That feeling was so
51987 strong at the moment of leaving Voronezh that those who saw her off, as
51988 they looked at her careworn, despairing face, felt sure she would fall
51989 ill on the journey. But the very difficulties and preoccupations of the
51990 journey, which she took so actively in hand, saved her for a while from
51991 her grief and gave her strength.
51993 As always happens when traveling, Princess Mary thought only of the
51994 journey itself, forgetting its object. But as she approached Yaroslavl
51995 the thought of what might await her there--not after many days, but that
51996 very evening--again presented itself to her and her agitation increased
51997 to its utmost limit.
51999 The courier who had been sent on in advance to find out where the
52000 Rostovs were staying in Yaroslavl, and in what condition Prince Andrew
52001 was, when he met the big coach just entering the town gates was appalled
52002 by the terrible pallor of the princess' face that looked out at him from
52005 "I have found out everything, your excellency: the Rostovs are staying
52006 at the merchant Bronnikov's house, in the Square not far from here,
52007 right above the Volga," said the courier.
52009 Princess Mary looked at him with frightened inquiry, not understanding
52010 why he did not reply to what she chiefly wanted to know: how was her
52011 brother? Mademoiselle Bourienne put that question for her.
52013 "How is the prince?" she asked.
52015 "His excellency is staying in the same house with them."
52017 "Then he is alive," thought Princess Mary, and asked in a low voice:
52020 "The servants say he is still the same."
52022 What "still the same" might mean Princess Mary did not ask, but with an
52023 unnoticed glance at little seven-year-old Nicholas, who was sitting in
52024 front of her looking with pleasure at the town, she bowed her head and
52025 did not raise it again till the heavy coach, rumbling, shaking and
52026 swaying, came to a stop. The carriage steps clattered as they were let
52029 The carriage door was opened. On the left there was water--a great
52030 river--and on the right a porch. There were people at the entrance:
52031 servants, and a rosy girl with a large plait of black hair, smiling as
52032 it seemed to Princess Mary in an unpleasantly affected way. (This was
52033 Sonya.) Princess Mary ran up the steps. "This way, this way!" said the
52034 girl, with the same artificial smile, and the princess found herself in
52035 the hall facing an elderly woman of Oriental type, who came rapidly to
52036 meet her with a look of emotion. This was the countess. She embraced
52037 Princess Mary and kissed her.
52039 "Mon enfant!" she muttered, "je vous aime et vous connais depuis
52043 * "My child! I love you and have known you a long time."
52046 Despite her excitement, Princess Mary realized that this was the
52047 countess and that it was necessary to say something to her. Hardly
52048 knowing how she did it, she contrived to utter a few polite phrases in
52049 French in the same tone as those that had been addressed to her, and
52050 asked: "How is he?"
52052 "The doctor says that he is not in danger," said the countess, but as
52053 she spoke she raised her eyes with a sigh, and her gesture conveyed a
52054 contradiction of her words.
52056 "Where is he? Can I see him--can I?" asked the princess.
52058 "One moment, Princess, one moment, my dear! Is this his son?" said the
52059 countess, turning to little Nicholas who was coming in with Dessalles.
52060 "There will be room for everybody, this is a big house. Oh, what a
52063 The countess took Princess Mary into the drawing room, where Sonya was
52064 talking to Mademoiselle Bourienne. The countess caressed the boy, and
52065 the old count came in and welcomed the princess. He had changed very
52066 much since Princess Mary had last seen him. Then he had been a brisk,
52067 cheerful, self-assured old man; now he seemed a pitiful, bewildered
52068 person. While talking to Princess Mary he continually looked round as if
52069 asking everyone whether he was doing the right thing. After the
52070 destruction of Moscow and of his property, thrown out of his accustomed
52071 groove he seemed to have lost the sense of his own significance and to
52072 feel that there was no longer a place for him in life.
52074 In spite of her one desire to see her brother as soon as possible, and
52075 her vexation that at the moment when all she wanted was to see him they
52076 should be trying to entertain her and pretending to admire her nephew,
52077 the princess noticed all that was going on around her and felt the
52078 necessity of submitting, for a time, to this new order of things which
52079 she had entered. She knew it to be necessary, and though it was hard for
52080 her she was not vexed with these people.
52082 "This is my niece," said the count, introducing Sonya--"You don't know
52085 Princess Mary turned to Sonya and, trying to stifle the hostile feeling
52086 that arose in her toward the girl, she kissed her. But she felt
52087 oppressed by the fact that the mood of everyone around her was so far
52088 from what was in her own heart.
52090 "Where is he?" she asked again, addressing them all.
52092 "He is downstairs. Natasha is with him," answered Sonya, flushing. "We
52093 have sent to ask. I think you must be tired, Princess."
52095 Tears of vexation showed themselves in Princess Mary's eyes. She turned
52096 away and was about to ask the countess again how to go to him, when
52097 light, impetuous, and seemingly buoyant steps were heard at the door.
52098 The princess looked round and saw Natasha coming in, almost running--
52099 that Natasha whom she had liked so little at their meeting in Moscow
52102 But hardly had the princess looked at Natasha's face before she realized
52103 that here was a real comrade in her grief, and consequently a friend.
52104 She ran to meet her, embraced her, and began to cry on her shoulder.
52106 As soon as Natasha, sitting at the head of Prince Andrew's bed, heard of
52107 Princess Mary's arrival, she softly left his room and hastened to her
52108 with those swift steps that had sounded buoyant to Princess Mary.
52110 There was only one expression on her agitated face when she ran into the
52111 drawing room--that of love--boundless love for him, for her, and for all
52112 that was near to the man she loved; and of pity, suffering for others,
52113 and passionate desire to give herself entirely to helping them. It was
52114 plain that at that moment there was in Natasha's heart no thought of
52115 herself or of her own relations with Prince Andrew.
52117 Princess Mary, with her acute sensibility, understood all this at the
52118 first glance at Natasha's face, and wept on her shoulder with sorrowful
52121 "Come, come to him, Mary," said Natasha, leading her into the other
52124 Princess Mary raised her head, dried her eyes, and turned to Natasha.
52125 She felt that from her she would be able to understand and learn
52128 "How..." she began her question but stopped short.
52130 She felt that it was impossible to ask, or to answer, in words.
52131 Natasha's face and eyes would have to tell her all more clearly and
52134 Natasha was gazing at her, but seemed afraid and in doubt whether to say
52135 all she knew or not; she seemed to feel that before those luminous eyes
52136 which penetrated into the very depths of her heart, it was impossible
52137 not to tell the whole truth which she saw. And suddenly, Natasha's lips
52138 twitched, ugly wrinkles gathered round her mouth, and covering her face
52139 with her hands she burst into sobs.
52141 Princess Mary understood.
52143 But she still hoped, and asked, in words she herself did not trust:
52145 "But how is his wound? What is his general condition?"
52147 "You, you... will see," was all Natasha could say.
52149 They sat a little while downstairs near his room till they had left off
52150 crying and were able to go to him with calm faces.
52152 "How has his whole illness gone? Is it long since he grew worse? When
52153 did this happen?" Princess Mary inquired.
52155 Natasha told her that at first there had been danger from his feverish
52156 condition and the pain he suffered, but at Troitsa that had passed and
52157 the doctor had only been afraid of gangrene. That danger had also
52158 passed. When they reached Yaroslavl the wound had begun to fester
52159 (Natasha knew all about such things as festering) and the doctor had
52160 said that the festering might take a normal course. Then fever set in,
52161 but the doctor had said the fever was not very serious.
52163 "But two days ago this suddenly happened," said Natasha, struggling with
52164 her sobs. "I don't know why, but you will see what he is like."
52166 "Is he weaker? Thinner?" asked the princess.
52168 "No, it's not that, but worse. You will see. O, Mary, he is too good, he
52169 cannot, cannot live, because..."
52176 When Natasha opened Prince Andrew's door with a familiar movement and
52177 let Princess Mary pass into the room before her, the princess felt the
52178 sobs in her throat. Hard as she had tried to prepare herself, and now
52179 tried to remain tranquil, she knew that she would be unable to look at
52182 The princess understood what Natasha had meant by the words: "two days
52183 ago this suddenly happened." She understood those words to mean that he
52184 had suddenly softened and that this softening and gentleness were signs
52185 of approaching death. As she stepped to the door she already saw in
52186 imagination Andrew's face as she remembered it in childhood, a gentle,
52187 mild, sympathetic face which he had rarely shown, and which therefore
52188 affected her very strongly. She was sure he would speak soft, tender
52189 words to her such as her father had uttered before his death, and that
52190 she would not be able to bear it and would burst into sobs in his
52191 presence. Yet sooner or later it had to be, and she went in. The sobs
52192 rose higher and higher in her throat as she more and more clearly
52193 distinguished his form and her shortsighted eyes tried to make out his
52194 features, and then she saw his face and met his gaze.
52196 He was lying in a squirrel-fur dressing gown on a divan, surrounded by
52197 pillows. He was thin and pale. In one thin, translucently white hand he
52198 held a handkerchief, while with the other he stroked the delicate
52199 mustache he had grown, moving his fingers slowly. His eyes gazed at them
52202 On seeing his face and meeting his eyes Princess Mary's pace suddenly
52203 slackened, she felt her tears dry up and her sobs ceased. She suddenly
52204 felt guilty and grew timid on catching the expression of his face and
52207 "But in what am I to blame?" she asked herself. And his cold, stern look
52208 replied: "Because you are alive and thinking of the living, while I..."
52210 In the deep gaze that seemed to look not outwards but inwards there was
52211 an almost hostile expression as he slowly regarded his sister and
52214 He kissed his sister, holding her hand in his as was their wont.
52216 "How are you, Mary? How did you manage to get here?" said he in a voice
52217 as calm and aloof as his look.
52219 Had he screamed in agony, that scream would not have struck such horror
52220 into Princess Mary's heart as the tone of his voice.
52222 "And have you brought little Nicholas?" he asked in the same slow, quiet
52223 manner and with an obvious effort to remember.
52225 "How are you now?" said Princess Mary, herself surprised at what she was
52228 "That, my dear, you must ask the doctor," he replied, and again making
52229 an evident effort to be affectionate, he said with his lips only (his
52230 words clearly did not correspond to his thoughts):
52232 "Merci, chere amie, d'etre venue." *
52235 * "Thank you for coming, my dear."
52237 Princess Mary pressed his hand. The pressure made him wince just
52238 perceptibly. He was silent, and she did not know what to say. She now
52239 understood what had happened to him two days before. In his words, his
52240 tone, and especially in that calm, almost antagonistic look could be
52241 felt an estrangement from everything belonging to this world, terrible
52242 in one who is alive. Evidently only with an effort did he understand
52243 anything living; but it was obvious that he failed to understand, not
52244 because he lacked the power to do so but because he understood something
52245 else--something the living did not and could not understand--and which
52246 wholly occupied his mind.
52248 "There, you see how strangely fate has brought us together," said he,
52249 breaking the silence and pointing to Natasha. "She looks after me all
52252 Princess Mary heard him and did not understand how he could say such a
52253 thing. He, the sensitive, tender Prince Andrew, how could he say that,
52254 before her whom he loved and who loved him? Had he expected to live he
52255 could not have said those words in that offensively cold tone. If he had
52256 not known that he was dying, how could he have failed to pity her and
52257 how could he speak like that in her presence? The only explanation was
52258 that he was indifferent, because something else, much more important,
52259 had been revealed to him.
52261 The conversation was cold and disconnected and continually broke off.
52263 "Mary came by way of Ryazan," said Natasha.
52265 Prince Andrew did not notice that she called his sister Mary, and only
52266 after calling her so in his presence did Natasha notice it herself.
52268 "Really?" he asked.
52270 "They told her that all Moscow has been burned down, and that..."
52272 Natasha stopped. It was impossible to talk. It was plain that he was
52273 making an effort to listen, but could not do so.
52275 "Yes, they say it's burned," he said. "It's a great pity," and he gazed
52276 straight before him, absently stroking his mustache with his fingers.
52278 "And so you have met Count Nicholas, Mary?" Prince Andrew suddenly said,
52279 evidently wishing to speak pleasantly to them. "He wrote here that he
52280 took a great liking to you," he went on simply and calmly, evidently
52281 unable to understand all the complex significance his words had for
52282 living people. "If you liked him too, it would be a good thing for you
52283 to get married," he added rather more quickly, as if pleased at having
52284 found words he had long been seeking.
52286 Princess Mary heard his words but they had no meaning for her, except as
52287 a proof of how far away he now was from everything living.
52289 "Why talk of me?" she said quietly and glanced at Natasha.
52291 Natasha, who felt her glance, did not look at her. All three were again
52294 "Andrew, would you like..." Princess Mary suddenly said in a trembling
52295 voice, "would you like to see little Nicholas? He is always talking
52298 Prince Andrew smiled just perceptibly and for the first time, but
52299 Princess Mary, who knew his face so well, saw with horror that he did
52300 not smile with pleasure or affection for his son, but with quiet, gentle
52301 irony because he thought she was trying what she believed to be the last
52302 means of arousing him.
52304 "Yes, I shall be very glad to see him. Is he quite well?"
52306 When little Nicholas was brought into Prince Andrew's room he looked at
52307 his father with frightened eyes, but did not cry, because no one else
52308 was crying. Prince Andrew kissed him and evidently did not know what to
52311 When Nicholas had been led away, Princess Mary again went up to her
52312 brother, kissed him, and unable to restrain her tears any longer began
52315 He looked at her attentively.
52317 "Is it about Nicholas?" he asked.
52319 Princess Mary nodded her head, weeping.
52321 "Mary, you know the Gosp..." but he broke off.
52323 "What did you say?"
52325 "Nothing. You mustn't cry here," he said, looking at her with the same
52328 When Princess Mary began to cry, he understood that she was crying at
52329 the thought that little Nicholas would be left without a father. With a
52330 great effort he tried to return to life and to see things from their
52333 "Yes, to them it must seem sad!" he thought. "But how simple it is.
52335 "The fowls of the air sow not, neither do they reap, yet your Father
52336 feedeth them," he said to himself and wished to say to Princess Mary;
52337 "but no, they will take it their own way, they won't understand! They
52338 can't understand that all those feelings they prize so--all our
52339 feelings, all those ideas that seem so important to us, are unnecessary.
52340 We cannot understand one another," and he remained silent.
52342 Prince Andrew's little son was seven. He could scarcely read, and knew
52343 nothing. After that day he lived through many things, gaining knowledge,
52344 observation, and experience, but had he possessed all the faculties he
52345 afterwards acquired, he could not have had a better or more profound
52346 understanding of the meaning of the scene he had witnessed between his
52347 father, Mary, and Natasha, than he had then. He understood it
52348 completely, and, leaving the room without crying, went silently up to
52349 Natasha who had come out with him and looked shyly at her with his
52350 beautiful, thoughtful eyes, then his uplifted, rosy upper lip trembled
52351 and leaning his head against her he began to cry.
52353 After that he avoided Dessalles and the countess who caressed him and
52354 either sat alone or came timidly to Princess Mary, or to Natasha of whom
52355 he seemed even fonder than of his aunt, and clung to them quietly and
52358 When Princess Mary had left Prince Andrew she fully understood what
52359 Natasha's face had told her. She did not speak any more to Natasha of
52360 hopes of saving his life. She took turns with her beside his sofa, and
52361 did not cry any more, but prayed continually, turning in soul to that
52362 Eternal and Unfathomable, whose presence above the dying man was now so
52370 Not only did Prince Andrew know he would die, but he felt that he was
52371 dying and was already half dead. He was conscious of an aloofness from
52372 everything earthly and a strange and joyous lightness of existence.
52373 Without haste or agitation he awaited what was coming. That inexorable,
52374 eternal, distant, and unknown the presence of which he had felt
52375 continually all his life--was now near to him and, by the strange
52376 lightness he experienced, almost comprehensible and palpable...
52379 Formerly he had feared the end. He had twice experienced that terribly
52380 tormenting fear of death--the end--but now he no longer understood that
52383 He had felt it for the first time when the shell spun like a top before
52384 him, and he looked at the fallow field, the bushes, and the sky, and
52385 knew that he was face to face with death. When he came to himself after
52386 being wounded and the flower of eternal, unfettered love had instantly
52387 unfolded itself in his soul as if freed from the bondage of life that
52388 had restrained it, he no longer feared death and ceased to think about
52391 During the hours of solitude, suffering, and partial delirium he spent
52392 after he was wounded, the more deeply he penetrated into the new
52393 principle of eternal love revealed to him, the more he unconsciously
52394 detached himself from earthly life. To love everything and everybody and
52395 always to sacrifice oneself for love meant not to love anyone, not to
52396 live this earthly life. And the more imbued he became with that
52397 principle of love, the more he renounced life and the more completely he
52398 destroyed that dreadful barrier which--in the absence of such love--
52399 stands between life and death. When during those first days he
52400 remembered that he would have to die, he said to himself: "Well, what of
52401 it? So much the better!"
52403 But after the night in Mytishchi when, half delirious, he had seen her
52404 for whom he longed appear before him and, having pressed her hand to his
52405 lips, had shed gentle, happy tears, love for a particular woman again
52406 crept unobserved into his heart and once more bound him to life. And
52407 joyful and agitating thoughts began to occupy his mind. Recalling the
52408 moment at the ambulance station when he had seen Kuragin, he could not
52409 now regain the feeling he then had, but was tormented by the question
52410 whether Kuragin was alive. And he dared not inquire.
52412 His illness pursued its normal physical course, but what Natasha
52413 referred to when she said: "This suddenly happened," had occurred two
52414 days before Princess Mary arrived. It was the last spiritual struggle
52415 between life and death, in which death gained the victory. It was the
52416 unexpected realization of the fact that he still valued life as
52417 presented to him in the form of his love for Natasha, and a last, though
52418 ultimately vanquished, attack of terror before the unknown.
52420 It was evening. As usual after dinner he was slightly feverish, and his
52421 thoughts were preternaturally clear. Sonya was sitting by the table. He
52422 began to doze. Suddenly a feeling of happiness seized him.
52424 "Ah, she has come!" thought he.
52426 And so it was: in Sonya's place sat Natasha who had just come in
52429 Since she had begun looking after him, he had always experienced this
52430 physical consciousness of her nearness. She was sitting in an armchair
52431 placed sideways, screening the light of the candle from him, and was
52432 knitting a stocking. She had learned to knit stockings since Prince
52433 Andrew had casually mentioned that no one nursed the sick so well as old
52434 nurses who knit stockings, and that there is something soothing in the
52435 knitting of stockings. The needles clicked lightly in her slender,
52436 rapidly moving hands, and he could clearly see the thoughtful profile of
52437 her drooping face. She moved, and the ball rolled off her knees. She
52438 started, glanced round at him, and screening the candle with her hand
52439 stooped carefully with a supple and exact movement, picked up the ball,
52440 and regained her former position.
52442 He looked at her without moving and saw that she wanted to draw a deep
52443 breath after stooping, but refrained from doing so and breathed
52446 At the Troitsa monastery they had spoken of the past, and he had told
52447 her that if he lived he would always thank God for his wound which had
52448 brought them together again, but after that they never spoke of the
52451 "Can it or can it not be?" he now thought as he looked at her and
52452 listened to the light click of the steel needles. "Can fate have brought
52453 me to her so strangely only for me to die?... Is it possible that the
52454 truth of life has been revealed to me only to show me that I have spent
52455 my life in falsity? I love her more than anything in the world! But what
52456 am I to do if I love her?" he thought, and he involuntarily groaned,
52457 from a habit acquired during his sufferings.
52459 On hearing that sound Natasha put down the stocking, leaned nearer to
52460 him, and suddenly, noticing his shining eyes, stepped lightly up to him
52463 "You are not asleep?"
52465 "No, I have been looking at you a long time. I felt you come in. No one
52466 else gives me that sense of soft tranquillity that you do... that light.
52467 I want to weep for joy."
52469 Natasha drew closer to him. Her face shone with rapturous joy.
52471 "Natasha, I love you too much! More than anything in the world."
52473 "And I!"--She turned away for an instant. "Why too much?" she asked.
52475 "Why too much?... Well, what do you, what do you feel in your soul, your
52476 whole soul--shall I live? What do you think?"
52478 "I am sure of it, sure!" Natasha almost shouted, taking hold of both his
52479 hands with a passionate movement.
52481 He remained silent awhile.
52483 "How good it would be!" and taking her hand he kissed it.
52485 Natasha felt happy and agitated, but at once remembered that this would
52486 not do and that he had to be quiet.
52488 "But you have not slept," she said, repressing her joy. "Try to sleep...
52491 He pressed her hand and released it, and she went back to the candle and
52492 sat down again in her former position. Twice she turned and looked at
52493 him, and her eyes met his beaming at her. She set herself a task on her
52494 stocking and resolved not to turn round till it was finished.
52496 Soon he really shut his eyes and fell asleep. He did not sleep long and
52497 suddenly awoke with a start and in a cold perspiration.
52499 As he fell asleep he had still been thinking of the subject that now
52500 always occupied his mind--about life and death, and chiefly about death.
52501 He felt himself nearer to it.
52503 "Love? What is love?" he thought.
52505 "Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I
52506 understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only
52507 because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to
52508 die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and
52509 eternal source." These thoughts seemed to him comforting. But they were
52510 only thoughts. Something was lacking in them, they were not clear, they
52511 were too one-sidedly personal and brain-spun. And there was the former
52512 agitation and obscurity. He fell asleep.
52514 He dreamed that he was lying in the room he really was in, but that he
52515 was quite well and unwounded. Many various, indifferent, and
52516 insignificant people appeared before him. He talked to them and
52517 discussed something trivial. They were preparing to go away somewhere.
52518 Prince Andrew dimly realized that all this was trivial and that he had
52519 more important cares, but he continued to speak, surprising them by
52520 empty witticisms. Gradually, unnoticed, all these persons began to
52521 disappear and a single question, that of the closed door, superseded all
52522 else. He rose and went to the door to bolt and lock it. Everything
52523 depended on whether he was, or was not, in time to lock it. He went, and
52524 tried to hurry, but his legs refused to move and he knew he would not be
52525 in time to lock the door though he painfully strained all his powers. He
52526 was seized by an agonizing fear. And that fear was the fear of death. It
52527 stood behind the door. But just when he was clumsily creeping toward the
52528 door, that dreadful something on the other side was already pressing
52529 against it and forcing its way in. Something not human--death--was
52530 breaking in through that door, and had to be kept out. He seized the
52531 door, making a final effort to hold it back--to lock it was no longer
52532 possible--but his efforts were weak and clumsy and the door, pushed from
52533 behind by that terror, opened and closed again.
52535 Once again it pushed from outside. His last superhuman efforts were vain
52536 and both halves of the door noiselessly opened. It entered, and it was
52537 death, and Prince Andrew died.
52539 But at the instant he died, Prince Andrew remembered that he was asleep,
52540 and at the very instant he died, having made an effort, he awoke.
52542 "Yes, it was death! I died--and woke up. Yes, death is an awakening!"
52543 And all at once it grew light in his soul and the veil that had till
52544 then concealed the unknown was lifted from his spiritual vision. He felt
52545 as if powers till then confined within him had been liberated, and that
52546 strange lightness did not again leave him.
52548 When, waking in a cold perspiration, he moved on the divan, Natasha went
52549 up and asked him what was the matter. He did not answer and looked at
52550 her strangely, not understanding.
52552 That was what had happened to him two days before Princess Mary's
52553 arrival. From that day, as the doctor expressed it, the wasting fever
52554 assumed a malignant character, but what the doctor said did not interest
52555 Natasha, she saw the terrible moral symptoms which to her were more
52558 From that day an awakening from life came to Prince Andrew together with
52559 his awakening from sleep. And compared to the duration of life it did
52560 not seem to him slower than an awakening from sleep compared to the
52561 duration of a dream.
52563 There was nothing terrible or violent in this comparatively slow
52566 His last days and hours passed in an ordinary and simple way. Both
52567 Princess Mary and Natasha, who did not leave him, felt this. They did
52568 not weep or shudder and during these last days they themselves felt that
52569 they were not attending on him (he was no longer there, he had left
52570 them) but on what reminded them most closely of him--his body. Both felt
52571 this so strongly that the outward and terrible side of death did not
52572 affect them and they did not feel it necessary to foment their grief.
52573 Neither in his presence nor out of it did they weep, nor did they ever
52574 talk to one another about him. They felt that they could not express in
52575 words what they understood.
52577 They both saw that he was sinking slowly and quietly, deeper and deeper,
52578 away from them, and they both knew that this had to be so and that it
52581 He confessed, and received communion: everyone came to take leave of
52582 him. When they brought his son to him, he pressed his lips to the boy's
52583 and turned away, not because he felt it hard and sad (Princess Mary and
52584 Natasha understood that) but simply because he thought it was all that
52585 was required of him, but when they told him to bless the boy, he did
52586 what was demanded and looked round as if asking whether there was
52587 anything else he should do.
52589 When the last convulsions of the body, which the spirit was leaving,
52590 occurred, Princess Mary and Natasha were present.
52592 "Is it over?" said Princess Mary when his body had for a few minutes
52593 lain motionless, growing cold before them. Natasha went up, looked at
52594 the dead eyes, and hastened to close them. She closed them but did not
52595 kiss them, but clung to that which reminded her most nearly of him--his
52598 "Where has he gone? Where is he now?..."
52600 When the body, washed and dressed, lay in the coffin on a table,
52601 everyone came to take leave of him and they all wept.
52603 Little Nicholas cried because his heart was rent by painful perplexity.
52604 The countess and Sonya cried from pity for Natasha and because he was no
52605 more. The old count cried because he felt that before long, he, too,
52606 must take the same terrible step.
52608 Natasha and Princess Mary also wept now, but not because of their own
52609 personal grief; they wept with a reverent and softening emotion which
52610 had taken possession of their souls at the consciousness of the simple
52611 and solemn mystery of death that had been accomplished in their
52614 BOOK THIRTEEN: 1812
52621 Man's mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but
52622 the desire to find those causes is implanted in man's soul. And without
52623 considering the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions any one of
52624 which taken separately may seem to be the cause, he snatches at the
52625 first approximation to a cause that seems to him intelligible and says:
52626 "This is the cause!" In historical events (where the actions of men are
52627 the subject of observation) the first and most primitive approximation
52628 to present itself was the will of the gods and, after that, the will of
52629 those who stood in the most prominent position--the heroes of history.
52630 But we need only penetrate to the essence of any historic event--which
52631 lies in the activity of the general mass of men who take part in it--to
52632 be convinced that the will of the historic hero does not control the
52633 actions of the mass but is itself continually controlled. It may seem to
52634 be a matter of indifference whether we understand the meaning of
52635 historical events this way or that; yet there is the same difference
52636 between a man who says that the people of the West moved on the East
52637 because Napoleon wished it and a man who says that this happened because
52638 it had to happen, as there is between those who declared that the earth
52639 was stationary and that the planets moved round it and those who
52640 admitted that they did not know what upheld the earth, but knew there
52641 were laws directing its movement and that of the other planets. There
52642 is, and can be, no cause of an historical event except the one cause of
52643 all causes. But there are laws directing events, and some of these laws
52644 are known to us while we are conscious of others we cannot comprehend.
52645 The discovery of these laws is only possible when we have quite
52646 abandoned the attempt to find the cause in the will of some one man,
52647 just as the discovery of the laws of the motion of the planets was
52648 possible only when men abandoned the conception of the fixity of the
52651 The historians consider that, next to the battle of Borodino and the
52652 occupation of Moscow by the enemy and its destruction by fire, the most
52653 important episode of the war of 1812 was the movement of the Russian
52654 army from the Ryazana to the Kaluga road and to the Tarutino camp--the
52655 so-called flank march across the Krasnaya Pakhra River. They ascribe the
52656 glory of that achievement of genius to different men and dispute as to
52657 whom the honor is due. Even foreign historians, including the French,
52658 acknowledge the genius of the Russian commanders when they speak of that
52659 flank march. But it is hard to understand why military writers, and
52660 following them others, consider this flank march to be the profound
52661 conception of some one man who saved Russia and destroyed Napoleon. In
52662 the first place it is hard to understand where the profundity and genius
52663 of this movement lay, for not much mental effort was needed to see that
52664 the best position for an army when it is not being attacked is where
52665 there are most provisions; and even a dull boy of thirteen could have
52666 guessed that the best position for an army after its retreat from Moscow
52667 in 1812 was on the Kaluga road. So it is impossible to understand by
52668 what reasoning the historians reach the conclusion that this maneuver
52669 was a profound one. And it is even more difficult to understand just why
52670 they think that this maneuver was calculated to save Russia and destroy
52671 the French; for this flank march, had it been preceded, accompanied, or
52672 followed by other circumstances, might have proved ruinous to the
52673 Russians and salutary for the French. If the position of the Russian
52674 army really began to improve from the time of that march, it does not at
52675 all follow that the march was the cause of it.
52677 That flank march might not only have failed to give any advantage to the
52678 Russian army, but might in other circumstances have led to its
52679 destruction. What would have happened had Moscow not burned down? If
52680 Murat had not lost sight of the Russians? If Napoleon had not remained
52681 inactive? If the Russian army at Krasnaya Pakhra had given battle as
52682 Bennigsen and Barclay advised? What would have happened had the French
52683 attacked the Russians while they were marching beyond the Pakhra? What
52684 would have happened if on approaching Tarutino, Napoleon had attacked
52685 the Russians with but a tenth of the energy he had shown when he
52686 attacked them at Smolensk? What would have happened had the French moved
52687 on Petersburg?... In any of these eventualities the flank march that
52688 brought salvation might have proved disastrous.
52690 The third and most incomprehensible thing is that people studying
52691 history deliberately avoid seeing that this flank march cannot be
52692 attributed to any one man, that no one ever foresaw it, and that in
52693 reality, like the retreat from Fili, it did not suggest itself to anyone
52694 in its entirety, but resulted--moment by moment, step by step, event by
52695 event--from an endless number of most diverse circumstances and was only
52696 seen in its entirety when it had been accomplished and belonged to the
52699 At the council at Fili the prevailing thought in the minds of the
52700 Russian commanders was the one naturally suggesting itself, namely, a
52701 direct retreat by the Nizhni road. In proof of this there is the fact
52702 that the majority of the council voted for such a retreat, and above all
52703 there is the well-known conversation after the council, between the
52704 commander in chief and Lanskoy, who was in charge of the commissariat
52705 department. Lanskoy informed the commander-in-chief that the army
52706 supplies were for the most part stored along the Oka in the Tula and
52707 Ryazan provinces, and that if they retreated on Nizhni the army would be
52708 separated from its supplies by the broad river Oka, which cannot be
52709 crossed early in winter. This was the first indication of the necessity
52710 of deviating from what had previously seemed the most natural course--a
52711 direct retreat on Nizhni-Novgorod. The army turned more to the south,
52712 along the Ryazan road and nearer to its supplies. Subsequently the
52713 inactivity of the French (who even lost sight of the Russian army),
52714 concern for the safety of the arsenal at Tula, and especially the
52715 advantages of drawing nearer to its supplies caused the army to turn
52716 still further south to the Tula road. Having crossed over, by a forced
52717 march, to the Tula road beyond the Pakhra, the Russian commanders
52718 intended to remain at Podolsk and had no thought of the Tarutino
52719 position; but innumerable circumstances and the reappearance of French
52720 troops who had for a time lost touch with the Russians, and projects of
52721 giving battle, and above all the abundance of provisions in Kaluga
52722 province, obliged our army to turn still more to the south and to cross
52723 from the Tula to the Kaluga road and go to Tarutino, which was between
52724 the roads along which those supplies lay. Just as it is impossible to
52725 say when it was decided to abandon Moscow, so it is impossible to say
52726 precisely when, or by whom, it was decided to move to Tarutino. Only
52727 when the army had got there, as the result of innumerable and varying
52728 forces, did people begin to assure themselves that they had desired this
52729 movement and long ago foreseen its result.
52736 The famous flank movement merely consisted in this: after the advance of
52737 the French had ceased, the Russian army, which had been continually
52738 retreating straight back from the invaders, deviated from that direct
52739 course and, not finding itself pursued, was naturally drawn toward the
52740 district where supplies were abundant.
52742 If instead of imagining to ourselves commanders of genius leading the
52743 Russian army, we picture that army without any leaders, it could not
52744 have done anything but make a return movement toward Moscow, describing
52745 an arc in the direction where most provisions were to be found and where
52746 the country was richest.
52748 That movement from the Nizhni to the Ryazan, Tula, and Kaluga roads was
52749 so natural that even the Russian marauders moved in that direction, and
52750 demands were sent from Petersburg for Kutuzov to take his army that way.
52751 At Tarutino Kutuzov received what was almost a reprimand from the
52752 Emperor for having moved his army along the Ryazan road, and the
52753 Emperor's letter indicated to him the very position he had already
52754 occupied near Kaluga.
52756 Having rolled like a ball in the direction of the impetus given by the
52757 whole campaign and by the battle of Borodino, the Russian army--when the
52758 strength of that impetus was exhausted and no fresh push was received--
52759 assumed the position natural to it.
52761 Kutuzov's merit lay, not in any strategic maneuver of genius, as it is
52762 called, but in the fact that he alone understood the significance of
52763 what had happened. He alone then understood the meaning of the French
52764 army's inactivity, he alone continued to assert that the battle of
52765 Borodino had been a victory, he alone--who as commander-in-chief might
52766 have been expected to be eager to attack--employed his whole strength to
52767 restrain the Russian army from useless engagements.
52769 The beast wounded at Borodino was lying where the fleeing hunter had
52770 left him; but whether he was still alive, whether he was strong and
52771 merely lying low, the hunter did not know. Suddenly the beast was heard
52774 The moan of that wounded beast (the French army) which betrayed its
52775 calamitous condition was the sending of Lauriston to Kutuzov's camp with
52776 overtures for peace.
52778 Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his head was
52779 right, wrote to Kutuzov the first words that occurred to him, though
52780 they were meaningless.
52782 MONSIEUR LE PRINCE KOUTOUZOV: I am sending one of my adjutants-general
52783 to discuss several interesting questions with you. I beg your Highness
52784 to credit what he says to you, especially when he expresses the
52785 sentiment of esteem and special regard I have long entertained for your
52786 person. This letter having no other object, I pray God, monsieur le
52787 Prince Koutouzov, to keep you in His holy and gracious protection!
52789 NAPOLEON MOSCOW, OCTOBER 30, 1812
52791 Kutuzov replied: "I should be cursed by posterity were I looked on as
52792 the initiator of a settlement of any sort. Such is the present spirit of
52793 my nation." But he continued to exert all his powers to restrain his
52794 troops from attacking.
52796 During the month that the French troops were pillaging in Moscow and the
52797 Russian troops were quietly encamped at Tarutino, a change had taken
52798 place in the relative strength of the two armies--both in spirit and in
52799 number--as a result of which the superiority had passed to the Russian
52800 side. Though the condition and numbers of the French army were unknown
52801 to the Russians, as soon as that change occurred the need of attacking
52802 at once showed itself by countless signs. These signs were: Lauriston's
52803 mission; the abundance of provisions at Tarutino; the reports coming in
52804 from all sides of the inactivity and disorder of the French; the flow of
52805 recruits to our regiments; the fine weather; the long rest the Russian
52806 soldiers had enjoyed, and the impatience to do what they had been
52807 assembled for, which usually shows itself in an army that has been
52808 resting; curiosity as to what the French army, so long lost sight of,
52809 was doing; the boldness with which our outposts now scouted close up to
52810 the French stationed at Tarutino; the news of easy successes gained by
52811 peasants and guerrilla troops over the French, the envy aroused by this;
52812 the desire for revenge that lay in the heart of every Russian as long as
52813 the French were in Moscow, and (above all) a dim consciousness in every
52814 soldier's mind that the relative strength of the armies had changed and
52815 that the advantage was now on our side. There was a substantial change
52816 in the relative strength, and an advance had become inevitable. And at
52817 once, as a clock begins to strike and chime as soon as the minute hand
52818 has completed a full circle, this change was shown by an increased
52819 activity, whirring, and chiming in the higher spheres.
52826 The Russian army was commanded by Kutuzov and his staff, and also by the
52827 Emperor from Petersburg. Before the news of the abandonment of Moscow
52828 had been received in Petersburg, a detailed plan of the whole campaign
52829 had been drawn up and sent to Kutuzov for his guidance. Though this plan
52830 had been drawn up on the supposition that Moscow was still in our hands,
52831 it was approved by the staff and accepted as a basis for action. Kutuzov
52832 only replied that movements arranged from a distance were always
52833 difficult to execute. So fresh instructions were sent for the solution
52834 of difficulties that might be encountered, as well as fresh people who
52835 were to watch Kutuzov's actions and report upon them.
52837 Besides this, the whole staff of the Russian army was now reorganized.
52838 The posts left vacant by Bagration, who had been killed, and by Barclay,
52839 who had gone away in dudgeon, had to be filled. Very serious
52840 consideration was given to the question whether it would be better to
52841 put A in B's place and B in D's, or on the contrary to put D in A's
52842 place, and so on--as if anything more than A's or B's satisfaction
52845 As a result of the hostility between Kutuzov and Bennigsen, his Chief of
52846 Staff, the presence of confidential representatives of the Emperor, and
52847 these transfers, a more than usually complicated play of parties was
52848 going on among the staff of the army. A was undermining B, D was
52849 undermining C, and so on in all possible combinations and permutations.
52850 In all these plottings the subject of intrigue was generally the conduct
52851 of the war, which all these men believed they were directing; but this
52852 affair of the war went on independently of them, as it had to go: that
52853 is, never in the way people devised, but flowing always from the
52854 essential attitude of the masses. Only in the highest spheres did all
52855 these schemes, crossings, and interminglings appear to be a true
52856 reflection of what had to happen.
52858 Prince Michael Ilarionovich! (wrote the Emperor on the second of October
52859 in a letter that reached Kutuzov after the battle at Tarutino) Since
52860 September 2 Moscow has been in the hands of the enemy. Your last reports
52861 were written on the twentieth, and during all this time not only has no
52862 action been taken against the enemy or for the relief of the ancient
52863 capital, but according to your last report you have even retreated
52864 farther. Serpukhov is already occupied by an enemy detachment and Tula
52865 with its famous arsenal so indispensable to the army, is in danger. From
52866 General Wintzingerode's reports, I see that an enemy corps of ten
52867 thousand men is moving on the Petersburg road. Another corps of several
52868 thousand men is moving on Dmitrov. A third has advanced along the
52869 Vladimir road, and a fourth, rather considerable detachment is stationed
52870 between Ruza and Mozhaysk. Napoleon himself was in Moscow as late as the
52871 twenty-fifth. In view of all this information, when the enemy has
52872 scattered his forces in large detachments, and with Napoleon and his
52873 Guards in Moscow, is it possible that the enemy's forces confronting you
52874 are so considerable as not to allow of your taking the offensive? On the
52875 contrary, he is probably pursuing you with detachments, or at most with
52876 an army corps much weaker than the army entrusted to you. It would seem
52877 that, availing yourself of these circumstances, you might advantageously
52878 attack a weaker one and annihilate him, or at least oblige him to
52879 retreat, retaining in our hands an important part of the provinces now
52880 occupied by the enemy, and thereby averting danger from Tula and other
52881 towns in the interior. You will be responsible if the enemy is able to
52882 direct a force of any size against Petersburg to threaten this capital
52883 in which it has not been possible to retain many troops; for with the
52884 army entrusted to you, and acting with resolution and energy, you have
52885 ample means to avert this fresh calamity. Remember that you have still
52886 to answer to our offended country for the loss of Moscow. You have
52887 experienced my readiness to reward you. That readiness will not weaken
52888 in me, but I and Russia have a right to expect from you all the zeal,
52889 firmness, and success which your intellect, military talent, and the
52890 courage of the troops you command justify us in expecting.
52892 But by the time this letter, which proved that the real relation of the
52893 forces had already made itself felt in Petersburg, was dispatched,
52894 Kutuzov had found himself unable any longer to restrain the army he
52895 commanded from attacking and a battle had taken place.
52897 On the second of October a Cossack, Shapovalov, who was out scouting,
52898 killed one hare and wounded another. Following the wounded hare he made
52899 his way far into the forest and came upon the left flank of Murat's
52900 army, encamped there without any precautions. The Cossack laughingly
52901 told his comrades how he had almost fallen into the hands of the French.
52902 A cornet, hearing the story, informed his commander.
52904 The Cossack was sent for and questioned. The Cossack officers wished to
52905 take advantage of this chance to capture some horses, but one of the
52906 superior officers, who was acquainted with the higher authorities,
52907 reported the incident to a general on the staff. The state of things on
52908 the staff had of late been exceedingly strained. Ermolov had been to see
52909 Bennigsen a few days previously and had entreated him to use his
52910 influence with the commander-in-chief to induce him to take the
52913 "If I did not know you I should think you did not want what you are
52914 asking for. I need only advise anything and his Highness is sure to do
52915 the opposite," replied Bennigsen.
52917 The Cossack's report, confirmed by horse patrols who were sent out, was
52918 the final proof that events had matured. The tightly coiled spring was
52919 released, the clock began to whirr and the chimes to play. Despite all
52920 his supposed power, his intellect, his experience, and his knowledge of
52921 men, Kutuzov--having taken into consideration the Cossack's report, a
52922 note from Bennigsen who sent personal reports to the Emperor, the wishes
52923 he supposed the Emperor to hold, and the fact that all the generals
52924 expressed the same wish--could no longer check the inevitable movement,
52925 and gave the order to do what he regarded as useless and harmful--gave
52926 his approval, that is, to the accomplished fact.
52933 Bennigsen's note and the Cossack's information that the left flank of
52934 the French was unguarded were merely final indications that it was
52935 necessary to order an attack, and it was fixed for the fifth of October.
52937 On the morning of the fourth of October Kutuzov signed the dispositions.
52938 Toll read them to Ermolov, asking him to attend to the further
52941 "All right--all right. I haven't time just now," replied Ermolov, and
52944 The dispositions drawn up by Toll were very good. As in the Austerlitz
52945 dispositions, it was written--though not in German this time:
52947 "The First Column will march here and here," "the Second Column will
52948 march there and there," and so on; and on paper, all these columns
52949 arrived at their places at the appointed time and destroyed the enemy.
52950 Everything had been admirably thought out as is usual in dispositions,
52951 and as is always the case, not a single column reached its place at the
52954 When the necessary number of copies of the dispositions had been
52955 prepared, an officer was summoned and sent to deliver them to Ermolov to
52956 deal with. A young officer of the Horse Guards, Kutuzov's orderly,
52957 pleased at the importance of the mission entrusted to him, went to
52958 Ermolov's quarters.
52960 "Gone away," said Ermolov's orderly.
52962 The officer of the Horse Guards went to a general with whom Ermolov was
52965 "No, and the general's out too."
52967 The officer, mounting his horse, rode off to someone else.
52969 "No, he's gone out."
52971 "If only they don't make me responsible for this delay! What a nuisance
52972 it is!" thought the officer, and he rode round the whole camp. One man
52973 said he had seen Ermolov ride past with some other generals, others said
52974 he must have returned home. The officer searched till six o'clock in the
52975 evening without even stopping to eat. Ermolov was nowhere to be found
52976 and no one knew where he was. The officer snatched a little food at a
52977 comrade's, and rode again to the vanguard to find Miloradovich.
52978 Miloradovich too was away, but here he was told that he had gone to a
52979 ball at General Kikin's and that Ermolov was probably there too.
52983 "Why, there, over at Echkino," said a Cossack officer, pointing to a
52984 country house in the far distance.
52986 "What, outside our line?"
52988 "They've put two regiments as outposts, and they're having such a spree
52989 there, it's awful! Two bands and three sets of singers!"
52991 The officer rode out beyond our lines to Echkino. While still at a
52992 distance he heard as he rode the merry sounds of a soldier's dance song
52993 proceeding from the house.
52995 "In the meadows... in the meadows!" he heard, accompanied by whistling
52996 and the sound of a torban, drowned every now and then by shouts. These
52997 sounds made his spirits rise, but at the same time he was afraid that he
52998 would be blamed for not having executed sooner the important order
52999 entrusted to him. It was already past eight o'clock. He dismounted and
53000 went up into the porch of a large country house which had remained
53001 intact between the Russian and French forces. In the refreshment room
53002 and the hall, footmen were bustling about with wine and viands. Groups
53003 of singers stood outside the windows. The officer was admitted and
53004 immediately saw all the chief generals of the army together, and among
53005 them Ermolov's big imposing figure. They all had their coats unbuttoned
53006 and were standing in a semicircle with flushed and animated faces,
53007 laughing loudly. In the middle of the room a short handsome general with
53008 a red face was dancing the trepak with much spirit and agility.
53010 "Ha, ha, ha! Bravo, Nicholas Ivanych! Ha, ha, ha!"
53012 The officer felt that by arriving with important orders at such a moment
53013 he was doubly to blame, and he would have preferred to wait; but one of
53014 the generals espied him and, hearing what he had come about, informed
53017 Ermolov came forward with a frown on his face and, hearing what the
53018 officer had to say, took the papers from him without a word.
53020 "You think he went off just by chance?" said a comrade, who was on the
53021 staff that evening, to the officer of the Horse Guards, referring to
53022 Ermolov. "It was a trick. It was done on purpose to get Konovnitsyn into
53023 trouble. You'll see what a mess there'll be tomorrow."
53030 Next day the decrepit Kutuzov, having given orders to be called early,
53031 said his prayers, dressed, and, with an unpleasant consciousness of
53032 having to direct a battle he did not approve of, got into his caleche
53033 and drove from Letashovka (a village three and a half miles from
53034 Tarutino) to the place where the attacking columns were to meet. He sat
53035 in the caleche, dozing and waking up by turns, and listening for any
53036 sound of firing on the right as an indication that the action had begun.
53037 But all was still quiet. A damp dull autumn morning was just dawning. On
53038 approaching Tarutino Kutuzov noticed cavalrymen leading their horses to
53039 water across the road along which he was driving. Kutuzov looked at them
53040 searchingly, stopped his carriage, and inquired what regiment they
53041 belonged to. They belonged to a column that should have been far in
53042 front and in ambush long before then. "It may be a mistake," thought the
53043 old commander-in-chief. But a little further on he saw infantry
53044 regiments with their arms piled and the soldiers, only partly dressed,
53045 eating their rye porridge and carrying fuel. He sent for an officer. The
53046 officer reported that no order to advance had been received.
53048 "How! Not rec..." Kutuzov began, but checked himself immediately and
53049 sent for a senior officer. Getting out of his caleche, he waited with
53050 drooping head and breathing heavily, pacing silently up and down. When
53051 Eykhen, the officer of the general staff whom he had summoned, appeared,
53052 Kutuzov went purple in the face, not because that officer was to blame
53053 for the mistake, but because he was an object of sufficient importance
53054 for him to vent his wrath on. Trembling and panting the old man fell
53055 into that state of fury in which he sometimes used to roll on the
53056 ground, and he fell upon Eykhen, threatening him with his hands,
53057 shouting and loading him with gross abuse. Another man, Captain Brozin,
53058 who happened to turn up and who was not at all to blame, suffered the
53061 "What sort of another blackguard are you? I'll have you shot!
53062 Scoundrels!" yelled Kutuzov in a hoarse voice, waving his arms and
53065 He was suffering physically. He, the commander-in-chief, a Serene
53066 Highness who everybody said possessed powers such as no man had ever had
53067 in Russia, to be placed in this position--made the laughingstock of the
53068 whole army! "I needn't have been in such a hurry to pray about today, or
53069 have kept awake thinking everything over all night," thought he to
53070 himself. "When I was a chit of an officer no one would have dared to
53071 mock me so... and now!" He was in a state of physical suffering as if
53072 from corporal punishment, and could not avoid expressing it by cries of
53073 anger and distress. But his strength soon began to fail him, and looking
53074 about him, conscious of having said much that was amiss, he again got
53075 into his caleche and drove back in silence.
53077 His wrath, once expended, did not return, and blinking feebly he
53078 listened to excuses and self-justifications (Ermolov did not come to see
53079 him till the next day) and to the insistence of Bennigsen, Konovnitsyn,
53080 and Toll that the movement that had miscarried should be executed next
53081 day. And once more Kutuzov had to consent.
53088 Next day the troops assembled in their appointed places in the evening
53089 and advanced during the night. It was an autumn night with dark purple
53090 clouds, but no rain. The ground was damp but not muddy, and the troops
53091 advanced noiselessly, only occasionally a jingling of the artillery
53092 could be faintly heard. The men were forbidden to talk out loud, to
53093 smoke their pipes, or to strike a light, and they tried to prevent their
53094 horses neighing. The secrecy of the undertaking heightened its charm and
53095 they marched gaily. Some columns, supposing they had reached their
53096 destination, halted, piled arms, and settled down on the cold ground,
53097 but the majority marched all night and arrived at places where they
53098 evidently should not have been.
53100 Only Count Orlov-Denisov with his Cossacks (the least important
53101 detachment of all) got to his appointed place at the right time. This
53102 detachment halted at the outskirts of a forest, on the path leading from
53103 the village of Stromilova to Dmitrovsk.
53105 Toward dawn, Count Orlov-Denisov, who had dozed off, was awakened by a
53106 deserter from the French army being brought to him. This was a Polish
53107 sergeant of Poniatowski's corps, who explained in Polish that he had
53108 come over because he had been slighted in the service: that he ought
53109 long ago to have been made an officer, that he was braver than any of
53110 them, and so he had left them and wished to pay them out. He said that
53111 Murat was spending the night less than a mile from where they were, and
53112 that if they would let him have a convoy of a hundred men he would
53113 capture him alive. Count Orlov-Denisov consulted his fellow officers.
53115 The offer was too tempting to be refused. Everyone volunteered to go and
53116 everybody advised making the attempt. After much disputing and arguing,
53117 Major-General Grekov with two Cossack regiments decided to go with the
53120 "Now, remember," said Count Orlov-Denisov to the sergeant at parting,
53121 "if you have been lying I'll have you hanged like a dog; but if it's
53122 true you shall have a hundred gold pieces!"
53124 Without replying, the sergeant, with a resolute air, mounted and rode
53125 away with Grekov whose men had quickly assembled. They disappeared into
53126 the forest, and Count Orlov-Denisov, having seen Grekov off, returned,
53127 shivering from the freshness of the early dawn and excited by what he
53128 had undertaken on his own responsibility, and began looking at the enemy
53129 camp, now just visible in the deceptive light of dawn and the dying
53130 campfires. Our columns ought to have begun to appear on an open
53131 declivity to his right. He looked in that direction, but though the
53132 columns would have been visible quite far off, they were not to be seen.
53133 It seemed to the count that things were beginning to stir in the French
53134 camp, and his keen-sighted adjutant confirmed this.
53136 "Oh, it is really too late," said Count Orlov, looking at the camp.
53138 As often happens when someone we have trusted is no longer before our
53139 eyes, it suddenly seemed quite clear and obvious to him that the
53140 sergeant was an impostor, that he had lied, and that the whole Russian
53141 attack would be ruined by the absence of those two regiments, which he
53142 would lead away heaven only knew where. How could one capture a
53143 commander-in-chief from among such a mass of troops!
53145 "I am sure that rascal was lying," said the count.
53147 "They can still be called back," said one of his suite, who like Count
53148 Orlov felt distrustful of the adventure when he looked at the enemy's
53151 "Eh? Really... what do you think? Should we let them go on or not?"
53153 "Will you have them fetched back?"
53155 "Fetch them back, fetch them back!" said Count Orlov with sudden
53156 determination, looking at his watch. "It will be too late. It is quite
53159 And the adjutant galloped through the forest after Grekov. When Grekov
53160 returned, Count Orlov-Denisov, excited both by the abandoned attempt and
53161 by vainly awaiting the infantry columns that still did not appear, as
53162 well as by the proximity of the enemy, resolved to advance. All his men
53163 felt the same excitement.
53165 "Mount!" he commanded in a whisper. The men took their places and
53166 crossed themselves.... "Forward, with God's aid!"
53168 "Hurrah-ah-ah!" reverberated in the forest, and the Cossack companies,
53169 trailing their lances and advancing one after another as if poured out
53170 of a sack, dashed gaily across the brook toward the camp.
53172 One desperate, frightened yell from the first French soldier who saw the
53173 Cossacks, and all who were in the camp, undressed and only just waking
53174 up, ran off in all directions, abandoning cannons, muskets, and horses.
53176 Had the Cossacks pursued the French, without heeding what was behind and
53177 around them, they would have captured Murat and everything there. That
53178 was what the officers desired. But it was impossible to make the
53179 Cossacks budge when once they had got booty and prisoners. None of them
53180 listened to orders. Fifteen hundred prisoners and thirty-eight guns were
53181 taken on the spot, besides standards and (what seemed most important to
53182 the Cossacks) horses, saddles, horsecloths, and the like. All this had
53183 to be dealt with, the prisoners and guns secured, the booty divided--not
53184 without some shouting and even a little fighting among themselves--and
53185 it was on this that the Cossacks all busied themselves.
53187 The French, not being farther pursued, began to recover themselves: they
53188 formed into detachments and began firing. Orlov-Denisov, still waiting
53189 for the other columns to arrive, advanced no further.
53191 Meantime, according to the dispositions which said that "the First
53192 Column will march" and so on, the infantry of the belated columns,
53193 commanded by Bennigsen and directed by Toll, had started in due order
53194 and, as always happens, had got somewhere, but not to their appointed
53195 places. As always happens the men, starting cheerfully, began to halt;
53196 murmurs were heard, there was a sense of confusion, and finally a
53197 backward movement. Adjutants and generals galloped about, shouted, grew
53198 angry, quarreled, said they had come quite wrong and were late, gave
53199 vent to a little abuse, and at last gave it all up and went forward,
53200 simply to get somewhere. "We shall get somewhere or other!" And they did
53201 indeed get somewhere, though not to their right places; a few eventually
53202 even got to their right place, but too late to be of any use and only in
53203 time to be fired at. Toll, who in this battle played the part of
53204 Weyrother at Austerlitz, galloped assiduously from place to place,
53205 finding everything upside down everywhere. Thus he stumbled on Bagovut's
53206 corps in a wood when it was already broad daylight, though the corps
53207 should long before have joined Orlov-Denisov. Excited and vexed by the
53208 failure and supposing that someone must be responsible for it, Toll
53209 galloped up to the commander of the corps and began upbraiding him
53210 severely, saying that he ought to be shot. General Bagovut, a fighting
53211 old soldier of placid temperament, being also upset by all the delay,
53212 confusion, and cross-purposes, fell into a rage to everybody's surprise
53213 and quite contrary to his usual character and said disagreeable things
53216 "I prefer not to take lessons from anyone, but I can die with my men as
53217 well as anybody," he said, and advanced with a single division.
53219 Coming out onto a field under the enemy's fire, this brave general went
53220 straight ahead, leading his men under fire, without considering in his
53221 agitation whether going into action now, with a single division, would
53222 be of any use or no. Danger, cannon balls, and bullets were just what he
53223 needed in his angry mood. One of the first bullets killed him, and other
53224 bullets killed many of his men. And his division remained under fire for
53225 some time quite uselessly.
53232 Meanwhile another column was to have attacked the French from the front,
53233 but Kutuzov accompanied that column. He well knew that nothing but
53234 confusion would come of this battle undertaken against his will, and as
53235 far as was in his power held the troops back. He did not advance.
53237 He rode silently on his small gray horse, indolently answering
53238 suggestions that they should attack.
53240 "The word attack is always on your tongue, but you don't see that we are
53241 unable to execute complicated maneuvers," said he to Miloradovich who
53242 asked permission to advance.
53244 "We couldn't take Murat prisoner this morning or get to the place in
53245 time, and nothing can be done now!" he replied to someone else.
53247 When Kutuzov was informed that at the French rear--where according to
53248 the reports of the Cossacks there had previously been nobody--there were
53249 now two battalions of Poles, he gave a sidelong glance at Ermolov who
53250 was behind him and to whom he had not spoken since the previous day.
53252 "You see! They are asking to attack and making plans of all kinds, but
53253 as soon as one gets to business nothing is ready, and the enemy,
53254 forewarned, takes measures accordingly."
53256 Ermolov screwed up his eyes and smiled faintly on hearing these words.
53257 He understood that for him the storm had blown over, and that Kutuzov
53258 would content himself with that hint.
53260 "He's having a little fun at my expense," said Ermolov softly, nudging
53261 with his knee Raevski who was at his side.
53263 Soon after this, Ermolov moved up to Kutuzov and respectfully remarked:
53265 "It is not too late yet, your Highness--the enemy has not gone away--if
53266 you were to order an attack! If not, the Guards will not so much as see
53269 Kutuzov did not reply, but when they reported to him that Murat's troops
53270 were in retreat he ordered an advance, though at every hundred paces he
53271 halted for three quarters of an hour.
53273 The whole battle consisted in what Orlov-Denisov's Cossacks had done:
53274 the rest of the army merely lost some hundreds of men uselessly.
53276 In consequence of this battle Kutuzov received a diamond decoration, and
53277 Bennigsen some diamonds and a hundred thousand rubles, others also
53278 received pleasant recognitions corresponding to their various grades,
53279 and following the battle fresh changes were made in the staff.
53281 "That's how everything is done with us, all topsy-turvy!" said the
53282 Russian officers and generals after the Tarutino battle, letting it be
53283 understood that some fool there is doing things all wrong but that we
53284 ourselves should not have done so, just as people speak today. But
53285 people who talk like that either do not know what they are talking about
53286 or deliberately deceive themselves. No battle--Tarutino, Borodino, or
53287 Austerlitz--takes place as those who planned it anticipated. That is an
53288 essential condition.
53290 A countless number of free forces (for nowhere is man freer than during
53291 a battle, where it is a question of life and death) influence the course
53292 taken by the fight, and that course never can be known in advance and
53293 never coincides with the direction of any one force.
53295 If many simultaneously and variously directed forces act on a given
53296 body, the direction of its motion cannot coincide with any one of those
53297 forces, but will always be a mean--what in mechanics is represented by
53298 the diagonal of a parallelogram of forces.
53300 If in the descriptions given by historians, especially French ones, we
53301 find their wars and battles carried out in accordance with previously
53302 formed plans, the only conclusion to be drawn is that those descriptions
53305 The battle of Tarutino obviously did not attain the aim Toll had in
53306 view--to lead the troops into action in the order prescribed by the
53307 dispositions; nor that which Count Orlov-Denisov may have had in view--
53308 to take Murat prisoner; nor the result of immediately destroying the
53309 whole corps, which Bennigsen and others may have had in view; nor the
53310 aim of the officer who wished to go into action to distinguish himself;
53311 nor that of the Cossack who wanted more booty than he got, and so on.
53312 But if the aim of the battle was what actually resulted and what all the
53313 Russians of that day desired--to drive the French out of Russia and
53314 destroy their army--it is quite clear that the battle of Tarutino, just
53315 because of its incongruities, was exactly what was wanted at that stage
53316 of the campaign. It would be difficult and even impossible to imagine
53317 any result more opportune than the actual outcome of this battle. With a
53318 minimum of effort and insignificant losses, despite the greatest
53319 confusion, the most important results of the whole campaign were
53320 attained: the transition from retreat to advance, an exposure of the
53321 weakness of the French, and the administration of that shock which
53322 Napoleon's army had only awaited to begin its flight.
53329 Napoleon enters Moscow after the brilliant victory de la Moskowa; there
53330 can be no doubt about the victory for the battlefield remains in the
53331 hands of the French. The Russians retreat and abandon their ancient
53332 capital. Moscow, abounding in provisions, arms, munitions, and
53333 incalculable wealth, is in Napoleon's hands. The Russian army, only half
53334 the strength of the French, does not make a single attempt to attack for
53335 a whole month. Napoleon's position is most brilliant. He can either fall
53336 on the Russian army with double its strength and destroy it; negotiate
53337 an advantageous peace, or in case of a refusal make a menacing move on
53338 Petersburg, or even, in the case of a reverse, return to Smolensk or
53339 Vilna; or remain in Moscow; in short, no special genius would seem to be
53340 required to retain the brilliant position the French held at that time.
53341 For that, only very simple and easy steps were necessary: not to allow
53342 the troops to loot, to prepare winter clothing--of which there was
53343 sufficient in Moscow for the whole army--and methodically to collect the
53344 provisions, of which (according to the French historians) there were
53345 enough in Moscow to supply the whole army for six months. Yet Napoleon,
53346 that greatest of all geniuses, who the historians declare had control of
53347 the army, took none of these steps.
53349 He not merely did nothing of the kind, but on the contrary he used his
53350 power to select the most foolish and ruinous of all the courses open to
53351 him. Of all that Napoleon might have done: wintering in Moscow,
53352 advancing on Petersburg or on Nizhni-Novgorod, or retiring by a more
53353 northerly or more southerly route (say by the road Kutuzov afterwards
53354 took), nothing more stupid or disastrous can be imagined than what he
53355 actually did. He remained in Moscow till October, letting the troops
53356 plunder the city; then, hesitating whether to leave a garrison behind
53357 him, he quitted Moscow, approached Kutuzov without joining battle,
53358 turned to the right and reached Malo-Yaroslavets, again without
53359 attempting to break through and take the road Kutuzov took, but retiring
53360 instead to Mozhaysk along the devastated Smolensk road. Nothing more
53361 stupid than that could have been devised, or more disastrous for the
53362 army, as the sequel showed. Had Napoleon's aim been to destroy his army,
53363 the most skillful strategist could hardly have devised any series of
53364 actions that would so completely have accomplished that purpose,
53365 independently of anything the Russian army might do.
53367 Napoleon, the man of genius, did this! But to say that he destroyed his
53368 army because he wished to, or because he was very stupid, would be as
53369 unjust as to say that he had brought his troops to Moscow because he
53370 wished to and because he was very clever and a genius.
53372 In both cases his personal activity, having no more force than the
53373 personal activity of any soldier, merely coincided with the laws that
53376 The historians quite falsely represent Napoleon's faculties as having
53377 weakened in Moscow, and do so only because the results did not justify
53378 his actions. He employed all his ability and strength to do the best he
53379 could for himself and his army, as he had done previously and as he did
53380 subsequently in 1813. His activity at that time was no less astounding
53381 than it was in Egypt, in Italy, in Austria, and in Prussia. We do not
53382 know for certain in how far his genius was genuine in Egypt--where forty
53383 centuries looked down upon his grandeur--for his great exploits there
53384 are all told us by Frenchmen. We cannot accurately estimate his genius
53385 in Austria or Prussia, for we have to draw our information from French
53386 or German sources, and the incomprehensible surrender of whole corps
53387 without fighting and of fortresses without a siege must incline Germans
53388 to recognize his genius as the only explanation of the war carried on in
53389 Germany. But we, thank God, have no need to recognize his genius in
53390 order to hide our shame. We have paid for the right to look at the
53391 matter plainly and simply, and we will not abandon that right.
53393 His activity in Moscow was as amazing and as full of genius as
53394 elsewhere. Order after order and plan after plan were issued by him from
53395 the time he entered Moscow till the time he left it. The absence of
53396 citizens and of a deputation, and even the burning of Moscow, did not
53397 disconcert him. He did not lose sight either of the welfare of his army
53398 or of the doings of the enemy, or of the welfare of the people of
53399 Russia, or of the direction of affairs in Paris, or of diplomatic
53400 considerations concerning the terms of the anticipated peace.
53407 With regard to military matters, Napoleon immediately on his entry into
53408 Moscow gave General Sabastiani strict orders to observe the movements of
53409 the Russian army, sent army corps out along the different roads, and
53410 charged Murat to find Kutuzov. Then he gave careful directions about the
53411 fortification of the Kremlin, and drew up a brilliant plan for a future
53412 campaign over the whole map of Russia.
53414 With regard to diplomatic questions, Napoleon summoned Captain Yakovlev,
53415 who had been robbed and was in rags and did not know how to get out of
53416 Moscow, minutely explained to him his whole policy and his magnanimity,
53417 and having written a letter to the Emperor Alexander in which he
53418 considered it his duty to inform his Friend and Brother that Rostopchin
53419 had managed affairs badly in Moscow, he dispatched Yakovlev to
53422 Having similarly explained his views and his magnanimity to Tutolmin, he
53423 dispatched that old man also to Petersburg to negotiate.
53425 With regard to legal matters, immediately after the fires he gave orders
53426 to find and execute the incendiaries. And the scoundrel Rostopchin was
53427 punished by an order to burn down his houses.
53429 With regard to administrative matters, Moscow was granted a
53430 constitution. A municipality was established and the following
53431 announcement issued:
53433 INHABITANTS OF MOSCOW!
53435 Your misfortunes are cruel, but His Majesty the Emperor and King desires
53436 to arrest their course. Terrible examples have taught you how he
53437 punishes disobedience and crime. Strict measures have been taken to put
53438 an end to disorder and to re-establish public security. A paternal
53439 administration, chosen from among yourselves, will form your
53440 municipality or city government. It will take care of you, of your
53441 needs, and of your welfare. Its members will be distinguished by a red
53442 ribbon worn across the shoulder, and the mayor of the city will wear a
53443 white belt as well. But when not on duty they will only wear a red
53444 ribbon round the left arm.
53446 The city police is established on its former footing, and better order
53447 already prevails in consequence of its activity. The government has
53448 appointed two commissaries general, or chiefs of police, and twenty
53449 commissaries or captains of wards have been appointed to the different
53450 wards of the city. You will recognize them by the white ribbon they will
53451 wear on the left arm. Several churches of different denominations are
53452 open, and divine service is performed in them unhindered. Your fellow
53453 citizens are returning every day to their homes and orders have been
53454 given that they should find in them the help and protection due to their
53455 misfortunes. These are the measures the government has adopted to re-
53456 establish order and relieve your condition. But to achieve this aim it
53457 is necessary that you should add your efforts and should, if possible,
53458 forget the misfortunes you have suffered, should entertain the hope of a
53459 less cruel fate, should be certain that inevitable and ignominious death
53460 awaits those who make any attempt on your persons or on what remains of
53461 your property, and finally that you should not doubt that these will be
53462 safeguarded, since such is the will of the greatest and most just of
53463 monarchs. Soldiers and citizens, of whatever nation you may be, re-
53464 establish public confidence, the source of the welfare of a state, live
53465 like brothers, render mutual aid and protection one to another, unite to
53466 defeat the intentions of the evil-minded, obey the military and civil
53467 authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow!
53469 With regard to supplies for the army, Napoleon decreed that all the
53470 troops in turn should enter Moscow a la maraude * to obtain provisions
53471 for themselves, so that the army might have its future provided for.
53476 With regard to religion, Napoleon ordered the priests to be brought back
53477 and services to be again performed in the churches.
53479 With regard to commerce and to provisioning the army, the following was
53480 placarded everywhere:
53484 You, peaceful inhabitants of Moscow, artisans and workmen whom
53485 misfortune has driven from the city, and you scattered tillers of the
53486 soil, still kept out in the fields by groundless fear, listen!
53487 Tranquillity is returning to this capital and order is being restored in
53488 it. Your fellow countrymen are emerging boldly from their hiding places
53489 on finding that they are respected. Any violence to them or to their
53490 property is promptly punished. His Majesty the Emperor and King protects
53491 them, and considers no one among you his enemy except those who disobey
53492 his orders. He desires to end your misfortunes and restore you to your
53493 homes and families. Respond, therefore, to his benevolent intentions and
53494 come to us without fear. Inhabitants, return with confidence to your
53495 abodes! You will soon find means of satisfying your needs. Craftsmen and
53496 industrious artisans, return to your work, your houses, your shops,
53497 where the protection of guards awaits you! You shall receive proper pay
53498 for your work. And lastly you too, peasants, come from the forests where
53499 you are hiding in terror, return to your huts without fear, in full
53500 assurance that you will find protection! Markets are established in the
53501 city where peasants can bring their surplus supplies and the products of
53502 the soil. The government has taken the following steps to ensure freedom
53503 of sale for them: (1) From today, peasants, husbandmen, and those living
53504 in the neighborhood of Moscow may without any danger bring their
53505 supplies of all kinds to two appointed markets, of which one is on the
53506 Mokhovaya Street and the other at the Provision Market. (2) Such
53507 supplies will be bought from them at such prices as seller and buyer may
53508 agree on, and if a seller is unable to obtain a fair price he will be
53509 free to take his goods back to his village and no one may hinder him
53510 under any pretense. (3) Sunday and Wednesday of each week are appointed
53511 as the chief market days and to that end a sufficient number of troops
53512 will be stationed along the highroads on Tuesdays and Saturdays at such
53513 distances from the town as to protect the carts. (4) Similar measures
53514 will be taken that peasants with their carts and horses may meet with no
53515 hindrance on their return journey. (5) Steps will immediately be taken
53516 to re-establish ordinary trading.
53518 Inhabitants of the city and villages, and you, workingmen and artisans,
53519 to whatever nation you belong, you are called on to carry out the
53520 paternal intentions of His Majesty the Emperor and King and to co-
53521 operate with him for the public welfare! Lay your respect and confidence
53522 at his feet and do not delay to unite with us!
53524 With the object of raising the spirits of the troops and of the people,
53525 reviews were constantly held and rewards distributed. The Emperor rode
53526 through the streets to comfort the inhabitants, and, despite his
53527 preoccupation with state affairs, himself visited the theaters that were
53528 established by his order.
53530 In regard to philanthropy, the greatest virtue of crowned heads,
53531 Napoleon also did all in his power. He caused the words Maison de ma
53532 Mere to be inscribed on the charitable institutions, thereby combining
53533 tender filial affection with the majestic benevolence of a monarch. He
53534 visited the Foundling Hospital and, allowing the orphans saved by him to
53535 kiss his white hands, graciously conversed with Tutolmin. Then, as
53536 Thiers eloquently recounts, he ordered his soldiers to be paid in forged
53537 Russian money which he had prepared: "Raising the use of these means by
53538 an act worthy of himself and of the French army, he let relief be
53539 distributed to those who had been burned out. But as food was too
53540 precious to be given to foreigners, who were for the most part enemies,
53541 Napoleon preferred to supply them with money with which to purchase food
53542 from outside, and had paper rubles distributed to them."
53544 With reference to army discipline, orders were continually being issued
53545 to inflict severe punishment for the nonperformance of military duties
53546 and to suppress robbery.
53553 But strange to say, all these measures, efforts, and plans--which were
53554 not at all worse than others issued in similar circumstances--did not
53555 affect the essence of the matter but, like the hands of a clock detached
53556 from the mechanism, swung about in an arbitrary and aimless way without
53557 engaging the cogwheels.
53559 With reference to the military side--the plan of campaign--that work of
53560 genius of which Thiers remarks that, "His genius never devised anything
53561 more profound, more skillful, or more admirable," and enters into a
53562 polemic with M. Fain to prove that this work of genius must be referred
53563 not to the fourth but to the fifteenth of October--that plan never was
53564 or could be executed, for it was quite out of touch with the facts of
53565 the case. The fortifying of the Kremlin, for which la Mosquee (as
53566 Napoleon termed the church of Basil the Beatified) was to have been
53567 razed to the ground, proved quite useless. The mining of the Kremlin
53568 only helped toward fulfilling Napoleon's wish that it should be blown up
53569 when he left Moscow--as a child wants the floor on which he has hurt
53570 himself to be beaten. The pursuit of the Russian army, about which
53571 Napoleon was so concerned, produced an unheard-of result. The French
53572 generals lost touch with the Russian army of sixty thousand men, and
53573 according to Thiers it was only eventually found, like a lost pin, by
53574 the skill--and apparently the genius--of Murat.
53576 With reference to diplomacy, all Napoleon's arguments as to his
53577 magnanimity and justice, both to Tutolmin and to Yakovlev (whose chief
53578 concern was to obtain a greatcoat and a conveyance), proved useless;
53579 Alexander did not receive these envoys and did not reply to their
53582 With regard to legal matters, after the execution of the supposed
53583 incendiaries the rest of Moscow burned down.
53585 With regard to administrative matters, the establishment of a
53586 municipality did not stop the robberies and was only of use to certain
53587 people who formed part of that municipality and under pretext of
53588 preserving order looted Moscow or saved their own property from being
53591 With regard to religion, as to which in Egypt matters had so easily been
53592 settled by Napoleon's visit to a mosque, no results were achieved. Two
53593 or three priests who were found in Moscow did try to carry out
53594 Napoleon's wish, but one of them was slapped in the face by a French
53595 soldier while conducting service, and a French official reported of
53596 another that: "The priest whom I found and invited to say Mass cleaned
53597 and locked up the church. That night the doors were again broken open,
53598 the padlocks smashed, the books mutilated, and other disorders
53601 With reference to commerce, the proclamation to industrious workmen and
53602 to peasants evoked no response. There were no industrious workmen, and
53603 the peasants caught the commissaries who ventured too far out of town
53604 with the proclamation and killed them.
53606 As to the theaters for the entertainment of the people and the troops,
53607 these did not meet with success either. The theaters set up in the
53608 Kremlin and in Posnyakov's house were closed again at once because the
53609 actors and actresses were robbed.
53611 Even philanthropy did not have the desired effect. The genuine as well
53612 as the false paper money which flooded Moscow lost its value. The
53613 French, collecting booty, cared only for gold. Not only was the paper
53614 money valueless which Napoleon so graciously distributed to the
53615 unfortunate, but even silver lost its value in relation to gold.
53617 But the most amazing example of the ineffectiveness of the orders given
53618 by the authorities at that time was Napoleon's attempt to stop the
53619 looting and re-establish discipline.
53621 This is what the army authorities were reporting:
53623 "Looting continues in the city despite the decrees against it. Order is
53624 not yet restored and not a single merchant is carrying on trade in a
53625 lawful manner. The sutlers alone venture to trade, and they sell stolen
53628 "The neighborhood of my ward continues to be pillaged by soldiers of the
53629 3rd Corps who, not satisfied with taking from the unfortunate
53630 inhabitants hiding in the cellars the little they have left, even have
53631 the ferocity to wound them with their sabers, as I have repeatedly
53634 "Nothing new, except that the soldiers are robbing and pillaging--
53637 "Robbery and pillaging continue. There is a band of thieves in our
53638 district who ought to be arrested by a strong force--October 11."
53640 "The Emperor is extremely displeased that despite the strict orders to
53641 stop pillage, parties of marauding Guards are continually seen returning
53642 to the Kremlin. Among the Old Guard disorder and pillage were renewed
53643 more violently than ever yesterday evening, last night, and today. The
53644 Emperor sees with regret that the picked soldiers appointed to guard his
53645 person, who should set an example of discipline, carry disobedience to
53646 such a point that they break into the cellars and stores containing army
53647 supplies. Others have disgraced themselves to the extent of disobeying
53648 sentinels and officers, and have abused and beaten them."
53650 "The Grand Marshal of the palace," wrote the governor, "complains
53651 bitterly that in spite of repeated orders, the soldiers continue to
53652 commit nuisances in all the courtyards and even under the very windows
53655 That army, like a herd of cattle run wild and trampling underfoot the
53656 provender which might have saved it from starvation, disintegrated and
53657 perished with each additional day it remained in Moscow. But it did not
53660 It began to run away only when suddenly seized by a panic caused by the
53661 capture of transport trains on the Smolensk road, and by the battle of
53662 Tarutino. The news of that battle of Tarutino, unexpectedly received by
53663 Napoleon at a review, evoked in him a desire to punish the Russians
53664 (Thiers says), and he issued the order for departure which the whole
53665 army was demanding.
53667 Fleeing from Moscow the soldiers took with them everything they had
53668 stolen. Napoleon, too, carried away his own personal tresor, but on
53669 seeing the baggage trains that impeded the army, he was (Thiers says)
53670 horror-struck. And yet with his experience of war he did not order all
53671 the superfluous vehicles to be burned, as he had done with those of a
53672 certain marshal when approaching Moscow. He gazed at the caleches and
53673 carriages in which soldiers were riding and remarked that it was a very
53674 good thing, as those vehicles could be used to carry provisions, the
53675 sick, and the wounded.
53677 The plight of the whole army resembled that of a wounded animal which
53678 feels it is perishing and does not know what it is doing. To study the
53679 skillful tactics and aims of Napoleon and his army from the time it
53680 entered Moscow till it was destroyed is like studying the dying leaps
53681 and shudders of a mortally wounded animal. Very often a wounded animal,
53682 hearing a rustle, rushes straight at the hunter's gun, runs forward and
53683 back again, and hastens its own end. Napoleon, under pressure from his
53684 whole army, did the same thing. The rustle of the battle of Tarutino
53685 frightened the beast, and it rushed forward onto the hunter's gun,
53686 reached him, turned back, and finally--like any wild beast--ran back
53687 along the most disadvantageous and dangerous path, where the old scent
53690 During the whole of that period Napoleon, who seems to us to have been
53691 the leader of all these movements--as the figurehead of a ship may seem
53692 to a savage to guide the vessel--acted like a child who, holding a
53693 couple of strings inside a carriage, thinks he is driving it.
53700 Early in the morning of the sixth of October Pierre went out of the
53701 shed, and on returning stopped by the door to play with a little blue-
53702 gray dog, with a long body and short bandy legs, that jumped about him.
53703 This little dog lived in their shed, sleeping beside Karataev at night;
53704 it sometimes made excursions into the town but always returned again.
53705 Probably it had never had an owner, and it still belonged to nobody and
53706 had no name. The French called it Azor; the soldier who told stories
53707 called it Femgalka; Karataev and others called it Gray, or sometimes
53708 Flabby. Its lack of a master, a name, or even of a breed or any definite
53709 color did not seem to trouble the blue-gray dog in the least. Its furry
53710 tail stood up firm and round as a plume, its bandy legs served it so
53711 well that it would often gracefully lift a hind leg and run very easily
53712 and quickly on three legs, as if disdaining to use all four. Everything
53713 pleased it. Now it would roll on its back, yelping with delight, now
53714 bask in the sun with a thoughtful air of importance, and now frolic
53715 about playing with a chip of wood or a straw.
53717 Pierre's attire by now consisted of a dirty torn shirt (the only remnant
53718 of his former clothing), a pair of soldier's trousers which by
53719 Karataev's advice he tied with string round the ankles for warmth, and a
53720 peasant coat and cap. Physically he had changed much during this time.
53721 He no longer seemed stout, though he still had the appearance of
53722 solidity and strength hereditary in his family. A beard and mustache
53723 covered the lower part of his face, and a tangle of hair, infested with
53724 lice, curled round his head like a cap. The look of his eyes was
53725 resolute, calm, and animatedly alert, as never before. The former
53726 slackness which had shown itself even in his eyes was now replaced by an
53727 energetic readiness for action and resistance. His feet were bare.
53729 Pierre first looked down the field across which vehicles and horsemen
53730 were passing that morning, then into the distance across the river, then
53731 at the dog who was pretending to be in earnest about biting him, and
53732 then at his bare feet which he placed with pleasure in various
53733 positions, moving his dirty thick big toes. Every time he looked at his
53734 bare feet a smile of animated self-satisfaction flitted across his face.
53735 The sight of them reminded him of all he had experienced and learned
53736 during these weeks and this recollection was pleasant to him.
53738 For some days the weather had been calm and clear with slight frosts in
53739 the mornings--what is called an "old wives' summer."
53741 In the sunshine the air was warm, and that warmth was particularly
53742 pleasant with the invigorating freshness of the morning frost still in
53745 On everything--far and near--lay the magic crystal glitter seen only at
53746 that time of autumn. The Sparrow Hills were visible in the distance,
53747 with the village, the church, and the large white house. The bare trees,
53748 the sand, the bricks and roofs of the houses, the green church spire,
53749 and the corners of the white house in the distance, all stood out in the
53750 transparent air in most delicate outline and with unnatural clearness.
53751 Near by could be seen the familiar ruins of a half-burned mansion
53752 occupied by the French, with lilac bushes still showing dark green
53753 beside the fence. And even that ruined and befouled house--which in dull
53754 weather was repulsively ugly--seemed quietly beautiful now, in the
53755 clear, motionless brilliance.
53757 A French corporal, with coat unbuttoned in a homely way, a skullcap on
53758 his head, and a short pipe in his mouth, came from behind a corner of
53759 the shed and approached Pierre with a friendly wink.
53761 "What sunshine, Monsieur Kiril!" (Their name for Pierre.) "Eh? Just like
53764 And the corporal leaned against the door and offered Pierre his pipe,
53765 though whenever he offered it Pierre always declined it.
53767 "To be on the march in such weather..." he began.
53769 Pierre inquired what was being said about leaving, and the corporal told
53770 him that nearly all the troops were starting and there ought to be an
53771 order about the prisoners that day. Sokolov, one of the soldiers in the
53772 shed with Pierre, was dying, and Pierre told the corporal that something
53773 should be done about him. The corporal replied that Pierre need not
53774 worry about that as they had an ambulance and a permanent hospital and
53775 arrangements would be made for the sick, and that in general everything
53776 that could happen had been foreseen by the authorities.
53778 "Besides, Monsieur Kiril, you have only to say a word to the captain,
53779 you know. He is a man who never forgets anything. Speak to the captain
53780 when he makes his round, he will do anything for you."
53782 (The captain of whom the corporal spoke often had long chats with Pierre
53783 and showed him all sorts of favors.)
53785 "'You see, St. Thomas,' he said to me the other day. 'Monsieur Kiril is
53786 a man of education, who speaks French. He is a Russian seigneur who has
53787 had misfortunes, but he is a man. He knows what's what.... If he wants
53788 anything and asks me, he won't get a refusal. When one has studied, you
53789 see, one likes education and well-bred people.' It is for your sake I
53790 mention it, Monsieur Kiril. The other day if it had not been for you
53791 that affair would have ended ill."
53793 And after chatting a while longer, the corporal went away. (The affair
53794 he had alluded to had happened a few days before--a fight between the
53795 prisoners and the French soldiers, in which Pierre had succeeded in
53796 pacifying his comrades.) Some of the prisoners who had heard Pierre
53797 talking to the corporal immediately asked what the Frenchman had said.
53798 While Pierre was repeating what he had been told about the army leaving
53799 Moscow, a thin, sallow, tattered French soldier came up to the door of
53800 the shed. Rapidly and timidly raising his fingers to his forehead by way
53801 of greeting, he asked Pierre whether the soldier Platoche to whom he had
53802 given a shirt to sew was in that shed.
53804 A week before the French had had boot leather and linen issued to them,
53805 which they had given out to the prisoners to make up into boots and
53808 "Ready, ready, dear fellow!" said Karataev, coming out with a neatly
53811 Karataev, on account of the warm weather and for convenience at work,
53812 was wearing only trousers and a tattered shirt as black as soot. His
53813 hair was bound round, workman fashion, with a wisp of lime-tree bast,
53814 and his round face seemed rounder and pleasanter than ever.
53816 "A promise is own brother to performance! I said Friday and here it is,
53817 ready," said Platon, smiling and unfolding the shirt he had sewn.
53819 The Frenchman glanced around uneasily and then, as if overcoming his
53820 hesitation, rapidly threw off his uniform and put on the shirt. He had a
53821 long, greasy, flowered silk waistcoat next to his sallow, thin bare
53822 body, but no shirt. He was evidently afraid the prisoners looking on
53823 would laugh at him, and thrust his head into the shirt hurriedly. None
53824 of the prisoners said a word.
53826 "See, it fits well!" Platon kept repeating, pulling the shirt straight.
53828 The Frenchman, having pushed his head and hands through, without raising
53829 his eyes, looked down at the shirt and examined the seams.
53831 "You see, dear man, this is not a sewing shop, and I had no proper
53832 tools; and, as they say, one needs a tool even to kill a louse," said
53833 Platon with one of his round smiles, obviously pleased with his work.
53835 "It's good, quite good, thank you," said the Frenchman, in French, "but
53836 there must be some linen left over.
53838 "It will fit better still when it sets to your body," said Karataev,
53839 still admiring his handiwork. "You'll be nice and comfortable...."
53841 "Thanks, thanks, old fellow.... But the bits left over?" said the
53842 Frenchman again and smiled. He took out an assignation ruble note and
53843 gave it to Karataev. "But give me the pieces that are over."
53845 Pierre saw that Platon did not want to understand what the Frenchman was
53846 saying, and he looked on without interfering. Karataev thanked the
53847 Frenchman for the money and went on admiring his own work. The Frenchman
53848 insisted on having the pieces returned that were left over and asked
53849 Pierre to translate what he said.
53851 "What does he want the bits for?" said Karataev. "They'd make fine leg
53852 bands for us. Well, never mind."
53854 And Karataev, with a suddenly changed and saddened expression, took a
53855 small bundle of scraps from inside his shirt and gave it to the
53856 Frenchman without looking at him. "Oh dear!" muttered Karataev and went
53857 away. The Frenchman looked at the linen, considered for a moment, then
53858 looked inquiringly at Pierre and, as if Pierre's look had told him
53859 something, suddenly blushed and shouted in a squeaky voice:
53861 "Platoche! Eh, Platoche! Keep them yourself!" And handing back the odd
53862 bits he turned and went out.
53864 "There, look at that," said Karataev, swaying his head. "People said
53865 they were not Christians, but they too have souls. It's what the old
53866 folk used to say: 'A sweating hand's an open hand, a dry hand's close.'
53867 He's naked, but yet he's given it back."
53869 Karataev smiled thoughtfully and was silent awhile looking at the
53872 "But they'll make grand leg bands, dear friend," he said, and went back
53880 Four weeks had passed since Pierre had been taken prisoner and though
53881 the French had offered to move him from the men's to the officers' shed,
53882 he had stayed in the shed where he was first put.
53884 In burned and devastated Moscow Pierre experienced almost the extreme
53885 limits of privation a man can endure; but thanks to his physical
53886 strength and health, of which he had till then been unconscious, and
53887 thanks especially to the fact that the privations came so gradually that
53888 it was impossible to say when they began, he endured his position not
53889 only lightly but joyfully. And just at this time he obtained the
53890 tranquillity and ease of mind he had formerly striven in vain to reach.
53891 He had long sought in different ways that tranquillity of mind, that
53892 inner harmony which had so impressed him in the soldiers at the battle
53893 of Borodino. He had sought it in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the
53894 dissipations of town life, in wine, in heroic feats of self-sacrifice,
53895 and in romantic love for Natasha; he had sought it by reasoning--and all
53896 these quests and experiments had failed him. And now without thinking
53897 about it he had found that peace and inner harmony only through the
53898 horror of death, through privation, and through what he recognized in
53901 Those dreadful moments he had lived through at the executions had as it
53902 were forever washed away from his imagination and memory the agitating
53903 thoughts and feelings that had formerly seemed so important. It did not
53904 now occur to him to think of Russia, or the war, or politics, or
53905 Napoleon. It was plain to him that all these things were no business of
53906 his, and that he was not called on to judge concerning them and
53907 therefore could not do so. "Russia and summer weather are not bound
53908 together," he thought, repeating words of Karataev's which he found
53909 strangely consoling. His intention of killing Napoleon and his
53910 calculations of the cabalistic number of the beast of the Apocalypse now
53911 seemed to him meaningless and even ridiculous. His anger with his wife
53912 and anxiety that his name should not be smirched now seemed not merely
53913 trivial but even amusing. What concern was it of his that somewhere or
53914 other that woman was leading the life she preferred? What did it matter
53915 to anybody, and especially to him, whether or not they found out that
53916 their prisoner's name was Count Bezukhov?
53918 He now often remembered his conversation with Prince Andrew and quite
53919 agreed with him, though he understood Prince Andrew's thoughts somewhat
53920 differently. Prince Andrew had thought and said that happiness could
53921 only be negative, but had said it with a shade of bitterness and irony
53922 as though he was really saying that all desire for positive happiness is
53923 implanted in us merely to torment us and never be satisfied. But Pierre
53924 believed it without any mental reservation. The absence of suffering,
53925 the satisfaction of one's needs and consequent freedom in the choice of
53926 one's occupation, that is, of one's way of life, now seemed to Pierre to
53927 be indubitably man's highest happiness. Here and now for the first time
53928 he fully appreciated the enjoyment of eating when he wanted to eat,
53929 drinking when he wanted to drink, sleeping when he wanted to sleep, of
53930 warmth when he was cold, of talking to a fellow man when he wished to
53931 talk and to hear a human voice. The satisfaction of one's needs--good
53932 food, cleanliness, and freedom--now that he was deprived of all this,
53933 seemed to Pierre to constitute perfect happiness; and the choice of
53934 occupation, that is, of his way of life--now that that was so
53935 restricted--seemed to him such an easy matter that he forgot that a
53936 superfluity of the comforts of life destroys all joy in satisfying one's
53937 needs, while great freedom in the choice of occupation--such freedom as
53938 his wealth, his education, and his social position had given him in his
53939 own life--is just what makes the choice of occupation insolubly
53940 difficult and destroys the desire and possibility of having an
53943 All Pierre's daydreams now turned on the time when he would be free. Yet
53944 subsequently, and for the rest of his life, he thought and spoke with
53945 enthusiasm of that month of captivity, of those irrecoverable, strong,
53946 joyful sensations, and chiefly of the complete peace of mind and inner
53947 freedom which he experienced only during those weeks.
53949 When on the first day he got up early, went out of the shed at dawn, and
53950 saw the cupolas and crosses of the New Convent of the Virgin still dark
53951 at first, the hoarfrost on the dusty grass, the Sparrow Hills, and the
53952 wooded banks above the winding river vanishing in the purple distance,
53953 when he felt the contact of the fresh air and heard the noise of the
53954 crows flying from Moscow across the field, and when afterwards light
53955 gleamed from the east and the sun's rim appeared solemnly from behind a
53956 cloud, and the cupolas and crosses, the hoarfrost, the distance and the
53957 river, all began to sparkle in the glad light--Pierre felt a new joy and
53958 strength in life such as he had never before known. And this not only
53959 stayed with him during the whole of his imprisonment, but even grew in
53960 strength as the hardships of his position increased.
53962 That feeling of alertness and of readiness for anything was still
53963 further strengthened in him by the high opinion his fellow prisoners
53964 formed of him soon after his arrival at the shed. With his knowledge of
53965 languages, the respect shown him by the French, his simplicity, his
53966 readiness to give anything asked of him (he received the allowance of
53967 three rubles a week made to officers); with his strength, which he
53968 showed to the soldiers by pressing nails into the walls of the hut; his
53969 gentleness to his companions, and his capacity for sitting still and
53970 thinking without doing anything (which seemed to them incomprehensible),
53971 he appeared to them a rather mysterious and superior being. The very
53972 qualities that had been a hindrance, if not actually harmful, to him in
53973 the world he had lived in--his strength, his disdain for the comforts of
53974 life, his absent-mindedness and simplicity--here among these people gave
53975 him almost the status of a hero. And Pierre felt that their opinion
53976 placed responsibilities upon him.
53983 The French evacuation began on the night between the sixth and seventh
53984 of October: kitchens and sheds were dismantled, carts loaded, and troops
53985 and baggage trains started.
53987 At seven in the morning a French convoy in marching trim, wearing shakos
53988 and carrying muskets, knapsacks, and enormous sacks, stood in front of
53989 the sheds, and animated French talk mingled with curses sounded all
53992 In the shed everyone was ready, dressed, belted, shod, and only awaited
53993 the order to start. The sick soldier, Sokolov, pale and thin with dark
53994 shadows round his eyes, alone sat in his place barefoot and not dressed.
53995 His eyes, prominent from the emaciation of his face, gazed inquiringly
53996 at his comrades who were paying no attention to him, and he moaned
53997 regularly and quietly. It was evidently not so much his sufferings that
53998 caused him to moan (he had dysentery) as his fear and grief at being
54001 Pierre, girt with a rope round his waist and wearing shoes Karataev had
54002 made for him from some leather a French soldier had torn off a tea chest
54003 and brought to have his boots mended with, went up to the sick man and
54004 squatted down beside him.
54006 "You know, Sokolov, they are not all going away! They have a hospital
54007 here. You may be better off than we others," said Pierre.
54009 "O Lord! Oh, it will be the death of me! O Lord!" moaned the man in a
54012 "I'll go and ask them again directly," said Pierre, rising and going to
54013 the door of the shed.
54015 Just as Pierre reached the door, the corporal who had offered him a pipe
54016 the day before came up to it with two soldiers. The corporal and
54017 soldiers were in marching kit with knapsacks and shakos that had metal
54018 straps, and these changed their familiar faces.
54020 The corporal came, according to orders, to shut the door. The prisoners
54021 had to be counted before being let out.
54023 "Corporal, what will they do with the sick man?..." Pierre began.
54025 But even as he spoke he began to doubt whether this was the corporal he
54026 knew or a stranger, so unlike himself did the corporal seem at that
54027 moment. Moreover, just as Pierre was speaking a sharp rattle of drums
54028 was suddenly heard from both sides. The corporal frowned at Pierre's
54029 words and, uttering some meaningless oaths, slammed the door. The shed
54030 became semidark, and the sharp rattle of the drums on two sides drowned
54031 the sick man's groans.
54033 "There it is!... It again!..." said Pierre to himself, and an
54034 involuntary shudder ran down his spine. In the corporal's changed face,
54035 in the sound of his voice, in the stirring and deafening noise of the
54036 drums, he recognized that mysterious, callous force which compelled
54037 people against their will to kill their fellow men--that force the
54038 effect of which he had witnessed during the executions. To fear or to
54039 try to escape that force, to address entreaties or exhortations to those
54040 who served as its tools, was useless. Pierre knew this now. One had to
54041 wait and endure. He did not again go to the sick man, nor turn to look
54042 at him, but stood frowning by the door of the hut.
54044 When that door was opened and the prisoners, crowding against one
54045 another like a flock of sheep, squeezed into the exit, Pierre pushed his
54046 way forward and approached that very captain who as the corporal had
54047 assured him was ready to do anything for him. The captain was also in
54048 marching kit, and on his cold face appeared that same it which Pierre
54049 had recognized in the corporal's words and in the roll of the drums.
54051 "Pass on, pass on!" the captain reiterated, frowning sternly, and
54052 looking at the prisoners who thronged past him.
54054 Pierre went up to him, though he knew his attempt would be vain.
54056 "What now?" the officer asked with a cold look as if not recognizing
54059 Pierre told him about the sick man.
54061 "He'll manage to walk, devil take him!" said the captain. "Pass on, pass
54062 on!" he continued without looking at Pierre.
54064 "But he is dying," Pierre again began.
54066 "Be so good..." shouted the captain, frowning angrily.
54068 "Dram-da-da-dam, dam-dam..." rattled the drums, and Pierre understood
54069 that this mysterious force completely controlled these men and that it
54070 was now useless to say any more.
54072 The officer prisoners were separated from the soldiers and told to march
54073 in front. There were about thirty officers, with Pierre among them, and
54074 about three hundred men.
54076 The officers, who had come from the other sheds, were all strangers to
54077 Pierre and much better dressed than he. They looked at him and at his
54078 shoes mistrustfully, as at an alien. Not far from him walked a fat major
54079 with a sallow, bloated, angry face, who was wearing a Kazan dressing
54080 gown tied round with a towel, and who evidently enjoyed the respect of
54081 his fellow prisoners. He kept one hand, in which he clasped his tobacco
54082 pouch, inside the bosom of his dressing gown and held the stem of his
54083 pipe firmly with the other. Panting and puffing, the major grumbled and
54084 growled at everybody because he thought he was being pushed and that
54085 they were all hurrying when they had nowhere to hurry to and were all
54086 surprised at something when there was nothing to be surprised at.
54087 Another, a thin little officer, was speaking to everyone, conjecturing
54088 where they were now being taken and how far they would get that day. An
54089 official in felt boots and wearing a commissariat uniform ran round from
54090 side to side and gazed at the ruins of Moscow, loudly announcing his
54091 observations as to what had been burned down and what this or that part
54092 of the city was that they could see. A third officer, who by his accent
54093 was a Pole, disputed with the commissariat officer, arguing that he was
54094 mistaken in his identification of the different wards of Moscow.
54096 "What are you disputing about?" said the major angrily. "What does it
54097 matter whether it is St. Nicholas or St. Blasius? You see it's burned
54098 down, and there's an end of it.... What are you pushing for? Isn't the
54099 road wide enough?" said he, turning to a man behind him who was not
54100 pushing him at all.
54102 "Oh, oh, oh! What have they done?" the prisoners on one side and another
54103 were heard saying as they gazed on the charred ruins. "All beyond the
54104 river, and Zubova, and in the Kremlin.... Just look! There's not half of
54105 it left. Yes, I told you--the whole quarter beyond the river, and so it
54108 "Well, you know it's burned, so what's the use of talking?" said the
54111 As they passed near a church in the Khamovniki (one of the few unburned
54112 quarters of Moscow) the whole mass of prisoners suddenly started to one
54113 side and exclamations of horror and disgust were heard.
54115 "Ah, the villains! What heathens! Yes; dead, dead, so he is... And
54116 smeared with something!"
54118 Pierre too drew near the church where the thing was that evoked these
54119 exclamations, and dimly made out something leaning against the palings
54120 surrounding the church. From the words of his comrades who saw better
54121 than he did, he found that this was the body of a man, set upright
54122 against the palings with its face smeared with soot.
54124 "Go on! What the devil... Go on! Thirty thousand devils!..." the convoy
54125 guards began cursing and the French soldiers, with fresh virulence,
54126 drove away with their swords the crowd of prisoners who were gazing at
54134 Through the cross streets of the Khamovniki quarter the prisoners
54135 marched, followed only by their escort and the vehicles and wagons
54136 belonging to that escort, but when they reached the supply stores they
54137 came among a huge and closely packed train of artillery mingled with
54140 At the bridge they all halted, waiting for those in front to get across.
54141 From the bridge they had a view of endless lines of moving baggage
54142 trains before and behind them. To the right, where the Kaluga road turns
54143 near Neskuchny, endless rows of troops and carts stretched away into the
54144 distance. These were troops of Beauharnais' corps which had started
54145 before any of the others. Behind, along the riverside and across the
54146 Stone Bridge, were Ney's troops and transport.
54148 Davout's troops, in whose charge were the prisoners, were crossing the
54149 Crimean bridge and some were already debouching into the Kaluga road.
54150 But the baggage trains stretched out so that the last of Beauharnais'
54151 train had not yet got out of Moscow and reached the Kaluga road when the
54152 vanguard of Ney's army was already emerging from the Great Ordynka
54155 When they had crossed the Crimean bridge the prisoners moved a few steps
54156 forward, halted, and again moved on, and from all sides vehicles and men
54157 crowded closer and closer together. They advanced the few hundred paces
54158 that separated the bridge from the Kaluga road, taking more than an hour
54159 to do so, and came out upon the square where the streets of the
54160 Transmoskva ward and the Kaluga road converge, and the prisoners jammed
54161 close together had to stand for some hours at that crossway. From all
54162 sides, like the roar of the sea, were heard the rattle of wheels, the
54163 tramp of feet, and incessant shouts of anger and abuse. Pierre stood
54164 pressed against the wall of a charred house, listening to that noise
54165 which mingled in his imagination with the roll of the drums.
54167 To get a better view, several officer prisoners climbed onto the wall of
54168 the half-burned house against which Pierre was leaning.
54170 "What crowds! Just look at the crowds!... They've loaded goods even on
54171 the cannon! Look there, those are furs!" they exclaimed. "Just see what
54172 the blackguards have looted.... There! See what that one has behind in
54173 the cart.... Why, those are settings taken from some icons, by
54174 heaven!... Oh, the rascals!... See how that fellow has loaded himself
54175 up, he can hardly walk! Good lord, they've even grabbed those
54176 chaises!... See that fellow there sitting on the trunks.... Heavens!
54179 "That's right, hit him on the snout--on his snout! Like this, we shan't
54180 get away before evening. Look, look there.... Why, that must be
54181 Napoleon's own. See what horses! And the monograms with a crown! It's
54182 like a portable house.... That fellow's dropped his sack and doesn't see
54183 it. Fighting again... A woman with a baby, and not bad-looking either!
54184 Yes, I dare say, that's the way they'll let you pass... Just look,
54185 there's no end to it. Russian wenches, by heaven, so they are! In
54186 carriages--see how comfortably they've settled themselves!"
54188 Again, as at the church in Khamovniki, a wave of general curiosity bore
54189 all the prisoners forward onto the road, and Pierre, thanks to his
54190 stature, saw over the heads of the others what so attracted their
54191 curiosity. In three carriages involved among the munition carts, closely
54192 squeezed together, sat women with rouged faces, dressed in glaring
54193 colors, who were shouting something in shrill voices.
54195 From the moment Pierre had recognized the appearance of the mysterious
54196 force nothing had seemed to him strange or dreadful: neither the corpse
54197 smeared with soot for fun nor these women hurrying away nor the burned
54198 ruins of Moscow. All that he now witnessed scarcely made an impression
54199 on him--as if his soul, making ready for a hard struggle, refused to
54200 receive impressions that might weaken it.
54202 The women's vehicles drove by. Behind them came more carts, soldiers,
54203 wagons, soldiers, gun carriages, carriages, soldiers, ammunition carts,
54204 more soldiers, and now and then women.
54206 Pierre did not see the people as individuals but saw their movement.
54208 All these people and horses seemed driven forward by some invisible
54209 power. During the hour Pierre watched them they all came flowing from
54210 the different streets with one and the same desire to get on quickly;
54211 they all jostled one another, began to grow angry and to fight, white
54212 teeth gleamed, brows frowned, ever the same words of abuse flew from
54213 side to side, and all the faces bore the same swaggeringly resolute and
54214 coldly cruel expression that had struck Pierre that morning on the
54215 corporal's face when the drums were beating.
54217 It was not till nearly evening that the officer commanding the escort
54218 collected his men and with shouts and quarrels forced his way in among
54219 the baggage trains, and the prisoners, hemmed in on all sides, emerged
54220 onto the Kaluga road.
54222 They marched very quickly, without resting, and halted only when the sun
54223 began to set. The baggage carts drew up close together and the men began
54224 to prepare for their night's rest. They all appeared angry and
54225 dissatisfied. For a long time, oaths, angry shouts, and fighting could
54226 be heard from all sides. A carriage that followed the escort ran into
54227 one of the carts and knocked a hole in it with its pole. Several
54228 soldiers ran toward the cart from different sides: some beat the
54229 carriage horses on their heads, turning them aside, others fought among
54230 themselves, and Pierre saw that one German was badly wounded on the head
54233 It seemed that all these men, now that they had stopped amid fields in
54234 the chill dusk of the autumn evening, experienced one and the same
54235 feeling of unpleasant awakening from the hurry and eagerness to push on
54236 that had seized them at the start. Once at a standstill they all seemed
54237 to understand that they did not yet know where they were going, and that
54238 much that was painful and difficult awaited them on this journey.
54240 During this halt the escort treated the prisoners even worse than they
54241 had done at the start. It was here that the prisoners for the first time
54242 received horseflesh for their meat ration.
54244 From the officer down to the lowest soldier they showed what seemed like
54245 personal spite against each of the prisoners, in unexpected contrast to
54246 their former friendly relations.
54248 This spite increased still more when, on calling over the roll of
54249 prisoners, it was found that in the bustle of leaving Moscow one Russian
54250 soldier, who had pretended to suffer from colic, had escaped. Pierre saw
54251 a Frenchman beat a Russian soldier cruelly for straying too far from the
54252 road, and heard his friend the captain reprimand and threaten to court-
54253 martial a noncommissioned officer on account of the escape of the
54254 Russian. To the noncommissioned officer's excuse that the prisoner was
54255 ill and could not walk, the officer replied that the order was to shoot
54256 those who lagged behind. Pierre felt that that fatal force which had
54257 crushed him during the executions, but which he had not felt during his
54258 imprisonment, now again controlled his existence. It was terrible, but
54259 he felt that in proportion to the efforts of that fatal force to crush
54260 him, there grew and strengthened in his soul a power of life independent
54263 He ate his supper of buckwheat soup with horseflesh and chatted with his
54266 Neither Pierre nor any of the others spoke of what they had seen in
54267 Moscow, or of the roughness of their treatment by the French, or of the
54268 order to shoot them which had been announced to them. As if in reaction
54269 against the worsening of their position they were all particularly
54270 animated and gay. They spoke of personal reminiscences, of amusing
54271 scenes they had witnessed during the campaign, and avoided all talk of
54272 their present situation.
54274 The sun had set long since. Bright stars shone out here and there in the
54275 sky. A red glow as of a conflagration spread above the horizon from the
54276 rising full moon, and that vast red ball swayed strangely in the gray
54277 haze. It grew light. The evening was ending, but the night had not yet
54278 come. Pierre got up and left his new companions, crossing between the
54279 campfires to the other side of the road where he had been told the
54280 common soldier prisoners were stationed. He wanted to talk to them. On
54281 the road he was stopped by a French sentinel who ordered him back.
54283 Pierre turned back, not to his companions by the campfire, but to an
54284 unharnessed cart where there was nobody. Tucking his legs under him and
54285 dropping his head he sat down on the cold ground by the wheel of the
54286 cart and remained motionless a long while sunk in thought. Suddenly he
54287 burst out into a fit of his broad, good-natured laughter, so loud that
54288 men from various sides turned with surprise to see what this strange and
54289 evidently solitary laughter could mean.
54291 "Ha-ha-ha!" laughed Pierre. And he said aloud to himself: "The soldier
54292 did not let me pass. They took me and shut me up. They hold me captive.
54293 What, me? Me? My immortal soul? Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!..." and he laughed
54294 till tears started to his eyes.
54296 A man got up and came to see what this queer big fellow was laughing at
54297 all by himself. Pierre stopped laughing, got up, went farther away from
54298 the inquisitive man, and looked around him.
54300 The huge, endless bivouac that had previously resounded with the
54301 crackling of campfires and the voices of many men had grown quiet, the
54302 red campfires were growing paler and dying down. High up in the light
54303 sky hung the full moon. Forests and fields beyond the camp, unseen
54304 before, were now visible in the distance. And farther still, beyond
54305 those forests and fields, the bright, oscillating, limitless distance
54306 lured one to itself. Pierre glanced up at the sky and the twinkling
54307 stars in its faraway depths. "And all that is me, all that is within me,
54308 and it is all I!" thought Pierre. "And they caught all that and put it
54309 into a shed boarded up with planks!" He smiled, and went and lay down to
54310 sleep beside his companions.
54317 In the early days of October another envoy came to Kutuzov with a letter
54318 from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow, though
54319 Napoleon was already not far from Kutuzov on the old Kaluga road.
54320 Kutuzov replied to this letter as he had done to the one formerly
54321 brought by Lauriston, saying that there could be no question of peace.
54323 Soon after that a report was received from Dorokhov's guerrilla
54324 detachment operating to the left of Tarutino that troops of Broussier's
54325 division had been seen at Forminsk and that being separated from the
54326 rest of the French army they might easily be destroyed. The soldiers and
54327 officers again demanded action. Generals on the staff, excited by the
54328 memory of the easy victory at Tarutino, urged Kutuzov to carry out
54329 Dorokhov's suggestion. Kutuzov did not consider any offensive necessary.
54330 The result was a compromise which was inevitable: a small detachment was
54331 sent to Forminsk to attack Broussier.
54333 By a strange coincidence, this task, which turned out to be a most
54334 difficult and important one, was entrusted to Dokhturov--that same
54335 modest little Dokhturov whom no one had described to us as drawing up
54336 plans of battles, dashing about in front of regiments, showering crosses
54337 on batteries, and so on, and who was thought to be and was spoken of as
54338 undecided and undiscerning--but whom we find commanding wherever the
54339 position was most difficult all through the Russo-French wars from
54340 Austerlitz to the year 1813. At Austerlitz he remained last at the
54341 Augezd dam, rallying the regiments, saving what was possible when all
54342 were flying and perishing and not a single general was left in the rear
54343 guard. Ill with fever he went to Smolensk with twenty thousand men to
54344 defend the town against Napoleon's whole army. In Smolensk, at the
54345 Malakhov Gate, he had hardly dozed off in a paroxysm of fever before he
54346 was awakened by the bombardment of the town--and Smolensk held out all
54347 day long. At the battle of Borodino, when Bagration was killed and nine
54348 tenths of the men of our left flank had fallen and the full force of the
54349 French artillery fire was directed against it, the man sent there was
54350 this same irresolute and undiscerning Dokhturov--Kutuzov hastening to
54351 rectify a mistake he had made by sending someone else there first. And
54352 the quiet little Dokhturov rode thither, and Borodino became the
54353 greatest glory of the Russian army. Many heroes have been described to
54354 us in verse and prose, but of Dokhturov scarcely a word has been said.
54356 It was Dokhturov again whom they sent to Forminsk and from there to
54357 Malo-Yaroslavets, the place where the last battle with the French was
54358 fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French army began;
54359 and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period of the
54360 campaign, but of Dokhturov nothing or very little is said and that
54361 dubiously. And this silence about Dokhturov is the clearest testimony to
54364 It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of a
54365 machine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chance and
54366 is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its most
54367 important part. The man who does not understand the construction of the
54368 machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel which
54369 revolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine, and
54370 not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.
54372 On the tenth of October when Dokhturov had gone halfway to Forminsk and
54373 stopped at the village of Aristovo, preparing faithfully to execute the
54374 orders he had received, the whole French army having, in its convulsive
54375 movement, reached Murat's position apparently in order to give battle--
54376 suddenly without any reason turned off to the left onto the new Kaluga
54377 road and began to enter Forminsk, where only Broussier had been till
54378 then. At that time Dokhturov had under his command, besides Dorokhov's
54379 detachment, the two small guerrilla detachments of Figner and Seslavin.
54381 On the evening of October 11 Seslavin came to the Aristovo headquarters
54382 with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisoner said that the
54383 troops that had entered Forminsk that day were the vanguard of the whole
54384 army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four
54385 days previously. That same evening a house serf who had come from
54386 Borovsk said he had seen an immense army entering the town. Some
54387 Cossacks of Dokhturov's detachment reported having sighted the French
54388 Guards marching along the road to Borovsk. From all these reports it was
54389 evident that where they had expected to meet a single division there was
54390 now the whole French army marching from Moscow in an unexpected
54391 direction--along the Kaluga road. Dokhturov was unwilling to undertake
54392 any action, as it was not clear to him now what he ought to do. He had
54393 been ordered to attack Forminsk. But only Broussier had been there at
54394 that time and now the whole French army was there. Ermolov wished to act
54395 on his own judgment, but Dokhturov insisted that he must have Kutuzov's
54396 instructions. So it was decided to send a dispatch to the staff.
54398 For this purpose a capable officer, Bolkhovitinov, was chosen, who was
54399 to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering a
54400 written report. Toward midnight Bolkhovitinov, having received the
54401 dispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staff
54402 accompanied by a Cossack with spare horses.
54409 It was a warm, dark, autumn night. It had been raining for four days.
54410 Having changed horses twice and galloped twenty miles in an hour and a
54411 half over a sticky, muddy road, Bolkhovitinov reached Litashevka after
54412 one o'clock at night. Dismounting at a cottage on whose wattle fence
54413 hung a signboard, GENERAL STAFF, and throwing down his reins, he entered
54416 "The general on duty, quick! It's very important!" said he to someone
54417 who had risen and was sniffing in the dark passage.
54419 "He has been very unwell since the evening and this is the third night
54420 he has not slept," said the orderly pleadingly in a whisper. "You should
54421 wake the captain first."
54423 "But this is very important, from General Dokhturov," said
54424 Bolkhovitinov, entering the open door which he had found by feeling in
54427 The orderly had gone in before him and began waking somebody.
54429 "Your honor, your honor! A courier."
54431 "What? What's that? From whom?" came a sleepy voice.
54433 "From Dokhturov and from Alexey Petrovich. Napoleon is at Forminsk,"
54434 said Bolkhovitinov, unable to see in the dark who was speaking but
54435 guessing by the voice that it was not Konovnitsyn.
54437 The man who had wakened yawned and stretched himself.
54439 "I don't like waking him," he said, fumbling for something. "He is very
54440 ill. Perhaps this is only a rumor."
54442 "Here is the dispatch," said Bolkhovitinov. "My orders are to give it at
54443 once to the general on duty."
54445 "Wait a moment, I'll light a candle. You damned rascal, where do you
54446 always hide it?" said the voice of the man who was stretching himself,
54447 to the orderly. (This was Shcherbinin, Konovnitsyn's adjutant.) "I've
54448 found it, I've found it!" he added.
54450 The orderly was striking a light and Shcherbinin was fumbling for
54451 something on the candlestick.
54453 "Oh, the nasty beasts!" said he with disgust.
54455 By the light of the sparks Bolkhovitinov saw Shcherbinin's youthful face
54456 as he held the candle, and the face of another man who was still asleep.
54457 This was Konovnitsyn.
54459 When the flame of the sulphur splinters kindled by the tinder burned up,
54460 first blue and then red, Shcherbinin lit the tallow candle, from the
54461 candlestick of which the cockroaches that had been gnawing it were
54462 running away, and looked at the messenger. Bolkhovitinov was bespattered
54463 all over with mud and had smeared his face by wiping it with his sleeve.
54465 "Who gave the report?" inquired Shcherbinin, taking the envelope.
54467 "The news is reliable," said Bolkhovitinov. "Prisoners, Cossacks, and
54468 the scouts all say the same thing."
54470 "There's nothing to be done, we'll have to wake him," said Shcherbinin,
54471 rising and going up to the man in the nightcap who lay covered by a
54472 greatcoat. "Peter Petrovich!" said he. (Konovnitsyn did not stir.) "To
54473 the General Staff!" he said with a smile, knowing that those words would
54474 be sure to arouse him.
54476 And in fact the head in the nightcap was lifted at once. On
54477 Konovnitsyn's handsome, resolute face with cheeks flushed by fever,
54478 there still remained for an instant a faraway dreamy expression remote
54479 from present affairs, but then he suddenly started and his face assumed
54480 its habitual calm and firm appearance.
54482 "Well, what is it? From whom?" he asked immediately but without hurry,
54483 blinking at the light.
54485 While listening to the officer's report Konovnitsyn broke the seal and
54486 read the dispatch. Hardly had he done so before he lowered his legs in
54487 their woolen stockings to the earthen floor and began putting on his
54488 boots. Then he took off his nightcap, combed his hair over his temples,
54489 and donned his cap.
54491 "Did you get here quickly? Let us go to his Highness."
54493 Konovnitsyn had understood at once that the news brought was of great
54494 importance and that no time must be lost. He did not consider or ask
54495 himself whether the news was good or bad. That did not interest him. He
54496 regarded the whole business of the war not with his intelligence or his
54497 reason but by something else. There was within him a deep unexpressed
54498 conviction that all would be well, but that one must not trust to this
54499 and still less speak about it, but must only attend to one's own work.
54500 And he did his work, giving his whole strength to the task.
54502 Peter Petrovich Konovnitsyn, like Dokhturov, seems to have been included
54503 merely for propriety's sake in the list of the so-called heroes of 1812-
54504 -the Barclays, Raevskis, Ermolovs, Platovs, and Miloradoviches. Like
54505 Dokhturov he had the reputation of being a man of very limited capacity
54506 and information, and like Dokhturov he never made plans of battle but
54507 was always found where the situation was most difficult. Since his
54508 appointment as general on duty he had always slept with his door open,
54509 giving orders that every messenger should be allowed to wake him up. In
54510 battle he was always under fire, so that Kutuzov reproved him for it and
54511 feared to send him to the front, and like Dokhturov he was one of those
54512 unnoticed cogwheels that, without clatter or noise, constitute the most
54513 essential part of the machine.
54515 Coming out of the hut into the damp, dark night Konovnitsyn frowned--
54516 partly from an increased pain in his head and partly at the unpleasant
54517 thought that occurred to him, of how all that nest of influential men on
54518 the staff would be stirred up by this news, especially Bennigsen, who
54519 ever since Tarutino had been at daggers drawn with Kutuzov; and how they
54520 would make suggestions, quarrel, issue orders, and rescind them. And
54521 this premonition was disagreeable to him though he knew it could not be
54524 And in fact Toll, to whom he went to communicate the news, immediately
54525 began to expound his plans to a general sharing his quarters, until
54526 Konovnitsyn, who listened in weary silence, reminded him that they must
54527 go to see his Highness.
54534 Kutuzov like all old people did not sleep much at night. He often fell
54535 asleep unexpectedly in the daytime, but at night, lying on his bed
54536 without undressing, he generally remained awake thinking.
54538 So he lay now on his bed, supporting his large, heavy, scarred head on
54539 his plump hand, with his one eye open, meditating and peering into the
54542 Since Bennigsen, who corresponded with the Emperor and had more
54543 influence than anyone else on the staff, had begun to avoid him, Kutuzov
54544 was more at ease as to the possibility of himself and his troops being
54545 obliged to take part in useless aggressive movements. The lesson of the
54546 Tarutino battle and of the day before it, which Kutuzov remembered with
54547 pain, must, he thought, have some effect on others too.
54549 "They must understand that we can only lose by taking the offensive.
54550 Patience and time are my warriors, my champions," thought Kutuzov. He
54551 knew that an apple should not be plucked while it is green. It will fall
54552 of itself when ripe, but if picked unripe the apple is spoiled, the tree
54553 is harmed, and your teeth are set on edge. Like an experienced sportsman
54554 he knew that the beast was wounded, and wounded as only the whole
54555 strength of Russia could have wounded it, but whether it was mortally
54556 wounded or not was still an undecided question. Now by the fact of
54557 Lauriston and Barthelemi having been sent, and by the reports of the
54558 guerrillas, Kutuzov was almost sure that the wound was mortal. But he
54559 needed further proofs and it was necessary to wait.
54561 "They want to run to see how they have wounded it. Wait and we shall
54562 see! Continual maneuvers, continual advances!" thought he. "What for?
54563 Only to distinguish themselves! As if fighting were fun. They are like
54564 children from whom one can't get any sensible account of what has
54565 happened because they all want to show how well they can fight. But
54566 that's not what is needed now.
54568 "And what ingenious maneuvers they all propose to me! It seems to them
54569 that when they have thought of two or three contingencies" (he
54570 remembered the general plan sent him from Petersburg) "they have
54571 foreseen everything. But the contingencies are endless."
54573 The undecided question as to whether the wound inflicted at Borodino was
54574 mortal or not had hung over Kutuzov's head for a whole month. On the one
54575 hand the French had occupied Moscow. On the other Kutuzov felt assured
54576 with all his being that the terrible blow into which he and all the
54577 Russians had put their whole strength must have been mortal. But in any
54578 case proofs were needed; he had waited a whole month for them and grew
54579 more impatient the longer he waited. Lying on his bed during those
54580 sleepless nights he did just what he reproached those younger generals
54581 for doing. He imagined all sorts of possible contingencies, just like
54582 the younger men, but with this difference, that he saw thousands of
54583 contingencies instead of two or three and based nothing on them. The
54584 longer he thought the more contingencies presented themselves. He
54585 imagined all sorts of movements of the Napoleonic army as a whole or in
54586 sections--against Petersburg, or against him, or to outflank him. He
54587 thought too of the possibility (which he feared most of all) that
54588 Napoleon might fight him with his own weapon and remain in Moscow
54589 awaiting him. Kutuzov even imagined that Napoleon's army might turn back
54590 through Medyn and Yukhnov, but the one thing he could not foresee was
54591 what happened--the insane, convulsive stampede of Napoleon's army during
54592 its first eleven days after leaving Moscow: a stampede which made
54593 possible what Kutuzov had not yet even dared to think of--the complete
54594 extermination of the French. Dorokhov's report about Broussier's
54595 division, the guerrillas' reports of distress in Napoleon's army, rumors
54596 of preparations for leaving Moscow, all confirmed the supposition that
54597 the French army was beaten and preparing for flight. But these were only
54598 suppositions, which seemed important to the younger men but not to
54599 Kutuzov. With his sixty years' experience he knew what value to attach
54600 to rumors, knew how apt people who desire anything are to group all news
54601 so that it appears to confirm what they desire, and he knew how readily
54602 in such cases they omit all that makes for the contrary. And the more he
54603 desired it the less he allowed himself to believe it. This question
54604 absorbed all his mental powers. All else was to him only life's
54605 customary routine. To such customary routine belonged his conversations
54606 with the staff, the letters he wrote from Tarutino to Madame de Stael,
54607 the reading of novels, the distribution of awards, his correspondence
54608 with Petersburg, and so on. But the destruction of the French, which he
54609 alone foresaw, was his heart's one desire.
54611 On the night of the eleventh of October he lay leaning on his arm and
54614 There was a stir in the next room and he heard the steps of Toll,
54615 Konovnitsyn, and Bolkhovitinov.
54617 "Eh, who's there? Come in, come in! What news?" the field marshal called
54620 While a footman was lighting a candle, Toll communicated the substance
54623 "Who brought it?" asked Kutuzov with a look which, when the candle was
54624 lit, struck Toll by its cold severity.
54626 "There can be no doubt about it, your Highness."
54628 "Call him in, call him here."
54630 Kutuzov sat up with one leg hanging down from the bed and his big paunch
54631 resting against the other which was doubled under him. He screwed up his
54632 seeing eye to scrutinize the messenger more carefully, as if wishing to
54633 read in his face what preoccupied his own mind.
54635 "Tell me, tell me, friend," said he to Bolkhovitinov in his low, aged
54636 voice, as he pulled together the shirt which gaped open on his chest,
54637 "come nearer--nearer. What news have you brought me? Eh? That Napoleon
54638 has left Moscow? Are you sure? Eh?"
54640 Bolkhovitinov gave a detailed account from the beginning of all he had
54641 been told to report.
54643 "Speak quicker, quicker! Don't torture me!" Kutuzov interrupted him.
54645 Bolkhovitinov told him everything and was then silent, awaiting
54646 instructions. Toll was beginning to say something but Kutuzov checked
54647 him. He tried to say something, but his face suddenly puckered and
54648 wrinkled; he waved his arm at Toll and turned to the opposite side of
54649 the room, to the corner darkened by the icons that hung there.
54651 "O Lord, my Creator, Thou has heard our prayer..." said he in a
54652 tremulous voice with folded hands. "Russia is saved. I thank Thee, O
54653 Lord!" and he wept.
54660 From the time he received this news to the end of the campaign all
54661 Kutuzov's activity was directed toward restraining his troops, by
54662 authority, by guile, and by entreaty, from useless attacks, maneuvers,
54663 or encounters with the perishing enemy. Dokhturov went to Malo-
54664 Yaroslavets, but Kutuzov lingered with the main army and gave orders for
54665 the evacuation of Kaluga--a retreat beyond which town seemed to him
54668 Everywhere Kutuzov retreated, but the enemy without waiting for his
54669 retreat fled in the opposite direction.
54671 Napoleon's historians describe to us his skilled maneuvers at Tarutino
54672 and Malo-Yaroslavets, and make conjectures as to what would have
54673 happened had Napoleon been in time to penetrate into the rich southern
54676 But not to speak of the fact that nothing prevented him from advancing
54677 into those southern provinces (for the Russian army did not bar his
54678 way), the historians forget that nothing could have saved his army, for
54679 then already it bore within itself the germs of inevitable ruin. How
54680 could that army--which had found abundant supplies in Moscow and had
54681 trampled them underfoot instead of keeping them, and on arriving at
54682 Smolensk had looted provisions instead of storing them--how could that
54683 army recuperate in Kaluga province, which was inhabited by Russians such
54684 as those who lived in Moscow, and where fire had the same property of
54685 consuming what was set ablaze?
54687 That army could not recover anywhere. Since the battle of Borodino and
54688 the pillage of Moscow it had borne within itself, as it were, the
54689 chemical elements of dissolution.
54691 The members of what had once been an army--Napoleon himself and all his
54692 soldiers fled--without knowing whither, each concerned only to make his
54693 escape as quickly as possible from this position, of the hopelessness of
54694 which they were all more or less vaguely conscious.
54696 So it came about that at the council at Malo-Yaroslavets, when the
54697 generals pretending to confer together expressed various opinions, all
54698 mouths were closed by the opinion uttered by the simple-minded soldier
54699 Mouton who, speaking last, said what they all felt: that the one thing
54700 needful was to get away as quickly as possible; and no one, not even
54701 Napoleon, could say anything against that truth which they all
54704 But though they all realized that it was necessary to get away, there
54705 still remained a feeling of shame at admitting that they must flee. An
54706 external shock was needed to overcome that shame, and this shock came in
54707 due time. It was what the French called "le hourra de l'Empereur."
54709 The day after the council at Malo-Yaroslavets Napoleon rode out early in
54710 the morning amid the lines of his army with his suite of marshals and an
54711 escort, on the pretext of inspecting the army and the scene of the
54712 previous and of the impending battle. Some Cossacks on the prowl for
54713 booty fell in with the Emperor and very nearly captured him. If the
54714 Cossacks did not capture Napoleon then, what saved him was the very
54715 thing that was destroying the French army, the booty on which the
54716 Cossacks fell. Here as at Tarutino they went after plunder, leaving the
54717 men. Disregarding Napoleon they rushed after the plunder and Napoleon
54720 When les enfants du Don might so easily have taken the Emperor himself
54721 in the midst of his army, it was clear that there was nothing for it but
54722 to fly as fast as possible along the nearest, familiar road. Napoleon
54723 with his forty-year-old stomach understood that hint, not feeling his
54724 former agility and boldness, and under the influence of the fright the
54725 Cossacks had given him he at once agreed with Mouton and issued orders--
54726 as the historians tell us--to retreat by the Smolensk road.
54728 That Napoleon agreed with Mouton, and that the army retreated, does not
54729 prove that Napoleon caused it to retreat, but that the forces which
54730 influenced the whole army and directed it along the Mozhaysk (that is,
54731 the Smolensk) road acted simultaneously on him also.
54738 A man in motion always devises an aim for that motion. To be able to go
54739 a thousand miles he must imagine that something good awaits him at the
54740 end of those thousand miles. One must have the prospect of a promised
54741 land to have the strength to move.
54743 The promised land for the French during their advance had been Moscow,
54744 during their retreat it was their native land. But that native land was
54745 too far off, and for a man going a thousand miles it is absolutely
54746 necessary to set aside his final goal and to say to himself: "Today I
54747 shall get to a place twenty-five miles off where I shall rest and spend
54748 the night," and during the first day's journey that resting place
54749 eclipses his ultimate goal and attracts all his hopes and desires. And
54750 the impulses felt by a single person are always magnified in a crowd.
54752 For the French retreating along the old Smolensk road, the final goal--
54753 their native land--was too remote, and their immediate goal was
54754 Smolensk, toward which all their desires and hopes, enormously
54755 intensified in the mass, urged them on. It was not that they knew that
54756 much food and fresh troops awaited them in Smolensk, nor that they were
54757 told so (on the contrary their superior officers, and Napoleon himself,
54758 knew that provisions were scarce there), but because this alone could
54759 give them strength to move on and endure their present privations. So
54760 both those who knew and those who did not know deceived themselves, and
54761 pushed on to Smolensk as to a promised land.
54763 Coming out onto the highroad the French fled with surprising energy and
54764 unheard-of rapidity toward the goal they had fixed on. Besides the
54765 common impulse which bound the whole crowd of French into one mass and
54766 supplied them with a certain energy, there was another cause binding
54767 them together--their great numbers. As with the physical law of gravity,
54768 their enormous mass drew the individual human atoms to itself. In their
54769 hundreds of thousands they moved like a whole nation.
54771 Each of them desired nothing more than to give himself up as a prisoner
54772 to escape from all this horror and misery; but on the one hand the force
54773 of this common attraction to Smolensk, their goal, drew each of them in
54774 the same direction; on the other hand an army corps could not surrender
54775 to a company, and though the French availed themselves of every
54776 convenient opportunity to detach themselves and to surrender on the
54777 slightest decent pretext, such pretexts did not always occur. Their very
54778 numbers and their crowded and swift movement deprived them of that
54779 possibility and rendered it not only difficult but impossible for the
54780 Russians to stop this movement, to which the French were directing all
54781 their energies. Beyond a certain limit no mechanical disruption of the
54782 body could hasten the process of decomposition.
54784 A lump of snow cannot be melted instantaneously. There is a certain
54785 limit of time in less than which no amount of heat can melt the snow. On
54786 the contrary the greater the heat the more solidified the remaining snow
54789 Of the Russian commanders Kutuzov alone understood this. When the flight
54790 of the French army along the Smolensk road became well defined, what
54791 Konovnitsyn had foreseen on the night of the eleventh of October began
54792 to occur. The superior officers all wanted to distinguish themselves, to
54793 cut off, to seize, to capture, and to overthrow the French, and all
54794 clamored for action.
54796 Kutuzov alone used all his power (and such power is very limited in the
54797 case of any commander-in-chief) to prevent an attack.
54799 He could not tell them what we say now: "Why fight, why block the road,
54800 losing our own men and inhumanly slaughtering unfortunate wretches? What
54801 is the use of that, when a third of their army has melted away on the
54802 road from Moscow to Vyazma without any battle?" But drawing from his
54803 aged wisdom what they could understand, he told them of the golden
54804 bridge, and they laughed at and slandered him, flinging themselves on,
54805 rending and exulting over the dying beast.
54807 Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov, and others in proximity to the French
54808 near Vyazma could not resist their desire to cut off and break up two
54809 French corps, and by way of reporting their intention to Kutuzov they
54810 sent him a blank sheet of paper in an envelope.
54812 And try as Kutuzov might to restrain the troops, our men attacked,
54813 trying to bar the road. Infantry regiments, we are told, advanced to the
54814 attack with music and with drums beating, and killed and lost thousands
54817 But they did not cut off or overthrow anybody and the French army,
54818 closing up more firmly at the danger, continued, while steadily melting
54819 away, to pursue its fatal path to Smolensk.
54821 BOOK FOURTEEN: 1812
54828 The Battle of Borodino, with the occupation of Moscow that followed it
54829 and the flight of the French without further conflicts, is one of the
54830 most instructive phenomena in history.
54832 All historians agree that the external activity of states and nations in
54833 their conflicts with one another is expressed in wars, and that as a
54834 direct result of greater or less success in war the political strength
54835 of states and nations increases or decreases.
54837 Strange as may be the historical account of how some king or emperor,
54838 having quarreled with another, collects an army, fights his enemy's
54839 army, gains a victory by killing three, five, or ten thousand men, and
54840 subjugates a kingdom and an entire nation of several millions, all the
54841 facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the truth of the
54842 statement that the greater or lesser success of one army against another
54843 is the cause, or at least an essential indication, of an increase or
54844 decrease in the strength of the nation--even though it is unintelligible
54845 why the defeat of an army--a hundredth part of a nation--should oblige
54846 that whole nation to submit. An army gains a victory, and at once the
54847 rights of the conquering nation have increased to the detriment of the
54848 defeated. An army has suffered defeat, and at once a people loses its
54849 rights in proportion to the severity of the reverse, and if its army
54850 suffers a complete defeat the nation is quite subjugated.
54852 So according to history it has been found from the most ancient times,
54853 and so it is to our own day. All Napoleon's wars serve to confirm this
54854 rule. In proportion to the defeat of the Austrian army Austria loses its
54855 rights, and the rights and the strength of France increase. The
54856 victories of the French at Jena and Auerstadt destroy the independent
54857 existence of Prussia.
54859 But then, in 1812, the French gain a victory near Moscow. Moscow is
54860 taken and after that, with no further battles, it is not Russia that
54861 ceases to exist, but the French army of six hundred thousand, and then
54862 Napoleonic France itself. To strain the facts to fit the rules of
54863 history: to say that the field of battle at Borodino remained in the
54864 hands of the Russians, or that after Moscow there were other battles
54865 that destroyed Napoleon's army, is impossible.
54867 After the French victory at Borodino there was no general engagement nor
54868 any that were at all serious, yet the French army ceased to exist. What
54869 does this mean? If it were an example taken from the history of China,
54870 we might say that it was not an historic phenomenon (which is the
54871 historians' usual expedient when anything does not fit their standards);
54872 if the matter concerned some brief conflict in which only a small number
54873 of troops took part, we might treat it as an exception; but this event
54874 occurred before our fathers' eyes, and for them it was a question of the
54875 life or death of their fatherland, and it happened in the greatest of
54878 The period of the campaign of 1812 from the battle of Borodino to the
54879 expulsion of the French proved that the winning of a battle does not
54880 produce a conquest and is not even an invariable indication of conquest;
54881 it proved that the force which decides the fate of peoples lies not in
54882 the conquerors, nor even in armies and battles, but in something else.
54884 The French historians, describing the condition of the French army
54885 before it left Moscow, affirm that all was in order in the Grand Army,
54886 except the cavalry, the artillery, and the transport--there was no
54887 forage for the horses or the cattle. That was a misfortune no one could
54888 remedy, for the peasants of the district burned their hay rather than
54889 let the French have it.
54891 The victory gained did not bring the usual results because the peasants
54892 Karp and Vlas (who after the French had evacuated Moscow drove in their
54893 carts to pillage the town, and in general personally failed to manifest
54894 any heroic feelings), and the whole innumerable multitude of such
54895 peasants, did not bring their hay to Moscow for the high price offered
54896 them, but burned it instead.
54898 Let us imagine two men who have come out to fight a duel with rapiers
54899 according to all the rules of the art of fencing. The fencing has gone
54900 on for some time; suddenly one of the combatants, feeling himself
54901 wounded and understanding that the matter is no joke but concerns his
54902 life, throws down his rapier, and seizing the first cudgel that comes to
54903 hand begins to brandish it. Then let us imagine that the combatant who
54904 so sensibly employed the best and simplest means to attain his end was
54905 at the same time influenced by traditions of chivalry and, desiring to
54906 conceal the facts of the case, insisted that he had gained his victory
54907 with the rapier according to all the rules of art. One can imagine what
54908 confusion and obscurity would result from such an account of the duel.
54910 The fencer who demanded a contest according to the rules of fencing was
54911 the French army; his opponent who threw away the rapier and snatched up
54912 the cudgel was the Russian people; those who try to explain the matter
54913 according to the rules of fencing are the historians who have described
54916 After the burning of Smolensk a war began which did not follow any
54917 previous traditions of war. The burning of towns and villages, the
54918 retreats after battles, the blow dealt at Borodino and the renewed
54919 retreat, the burning of Moscow, the capture of marauders, the seizure of
54920 transports, and the guerrilla war were all departures from the rules.
54922 Napoleon felt this, and from the time he took up the correct fencing
54923 attitude in Moscow and instead of his opponent's rapier saw a cudgel
54924 raised above his head, he did not cease to complain to Kutuzov and to
54925 the Emperor Alexander that the war was being carried on contrary to all
54926 the rules--as if there were any rules for killing people. In spite of
54927 the complaints of the French as to the nonobservance of the rules, in
54928 spite of the fact that to some highly placed Russians it seemed rather
54929 disgraceful to fight with a cudgel and they wanted to assume a pose en
54930 quarte or en tierce according to all the rules, and to make an adroit
54931 thrust en prime, and so on--the cudgel of the people's war was lifted
54932 with all its menacing and majestic strength, and without consulting
54933 anyone's tastes or rules and regardless of anything else, it rose and
54934 fell with stupid simplicity, but consistently, and belabored the French
54935 till the whole invasion had perished.
54937 And it is well for a people who do not--as the French did in 1813--
54938 salute according to all the rules of art, and, presenting the hilt of
54939 their rapier gracefully and politely, hand it to their magnanimous
54940 conqueror, but at the moment of trial, without asking what rules others
54941 have adopted in similar cases, simply and easily pick up the first
54942 cudgel that comes to hand and strike with it till the feeling of
54943 resentment and revenge in their soul yields to a feeling of contempt and
54951 One of the most obvious and advantageous departures from the so-called
54952 laws of war is the action of scattered groups against men pressed
54953 together in a mass. Such action always occurs in wars that take on a
54954 national character. In such actions, instead of two crowds opposing each
54955 other, the men disperse, attack singly, run away when attacked by
54956 stronger forces, but again attack when opportunity offers. This was done
54957 by the guerrillas in Spain, by the mountain tribes in the Caucasus, and
54958 by the Russians in 1812.
54960 People have called this kind of war "guerrilla warfare" and assume that
54961 by so calling it they have explained its meaning. But such a war does
54962 not fit in under any rule and is directly opposed to a well-known rule
54963 of tactics which is accepted as infallible. That rule says that an
54964 attacker should concentrate his forces in order to be stronger than his
54965 opponent at the moment of conflict.
54967 Guerrilla war (always successful, as history shows) directly infringes
54970 This contradiction arises from the fact that military science assumes
54971 the strength of an army to be identical with its numbers. Military
54972 science says that the more troops the greater the strength. Les gros
54973 bataillons ont toujours raison. *
54976 * Large battalions are always victorious.
54978 For military science to say this is like defining momentum in mechanics
54979 by reference to the mass only: stating that momenta are equal or unequal
54980 to each other simply because the masses involved are equal or unequal.
54982 Momentum (quantity of motion) is the product of mass and velocity.
54984 In military affairs the strength of an army is the product of its mass
54985 and some unknown x.
54987 Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact
54988 that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that
54989 small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of
54990 this unknown factor and tries to discover it--now in a geometric
54991 formation, now in the equipment employed, now, and most usually, in the
54992 genius of the commanders. But the assignment of these various meanings
54993 to the factor does not yield results which accord with the historic
54996 Yet it is only necessary to abandon the false view (adopted to gratify
54997 the "heroes") of the efficacy of the directions issued in wartime by
54998 commanders, in order to find this unknown quantity.
55000 That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army, that is to say, the
55001 greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all the men
55002 composing an army, quite independently of whether they are, or are not,
55003 fighting under the command of a genius, in two--or three-line formation,
55004 with cudgels or with rifles that repeat thirty times a minute. Men who
55005 want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous
55006 conditions for fighting.
55008 The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass gives
55009 the resulting force. To define and express the significance of this
55010 unknown factor--the spirit of an army--is a problem for science.
55012 This problem is only solvable if we cease arbitrarily to substitute for
55013 the unknown x itself the conditions under which that force becomes
55014 apparent--such as the commands of the general, the equipment employed,
55015 and so on--mistaking these for the real significance of the factor, and
55016 if we recognize this unknown quantity in its entirety as being the
55017 greater or lesser desire to fight and to face danger. Only then,
55018 expressing known historic facts by equations and comparing the relative
55019 significance of this factor, can we hope to define the unknown.
55021 Ten men, battalions, or divisions, fighting fifteen men, battalions, or
55022 divisions, conquer--that is, kill or take captive--all the others, while
55023 themselves losing four, so that on the one side four and on the other
55024 fifteen were lost. Consequently the four were equal to the fifteen, and
55025 therefore 4x = 15y. Consequently x/y = 15/4. This equation does not give
55026 us the value of the unknown factor but gives us a ratio between two
55027 unknowns. And by bringing variously selected historic units (battles,
55028 campaigns, periods of war) into such equations, a series of numbers
55029 could be obtained in which certain laws should exist and might be
55032 The tactical rule that an army should act in masses when attacking, and
55033 in smaller groups in retreat, unconsciously confirms the truth that the
55034 strength of an army depends on its spirit. To lead men forward under
55035 fire more discipline (obtainable only by movement in masses) is needed
55036 than is needed to resist attacks. But this rule which leaves out of
55037 account the spirit of the army continually proves incorrect and is in
55038 particularly striking contrast to the facts when some strong rise or
55039 fall in the spirit of the troops occurs, as in all national wars.
55041 The French, retreating in 1812--though according to tactics they should
55042 have separated into detachments to defend themselves--congregated into a
55043 mass because the spirit of the army had so fallen that only the mass
55044 held the army together. The Russians, on the contrary, ought according
55045 to tactics to have attacked in mass, but in fact they split up into
55046 small units, because their spirit had so risen that separate
55047 individuals, without orders, dealt blows at the French without needing
55048 any compulsion to induce them to expose themselves to hardships and
55056 The so-called partisan war began with the entry of the French into
55059 Before partisan warfare had been officially recognized by the
55060 government, thousands of enemy stragglers, marauders, and foragers had
55061 been destroyed by the Cossacks and the peasants, who killed them off as
55062 instinctively as dogs worry a stray mad dog to death. Denis Davydov,
55063 with his Russian instinct, was the first to recognize the value of this
55064 terrible cudgel which regardless of the rules of military science
55065 destroyed the French, and to him belongs the credit for taking the first
55066 step toward regularizing this method of warfare.
55068 On August 24 Davydov's first partisan detachment was formed and then
55069 others were recognized. The further the campaign progressed the more
55070 numerous these detachments became.
55072 The irregulars destroyed the great army piecemeal. They gathered the
55073 fallen leaves that dropped of themselves from that withered tree--the
55074 French army--and sometimes shook that tree itself. By October, when the
55075 French were fleeing toward Smolensk, there were hundreds of such
55076 companies, of various sizes and characters. There were some that adopted
55077 all the army methods and had infantry, artillery, staffs, and the
55078 comforts of life. Others consisted solely of Cossack cavalry. There were
55079 also small scratch groups of foot and horse, and groups of peasants and
55080 landowners that remained unknown. A sacristan commanded one party which
55081 captured several hundred prisoners in the course of a month; and there
55082 was Vasilisa, the wife of a village elder, who slew hundreds of the
55085 The partisan warfare flamed up most fiercely in the latter days of
55086 October. Its first period had passed: when the partisans themselves,
55087 amazed at their own boldness, feared every minute to be surrounded and
55088 captured by the French, and hid in the forests without unsaddling,
55089 hardly daring to dismount and always expecting to be pursued. By the end
55090 of October this kind of warfare had taken definite shape: it had become
55091 clear to all what could be ventured against the French and what could
55092 not. Now only the commanders of detachments with staffs, and moving
55093 according to rules at a distance from the French, still regarded many
55094 things as impossible. The small bands that had started their activities
55095 long before and had already observed the French closely considered
55096 things possible which the commanders of the big detachments did not dare
55097 to contemplate. The Cossacks and peasants who crept in among the French
55098 now considered everything possible.
55100 On October 22, Denisov (who was one of the irregulars) was with his
55101 group at the height of the guerrilla enthusiasm. Since early morning he
55102 and his party had been on the move. All day long he had been watching
55103 from the forest that skirted the highroad a large French convoy of
55104 cavalry baggage and Russian prisoners separated from the rest of the
55105 army, which--as was learned from spies and prisoners--was moving under a
55106 strong escort to Smolensk. Besides Denisov and Dolokhov (who also led a
55107 small party and moved in Denisov's vicinity), the commanders of some
55108 large divisions with staffs also knew of this convoy and, as Denisov
55109 expressed it, were sharpening their teeth for it. Two of the commanders
55110 of large parties--one a Pole and the other a German--sent invitations to
55111 Denisov almost simultaneously, requesting him to join up with their
55112 divisions to attack the convoy.
55114 "No, bwother, I have gwown mustaches myself," said Denisov on reading
55115 these documents, and he wrote to the German that, despite his heartfelt
55116 desire to serve under so valiant and renowned a general, he had to forgo
55117 that pleasure because he was already under the command of the Polish
55118 general. To the Polish general he replied to the same effect, informing
55119 him that he was already under the command of the German.
55121 Having arranged matters thus, Denisov and Dolokhov intended, without
55122 reporting matters to the higher command, to attack and seize that convoy
55123 with their own small forces. On October 22 it was moving from the
55124 village of Mikulino to that of Shamshevo. To the left of the road
55125 between Mikulino and Shamshevo there were large forests, extending in
55126 some places up to the road itself though in others a mile or more back
55127 from it. Through these forests Denisov and his party rode all day,
55128 sometimes keeping well back in them and sometimes coming to the very
55129 edge, but never losing sight of the moving French. That morning,
55130 Cossacks of Denisov's party had seized and carried off into the forest
55131 two wagons loaded with cavalry saddles, which had stuck in the mud not
55132 far from Mikulino where the forest ran close to the road. Since then,
55133 and until evening, the party had watched the movements of the French
55134 without attacking. It was necessary to let the French reach Shamshevo
55135 quietly without alarming them and then, after joining Dolokhov who was
55136 to come that evening to a consultation at a watchman's hut in the forest
55137 less than a mile from Shamshevo, to surprise the French at dawn, falling
55138 like an avalanche on their heads from two sides, and rout and capture
55139 them all at one blow.
55141 In their rear, more than a mile from Mikulino where the forest came
55142 right up to the road, six Cossacks were posted to report if any fresh
55143 columns of French should show themselves.
55145 Beyond Shamshevo, Dolokhov was to observe the road in the same way, to
55146 find out at what distance there were other French troops. They reckoned
55147 that the convoy had fifteen hundred men. Denisov had two hundred, and
55148 Dolokhov might have as many more, but the disparity of numbers did not
55149 deter Denisov. All that he now wanted to know was what troops these were
55150 and to learn that he had to capture a "tongue"--that is, a man from the
55151 enemy column. That morning's attack on the wagons had been made so
55152 hastily that the Frenchmen with the wagons had all been killed; only a
55153 little drummer boy had been taken alive, and as he was a straggler he
55154 could tell them nothing definite about the troops in that column.
55156 Denisov considered it dangerous to make a second attack for fear of
55157 putting the whole column on the alert, so he sent Tikhon Shcherbaty, a
55158 peasant of his party, to Shamshevo to try and seize at least one of the
55159 French quartermasters who had been sent on in advance.
55166 It was a warm rainy autumn day. The sky and the horizon were both the
55167 color of muddy water. At times a sort of mist descended, and then
55168 suddenly heavy slanting rain came down.
55170 Denisov in a felt cloak and a sheepskin cap from which the rain ran down
55171 was riding a thin thoroughbred horse with sunken sides. Like his horse,
55172 which turned its head and laid its ears back, he shrank from the driving
55173 rain and gazed anxiously before him. His thin face with its short, thick
55174 black beard looked angry.
55176 Beside Denisov rode an esaul, * Denisov's fellow worker, also in felt
55177 cloak and sheepskin cap, and riding a large sleek Don horse.
55180 * A captain of Cossacks.
55182 Esaul Lovayski the Third was a tall man as straight as an arrow, pale-
55183 faced, fair-haired, with narrow light eyes and with calm self-
55184 satisfaction in his face and bearing. Though it was impossible to say in
55185 what the peculiarity of the horse and rider lay, yet at first glance at
55186 the esaul and Denisov one saw that the latter was wet and uncomfortable
55187 and was a man mounted on a horse, while looking at the esaul one saw
55188 that he was as comfortable and as much at ease as always and that he was
55189 not a man who had mounted a horse, but a man who was one with his horse,
55190 a being consequently possessed of twofold strength.
55192 A little ahead of them walked a peasant guide, wet to the skin and
55193 wearing a gray peasant coat and a white knitted cap.
55195 A little behind, on a poor, small, lean Kirghiz mount with an enormous
55196 tail and mane and a bleeding mouth, rode a young officer in a blue
55199 Beside him rode an hussar, with a boy in a tattered French uniform and
55200 blue cap behind him on the crupper of his horse. The boy held on to the
55201 hussar with cold, red hands, and raising his eyebrows gazed about him
55202 with surprise. This was the French drummer boy captured that morning.
55204 Behind them along the narrow, sodden, cutup forest road came hussars in
55205 threes and fours, and then Cossacks: some in felt cloaks, some in French
55206 greatcoats, and some with horsecloths over their heads. The horses,
55207 being drenched by the rain, all looked black whether chestnut or bay.
55208 Their necks, with their wet, close-clinging manes, looked strangely
55209 thin. Steam rose from them. Clothes, saddles, reins, were all wet,
55210 slippery, and sodden, like the ground and the fallen leaves that strewed
55211 the road. The men sat huddled up trying not to stir, so as to warm the
55212 water that had trickled to their bodies and not admit the fresh cold
55213 water that was leaking in under their seats, their knees, and at the
55214 back of their necks. In the midst of the outspread line of Cossacks two
55215 wagons, drawn by French horses and by saddled Cossack horses that had
55216 been hitched on in front, rumbled over the tree stumps and branches and
55217 splashed through the water that lay in the ruts.
55219 Denisov's horse swerved aside to avoid a pool in the track and bumped
55220 his rider's knee against a tree.
55222 "Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Denisov angrily, and showing his teeth he
55223 struck his horse three times with his whip, splashing himself and his
55226 Denisov was out of sorts both because of the rain and also from hunger
55227 (none of them had eaten anything since morning), and yet more because he
55228 still had no news from Dolokhov and the man sent to capture a "tongue"
55231 "There'll hardly be another such chance to fall on a transport as today.
55232 It's too risky to attack them by oneself, and if we put it off till
55233 another day one of the big guerrilla detachments will snatch the prey
55234 from under our noses," thought Denisov, continually peering forward,
55235 hoping to see a messenger from Dolokhov.
55237 On coming to a path in the forest along which he could see far to the
55238 right, Denisov stopped.
55240 "There's someone coming," said he.
55242 The esaul looked in the direction Denisov indicated.
55244 "There are two, an officer and a Cossack. But it is not presupposable
55245 that it is the lieutenant colonel himself," said the esaul, who was fond
55246 of using words the Cossacks did not know.
55248 The approaching riders having descended a decline were no longer
55249 visible, but they reappeared a few minutes later. In front, at a weary
55250 gallop and using his leather whip, rode an officer, disheveled and
55251 drenched, whose trousers had worked up to above his knees. Behind him,
55252 standing in the stirrups, trotted a Cossack. The officer, a very young
55253 lad with a broad rosy face and keen merry eyes, galloped up to Denisov
55254 and handed him a sodden envelope.
55256 "From the general," said the officer. "Please excuse its not being quite
55259 Denisov, frowning, took the envelope and opened it.
55261 "There, they kept telling us: 'It's dangerous, it's dangerous,'" said
55262 the officer, addressing the esaul while Denisov was reading the
55263 dispatch. "But Komarov and I"--he pointed to the Cossack--"were
55264 prepared. We have each of us two pistols.... But what's this?" he asked,
55265 noticing the French drummer boy. "A prisoner? You've already been in
55266 action? May I speak to him?"
55268 "Wostov! Petya!" exclaimed Denisov, having run through the dispatch.
55269 "Why didn't you say who you were?" and turning with a smile he held out
55270 his hand to the lad.
55272 The officer was Petya Rostov.
55274 All the way Petya had been preparing himself to behave with Denisov as
55275 befitted a grownup man and an officer--without hinting at their previous
55276 acquaintance. But as soon as Denisov smiled at him Petya brightened up,
55277 blushed with pleasure, forgot the official manner he had been
55278 rehearsing, and began telling him how he had already been in a battle
55279 near Vyazma and how a certain hussar had distinguished himself there.
55281 "Well, I am glad to see you," Denisov interrupted him, and his face
55282 again assumed its anxious expression.
55284 "Michael Feoklitych," said he to the esaul, "this is again fwom that
55285 German, you know. He"--he indicated Petya--"is serving under him."
55287 And Denisov told the esaul that the dispatch just delivered was a
55288 repetition of the German general's demand that he should join forces
55289 with him for an attack on the transport.
55291 "If we don't take it tomowwow, he'll snatch it fwom under our noses," he
55294 While Denisov was talking to the esaul, Petya--abashed by Denisov's cold
55295 tone and supposing that it was due to the condition of his trousers--
55296 furtively tried to pull them down under his greatcoat so that no one
55297 should notice it, while maintaining as martial an air as possible.
55299 "Will there be any orders, your honor?" he asked Denisov, holding his
55300 hand at the salute and resuming the game of adjutant and general for
55301 which he had prepared himself, "or shall I remain with your honor?"
55303 "Orders?" Denisov repeated thoughtfully. "But can you stay till
55306 "Oh, please... May I stay with you?" cried Petya.
55308 "But, just what did the genewal tell you? To weturn at once?" asked
55313 "He gave me no instructions. I think I could?" he returned, inquiringly.
55315 "Well, all wight," said Denisov.
55317 And turning to his men he directed a party to go on to the halting place
55318 arranged near the watchman's hut in the forest, and told the officer on
55319 the Kirghiz horse (who performed the duties of an adjutant) to go and
55320 find out where Dolokhov was and whether he would come that evening.
55321 Denisov himself intended going with the esaul and Petya to the edge of
55322 the forest where it reached out to Shamshevo, to have a look at the part
55323 of the French bivouac they were to attack next day.
55325 "Well, old fellow," said he to the peasant guide, "lead us to
55328 Denisov, Petya, and the esaul, accompanied by some Cossacks and the
55329 hussar who had the prisoner, rode to the left across a ravine to the
55330 edge of the forest.
55337 The rain had stopped, and only the mist was falling and drops from the
55338 trees. Denisov, the esaul, and Petya rode silently, following the
55339 peasant in the knitted cap who, stepping lightly with outturned toes and
55340 moving noiselessly in his bast shoes over the roots and wet leaves,
55341 silently led them to the edge of the forest.
55343 He ascended an incline, stopped, looked about him, and advanced to where
55344 the screen of trees was less dense. On reaching a large oak tree that
55345 had not yet shed its leaves, he stopped and beckoned mysteriously to
55346 them with his hand.
55348 Denisov and Petya rode up to him. From the spot where the peasant was
55349 standing they could see the French. Immediately beyond the forest, on a
55350 downward slope, lay a field of spring rye. To the right, beyond a steep
55351 ravine, was a small village and a landowner's house with a broken roof.
55352 In the village, in the house, in the garden, by the well, by the pond,
55353 over all the rising ground, and all along the road uphill from the
55354 bridge leading to the village, not more than five hundred yards away,
55355 crowds of men could be seen through the shimmering mist. Their un-
55356 Russian shouting at their horses which were straining uphill with the
55357 carts, and their calls to one another, could be clearly heard.
55359 "Bwing the prisoner here," said Denisov in a low voice, not taking his
55360 eyes off the French.
55362 A Cossack dismounted, lifted the boy down, and took him to Denisov.
55363 Pointing to the French troops, Denisov asked him what these and those of
55364 them were. The boy, thrusting his cold hands into his pockets and
55365 lifting his eyebrows, looked at Denisov in affright, but in spite of an
55366 evident desire to say all he knew gave confused answers, merely
55367 assenting to everything Denisov asked him. Denisov turned away from him
55368 frowning and addressed the esaul, conveying his own conjectures to him.
55370 Petya, rapidly turning his head, looked now at the drummer boy, now at
55371 Denisov, now at the esaul, and now at the French in the village and
55372 along the road, trying not to miss anything of importance.
55374 "Whether Dolokhov comes or not, we must seize it, eh?" said Denisov with
55375 a merry sparkle in his eyes.
55377 "It is a very suitable spot," said the esaul.
55379 "We'll send the infantwy down by the swamps," Denisov continued.
55380 "They'll cweep up to the garden; you'll wide up fwom there with the
55381 Cossacks"--he pointed to a spot in the forest beyond the village--"and I
55382 with my hussars fwom here. And at the signal shot..."
55384 "The hollow is impassable--there's a swamp there," said the esaul. "The
55385 horses would sink. We must ride round more to the left...."
55387 While they were talking in undertones the crack of a shot sounded from
55388 the low ground by the pond, a puff of white smoke appeared, then
55389 another, and the sound of hundreds of seemingly merry French voices
55390 shouting together came up from the slope. For a moment Denisov and the
55391 esaul drew back. They were so near that they thought they were the cause
55392 of the firing and shouting. But the firing and shouting did not relate
55393 to them. Down below, a man wearing something red was running through the
55394 marsh. The French were evidently firing and shouting at him.
55396 "Why, that's our Tikhon," said the esaul.
55400 "The wascal!" said Denisov.
55402 "He'll get away!" said the esaul, screwing up his eyes.
55404 The man whom they called Tikhon, having run to the stream, plunged in so
55405 that the water splashed in the air, and, having disappeared for an
55406 instant, scrambled out on all fours, all black with the wet, and ran on.
55407 The French who had been pursuing him stopped.
55409 "Smart, that!" said the esaul.
55411 "What a beast!" said Denisov with his former look of vexation. "What has
55412 he been doing all this time?"
55414 "Who is he?" asked Petya.
55416 "He's our plastun. I sent him to capture a 'tongue.'"
55418 "Oh, yes," said Petya, nodding at the first words Denisov uttered as if
55419 he understood it all, though he really did not understand anything of
55422 Tikhon Shcherbaty was one of the most indispensable men in their band.
55423 He was a peasant from Pokrovsk, near the river Gzhat. When Denisov had
55424 come to Pokrovsk at the beginning of his operations and had as usual
55425 summoned the village elder and asked him what he knew about the French,
55426 the elder, as though shielding himself, had replied, as all village
55427 elders did, that he had neither seen nor heard anything of them. But
55428 when Denisov explained that his purpose was to kill the French, and
55429 asked if no French had strayed that way, the elder replied that some
55430 "more-orderers" had really been at their village, but that Tikhon
55431 Shcherbaty was the only man who dealt with such matters. Denisov had
55432 Tikhon called and, having praised him for his activity, said a few words
55433 in the elder's presence about loyalty to the Tsar and the country and
55434 the hatred of the French that all sons of the fatherland should cherish.
55436 "We don't do the French any harm," said Tikhon, evidently frightened by
55437 Denisov's words. "We only fooled about with the lads for fun, you know!
55438 We killed a score or so of 'more-orderers,' but we did no harm else..."
55440 Next day when Denisov had left Pokrovsk, having quite forgotten about
55441 this peasant, it was reported to him that Tikhon had attached himself to
55442 their party and asked to be allowed to remain with it. Denisov gave
55443 orders to let him do so.
55445 Tikhon, who at first did rough work, laying campfires, fetching water,
55446 flaying dead horses, and so on, soon showed a great liking and aptitude
55447 for partisan warfare. At night he would go out for booty and always
55448 brought back French clothing and weapons, and when told to would bring
55449 in French captives also. Denisov then relieved him from drudgery and
55450 began taking him with him when he went out on expeditions and had him
55451 enrolled among the Cossacks.
55453 Tikhon did not like riding, and always went on foot, never lagging
55454 behind the cavalry. He was armed with a musketoon (which he carried
55455 rather as a joke), a pike and an ax, which latter he used as a wolf uses
55456 its teeth, with equal ease picking fleas out of its fur or crunching
55457 thick bones. Tikhon with equal accuracy would split logs with blows at
55458 arm's length, or holding the head of the ax would cut thin little pegs
55459 or carve spoons. In Denisov's party he held a peculiar and exceptional
55460 position. When anything particularly difficult or nasty had to be done--
55461 to push a cart out of the mud with one's shoulders, pull a horse out of
55462 a swamp by its tail, skin it, slink in among the French, or walk more
55463 than thirty miles in a day--everybody pointed laughingly at Tikhon.
55465 "It won't hurt that devil--he's as strong as a horse!" they said of him.
55467 Once a Frenchman Tikhon was trying to capture fired a pistol at him and
55468 shot him in the fleshy part of the back. That wound (which Tikhon
55469 treated only with internal and external applications of vodka) was the
55470 subject of the liveliest jokes by the whole detachment--jokes in which
55471 Tikhon readily joined.
55473 "Hallo, mate! Never again? Gave you a twist?" the Cossacks would banter
55474 him. And Tikhon, purposely writhing and making faces, pretended to be
55475 angry and swore at the French with the funniest curses. The only effect
55476 of this incident on Tikhon was that after being wounded he seldom
55477 brought in prisoners.
55479 He was the bravest and most useful man in the party. No one found more
55480 opportunities for attacking, no one captured or killed more Frenchmen,
55481 and consequently he was made the buffoon of all the Cossacks and hussars
55482 and willingly accepted that role. Now he had been sent by Denisov
55483 overnight to Shamshevo to capture a "tongue." But whether because he had
55484 not been content to take only one Frenchman or because he had slept
55485 through the night, he had crept by day into some bushes right among the
55486 French and, as Denisov had witnessed from above, had been detected by
55494 After talking for some time with the esaul about next day's attack,
55495 which now, seeing how near they were to the French, he seemed to have
55496 definitely decided on, Denisov turned his horse and rode back.
55498 "Now, my lad, we'll go and get dwy," he said to Petya.
55500 As they approached the watchhouse Denisov stopped, peering into the
55501 forest. Among the trees a man with long legs and long, swinging arms,
55502 wearing a short jacket, bast shoes, and a Kazan hat, was approaching
55503 with long, light steps. He had a musketoon over his shoulder and an ax
55504 stuck in his girdle. When he espied Denisov he hastily threw something
55505 into the bushes, removed his sodden hat by its floppy brim, and
55506 approached his commander. It was Tikhon. His wrinkled and pockmarked
55507 face and narrow little eyes beamed with self-satisfied merriment. He
55508 lifted his head high and gazed at Denisov as if repressing a laugh.
55510 "Well, where did you disappear to?" inquired Denisov.
55512 "Where did I disappear to? I went to get Frenchmen," answered Tikhon
55513 boldly and hurriedly, in a husky but melodious bass voice.
55515 "Why did you push yourself in there by daylight? You ass! Well, why
55516 haven't you taken one?"
55518 "Oh, I took one all right," said Tikhon.
55522 "You see, I took him first thing at dawn," Tikhon continued, spreading
55523 out his flat feet with outturned toes in their bast shoes. "I took him
55524 into the forest. Then I see he's no good and think I'll go and fetch a
55527 "You see?... What a wogue--it's just as I thought," said Denisov to the
55528 esaul. "Why didn't you bwing that one?"
55530 "What was the good of bringing him?" Tikhon interrupted hastily and
55531 angrily--"that one wouldn't have done for you. As if I don't know what
55534 "What a bwute you are!... Well?"
55536 "I went for another one," Tikhon continued, "and I crept like this
55537 through the wood and lay down." (He suddenly lay down on his stomach
55538 with a supple movement to show how he had done it.) "One turned up and I
55539 grabbed him, like this." (He jumped up quickly and lightly.) "'Come
55540 along to the colonel,' I said. He starts yelling, and suddenly there
55541 were four of them. They rushed at me with their little swords. So I went
55542 for them with my ax, this way: 'What are you up to?' says I. 'Christ be
55543 with you!'" shouted Tikhon, waving his arms with an angry scowl and
55544 throwing out his chest.
55546 "Yes, we saw from the hill how you took to your heels through the
55547 puddles!" said the esaul, screwing up his glittering eyes.
55549 Petya badly wanted to laugh, but noticed that they all refrained from
55550 laughing. He turned his eyes rapidly from Tikhon's face to the esaul's
55551 and Denisov's, unable to make out what it all meant.
55553 "Don't play the fool!" said Denisov, coughing angrily. "Why didn't you
55554 bwing the first one?"
55556 Tikhon scratched his back with one hand and his head with the other,
55557 then suddenly his whole face expanded into a beaming, foolish grin,
55558 disclosing a gap where he had lost a tooth (that was why he was called
55559 Shcherbaty--the gap-toothed). Denisov smiled, and Petya burst into a
55560 peal of merry laughter in which Tikhon himself joined.
55562 "Oh, but he was a regular good-for-nothing," said Tikhon. "The clothes
55563 on him--poor stuff! How could I bring him? And so rude, your honor! Why,
55564 he says: 'I'm a general's son myself, I won't go!' he says."
55566 "You are a bwute!" said Denisov. "I wanted to question..."
55568 "But I questioned him," said Tikhon. "He said he didn't know much.
55569 'There are a lot of us,' he says, 'but all poor stuff--only soldiers in
55570 name,' he says. 'Shout loud at them,' he says, 'and you'll take them
55571 all,'" Tikhon concluded, looking cheerfully and resolutely into
55574 "I'll give you a hundwed sharp lashes--that'll teach you to play the
55575 fool!" said Denisov severely.
55577 "But why are you angry?" remonstrated Tikhon, "just as if I'd never seen
55578 your Frenchmen! Only wait till it gets dark and I'll fetch you any of
55579 them you want--three if you like."
55581 "Well, let's go," said Denisov, and rode all the way to the watchhouse
55582 in silence and frowning angrily.
55584 Tikhon followed behind and Petya heard the Cossacks laughing with him
55585 and at him, about some pair of boots he had thrown into the bushes.
55587 When the fit of laughter that had seized him at Tikhon's words and smile
55588 had passed and Petya realized for a moment that this Tikhon had killed a
55589 man, he felt uneasy. He looked round at the captive drummer boy and felt
55590 a pang in his heart. But this uneasiness lasted only a moment. He felt
55591 it necessary to hold his head higher, to brace himself, and to question
55592 the esaul with an air of importance about tomorrow's undertaking, that
55593 he might not be unworthy of the company in which he found himself.
55595 The officer who had been sent to inquire met Denisov on the way with the
55596 news that Dolokhov was soon coming and that all was well with him.
55598 Denisov at once cheered up and, calling Petya to him, said: "Well, tell
55599 me about yourself."
55606 Petya, having left his people after their departure from Moscow, joined
55607 his regiment and was soon taken as orderly by a general commanding a
55608 large guerrilla detachment. From the time he received his commission,
55609 and especially since he had joined the active army and taken part in the
55610 battle of Vyazma, Petya had been in a constant state of blissful
55611 excitement at being grown-up and in a perpetual ecstatic hurry not to
55612 miss any chance to do something really heroic. He was highly delighted
55613 with what he saw and experienced in the army, but at the same time it
55614 always seemed to him that the really heroic exploits were being
55615 performed just where he did not happen to be. And he was always in a
55616 hurry to get where he was not.
55618 When on the twenty-first of October his general expressed a wish to send
55619 somebody to Denisov's detachment, Petya begged so piteously to be sent
55620 that the general could not refuse. But when dispatching him he recalled
55621 Petya's mad action at the battle of Vyazma, where instead of riding by
55622 the road to the place to which he had been sent, he had galloped to the
55623 advanced line under the fire of the French and had there twice fired his
55624 pistol. So now the general explicitly forbade his taking part in any
55625 action whatever of Denisov's. That was why Petya had blushed and grown
55626 confused when Denisov asked him whether he could stay. Before they had
55627 ridden to the outskirts of the forest Petya had considered he must carry
55628 out his instructions strictly and return at once. But when he saw the
55629 French and saw Tikhon and learned that there would certainly be an
55630 attack that night, he decided, with the rapidity with which young people
55631 change their views, that the general, whom he had greatly respected till
55632 then, was a rubbishy German, that Denisov was a hero, the esaul a hero,
55633 and Tikhon a hero too, and that it would be shameful for him to leave
55634 them at a moment of difficulty.
55636 It was already growing dusk when Denisov, Petya, and the esaul rode up
55637 to the watchhouse. In the twilight saddled horses could be seen, and
55638 Cossacks and hussars who had rigged up rough shelters in the glade and
55639 were kindling glowing fires in a hollow of the forest where the French
55640 could not see the smoke. In the passage of the small watchhouse a
55641 Cossack with sleeves rolled up was chopping some mutton. In the room
55642 three officers of Denisov's band were converting a door into a tabletop.
55643 Petya took off his wet clothes, gave them to be dried, and at once began
55644 helping the officers to fix up the dinner table.
55646 In ten minutes the table was ready and a napkin spread on it. On the
55647 table were vodka, a flask of rum, white bread, roast mutton, and salt.
55649 Sitting at table with the officers and tearing the fat savory mutton
55650 with his hands, down which the grease trickled, Petya was in an ecstatic
55651 childish state of love for all men, and consequently of confidence that
55652 others loved him in the same way.
55654 "So then what do you think, Vasili Dmitrich?" said he to Denisov. "It's
55655 all right my staying a day with you?" And not waiting for a reply he
55656 answered his own question: "You see I was told to find out--well, I am
55657 finding out.... Only do let me into the very... into the chief... I
55658 don't want a reward... But I want..."
55660 Petya clenched his teeth and looked around, throwing back his head and
55661 flourishing his arms.
55663 "Into the vewy chief..." Denisov repeated with a smile.
55665 "Only, please let me command something, so that I may really command..."
55666 Petya went on. "What would it be to you?... Oh, you want a knife?" he
55667 said, turning to an officer who wished to cut himself a piece of mutton.
55669 And he handed him his clasp knife. The officer admired it.
55671 "Please keep it. I have several like it," said Petya, blushing.
55672 "Heavens! I was quite forgetting!" he suddenly cried. "I have some
55673 raisins, fine ones; you know, seedless ones. We have a new sutler and he
55674 has such capital things. I bought ten pounds. I am used to something
55675 sweet. Would you like some?..." and Petya ran out into the passage to
55676 his Cossack and brought back some bags which contained about five pounds
55677 of raisins. "Have some, gentlemen, have some!"
55679 "You want a coffeepot, don't you?" he asked the esaul. "I bought a
55680 capital one from our sutler! He has splendid things. And he's very
55681 honest, that's the chief thing. I'll be sure to send it to you. Or
55682 perhaps your flints are giving out, or are worn out--that happens
55683 sometimes, you know. I have brought some with me, here they are"--and he
55684 showed a bag--"a hundred flints. I bought them very cheap. Please take
55685 as many as you want, or all if you like...."
55687 Then suddenly, dismayed lest he had said too much, Petya stopped and
55690 He tried to remember whether he had not done anything else that was
55691 foolish. And running over the events of the day he remembered the French
55692 drummer boy. "It's capital for us here, but what of him? Where have they
55693 put him? Have they fed him? Haven't they hurt his feelings?" he thought.
55694 But having caught himself saying too much about the flints, he was now
55695 afraid to speak out.
55697 "I might ask," he thought, "but they'll say: 'He's a boy himself and so
55698 he pities the boy.' I'll show them tomorrow whether I'm a boy. Will it
55699 seem odd if I ask?" Petya thought. "Well, never mind!" and immediately,
55700 blushing and looking anxiously at the officers to see if they appeared
55703 "May I call in that boy who was taken prisoner and give him something to
55704 eat?... Perhaps..."
55706 "Yes, he's a poor little fellow," said Denisov, who evidently saw
55707 nothing shameful in this reminder. "Call him in. His name is Vincent
55708 Bosse. Have him fetched."
55710 "I'll call him," said Petya.
55712 "Yes, yes, call him. A poor little fellow," Denisov repeated.
55714 Petya was standing at the door when Denisov said this. He slipped in
55715 between the officers, came close to Denisov, and said:
55717 "Let me kiss you, dear old fellow! Oh, how fine, how splendid!"
55719 And having kissed Denisov he ran out of the hut.
55721 "Bosse! Vincent!" Petya cried, stopping outside the door.
55723 "Who do you want, sir?" asked a voice in the darkness.
55725 Petya replied that he wanted the French lad who had been captured that
55728 "Ah, Vesenny?" said a Cossack.
55730 Vincent, the boy's name, had already been changed by the Cossacks into
55731 Vesenny (vernal) and into Vesenya by the peasants and soldiers. In both
55732 these adaptations the reference to spring (vesna) matched the impression
55733 made by the young lad.
55735 "He is warming himself there by the bonfire. Ho, Vesenya! Vesenya!--
55736 Vesenny!" laughing voices were heard calling to one another in the
55739 "He's a smart lad," said an hussar standing near Petya. "We gave him
55740 something to eat a while ago. He was awfully hungry!"
55742 The sound of bare feet splashing through the mud was heard in the
55743 darkness, and the drummer boy came to the door.
55745 "Ah, c'est vous!" said Petya. "Voulez-vous manger? N'ayez pas peur, on
55746 ne vous fera pas de mal," * he added shyly and affectionately, touching
55747 the boy's hand. "Entrez, entrez." *(2)
55750 * "Ah, it's you! Do you want something to eat? Don't be afraid, they
55753 * (2) "Come in, come in."
55755 "Merci, monsieur," * said the drummer boy in a trembling almost childish
55756 voice, and he began scraping his dirty feet on the threshold.
55759 * "Thank you, sir."
55761 There were many things Petya wanted to say to the drummer boy, but did
55762 not dare to. He stood irresolutely beside him in the passage. Then in
55763 the darkness he took the boy's hand and pressed it.
55765 "Come in, come in!" he repeated in a gentle whisper. "Oh, what can I do
55766 for him?" he thought, and opening the door he let the boy pass in first.
55768 When the boy had entered the hut, Petya sat down at a distance from him,
55769 considering it beneath his dignity to pay attention to him. But he
55770 fingered the money in his pocket and wondered whether it would seem
55771 ridiculous to give some to the drummer boy.
55778 The arrival of Dolokhov diverted Petya's attention from the drummer boy,
55779 to whom Denisov had had some mutton and vodka given, and whom he had had
55780 dressed in a Russian coat so that he might be kept with their band and
55781 not sent away with the other prisoners. Petya had heard in the army many
55782 stories of Dolokhov's extraordinary bravery and of his cruelty to the
55783 French, so from the moment he entered the hut Petya did not take his
55784 eyes from him, but braced himself up more and more and held his head
55785 high, that he might not be unworthy even of such company.
55787 Dolokhov's appearance amazed Petya by its simplicity.
55789 Denisov wore a Cossack coat, had a beard, had an icon of Nicholas the
55790 Wonder-Worker on his breast, and his way of speaking and everything he
55791 did indicated his unusual position. But Dolokhov, who in Moscow had worn
55792 a Persian costume, had now the appearance of a most correct officer of
55793 the Guards. He was clean-shaven and wore a Guardsman's padded coat with
55794 an Order of St. George at his buttonhole and a plain forage cap set
55795 straight on his head. He took off his wet felt cloak in a corner of the
55796 room, and without greeting anyone went up to Denisov and began
55797 questioning him about the matter in hand. Denisov told him of the
55798 designs the large detachments had on the transport, of the message Petya
55799 had brought, and his own replies to both generals. Then he told him all
55800 he knew of the French detachment.
55802 "That's so. But we must know what troops they are and their numbers,"
55803 said Dolokhov. "It will be necessary to go there. We can't start the
55804 affair without knowing for certain how many there are. I like to work
55805 accurately. Here now--wouldn't one of these gentlemen like to ride over
55806 to the French camp with me? I have brought a spare uniform."
55808 "I, I... I'll go with you!" cried Petya.
55810 "There's no need for you to go at all," said Denisov, addressing
55811 Dolokhov, "and as for him, I won't let him go on any account."
55813 "I like that!" exclaimed Petya. "Why shouldn't I go?"
55815 "Because it's useless."
55817 "Well, you must excuse me, because... because... I shall go, and that's
55818 all. You'll take me, won't you?" he said, turning to Dolokhov.
55820 "Why not?" Dolokhov answered absently, scrutinizing the face of the
55821 French drummer boy. "Have you had that youngster with you long?" he
55824 "He was taken today but he knows nothing. I'm keeping him with me."
55826 "Yes, and where do you put the others?" inquired Dolokhov.
55828 "Where? I send them away and take a weceipt for them," shouted Denisov,
55829 suddenly flushing. "And I say boldly that I have not a single man's life
55830 on my conscience. Would it be difficult for you to send thirty or thwee
55831 hundwed men to town under escort, instead of staining--I speak bluntly--
55832 staining the honor of a soldier?"
55834 "That kind of amiable talk would be suitable from this young count of
55835 sixteen," said Dolokhov with cold irony, "but it's time for you to drop
55838 "Why, I've not said anything! I only say that I'll certainly go with
55839 you," said Petya shyly.
55841 "But for you and me, old fellow, it's time to drop these amenities,"
55842 continued Dolokhov, as if he found particular pleasure in speaking of
55843 this subject which irritated Denisov. "Now, why have you kept this lad?"
55844 he went on, swaying his head. "Because you are sorry for him! Don't we
55845 know those 'receipts' of yours? You send a hundred men away, and thirty
55846 get there. The rest either starve or get killed. So isn't it all the
55847 same not to send them?"
55849 The esaul, screwing up his light-colored eyes, nodded approvingly.
55851 "That's not the point. I'm not going to discuss the matter. I do not
55852 wish to take it on my conscience. You say they'll die. All wight. Only
55855 Dolokhov began laughing.
55857 "Who has told them not to capture me these twenty times over? But if
55858 they did catch me they'd string me up to an aspen tree, and with all
55859 your chivalry just the same." He paused. "However, we must get to work.
55860 Tell the Cossack to fetch my kit. I have two French uniforms in it.
55861 Well, are you coming with me?" he asked Petya.
55863 "I? Yes, yes, certainly!" cried Petya, blushing almost to tears and
55864 glancing at Denisov.
55866 While Dolokhov had been disputing with Denisov what should be done with
55867 prisoners, Petya had once more felt awkward and restless; but again he
55868 had no time to grasp fully what they were talking about. "If grown-up,
55869 distinguished men think so, it must be necessary and right," thought he.
55870 "But above all Denisov must not dare to imagine that I'll obey him and
55871 that he can order me about. I will certainly go to the French camp with
55872 Dolokhov. If he can, so can I!"
55874 And to all Denisov's persuasions, Petya replied that he too was
55875 accustomed to do everything accurately and not just anyhow, and that he
55876 never considered personal danger.
55878 "For you'll admit that if we don't know for sure how many of them there
55879 are... hundreds of lives may depend on it, while there are only two of
55880 us. Besides, I want to go very much and certainly will go, so don't
55881 hinder me," said he. "It will only make things worse..."
55888 Having put on French greatcoats and shakos, Petya and Dolokhov rode to
55889 the clearing from which Denisov had reconnoitered the French camp, and
55890 emerging from the forest in pitch darkness they descended into the
55891 hollow. On reaching the bottom, Dolokhov told the Cossacks accompanying
55892 him to await him there and rode on at a quick trot along the road to the
55893 bridge. Petya, his heart in his mouth with excitement, rode by his side.
55895 "If we're caught, I won't be taken alive! I have a pistol," whispered
55898 "Don't talk Russian," said Dolokhov in a hurried whisper, and at that
55899 very moment they heard through the darkness the challenge: "Qui vive?" *
55900 and the click of a musket.
55903 * "Who goes there?"
55905 The blood rushed to Petya's face and he grasped his pistol.
55907 "Lanciers du 6-me," * replied Dolokhov, neither hastening nor slackening
55911 * "Lancers of the 6th Regiment."
55913 The black figure of a sentinel stood on the bridge.
55920 Dolokhov reined in his horse and advanced at a walk.
55922 "Dites donc, le colonel Gerard est ici?" * he asked.
55925 * "Tell me, is Colonel Gerard here?"
55927 "Mot d'ordre," repeated the sentinel, barring the way and not replying.
55929 "Quand un officier fait sa ronde, les sentinelles ne demandent pas le
55930 mot d'ordre..." cried Dolokhov suddenly flaring up and riding straight
55931 at the sentinel. "Je vous demande si le colonel est ici." *
55934 * "When an officer is making his round, sentinels don't ask him for the
55935 password.... I am asking you if the colonel is here."
55937 And without waiting for an answer from the sentinel, who had stepped
55938 aside, Dolokhov rode up the incline at a walk.
55940 Noticing the black outline of a man crossing the road, Dolokhov stopped
55941 him and inquired where the commander and officers were. The man, a
55942 soldier with a sack over his shoulder, stopped, came close up to
55943 Dolokhov's horse, touched it with his hand, and explained simply and in
55944 a friendly way that the commander and the officers were higher up the
55945 hill to the right in the courtyard of the farm, as he called the
55948 Having ridden up the road, on both sides of which French talk could be
55949 heard around the campfires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the
55950 landowner's house. Having ridden in, he dismounted and approached a big
55951 blazing campfire, around which sat several men talking noisily.
55952 Something was boiling in a small cauldron at the edge of the fire and a
55953 soldier in a peaked cap and blue overcoat, lit up by the fire, was
55954 kneeling beside it stirring its contents with a ramrod.
55956 "Oh, he's a hard nut to crack," said one of the officers who was sitting
55957 in the shadow at the other side of the fire.
55959 "He'll make them get a move on, those fellows!" said another, laughing.
55961 Both fell silent, peering out through the darkness at the sound of
55962 Dolokhov's and Petya's steps as they advanced to the fire leading their
55965 "Bonjour, messieurs!" * said Dolokhov loudly and clearly.
55968 * "Good day, gentlemen."
55970 There was a stir among the officers in the shadow beyond the fire, and
55971 one tall, long-necked officer, walking round the fire, came up to
55974 "Is that you, Clement?" he asked. "Where the devil...?" But, noticing
55975 his mistake, he broke off short and, with a frown, greeted Dolokhov as a
55976 stranger, asking what he could do for him.
55978 Dolokhov said that he and his companion were trying to overtake their
55979 regiment, and addressing the company in general asked whether they knew
55980 anything of the 6th Regiment. None of them knew anything, and Petya
55981 thought the officers were beginning to look at him and Dolokhov with
55982 hostility and suspicion. For some seconds all were silent.
55984 "If you were counting on the evening soup, you have come too late," said
55985 a voice from behind the fire with a repressed laugh.
55987 Dolokhov replied that they were not hungry and must push on farther that
55990 He handed the horses over to the soldier who was stirring the pot and
55991 squatted down on his heels by the fire beside the officer with the long
55992 neck. That officer did not take his eyes from Dolokhov and again asked
55993 to what regiment he belonged. Dolokhov, as if he had not heard the
55994 question, did not reply, but lighting a short French pipe which he took
55995 from his pocket began asking the officer in how far the road before them
55996 was safe from Cossacks.
55998 "Those brigands are everywhere," replied an officer from behind the
56001 Dolokhov remarked that the Cossacks were a danger only to stragglers
56002 such as his companion and himself, "but probably they would not dare to
56003 attack large detachments?" he added inquiringly. No one replied.
56005 "Well, now he'll come away," Petya thought every moment as he stood by
56006 the campfire listening to the talk.
56008 But Dolokhov restarted the conversation which had dropped and began
56009 putting direct questions as to how many men there were in the battalion,
56010 how many battalions, and how many prisoners. Asking about the Russian
56011 prisoners with that detachment, Dolokhov said:
56013 "A horrid business dragging these corpses about with one! It would be
56014 better to shoot such rabble," and burst into loud laughter, so strange
56015 that Petya thought the French would immediately detect their disguise,
56016 and involuntarily took a step back from the campfire.
56018 No one replied a word to Dolokhov's laughter, and a French officer whom
56019 they could not see (he lay wrapped in a greatcoat) rose and whispered
56020 something to a companion. Dolokhov got up and called to the soldier who
56021 was holding their horses.
56023 "Will they bring our horses or not?" thought Petya, instinctively
56024 drawing nearer to Dolokhov.
56026 The horses were brought.
56028 "Good evening, gentlemen," said Dolokhov.
56030 Petya wished to say "Good night" but could not utter a word. The
56031 officers were whispering together. Dolokhov was a long time mounting his
56032 horse which would not stand still, then he rode out of the yard at a
56033 footpace. Petya rode beside him, longing to look round to see whether or
56034 not the French were running after them, but not daring to.
56036 Coming out onto the road Dolokhov did not ride back across the open
56037 country, but through the village. At one spot he stopped and listened.
56038 "Do you hear?" he asked. Petya recognized the sound of Russian voices
56039 and saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners round their campfires.
56040 When they had descended to the bridge Petya and Dolokhov rode past the
56041 sentinel, who without saying a word paced morosely up and down it, then
56042 they descended into the hollow where the Cossacks awaited them.
56044 "Well now, good-by. Tell Denisov, 'at the first shot at daybreak,'" said
56045 Dolokhov and was about to ride away, but Petya seized hold of him.
56047 "Really!" he cried, "you are such a hero! Oh, how fine, how splendid!
56050 "All right, all right!" said Dolokhov. But Petya did not let go of him
56051 and Dolokhov saw through the gloom that Petya was bending toward him and
56052 wanted to kiss him. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed, turned his horse, and
56053 vanished into the darkness.
56060 Having returned to the watchman's hut, Petya found Denisov in the
56061 passage. He was awaiting Petya's return in a state of agitation,
56062 anxiety, and self-reproach for having let him go.
56064 "Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Yes, thank God!" he repeated, listening to
56065 Petya's rapturous account. "But, devil take you, I haven't slept because
56066 of you! Well, thank God. Now lie down. We can still get a nap before
56069 "But... no," said Petya, "I don't want to sleep yet. Besides I know
56070 myself, if I fall asleep it's finished. And then I am used to not
56071 sleeping before a battle."
56073 He sat awhile in the hut joyfully recalling the details of his
56074 expedition and vividly picturing to himself what would happen next day.
56076 Then, noticing that Denisov was asleep, he rose and went out of doors.
56078 It was still quite dark outside. The rain was over, but drops were still
56079 falling from the trees. Near the watchman's hut the black shapes of the
56080 Cossacks' shanties and of horses tethered together could be seen. Behind
56081 the hut the dark shapes of the two wagons with their horses beside them
56082 were discernible, and in the hollow the dying campfire gleamed red. Not
56083 all the Cossacks and hussars were asleep; here and there, amid the
56084 sounds of falling drops and the munching of the horses near by, could be
56085 heard low voices which seemed to be whispering.
56087 Petya came out, peered into the darkness, and went up to the wagons.
56088 Someone was snoring under them, and around them stood saddled horses
56089 munching their oats. In the dark Petya recognized his own horse, which
56090 he called "Karabakh" though it was of Ukranian breed, and went up to it.
56092 "Well, Karabakh! We'll do some service tomorrow," said he, sniffing its
56093 nostrils and kissing it.
56095 "Why aren't you asleep, sir?" said a Cossack who was sitting under a
56098 "No, ah... Likhachev--isn't that your name? Do you know I have only just
56099 come back! We've been into the French camp."
56101 And Petya gave the Cossack a detailed account not only of his ride but
56102 also of his object, and why he considered it better to risk his life
56103 than to act "just anyhow."
56105 "Well, you should get some sleep now," said the Cossack.
56107 "No, I am used to this," said Petya. "I say, aren't the flints in your
56108 pistols worn out? I brought some with me. Don't you want any? You can
56111 The Cossack bent forward from under the wagon to get a closer look at
56114 "Because I am accustomed to doing everything accurately," said Petya.
56115 "Some fellows do things just anyhow, without preparation, and then
56116 they're sorry for it afterwards. I don't like that."
56118 "Just so," said the Cossack.
56120 "Oh yes, another thing! Please, my dear fellow, will you sharpen my
56121 saber for me? It's got bl..." (Petya feared to tell a lie, and the saber
56122 never had been sharpened.) "Can you do it?"
56126 Likhachev got up, rummaged in his pack, and soon Petya heard the warlike
56127 sound of steel on whetstone. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on its
56128 edge. The Cossack was sharpening the saber under the wagon.
56130 "I say! Are the lads asleep?" asked Petya.
56132 "Some are, and some aren't--like us."
56134 "Well, and that boy?"
56136 "Vesenny? Oh, he's thrown himself down there in the passage. Fast asleep
56137 after his fright. He was that glad!"
56139 After that Petya remained silent for a long time, listening to the
56140 sounds. He heard footsteps in the darkness and a black figure appeared.
56142 "What are you sharpening?" asked a man coming up to the wagon.
56144 "Why, this gentleman's saber."
56146 "That's right," said the man, whom Petya took to be an hussar. "Was the
56149 "There, by the wheel!"
56151 The hussar took the cup.
56153 "It must be daylight soon," said he, yawning, and went away.
56155 Petya ought to have known that he was in a forest with Denisov's
56156 guerrilla band, less than a mile from the road, sitting on a wagon
56157 captured from the French beside which horses were tethered, that under
56158 it Likhachev was sitting sharpening a saber for him, that the big dark
56159 blotch to the right was the watchman's hut, and the red blotch below to
56160 the left was the dying embers of a campfire, that the man who had come
56161 for the cup was an hussar who wanted a drink; but he neither knew nor
56162 waited to know anything of all this. He was in a fairy kingdom where
56163 nothing resembled reality. The big dark blotch might really be the
56164 watchman's hut or it might be a cavern leading to the very depths of the
56165 earth. Perhaps the red spot was a fire, or it might be the eye of an
56166 enormous monster. Perhaps he was really sitting on a wagon, but it might
56167 very well be that he was not sitting on a wagon but on a terribly high
56168 tower from which, if he fell, he would have to fall for a whole day or a
56169 whole month, or go on falling and never reach the bottom. Perhaps it was
56170 just the Cossack, Likhachev, who was sitting under the wagon, but it
56171 might be the kindest, bravest, most wonderful, most splendid man in the
56172 world, whom no one knew of. It might really have been that the hussar
56173 came for water and went back into the hollow, but perhaps he had simply
56174 vanished--disappeared altogether and dissolved into nothingness.
56176 Nothing Petya could have seen now would have surprised him. He was in a
56177 fairy kingdom where everything was possible.
56179 He looked up at the sky. And the sky was a fairy realm like the earth.
56180 It was clearing, and over the tops of the trees clouds were swiftly
56181 sailing as if unveiling the stars. Sometimes it looked as if the clouds
56182 were passing, and a clear black sky appeared. Sometimes it seemed as if
56183 the black spaces were clouds. Sometimes the sky seemed to be rising
56184 high, high overhead, and then it seemed to sink so low that one could
56185 touch it with one's hand.
56187 Petya's eyes began to close and he swayed a little.
56189 The trees were dripping. Quiet talking was heard. The horses neighed and
56190 jostled one another. Someone snored.
56192 "Ozheg-zheg, Ozheg-zheg..." hissed the saber against the whetstone, and
56193 suddenly Petya heard an harmonious orchestra playing some unknown,
56194 sweetly solemn hymn. Petya was as musical as Natasha and more so than
56195 Nicholas, but had never learned music or thought about it, and so the
56196 melody that unexpectedly came to his mind seemed to him particularly
56197 fresh and attractive. The music became more and more audible. The melody
56198 grew and passed from one instrument to another. And what was played was
56199 a fugue--though Petya had not the least conception of what a fugue is.
56200 Each instrument--now resembling a violin and now a horn, but better and
56201 clearer than violin or horn--played its own part, and before it had
56202 finished the melody merged with another instrument that began almost the
56203 same air, and then with a third and a fourth; and they all blended into
56204 one and again became separate and again blended, now into solemn church
56205 music, now into something dazzlingly brilliant and triumphant.
56207 "Oh--why, that was in a dream!" Petya said to himself, as he lurched
56208 forward. "It's in my ears. But perhaps it's music of my own. Well, go
56209 on, my music! Now!..."
56211 He closed his eyes, and, from all sides as if from a distance, sounds
56212 fluttered, grew into harmonies, separated, blended, and again all
56213 mingled into the same sweet and solemn hymn. "Oh, this is delightful! As
56214 much as I like and as I like!" said Petya to himself. He tried to
56215 conduct that enormous orchestra.
56217 "Now softly, softly die away!" and the sounds obeyed him. "Now fuller,
56218 more joyful. Still more and more joyful!" And from an unknown depth rose
56219 increasingly triumphant sounds. "Now voices join in!" ordered Petya. And
56220 at first from afar he heard men's voices and then women's. The voices
56221 grew in harmonious triumphant strength, and Petya listened to their
56222 surpassing beauty in awe and joy.
56224 With a solemn triumphal march there mingled a song, the drip from the
56225 trees, and the hissing of the saber, "Ozheg-zheg-zheg..." and again the
56226 horses jostled one another and neighed, not disturbing the choir but
56229 Petya did not know how long this lasted: he enjoyed himself all the
56230 time, wondered at his enjoyment and regretted that there was no one to
56231 share it. He was awakened by Likhachev's kindly voice.
56233 "It's ready, your honor; you can split a Frenchman in half with it!"
56237 "It's getting light, it's really getting light!" he exclaimed.
56239 The horses that had previously been invisible could now be seen to their
56240 very tails, and a watery light showed itself through the bare branches.
56241 Petya shook himself, jumped up, took a ruble from his pocket and gave it
56242 to Likhachev; then he flourished the saber, tested it, and sheathed it.
56243 The Cossacks were untying their horses and tightening their saddle
56246 "And here's the commander," said Likhachev.
56248 Denisov came out of the watchman's hut and, having called Petya, gave
56249 orders to get ready.
56256 The men rapidly picked out their horses in the semidarkness, tightened
56257 their saddle girths, and formed companies. Denisov stood by the
56258 watchman's hut giving final orders. The infantry of the detachment
56259 passed along the road and quickly disappeared amid the trees in the mist
56260 of early dawn, hundreds of feet splashing through the mud. The esaul
56261 gave some orders to his men. Petya held his horse by the bridle,
56262 impatiently awaiting the order to mount. His face, having been bathed in
56263 cold water, was all aglow, and his eyes were particularly brilliant.
56264 Cold shivers ran down his spine and his whole body pulsed rhythmically.
56266 "Well, is ev'wything weady?" asked Denisov. "Bwing the horses."
56268 The horses were brought. Denisov was angry with the Cossack because the
56269 saddle girths were too slack, reproved him, and mounted. Petya put his
56270 foot in the stirrup. His horse by habit made as if to nip his leg, but
56271 Petya leaped quickly into the saddle unconscious of his own weight and,
56272 turning to look at the hussars starting in the darkness behind him, rode
56275 "Vasili Dmitrich, entrust me with some commission! Please... for God's
56278 Denisov seemed to have forgotten Petya's very existence. He turned to
56281 "I ask one thing of you," he said sternly, "to obey me and not shove
56282 yourself forward anywhere."
56284 He did not say another word to Petya but rode in silence all the way.
56285 When they had come to the edge of the forest it was noticeably growing
56286 light over the field. Denisov talked in whispers with the esaul and the
56287 Cossacks rode past Petya and Denisov. When they had all ridden by,
56288 Denisov touched his horse and rode down the hill. Slipping onto their
56289 haunches and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the
56290 ravine. Petya rode beside Denisov, the pulsation of his body constantly
56291 increasing. It was getting lighter and lighter, but the mist still hid
56292 distant objects. Having reached the valley, Denisov looked back and
56293 nodded to a Cossack beside him.
56295 "The signal!" said he.
56297 The Cossack raised his arm and a shot rang out. In an instant the tramp
56298 of horses galloping forward was heard, shouts came from various sides,
56299 and then more shots.
56301 At the first sound of trampling hoofs and shouting, Petya lashed his
56302 horse and loosening his rein galloped forward, not heeding Denisov who
56303 shouted at him. It seemed to Petya that at the moment the shot was fired
56304 it suddenly became as bright as noon. He galloped to the bridge.
56305 Cossacks were galloping along the road in front of him. On the bridge he
56306 collided with a Cossack who had fallen behind, but he galloped on. In
56307 front of him soldiers, probably Frenchmen, were running from right to
56308 left across the road. One of them fell in the mud under his horse's
56311 Cossacks were crowding about a hut, busy with something. From the midst
56312 of that crowd terrible screams arose. Petya galloped up, and the first
56313 thing he saw was the pale face and trembling jaw of a Frenchman,
56314 clutching the handle of a lance that had been aimed at him.
56316 "Hurrah!... Lads!... ours!" shouted Petya, and giving rein to his
56317 excited horse he galloped forward along the village street.
56319 He could hear shooting ahead of him. Cossacks, hussars, and ragged
56320 Russian prisoners, who had come running from both sides of the road,
56321 were shouting something loudly and incoherently. A gallant-looking
56322 Frenchman, in a blue overcoat, capless, and with a frowning red face,
56323 had been defending himself against the hussars. When Petya galloped up
56324 the Frenchman had already fallen. "Too late again!" flashed through
56325 Petya's mind and he galloped on to the place from which the rapid firing
56326 could be heard. The shots came from the yard of the landowner's house he
56327 had visited the night before with Dolokhov. The French were making a
56328 stand there behind a wattle fence in a garden thickly overgrown with
56329 bushes and were firing at the Cossacks who crowded at the gateway.
56330 Through the smoke, as he approached the gate, Petya saw Dolokhov, whose
56331 face was of a pale-greenish tint, shouting to his men. "Go round! Wait
56332 for the infantry!" he exclaimed as Petya rode up to him.
56334 "Wait?... Hurrah-ah-ah!" shouted Petya, and without pausing a moment
56335 galloped to the place whence came the sounds of firing and where the
56336 smoke was thickest.
56338 A volley was heard, and some bullets whistled past, while others plashed
56339 against something. The Cossacks and Dolokhov galloped after Petya into
56340 the gateway of the courtyard. In the dense wavering smoke some of the
56341 French threw down their arms and ran out of the bushes to meet the
56342 Cossacks, while others ran down the hill toward the pond. Petya was
56343 galloping along the courtyard, but instead of holding the reins he waved
56344 both his arms about rapidly and strangely, slipping farther and farther
56345 to one side in his saddle. His horse, having galloped up to a campfire
56346 that was smoldering in the morning light, stopped suddenly, and Petya
56347 fell heavily on to the wet ground. The Cossacks saw that his arms and
56348 legs jerked rapidly though his head was quite motionless. A bullet had
56351 After speaking to the senior French officer, who came out of the house
56352 with a white handkerchief tied to his sword and announced that they
56353 surrendered, Dolokhov dismounted and went up to Petya, who lay
56354 motionless with outstretched arms.
56356 "Done for!" he said with a frown, and went to the gate to meet Denisov
56357 who was riding toward him.
56359 "Killed?" cried Denisov, recognizing from a distance the unmistakably
56360 lifeless attitude--very familiar to him--in which Petya's body was
56363 "Done for!" repeated Dolokhov as if the utterance of these words
56364 afforded him pleasure, and he went quickly up to the prisoners, who were
56365 surrounded by Cossacks who had hurried up. "We won't take them!" he
56366 called out to Denisov.
56368 Denisov did not reply; he rode up to Petya, dismounted, and with
56369 trembling hands turned toward himself the bloodstained, mud-bespattered
56370 face which had already gone white.
56372 "I am used to something sweet. Raisins, fine ones... take them all!" he
56373 recalled Petya's words. And the Cossacks looked round in surprise at the
56374 sound, like the yelp of a dog, with which Denisov turned away, walked to
56375 the wattle fence, and seized hold of it.
56377 Among the Russian prisoners rescued by Denisov and Dolokhov was Pierre
56385 During the whole of their march from Moscow no fresh orders had been
56386 issued by the French authorities concerning the party of prisoners among
56387 whom was Pierre. On the twenty-second of October that party was no
56388 longer with the same troops and baggage trains with which it had left
56389 Moscow. Half the wagons laden with hardtack that had traveled the first
56390 stages with them had been captured by Cossacks, the other half had gone
56391 on ahead. Not one of those dismounted cavalrymen who had marched in
56392 front of the prisoners was left; they had all disappeared. The artillery
56393 the prisoners had seen in front of them during the first days was now
56394 replaced by Marshal Junot's enormous baggage train, convoyed by
56395 Westphalians. Behind the prisoners came a cavalry baggage train.
56397 From Vyazma onwards the French army, which had till then moved in three
56398 columns, went on as a single group. The symptoms of disorder that Pierre
56399 had noticed at their first halting place after leaving Moscow had now
56400 reached the utmost limit.
56402 The road along which they moved was bordered on both sides by dead
56403 horses; ragged men who had fallen behind from various regiments
56404 continually changed about, now joining the moving column, now again
56407 Several times during the march false alarms had been given and the
56408 soldiers of the escort had raised their muskets, fired, and run
56409 headlong, crushing one another, but had afterwards reassembled and
56410 abused each other for their causeless panic.
56412 These three groups traveling together--the cavalry stores, the convoy of
56413 prisoners, and Junot's baggage train--still constituted a separate and
56414 united whole, though each of the groups was rapidly melting away.
56416 Of the artillery baggage train which had consisted of a hundred and
56417 twenty wagons, not more than sixty now remained; the rest had been
56418 captured or left behind. Some of Junot's wagons also had been captured
56419 or abandoned. Three wagons had been raided and robbed by stragglers from
56420 Davout's corps. From the talk of the Germans Pierre learned that a
56421 larger guard had been allotted to that baggage train than to the
56422 prisoners, and that one of their comrades, a German soldier, had been
56423 shot by the marshal's own order because a silver spoon belonging to the
56424 marshal had been found in his possession.
56426 The group of prisoners had melted away most of all. Of the three hundred
56427 and thirty men who had set out from Moscow fewer than a hundred now
56428 remained. The prisoners were more burdensome to the escort than even the
56429 cavalry saddles or Junot's baggage. They understood that the saddles and
56430 Junot's spoon might be of some use, but that cold and hungry soldiers
56431 should have to stand and guard equally cold and hungry Russians who
56432 froze and lagged behind on the road (in which case the order was to
56433 shoot them) was not merely incomprehensible but revolting. And the
56434 escort, as if afraid, in the grievous condition they themselves were in,
56435 of giving way to the pity they felt for the prisoners and so rendering
56436 their own plight still worse, treated them with particular moroseness
56439 At Dorogobuzh while the soldiers of the convoy, after locking the
56440 prisoners in a stable, had gone off to pillage their own stores, several
56441 of the soldier prisoners tunneled under the wall and ran away, but were
56442 recaptured by the French and shot.
56444 The arrangement adopted when they started, that the officer prisoners
56445 should be kept separate from the rest, had long since been abandoned.
56446 All who could walk went together, and after the third stage Pierre had
56447 rejoined Karataev and the gray-blue bandy-legged dog that had chosen
56448 Karataev for its master.
56450 On the third day after leaving Moscow Karataev again fell ill with the
56451 fever he had suffered from in the hospital in Moscow, and as he grew
56452 gradually weaker Pierre kept away from him. Pierre did not know why, but
56453 since Karataev had begun to grow weaker it had cost him an effort to go
56454 near him. When he did so and heard the subdued moaning with which
56455 Karataev generally lay down at the halting places, and when he smelled
56456 the odor emanating from him which was now stronger than before, Pierre
56457 moved farther away and did not think about him.
56459 While imprisoned in the shed Pierre had learned not with his intellect
56460 but with his whole being, by life itself, that man is created for
56461 happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfaction of simple
56462 human needs, and that all unhappiness arises not from privation but from
56463 superfluity. And now during these last three weeks of the march he had
56464 learned still another new, consolatory truth--that nothing in this world
56465 is terrible. He had learned that as there is no condition in which man
56466 can be happy and entirely free, so there is no condition in which he
56467 need be unhappy and lack freedom. He learned that suffering and freedom
56468 have their limits and that those limits are very near together; that the
56469 person in a bed of roses with one crumpled petal suffered as keenly as
56470 he now, sleeping on the bare damp earth with one side growing chilled
56471 while the other was warming; and that when he had put on tight dancing
56472 shoes he had suffered just as he did now when he walked with bare feet
56473 that were covered with sores--his footgear having long since fallen to
56474 pieces. He discovered that when he had married his wife--of his own free
56475 will as it had seemed to him--he had been no more free than now when
56476 they locked him up at night in a stable. Of all that he himself
56477 subsequently termed his sufferings, but which at the time he scarcely
56478 felt, the worst was the state of his bare, raw, and scab-covered feet.
56479 (The horseflesh was appetizing and nourishing, the saltpeter flavor of
56480 the gunpowder they used instead of salt was even pleasant; there was no
56481 great cold, it was always warm walking in the daytime, and at night
56482 there were the campfires; the lice that devoured him warmed his body.)
56483 The one thing that was at first hard to bear was his feet.
56485 After the second day's march Pierre, having examined his feet by the
56486 campfire, thought it would be impossible to walk on them; but when
56487 everybody got up he went along, limping, and, when he had warmed up,
56488 walked without feeling the pain, though at night his feet were more
56489 terrible to look at than before. However, he did not look at them now,
56490 but thought of other things.
56492 Only now did Pierre realize the full strength of life in man and the
56493 saving power he has of transferring his attention from one thing to
56494 another, which is like the safety valve of a boiler that allows
56495 superfluous steam to blow off when the pressure exceeds a certain limit.
56497 He did not see and did not hear how they shot the prisoners who lagged
56498 behind, though more than a hundred perished in that way. He did not
56499 think of Karataev who grew weaker every day and evidently would soon
56500 have to share that fate. Still less did Pierre think about himself. The
56501 harder his position became and the more terrible the future, the more
56502 independent of that position in which he found himself were the joyful
56503 and comforting thoughts, memories, and imaginings that came to him.
56510 At midday on the twenty-second of October Pierre was going uphill along
56511 the muddy, slippery road, looking at his feet and at the roughness of
56512 the way. Occasionally he glanced at the familiar crowd around him and
56513 then again at his feet. The former and the latter were alike familiar
56514 and his own. The blue-gray bandy legged dog ran merrily along the side
56515 of the road, sometimes in proof of its agility and self-satisfaction
56516 lifting one hind leg and hopping along on three, and then again going on
56517 all four and rushing to bark at the crows that sat on the carrion. The
56518 dog was merrier and sleeker than it had been in Moscow. All around lay
56519 the flesh of different animals--from men to horses--in various stages of
56520 decomposition; and as the wolves were kept off by the passing men the
56521 dog could eat all it wanted.
56523 It had been raining since morning and had seemed as if at any moment it
56524 might cease and the sky clear, but after a short break it began raining
56525 harder than before. The saturated road no longer absorbed the water,
56526 which ran along the ruts in streams.
56528 Pierre walked along, looking from side to side, counting his steps in
56529 threes, and reckoning them off on his fingers. Mentally addressing the
56530 rain, he repeated: "Now then, now then, go on! Pelt harder!"
56532 It seemed to him that he was thinking of nothing, but far down and deep
56533 within him his soul was occupied with something important and
56534 comforting. This something was a most subtle spiritual deduction from a
56535 conversation with Karataev the day before.
56537 At their yesterday's halting place, feeling chilly by a dying campfire,
56538 Pierre had got up and gone to the next one, which was burning better.
56539 There Platon Karataev was sitting covered up--head and all--with his
56540 greatcoat as if it were a vestment, telling the soldiers in his
56541 effective and pleasant though now feeble voice a story Pierre knew. It
56542 was already past midnight, the hour when Karataev was usually free of
56543 his fever and particularly lively. When Pierre reached the fire and
56544 heard Platon's voice enfeebled by illness, and saw his pathetic face
56545 brightly lit up by the blaze, he felt a painful prick at his heart. His
56546 feeling of pity for this man frightened him and he wished to go away,
56547 but there was no other fire, and Pierre sat down, trying not to look at
56550 "Well, how are you?" he asked.
56552 "How am I? If we grumble at sickness, God won't grant us death," replied
56553 Platon, and at once resumed the story he had begun.
56555 "And so, brother," he continued, with a smile on his pale emaciated face
56556 and a particularly happy light in his eyes, "you see, brother..."
56558 Pierre had long been familiar with that story. Karataev had told it to
56559 him alone some half-dozen times and always with a specially joyful
56560 emotion. But well as he knew it, Pierre now listened to that tale as to
56561 something new, and the quiet rapture Karataev evidently felt as he told
56562 it communicated itself also to Pierre. The story was of an old merchant
56563 who lived a good and God-fearing life with his family, and who went once
56564 to the Nizhni fair with a companion--a rich merchant.
56566 Having put up at an inn they both went to sleep, and next morning his
56567 companion was found robbed and with his throat cut. A bloodstained knife
56568 was found under the old merchant's pillow. He was tried, knouted, and
56569 his nostrils having been torn off, "all in due form" as Karataev put it,
56570 he was sent to hard labor in Siberia.
56572 "And so, brother" (it was at this point that Pierre came up), "ten years
56573 or more passed by. The old man was living as a convict, submitting as he
56574 should and doing no wrong. Only he prayed to God for death. Well, one
56575 night the convicts were gathered just as we are, with the old man among
56576 them. And they began telling what each was suffering for, and how they
56577 had sinned against God. One told how he had taken a life, another had
56578 taken two, a third had set a house on fire, while another had simply
56579 been a vagrant and had done nothing. So they asked the old man: 'What
56580 are you being punished for, Daddy?'--'I, my dear brothers,' said he, 'am
56581 being punished for my own and other men's sins. But I have not killed
56582 anyone or taken anything that was not mine, but have only helped my
56583 poorer brothers. I was a merchant, my dear brothers, and had much
56584 property. 'And he went on to tell them all about it in due order. 'I
56585 don't grieve for myself,' he says, 'God, it seems, has chastened me.
56586 Only I am sorry for my old wife and the children,' and the old man began
56587 to weep. Now it happened that in the group was the very man who had
56588 killed the other merchant. 'Where did it happen, Daddy?' he said. 'When,
56589 and in what month?' He asked all about it and his heart began to ache.
56590 So he comes up to the old man like this, and falls down at his feet!
56591 'You are perishing because of me, Daddy,' he says. 'It's quite true,
56592 lads, that this man,' he says, 'is being tortured innocently and for
56593 nothing! I,' he says, 'did that deed, and I put the knife under your
56594 head while you were asleep. Forgive me, Daddy,' he says, 'for Christ's
56597 Karataev paused, smiling joyously as he gazed into the fire, and he drew
56600 "And the old man said, 'God will forgive you, we are all sinners in His
56601 sight. I suffer for my own sins,' and he wept bitter tears. Well, and
56602 what do you think, dear friends?" Karataev continued, his face
56603 brightening more and more with a rapturous smile as if what he now had
56604 to tell contained the chief charm and the whole meaning of his story:
56605 "What do you think, dear fellows? That murderer confessed to the
56606 authorities. 'I have taken six lives,' he says (he was a great sinner),
56607 'but what I am most sorry for is this old man. Don't let him suffer
56608 because of me.' So he confessed and it was all written down and the
56609 papers sent off in due form. The place was a long way off, and while
56610 they were judging, what with one thing and another, filling in the
56611 papers all in due form--the authorities I mean--time passed. The affair
56612 reached the Tsar. After a while the Tsar's decree came: to set the
56613 merchant free and give him a compensation that had been awarded. The
56614 paper arrived and they began to look for the old man. 'Where is the old
56615 man who has been suffering innocently and in vain? A paper has come from
56616 the Tsar!' so they began looking for him," here Karataev's lower jaw
56617 trembled, "but God had already forgiven him--he was dead! That's how it
56618 was, dear fellows!" Karataev concluded and sat for a long time silent,
56619 gazing before him with a smile.
56621 And Pierre's soul was dimly but joyfully filled not by the story itself
56622 but by its mysterious significance: by the rapturous joy that lit up
56623 Karataev's face as he told it, and the mystic significance of that joy.
56630 "A vos places!" * suddenly cried a voice.
56633 * "To your places."
56635 A pleasant feeling of excitement and an expectation of something joyful
56636 and solemn was aroused among the soldiers of the convoy and the
56637 prisoners. From all sides came shouts of command, and from the left came
56638 smartly dressed cavalrymen on good horses, passing the prisoners at a
56639 trot. The expression on all faces showed the tension people feel at the
56640 approach of those in authority. The prisoners thronged together and were
56641 pushed off the road. The convoy formed up.
56643 "The Emperor! The Emperor! The Marshal! The Duke!" and hardly had the
56644 sleek cavalry passed, before a carriage drawn by six gray horses rattled
56645 by. Pierre caught a glimpse of a man in a three-cornered hat with a
56646 tranquil look on his handsome, plump, white face. It was one of the
56647 marshals. His eye fell on Pierre's large and striking figure, and in the
56648 expression with which he frowned and looked away Pierre thought he
56649 detected sympathy and a desire to conceal that sympathy.
56651 The general in charge of the stores galloped after the carriage with a
56652 red and frightened face, whipping up his skinny horse. Several officers
56653 formed a group and some soldiers crowded round them. Their faces all
56654 looked excited and worried.
56656 "What did he say? What did he say?" Pierre heard them ask.
56658 While the marshal was passing, the prisoners had huddled together in a
56659 crowd, and Pierre saw Karataev whom he had not yet seen that morning. He
56660 sat in his short overcoat leaning against a birch tree. On his face,
56661 besides the look of joyful emotion it had worn yesterday while telling
56662 the tale of the merchant who suffered innocently, there was now an
56663 expression of quiet solemnity.
56665 Karataev looked at Pierre with his kindly round eyes now filled with
56666 tears, evidently wishing him to come near that he might say something to
56667 him. But Pierre was not sufficiently sure of himself. He made as if he
56668 did not notice that look and moved hastily away.
56670 When the prisoners again went forward Pierre looked round. Karataev was
56671 still sitting at the side of the road under the birch tree and two
56672 Frenchmen were talking over his head. Pierre did not look round again
56673 but went limping up the hill.
56675 From behind, where Karataev had been sitting, came the sound of a shot.
56676 Pierre heard it plainly, but at that moment he remembered that he had
56677 not yet finished reckoning up how many stages still remained to
56678 Smolensk--a calculation he had begun before the marshal went by. And he
56679 again started reckoning. Two French soldiers ran past Pierre, one of
56680 whom carried a lowered and smoking gun. They both looked pale, and in
56681 the expression on their faces--one of them glanced timidly at Pierre--
56682 there was something resembling what he had seen on the face of the young
56683 soldier at the execution. Pierre looked at the soldier and remembered
56684 that, two days before, that man had burned his shirt while drying it at
56685 the fire and how they had laughed at him.
56687 Behind him, where Karataev had been sitting, the dog began to howl.
56688 "What a stupid beast! Why is it howling?" thought Pierre.
56690 His comrades, the prisoner soldiers walking beside him, avoided looking
56691 back at the place where the shot had been fired and the dog was howling,
56692 just as Pierre did, but there was a set look on all their faces.
56699 The stores, the prisoners, and the marshal's baggage train stopped at
56700 the village of Shamshevo. The men crowded together round the campfires.
56701 Pierre went up to the fire, ate some roast horseflesh, lay down with his
56702 back to the fire, and immediately fell asleep. He again slept as he had
56703 done at Mozhaysk after the battle of Borodino.
56705 Again real events mingled with dreams and again someone, he or another,
56706 gave expression to his thoughts, and even to the same thoughts that had
56707 been expressed in his dream at Mozhaysk.
56709 "Life is everything. Life is God. Everything changes and moves and that
56710 movement is God. And while there is life there is joy in consciousness
56711 of the divine. To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than
56712 all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in innocent
56715 "Karataev!" came to Pierre's mind.
56717 And suddenly he saw vividly before him a long-forgotten, kindly old man
56718 who had given him geography lessons in Switzerland. "Wait a bit," said
56719 the old man, and showed Pierre a globe. This globe was alive--a
56720 vibrating ball without fixed dimensions. Its whole surface consisted of
56721 drops closely pressed together, and all these drops moved and changed
56722 places, sometimes several of them merging into one, sometimes one
56723 dividing into many. Each drop tried to spread out and occupy as much
56724 space as possible, but others striving to do the same compressed it,
56725 sometimes destroyed it, and sometimes merged with it.
56727 "That is life," said the old teacher.
56729 "How simple and clear it is," thought Pierre. "How is it I did not know
56732 "God is in the midst, and each drop tries to expand so as to reflect Him
56733 to the greatest extent. And it grows, merges, disappears from the
56734 surface, sinks to the depths, and again emerges. There now, Karataev has
56735 spread out and disappeared. Do you understand, my child?" said the
56738 "Do you understand, damn you?" shouted a voice, and Pierre woke up.
56740 He lifted himself and sat up. A Frenchman who had just pushed a Russian
56741 soldier away was squatting by the fire, engaged in roasting a piece of
56742 meat stuck on a ramrod. His sleeves were rolled up and his sinewy,
56743 hairy, red hands with their short fingers deftly turned the ramrod. His
56744 brown morose face with frowning brows was clearly visible by the glow of
56747 "It's all the same to him," he muttered, turning quickly to a soldier
56748 who stood behind him. "Brigand! Get away!"
56750 And twisting the ramrod he looked gloomily at Pierre, who turned away
56751 and gazed into the darkness. A prisoner, the Russian soldier the
56752 Frenchman had pushed away, was sitting near the fire patting something
56753 with his hand. Looking more closely Pierre recognized the blue-gray dog,
56754 sitting beside the soldier, wagging its tail.
56756 "Ah, he's come?" said Pierre. "And Plat-" he began, but did not finish.
56758 Suddenly and simultaneously a crowd of memories awoke in his fancy--of
56759 the look Platon had given him as he sat under the tree, of the shot
56760 heard from that spot, of the dog's howl, of the guilty faces of the two
56761 Frenchmen as they ran past him, of the lowered and smoking gun, and of
56762 Karataev's absence at this halt--and he was on the point of realizing
56763 that Karataev had been killed, but just at that instant, he knew not
56764 why, the recollection came to his mind of a summer evening he had spent
56765 with a beautiful Polish lady on the veranda of his house in Kiev. And
56766 without linking up the events of the day or drawing a conclusion from
56767 them, Pierre closed his eyes, seeing a vision of the country in
56768 summertime mingled with memories of bathing and of the liquid, vibrating
56769 globe, and he sank into water so that it closed over his head.
56771 Before sunrise he was awakened by shouts and loud and rapid firing.
56772 French soldiers were running past him.
56774 "The Cossacks!" one of them shouted, and a moment later a crowd of
56775 Russians surrounded Pierre.
56777 For a long time he could not understand what was happening to him. All
56778 around he heard his comrades sobbing with joy.
56780 "Brothers! Dear fellows! Darlings!" old soldiers exclaimed, weeping, as
56781 they embraced Cossacks and hussars.
56783 The hussars and Cossacks crowded round the prisoners; one offered them
56784 clothes, another boots, and a third bread. Pierre sobbed as he sat among
56785 them and could not utter a word. He hugged the first soldier who
56786 approached him, and kissed him, weeping.
56788 Dolokhov stood at the gate of the ruined house, letting a crowd of
56789 disarmed Frenchmen pass by. The French, excited by all that had
56790 happened, were talking loudly among themselves, but as they passed
56791 Dolokhov who gently switched his boots with his whip and watched them
56792 with cold glassy eyes that boded no good, they became silent. On the
56793 opposite side stood Dolokhov's Cossack, counting the prisoners and
56794 marking off each hundred with a chalk line on the gate.
56796 "How many?" Dolokhov asked the Cossack.
56798 "The second hundred," replied the Cossack.
56800 "Filez, filez!" * Dolokhov kept saying, having adopted this expression
56801 from the French, and when his eyes met those of the prisoners they
56802 flashed with a cruel light.
56805 * "Get along, get along!"
56807 Denisov, bareheaded and with a gloomy face, walked behind some Cossacks
56808 who were carrying the body of Petya Rostov to a hole that had been dug
56816 After the twenty-eighth of October when the frosts began, the flight of
56817 the French assumed a still more tragic character, with men freezing, or
56818 roasting themselves to death at the campfires, while carriages with
56819 people dressed in furs continued to drive past, carrying away the
56820 property that had been stolen by the Emperor, kings, and dukes; but the
56821 process of the flight and disintegration of the French army went on
56822 essentially as before.
56824 From Moscow to Vyazma the French army of seventy-three thousand men not
56825 reckoning the Guards (who did nothing during the whole war but pillage)
56826 was reduced to thirty-six thousand, though not more than five thousand
56827 had fallen in battle. From this beginning the succeeding terms of the
56828 progression could be determined mathematically. The French army melted
56829 away and perished at the same rate from Moscow to Vyazma, from Vyazma to
56830 Smolensk, from Smolensk to the Berezina, and from the Berezina to Vilna-
56831 -independently of the greater or lesser intensity of the cold, the
56832 pursuit, the barring of the way, or any other particular conditions.
56833 Beyond Vyazma the French army instead of moving in three columns huddled
56834 together into one mass, and so went on to the end. Berthier wrote to his
56835 Emperor (we know how far commanding officers allow themselves to diverge
56836 from the truth in describing the condition of an army) and this is what
56839 I deem it my duty to report to Your Majesty the condition of the various
56840 corps I have had occasion to observe during different stages of the last
56841 two or three days' march. They are almost disbanded. Scarcely a quarter
56842 of the soldiers remain with the standards of their regiments, the others
56843 go off by themselves in different directions hoping to find food and
56844 escape discipline. In general they regard Smolensk as the place where
56845 they hope to recover. During the last few days many of the men have been
56846 seen to throw away their cartridges and their arms. In such a state of
56847 affairs, whatever your ultimate plans may be, the interest of Your
56848 Majesty's service demands that the army should be rallied at Smolensk
56849 and should first of all be freed from ineffectives, such as dismounted
56850 cavalry, unnecessary baggage, and artillery material that is no longer
56851 in proportion to the present forces. The soldiers, who are worn out with
56852 hunger and fatigue, need these supplies as well as a few days' rest.
56853 Many have died these last days on the road or at the bivouacs. This
56854 state of things is continually becoming worse and makes one fear that
56855 unless a prompt remedy is applied the troops will no longer be under
56856 control in case of an engagement.
56858 November 9: twenty miles from Smolensk.
56860 After staggering into Smolensk which seemed to them a promised land, the
56861 French, searching for food, killed one another, sacked their own stores,
56862 and when everything had been plundered fled farther.
56864 They all went without knowing whither or why they were going. Still less
56865 did that genius, Napoleon, know it, for no one issued any orders to him.
56866 But still he and those about him retained their old habits: wrote
56867 commands, letters, reports, and orders of the day; called one another
56868 sire, mon cousin, prince d'Eckmuhl, roi de Naples, and so on. But these
56869 orders and reports were only on paper, nothing in them was acted upon
56870 for they could not be carried out, and though they entitled one another
56871 Majesties, Highnesses, or Cousins, they all felt that they were
56872 miserable wretches who had done much evil for which they had now to pay.
56873 And though they pretended to be concerned about the army, each was
56874 thinking only of himself and of how to get away quickly and save
56882 The movements of the Russian and French armies during the campaign from
56883 Moscow back to the Niemen were like those in a game of Russian
56884 blindman's bluff, in which two players are blindfolded and one of them
56885 occasionally rings a little bell to inform the catcher of his
56886 whereabouts. First he rings his bell fearlessly, but when he gets into a
56887 tight place he runs away as quietly as he can, and often thinking to
56888 escape runs straight into his opponent's arms.
56890 At first while they were still moving along the Kaluga road, Napoleon's
56891 armies made their presence known, but later when they reached the
56892 Smolensk road they ran holding the clapper of their bell tight--and
56893 often thinking they were escaping ran right into the Russians.
56895 Owing to the rapidity of the French flight and the Russian pursuit and
56896 the consequent exhaustion of the horses, the chief means of
56897 approximately ascertaining the enemy's position--by cavalry scouting--
56898 was not available. Besides, as a result of the frequent and rapid change
56899 of position by each army, even what information was obtained could not
56900 be delivered in time. If news was received one day that the enemy had
56901 been in a certain position the day before, by the third day when
56902 something could have been done, that army was already two days' march
56903 farther on and in quite another position.
56905 One army fled and the other pursued. Beyond Smolensk there were several
56906 different roads available for the French, and one would have thought
56907 that during their stay of four days they might have learned where the
56908 enemy was, might have arranged some more advantageous plan and
56909 undertaken something new. But after a four days' halt the mob, with no
56910 maneuvers or plans, again began running along the beaten track, neither
56911 to the right nor to the left but along the old--the worst--road, through
56914 Expecting the enemy from behind and not in front, the French separated
56915 in their flight and spread out over a distance of twenty-four hours. In
56916 front of them all fled the Emperor, then the kings, then the dukes. The
56917 Russian army, expecting Napoleon to take the road to the right beyond
56918 the Dnieper--which was the only reasonable thing for him to do--
56919 themselves turned to the right and came out onto the highroad at
56920 Krasnoe. And here as in a game of blindman's buff the French ran into
56921 our vanguard. Seeing their enemy unexpectedly the French fell into
56922 confusion and stopped short from the sudden fright, but then they
56923 resumed their flight, abandoning their comrades who were farther behind.
56924 Then for three days separate portions of the French army--first Murat's
56925 (the vice-king's), then Davout's, and then Ney's--ran, as it were, the
56926 gauntlet of the Russian army. They abandoned one another, abandoned all
56927 their heavy baggage, their artillery, and half their men, and fled,
56928 getting past the Russians by night by making semicircles to the right.
56930 Ney, who came last, had been busying himself blowing up the walls of
56931 Smolensk which were in nobody's way, because despite the unfortunate
56932 plight of the French or because of it, they wished to punish the floor
56933 against which they had hurt themselves. Ney, who had had a corps of ten
56934 thousand men, reached Napoleon at Orsha with only one thousand men left,
56935 having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon, and having crossed the
56936 Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooded spot.
56938 From Orsha they fled farther along the road to Vilna, still playing at
56939 blindman's buff with the pursuing army. At the Berezina they again
56940 became disorganized, many were drowned and many surrendered, but those
56941 who got across the river fled farther. Their supreme chief donned a fur
56942 coat and, having seated himself in a sleigh, galloped on alone,
56943 abandoning his companions. The others who could do so drove away too,
56944 leaving those who could not to surrender or die.
56951 This campaign consisted in a flight of the French during which they did
56952 all they could to destroy themselves. From the time they turned onto the
56953 Kaluga road to the day their leader fled from the army, none of the
56954 movements of the crowd had any sense. So one might have thought that
56955 regarding this period of the campaign the historians, who attributed the
56956 actions of the mass to the will of one man, would have found it
56957 impossible to make the story of the retreat fit their theory. But no!
56958 Mountains of books have been written by the historians about this
56959 campaign, and everywhere are described Napoleon's arrangements, the
56960 maneuvers, and his profound plans which guided the army, as well as the
56961 military genius shown by his marshals.
56963 The retreat from Malo-Yaroslavets when he had a free road into a well-
56964 supplied district and the parallel road was open to him along which
56965 Kutuzov afterwards pursued him--this unnecessary retreat along a
56966 devastated road--is explained to us as being due to profound
56967 considerations. Similarly profound considerations are given for his
56968 retreat from Smolensk to Orsha. Then his heroism at Krasnoe is
56969 described, where he is reported to have been prepared to accept battle
56970 and take personal command, and to have walked about with a birch stick
56973 "J'ai assez fait l'empereur; il est temps de faire le general," * but
56974 nevertheless immediately ran away again, abandoning to its fate the
56975 scattered fragments of the army he left behind.
56978 * "I have acted the Emperor long enough; it is time to act the general."
56980 Then we are told of the greatness of soul of the marshals, especially of
56981 Ney--a greatness of soul consisting in this: that he made his way by
56982 night around through the forest and across the Dnieper and escaped to
56983 Orsha, abandoning standards, artillery, and nine tenths of his men.
56985 And lastly, the final departure of the great Emperor from his heroic
56986 army is presented to us by the historians as something great and
56987 characteristic of genius. Even that final running away, described in
56988 ordinary language as the lowest depth of baseness which every child is
56989 taught to be ashamed of--even that act finds justification in the
56990 historians' language.
56992 When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical
56993 ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that
56994 humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving
56995 conception of "greatness." "Greatness," it seems, excludes the standards
56996 of right and wrong. For the "great" man nothing is wrong, there is no
56997 atrocity for which a "great" man can be blamed.
56999 "C'est grand!" * say the historians, and there no longer exists either
57000 good or evil but only "grand" and "not grand." Grand is good, not grand
57001 is bad. Grand is the characteristic, in their conception, of some
57002 special animals called "heroes." And Napoleon, escaping home in a warm
57003 fur coat and leaving to perish those who were not merely his comrades
57004 but were (in his opinion) men he had brought there, feels que c'est
57005 grand, *(2) and his soul is tranquil.
57010 * (2) That it is great.
57012 "Du sublime (he saw something sublime in himself) au ridicule il n'y a
57013 qu'un pas," * said he. And the whole world for fifty years has been
57014 repeating: "Sublime! Grand! Napoleon le Grand!" Du sublime au ridicule
57015 il n'y a qu'un pas.
57018 * "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
57020 And it occurs to no one that to admit a greatness not commensurable with
57021 the standard of right and wrong is merely to admit one's own nothingness
57022 and immeasurable meanness.
57024 For us with the standard of good and evil given us by Christ, no human
57025 actions are incommensurable. And there is no greatness where simplicity,
57026 goodness, and truth are absent.
57033 What Russian, reading the account of the last part of the campaign of
57034 1812, has not experienced an uncomfortable feeling of regret,
57035 dissatisfaction, and perplexity? Who has not asked himself how it is
57036 that the French were not all captured or destroyed when our three armies
57037 surrounded them in superior numbers, when the disordered French, hungry
57038 and freezing, surrendered in crowds, and when (as the historians relate)
57039 the aim of the Russians was to stop the French, to cut them off, and
57042 How was it that the Russian army, which when numerically weaker than the
57043 French had given battle at Borodino, did not achieve its purpose when it
57044 had surrounded the French on three sides and when its aim was to capture
57045 them? Can the French be so enormously superior to us that when we had
57046 surrounded them with superior forces we could not beat them? How could
57049 History (or what is called by that name) replying to these questions
57050 says that this occurred because Kutuzov and Tormasov and Chichagov, and
57051 this man and that man, did not execute such and such maneuvers...
57053 But why did they not execute those maneuvers? And why if they were
57054 guilty of not carrying out a prearranged plan were they not tried and
57055 punished? But even if we admitted that Kutuzov, Chichagov, and others
57056 were the cause of the Russian failures, it is still incomprehensible
57057 why, the position of the Russian army being what it was at Krasnoe and
57058 at the Berezina (in both cases we had superior forces), the French army
57059 with its marshals, kings, and Emperor was not captured, if that was what
57060 the Russians aimed at.
57062 The explanation of this strange fact given by Russian military
57063 historians (to the effect that Kutuzov hindered an attack) is unfounded,
57064 for we know that he could not restrain the troops from attacking at
57065 Vyazma and Tarutino.
57067 Why was the Russian army--which with inferior forces had withstood the
57068 enemy in full strength at Borodino--defeated at Krasnoe and the Berezina
57069 by the disorganized crowds of the French when it was numerically
57072 If the aim of the Russians consisted in cutting off and capturing
57073 Napoleon and his marshals--and that aim was not merely frustrated but
57074 all attempts to attain it were most shamefully baffled--then this last
57075 period of the campaign is quite rightly considered by the French to be a
57076 series of victories, and quite wrongly considered victorious by Russian
57079 The Russian military historians in so far as they submit to claims of
57080 logic must admit that conclusion, and in spite of their lyrical
57081 rhapsodies about valor, devotion, and so forth, must reluctantly admit
57082 that the French retreat from Moscow was a series of victories for
57083 Napoleon and defeats for Kutuzov.
57085 But putting national vanity entirely aside one feels that such a
57086 conclusion involves a contradiction, since the series of French
57087 victories brought the French complete destruction, while the series of
57088 Russian defeats led to the total destruction of their enemy and the
57089 liberation of their country.
57091 The source of this contradiction lies in the fact that the historians
57092 studying the events from the letters of the sovereigns and the generals,
57093 from memoirs, reports, projects, and so forth, have attributed to this
57094 last period of the war of 1812 an aim that never existed, namely that of
57095 cutting off and capturing Napoleon with his marshals and his army.
57097 There never was or could have been such an aim, for it would have been
57098 senseless and its attainment quite impossible.
57100 It would have been senseless, first because Napoleon's disorganized army
57101 was flying from Russia with all possible speed, that is to say, was
57102 doing just what every Russian desired. So what was the use of performing
57103 various operations on the French who were running away as fast as they
57106 Secondly, it would have been senseless to block the passage of men whose
57107 whole energy was directed to flight.
57109 Thirdly, it would have been senseless to sacrifice one's own troops in
57110 order to destroy the French army, which without external interference
57111 was destroying itself at such a rate that, though its path was not
57112 blocked, it could not carry across the frontier more than it actually
57113 did in December, namely a hundredth part of the original army.
57115 Fourthly, it would have been senseless to wish to take captive the
57116 Emperor, kings, and dukes--whose capture would have been in the highest
57117 degree embarrassing for the Russians, as the most adroit diplomatists of
57118 the time (Joseph de Maistre and others) recognized. Still more senseless
57119 would have been the wish to capture army corps of the French, when our
57120 own army had melted away to half before reaching Krasnoe and a whole
57121 division would have been needed to convoy the corps of prisoners, and
57122 when our men were not always getting full rations and the prisoners
57123 already taken were perishing of hunger.
57125 All the profound plans about cutting off and capturing Napoleon and his
57126 army were like the plan of a market gardener who, when driving out of
57127 his garden a cow that had trampled down the beds he had planted, should
57128 run to the gate and hit the cow on the head. The only thing to be said
57129 in excuse of that gardener would be that he was very angry. But not even
57130 that could be said for those who drew up this project, for it was not
57131 they who had suffered from the trampled beds.
57133 But besides the fact that cutting off Napoleon with his army would have
57134 been senseless, it was impossible.
57136 It was impossible first because--as experience shows that a three-mile
57137 movement of columns on a battlefield never coincides with the plans--the
57138 probability of Chichagov, Kutuzov, and Wittgenstein effecting a junction
57139 on time at an appointed place was so remote as to be tantamount to
57140 impossibility, as in fact thought Kutuzov, who when he received the plan
57141 remarked that diversions planned over great distances do not yield the
57144 Secondly it was impossible, because to paralyze the momentum with which
57145 Napoleon's army was retiring, incomparably greater forces than the
57146 Russians possessed would have been required.
57148 Thirdly it was impossible, because the military term "to cut off" has no
57149 meaning. One can cut off a slice of bread, but not an army. To cut off
57150 an army--to bar its road--is quite impossible, for there is always
57151 plenty of room to avoid capture and there is the night when nothing can
57152 be seen, as the military scientists might convince themselves by the
57153 example of Krasnoe and of the Berezina. It is only possible to capture
57154 prisoners if they agree to be captured, just as it is only possible to
57155 catch a swallow if it settles on one's hand. Men can only be taken
57156 prisoners if they surrender according to the rules of strategy and
57157 tactics, as the Germans did. But the French troops quite rightly did not
57158 consider that this suited them, since death by hunger and cold awaited
57159 them in flight or captivity alike.
57161 Fourthly and chiefly it was impossible, because never since the world
57162 began has a war been fought under such conditions as those that obtained
57163 in 1812, and the Russian army in its pursuit of the French strained its
57164 strength to the utmost and could not have done more without destroying
57167 During the movement of the Russian army from Tarutino to Krasnoe it lost
57168 fifty thousand sick or stragglers, that is a number equal to the
57169 population of a large provincial town. Half the men fell out of the army
57172 And it is of this period of the campaign--when the army lacked boots and
57173 sheepskin coats, was short of provisions and without vodka, and was
57174 camping out at night for months in the snow with fifteen degrees of
57175 frost, when there were only seven or eight hours of daylight and the
57176 rest was night in which the influence of discipline cannot be
57177 maintained, when men were taken into that region of death where
57178 discipline fails, not for a few hours only as in a battle, but for
57179 months, where they were every moment fighting death from hunger and
57180 cold, when half the army perished in a single month--it is of this
57181 period of the campaign that the historians tell us how Miloradovich
57182 should have made a flank march to such and such a place, Tormasov to
57183 another place, and Chichagov should have crossed (more than knee-deep in
57184 snow) to somewhere else, and how so-and-so "routed" and "cut off" the
57185 French and so on and so on.
57187 The Russians, half of whom died, did all that could and should have been
57188 done to attain an end worthy of the nation, and they are not to blame
57189 because other Russians, sitting in warm rooms, proposed that they should
57190 do what was impossible.
57192 All that strange contradiction now difficult to understand between the
57193 facts and the historical accounts only arises because the historians
57194 dealing with the matter have written the history of the beautiful words
57195 and sentiments of various generals, and not the history of the events.
57197 To them the words of Miloradovich seem very interesting, and so do their
57198 surmises and the rewards this or that general received; but the question
57199 of those fifty thousand men who were left in hospitals and in graves
57200 does not even interest them, for it does not come within the range of
57201 their investigation.
57203 Yet one need only discard the study of the reports and general plans and
57204 consider the movement of those hundreds of thousands of men who took a
57205 direct part in the events, and all the questions that seemed insoluble
57206 easily and simply receive an immediate and certain solution.
57208 The aim of cutting off Napoleon and his army never existed except in the
57209 imaginations of a dozen people. It could not exist because it was
57210 senseless and unattainable.
57212 The people had a single aim: to free their land from invasion. That aim
57213 was attained in the first place of itself, as the French ran away, and
57214 so it was only necessary not to stop their flight. Secondly it was
57215 attained by the guerrilla warfare which was destroying the French, and
57216 thirdly by the fact that a large Russian army was following the French,
57217 ready to use its strength in case their movement stopped.
57219 The Russian army had to act like a whip to a running animal. And the
57220 experienced driver knew it was better to hold the whip raised as a
57221 menace than to strike the running animal on the head.
57223 BOOK FIFTEEN: 1812 - 13
57230 When seeing a dying animal a man feels a sense of horror: substance
57231 similar to his own is perishing before his eyes. But when it is a
57232 beloved and intimate human being that is dying, besides this horror at
57233 the extinction of life there is a severance, a spiritual wound, which
57234 like a physical wound is sometimes fatal and sometimes heals, but always
57235 aches and shrinks at any external irritating touch.
57237 After Prince Andrew's death Natasha and Princess Mary alike felt this.
57238 Drooping in spirit and closing their eyes before the menacing cloud of
57239 death that overhung them, they dared not look life in the face. They
57240 carefully guarded their open wounds from any rough and painful contact.
57241 Everything: a carriage passing rapidly in the street, a summons to
57242 dinner, the maid's inquiry what dress to prepare, or worse still any
57243 word of insincere or feeble sympathy, seemed an insult, painfully
57244 irritated the wound, interrupting that necessary quiet in which they
57245 both tried to listen to the stern and dreadful choir that still
57246 resounded in their imagination, and hindered their gazing into those
57247 mysterious limitless vistas that for an instant had opened out before
57250 Only when alone together were they free from such outrage and pain. They
57251 spoke little even to one another, and when they did it was of very
57252 unimportant matters.
57254 Both avoided any allusion to the future. To admit the possibility of a
57255 future seemed to them to insult his memory. Still more carefully did
57256 they avoid anything relating to him who was dead. It seemed to them that
57257 what they had lived through and experienced could not be expressed in
57258 words, and that any reference to the details of his life infringed the
57259 majesty and sacredness of the mystery that had been accomplished before
57262 Continued abstention from speech, and constant avoidance of everything
57263 that might lead up to the subject--this halting on all sides at the
57264 boundary of what they might not mention--brought before their minds with
57265 still greater purity and clearness what they were both feeling.
57267 But pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
57268 Princess Mary, in her position as absolute and independent arbiter of
57269 her own fate and guardian and instructor of her nephew, was the first to
57270 be called back to life from that realm of sorrow in which she had dwelt
57271 for the first fortnight. She received letters from her relations to
57272 which she had to reply; the room in which little Nicholas had been put
57273 was damp and he began to cough; Alpatych came to Yaroslavl with reports
57274 on the state of their affairs and with advice and suggestions that they
57275 should return to Moscow to the house on the Vozdvizhenka Street, which
57276 had remained uninjured and needed only slight repairs. Life did not
57277 stand still and it was necessary to live. Hard as it was for Princess
57278 Mary to emerge from the realm of secluded contemplation in which she had
57279 lived till then, and sorry and almost ashamed as she felt to leave
57280 Natasha alone, yet the cares of life demanded her attention and she
57281 involuntarily yielded to them. She went through the accounts with
57282 Alpatych, conferred with Dessalles about her nephew, and gave orders and
57283 made preparations for the journey to Moscow.
57285 Natasha remained alone and, from the time Princess Mary began making
57286 preparations for departure, held aloof from her too.
57288 Princess Mary asked the countess to let Natasha go with her to Moscow,
57289 and both parents gladly accepted this offer, for they saw their daughter
57290 losing strength every day and thought that a change of scene and the
57291 advice of Moscow doctors would be good for her.
57293 "I am not going anywhere," Natasha replied when this was proposed to
57294 her. "Do please just leave me alone!" And she ran out of the room, with
57295 difficulty refraining from tears of vexation and irritation rather than
57298 After she felt herself deserted by Princes Mary and alone in her grief,
57299 Natasha spent most of the time in her room by herself, sitting huddled
57300 up feet and all in the corner of the sofa, tearing and twisting
57301 something with her slender nervous fingers and gazing intently and
57302 fixedly at whatever her eyes chanced to fall on. This solitude exhausted
57303 and tormented her but she was in absolute need of it. As soon as anyone
57304 entered she got up quickly, changed her position and expression, and
57305 picked up a book or some sewing, evidently waiting impatiently for the
57308 She felt all the time as if she might at any moment penetrate that on
57309 which--with a terrible questioning too great for her strength--her
57310 spiritual gaze was fixed.
57312 One day toward the end of December Natasha, pale and thin, dressed in a
57313 black woolen gown, her plaited hair negligently twisted into a knot, was
57314 crouched feet and all in the corner of her sofa, nervously crumpling and
57315 smoothing out the end of her sash while she looked at a corner of the
57318 She was gazing in the direction in which he had gone--to the other side
57319 of life. And that other side of life, of which she had never before
57320 thought and which had formerly seemed to her so far away and improbable,
57321 was now nearer and more akin and more comprehensible than this side of
57322 life, where everything was either emptiness and desolation or suffering
57325 She was gazing where she knew him to be; but she could not imagine him
57326 otherwise than as he had been here. She now saw him again as he had been
57327 at Mytishchi, at Troitsa, and at Yaroslavl.
57329 She saw his face, heard his voice, repeated his words and her own, and
57330 sometimes devised other words they might have spoken.
57332 There he is lying back in an armchair in his velvet cloak, leaning his
57333 head on his thin pale hand. His chest is dreadfully hollow and his
57334 shoulders raised. His lips are firmly closed, his eyes glitter, and a
57335 wrinkle comes and goes on his pale forehead. One of his legs twitches
57336 just perceptibly, but rapidly. Natasha knows that he is struggling with
57337 terrible pain. "What is that pain like? Why does he have that pain? What
57338 does he feel? How does it hurt him?" thought Natasha. He noticed her
57339 watching him, raised his eyes, and began to speak seriously:
57341 "One thing would be terrible," said he: "to bind oneself forever to a
57342 suffering man. It would be continual torture." And he looked searchingly
57343 at her. Natasha as usual answered before she had time to think what she
57344 would say. She said: "This can't go on--it won't. You will get well--
57347 She now saw him from the commencement of that scene and relived what she
57348 had then felt. She recalled his long sad and severe look at those words
57349 and understood the meaning of the rebuke and despair in that protracted
57352 "I agreed," Natasha now said to herself, "that it would be dreadful if
57353 he always continued to suffer. I said it then only because it would have
57354 been dreadful for him, but he understood it differently. He thought it
57355 would be dreadful for me. He then still wished to live and feared death.
57356 And I said it so awkwardly and stupidly! I did not say what I meant. I
57357 thought quite differently. Had I said what I thought, I should have
57358 said: even if he had to go on dying, to die continually before my eyes,
57359 I should have been happy compared with what I am now. Now there is
57360 nothing... nobody. Did he know that? No, he did not and never will know
57361 it. And now it will never, never be possible to put it right." And now
57362 he again seemed to be saying the same words to her, only in her
57363 imagination Natasha this time gave him a different answer. She stopped
57364 him and said: "Terrible for you, but not for me! You know that for me
57365 there is nothing in life but you, and to suffer with you is the greatest
57366 happiness for me," and he took her hand and pressed it as he had pressed
57367 it that terrible evening four days before his death. And in her
57368 imagination she said other tender and loving words which she might have
57369 said then but only spoke now: "I love thee!... thee! I love, love..."
57370 she said, convulsively pressing her hands and setting her teeth with a
57371 desperate effort...
57373 She was overcome by sweet sorrow and tears were already rising in her
57374 eyes; then she suddenly asked herself to whom she was saying this. Again
57375 everything was shrouded in hard, dry perplexity, and again with a
57376 strained frown she peered toward the world where he was. And now, now it
57377 seemed to her she was penetrating the mystery.... But at the instant
57378 when it seemed that the incomprehensible was revealing itself to her a
57379 loud rattle of the door handle struck painfully on her ears. Dunyasha,
57380 her maid, entered the room quickly and abruptly with a frightened look
57381 on her face and showing no concern for her mistress.
57383 "Come to your Papa at once, please!" said she with a strange, excited
57384 look. "A misfortune... about Peter Ilynich... a letter," she finished
57392 Besides a feeling of aloofness from everybody Natasha was feeling a
57393 special estrangement from the members of her own family. All of them--
57394 her father, mother, and Sonya--were so near to her, so familiar, so
57395 commonplace, that all their words and feelings seemed an insult to the
57396 world in which she had been living of late, and she felt not merely
57397 indifferent to them but regarded them with hostility. She heard
57398 Dunyasha's words about Peter Ilynich and a misfortune, but did not grasp
57401 "What misfortune? What misfortune can happen to them? They just live
57402 their own old, quiet, and commonplace life," thought Natasha.
57404 As she entered the ballroom her father was hurriedly coming out of her
57405 mother's room. His face was puckered up and wet with tears. He had
57406 evidently run out of that room to give vent to the sobs that were
57407 choking him. When he saw Natasha he waved his arms despairingly and
57408 burst into convulsively painful sobs that distorted his soft round face.
57410 "Pe... Petya... Go, go, she... is calling..." and weeping like a child
57411 and quickly shuffling on his feeble legs to a chair, he almost fell into
57412 it, covering his face with his hands.
57414 Suddenly an electric shock seemed to run through Natasha's whole being.
57415 Terrible anguish struck her heart, she felt a dreadful ache as if
57416 something was being torn inside her and she were dying. But the pain was
57417 immediately followed by a feeling of release from the oppressive
57418 constraint that had prevented her taking part in life. The sight of her
57419 father, the terribly wild cries of her mother that she heard through the
57420 door, made her immediately forget herself and her own grief.
57422 She ran to her father, but he feebly waved his arm, pointing to her
57423 mother's door. Princess Mary, pale and with quivering chin, came out
57424 from that room and taking Natasha by the arm said something to her.
57425 Natasha neither saw nor heard her. She went in with rapid steps, pausing
57426 at the door for an instant as if struggling with herself, and then ran
57429 The countess was lying in an armchair in a strange and awkward position,
57430 stretching out and beating her head against the wall. Sonya and the
57431 maids were holding her arms.
57433 "Natasha! Natasha!..." cried the countess. "It's not true... it's not
57434 true... He's lying... Natasha!" she shrieked, pushing those around her
57435 away. "Go away, all of you; it's not true! Killed!... ha, ha, ha!...
57438 Natasha put one knee on the armchair, stooped over her mother, embraced
57439 her, and with unexpected strength raised her, turned her face toward
57440 herself, and clung to her.
57442 "Mummy!... darling!... I am here, my dearest Mummy," she kept on
57443 whispering, not pausing an instant.
57445 She did not let go of her mother but struggled tenderly with her,
57446 demanded a pillow and hot water, and unfastened and tore open her
57449 "My dearest darling... Mummy, my precious!..." she whispered
57450 incessantly, kissing her head, her hands, her face, and feeling her own
57451 irrepressible and streaming tears tickling her nose and cheeks.
57453 The countess pressed her daughter's hand, closed her eyes, and became
57454 quiet for a moment. Suddenly she sat up with unaccustomed swiftness,
57455 glanced vacantly around her, and seeing Natasha began to press her
57456 daughter's head with all her strength. Then she turned toward her
57457 daughter's face which was wincing with pain and gazed long at it.
57459 "Natasha, you love me?" she said in a soft trustful whisper. "Natasha,
57460 you would not deceive me? You'll tell me the whole truth?"
57462 Natasha looked at her with eyes full of tears and in her look there was
57463 nothing but love and an entreaty for forgiveness.
57465 "My darling Mummy!" she repeated, straining all the power of her love to
57466 find some way of taking on herself the excess of grief that crushed her
57469 And again in a futile struggle with reality her mother, refusing to
57470 believe that she could live when her beloved boy was killed in the bloom
57471 of life, escaped from reality into a world of delirium.
57473 Natasha did not remember how that day passed nor that night, nor the
57474 next day and night. She did not sleep and did not leave her mother. Her
57475 persevering and patient love seemed completely to surround the countess
57476 every moment, not explaining or consoling, but recalling her to life.
57478 During the third night the countess kept very quiet for a few minutes,
57479 and Natasha rested her head on the arm of her chair and closed her eyes,
57480 but opened them again on hearing the bedstead creak. The countess was
57481 sitting up in bed and speaking softly.
57483 "How glad I am you have come. You are tired. Won't you have some tea?"
57484 Natasha went up to her. "You have improved in looks and grown more
57485 manly," continued the countess, taking her daughter's hand.
57487 "Mamma! What are you saying..."
57489 "Natasha, he is no more, no more!"
57491 And embracing her daughter, the countess began to weep for the first
57499 Princess Mary postponed her departure. Sonya and the count tried to
57500 replace Natasha but could not. They saw that she alone was able to
57501 restrain her mother from unreasoning despair. For three weeks Natasha
57502 remained constantly at her mother's side, sleeping on a lounge chair in
57503 her room, making her eat and drink, and talking to her incessantly
57504 because the mere sound of her tender, caressing tones soothed her
57507 The mother's wounded spirit could not heal. Petya's death had torn from
57508 her half her life. When the news of Petya's death had come she had been
57509 a fresh and vigorous woman of fifty, but a month later she left her room
57510 a listless old woman taking no interest in life. But the same blow that
57511 almost killed the countess, this second blow, restored Natasha to life.
57513 A spiritual wound produced by a rending of the spiritual body is like a
57514 physical wound and, strange as it may seem, just as a deep wound may
57515 heal and its edges join, physical and spiritual wounds alike can yet
57516 heal completely only as the result of a vital force from within.
57518 Natasha's wound healed in that way. She thought her life was ended, but
57519 her love for her mother unexpectedly showed her that the essence of
57520 life--love--was still active within her. Love awoke and so did life.
57522 Prince Andrew's last days had bound Princess Mary and Natasha together;
57523 this new sorrow brought them still closer to one another. Princess Mary
57524 put off her departure, and for three weeks looked after Natasha as if
57525 she had been a sick child. The last weeks passed in her mother's bedroom
57526 had strained Natasha's physical strength.
57528 One afternoon noticing Natasha shivering with fever, Princess Mary took
57529 her to her own room and made her lie down on the bed. Natasha lay down,
57530 but when Princess Mary had drawn the blinds and was going away she
57533 "I don't want to sleep, Mary, sit by me a little."
57535 "You are tired--try to sleep."
57537 "No, no. Why did you bring me away? She will be asking for me."
57539 "She is much better. She spoke so well today," said Princess Mary.
57541 Natasha lay on the bed and in the semidarkness of the room scanned
57542 Princess Mary's face.
57544 "Is she like him?" thought Natasha. "Yes, like and yet not like. But she
57545 is quite original, strange, new, and unknown. And she loves me. What is
57546 in her heart? All that is good. But how? What is her mind like? What
57547 does she think about me? Yes, she is splendid!"
57549 "Mary," she said timidly, drawing Princess Mary's hand to herself,
57550 "Mary, you mustn't think me wicked. No? Mary darling, how I love you!
57551 Let us be quite, quite friends."
57553 And Natasha, embracing her, began kissing her face and hands, making
57554 Princess Mary feel shy but happy by this demonstration of her feelings.
57556 From that day a tender and passionate friendship such as exists only
57557 between women was established between Princess Mary and Natasha. They
57558 were continually kissing and saying tender things to one another and
57559 spent most of their time together. When one went out the other became
57560 restless and hastened to rejoin her. Together they felt more in harmony
57561 with one another than either of them felt with herself when alone. A
57562 feeling stronger than friendship sprang up between them; an exclusive
57563 feeling of life being possible only in each other's presence.
57565 Sometimes they were silent for hours; sometimes after they were already
57566 in bed they would begin talking and go on till morning. They spoke most
57567 of what was long past. Princess Mary spoke of her childhood, of her
57568 mother, her father, and her daydreams; and Natasha, who with a passive
57569 lack of understanding had formerly turned away from that life of
57570 devotion, submission, and the poetry of Christian self-sacrifice, now
57571 feeling herself bound to Princess Mary by affection, learned to love her
57572 past too and to understand a side of life previously incomprehensible to
57573 her. She did not think of applying submission and self-abnegation to her
57574 own life, for she was accustomed to seek other joys, but she understood
57575 and loved in another those previously incomprehensible virtues. For
57576 Princess Mary, listening to Natasha's tales of childhood and early
57577 youth, there also opened out a new and hitherto uncomprehended side of
57578 life: belief in life and its enjoyment.
57580 Just as before, they never mentioned him so as not to lower (as they
57581 thought) their exalted feelings by words; but this silence about him had
57582 the effect of making them gradually begin to forget him without being
57585 Natasha had grown thin and pale and physically so weak that they all
57586 talked about her health, and this pleased her. But sometimes she was
57587 suddenly overcome by fear not only of death but of sickness, weakness,
57588 and loss of good looks, and involuntarily she examined her bare arm
57589 carefully, surprised at its thinness, and in the morning noticed her
57590 drawn and, as it seemed to her, piteous face in her glass. It seemed to
57591 her that things must be so, and yet it was dreadfully sad.
57593 One day she went quickly upstairs and found herself out of breath.
57594 Unconsciously she immediately invented a reason for going down, and
57595 then, testing her strength, ran upstairs again, observing the result.
57597 Another time when she called Dunyasha her voice trembled, so she called
57598 again--though she could hear Dunyasha coming--called her in the deep
57599 chest tones in which she had been wont to sing, and listened attentively
57602 She did not know and would not have believed it, but beneath the layer
57603 of slime that covered her soul and seemed to her impenetrable, delicate
57604 young shoots of grass were already sprouting, which taking root would so
57605 cover with their living verdure the grief that weighed her down that it
57606 would soon no longer be seen or noticed. The wound had begun to heal
57609 At the end of January Princess Mary left for Moscow, and the count
57610 insisted on Natasha's going with her to consult the doctors.
57617 After the encounter at Vyazma, where Kutuzov had been unable to hold
57618 back his troops in their anxiety to overwhelm and cut off the enemy and
57619 so on, the farther movement of the fleeing French, and of the Russians
57620 who pursued them, continued as far as Krasnoe without a battle. The
57621 flight was so rapid that the Russian army pursuing the French could not
57622 keep up with them; cavalry and artillery horses broke down, and the
57623 information received of the movements of the French was never reliable.
57625 The men in the Russian army were so worn out by this continuous marching
57626 at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day that they could not go any
57629 To realize the degree of exhaustion of the Russian army it is only
57630 necessary to grasp clearly the meaning of the fact that, while not
57631 losing more than five thousand killed and wounded after Tarutino and
57632 less than a hundred prisoners, the Russian army which left that place a
57633 hundred thousand strong reached Krasnoe with only fifty thousand.
57635 The rapidity of the Russian pursuit was just as destructive to our army
57636 as the flight of the French was to theirs. The only difference was that
57637 the Russian army moved voluntarily, with no such threat of destruction
57638 as hung over the French, and that the sick Frenchmen were left behind in
57639 enemy hands while the sick Russians left behind were among their own
57640 people. The chief cause of the wastage of Napoleon's army was the
57641 rapidity of its movement, and a convincing proof of this is the
57642 corresponding decrease of the Russian army.
57644 Kutuzov as far as was in his power, instead of trying to check the
57645 movement of the French as was desired in Petersburg and by the Russian
57646 army generals, directed his whole activity here, as he had done at
57647 Tarutino and Vyazma, to hastening it on while easing the movement of our
57650 But besides this, since the exhaustion and enormous diminution of the
57651 army caused by the rapidity of the advance had become evident, another
57652 reason for slackening the pace and delaying presented itself to Kutuzov.
57653 The aim of the Russian army was to pursue the French. The road the
57654 French would take was unknown, and so the closer our troops trod on
57655 their heels the greater distance they had to cover. Only by following at
57656 some distance could one cut across the zigzag path of the French. All
57657 the artful maneuvers suggested by our generals meant fresh movements of
57658 the army and a lengthening of its marches, whereas the only reasonable
57659 aim was to shorten those marches. To that end Kutuzov's activity was
57660 directed during the whole campaign from Moscow to Vilna--not casually or
57661 intermittently but so consistently that he never once deviated from it.
57663 Kutuzov felt and knew--not by reasoning or science but with the whole of
57664 his Russian being--what every Russian soldier felt: that the French were
57665 beaten, that the enemy was flying and must be driven out; but at the
57666 same time he like the soldiers realized all the hardship of this march,
57667 the rapidity of which was unparalleled for such a time of the year.
57669 But to the generals, especially the foreign ones in the Russian army,
57670 who wished to distinguish themselves, to astonish somebody, and for some
57671 reason to capture a king or a duke--it seemed that now--when any battle
57672 must be horrible and senseless--was the very time to fight and conquer
57673 somebody. Kutuzov merely shrugged his shoulders when one after another
57674 they presented projects of maneuvers to be made with those soldiers--
57675 ill-shod, insufficiently clad, and half starved--who within a month and
57676 without fighting a battle had dwindled to half their number, and who at
57677 the best if the flight continued would have to go a greater distance
57678 than they had already traversed, before they reached the frontier.
57680 This longing to distinguish themselves, to maneuver, to overthrow, and
57681 to cut off showed itself particularly whenever the Russians stumbled on
57684 So it was at Krasnoe, where they expected to find one of the three
57685 French columns and stumbled instead on Napoleon himself with sixteen
57686 thousand men. Despite all Kutuzov's efforts to avoid that ruinous
57687 encounter and to preserve his troops, the massacre of the broken mob of
57688 French soldiers by worn-out Russians continued at Krasnoe for three
57691 Toll wrote a disposition: "The first column will march to so and so,"
57692 etc. And as usual nothing happened in accord with the disposition.
57693 Prince Eugene of Wurttemberg fired from a hill over the French crowds
57694 that were running past, and demanded reinforcements which did not
57695 arrive. The French, avoiding the Russians, dispersed and hid themselves
57696 in the forest by night, making their way round as best they could, and
57697 continued their flight.
57699 Miloradovich, who said he did not want to know anything about the
57700 commissariat affairs of his detachment, and could never be found when he
57701 was wanted--that chevalier sans peur et sans reproche * as he styled
57702 himself--who was fond of parleys with the French, sent envoys demanding
57703 their surrender, wasted time, and did not do what he was ordered to do.
57706 * Knight without fear and without reproach.
57708 "I give you that column, lads," he said, riding up to the troops and
57709 pointing out the French to the cavalry.
57711 And the cavalry, with spurs and sabers urging on horses that could
57712 scarcely move, trotted with much effort to the column presented to them-
57713 -that is to say, to a crowd of Frenchmen stark with cold, frost-bitten,
57714 and starving--and the column that had been presented to them threw down
57715 its arms and surrendered as it had long been anxious to do.
57717 At Krasnoe they took twenty-six thousand prisoners, several hundred
57718 cannon, and a stick called a "marshal's staff," and disputed as to who
57719 had distinguished himself and were pleased with their achievement--
57720 though they much regretted not having taken Napoleon, or at least a
57721 marshal or a hero of some sort, and reproached one another and
57722 especially Kutuzov for having failed to do so.
57724 These men, carried away by their passions, were but blind tools of the
57725 most melancholy law of necessity, but considered themselves heroes and
57726 imagined that they were accomplishing a most noble and honorable deed.
57727 They blamed Kutuzov and said that from the very beginning of the
57728 campaign he had prevented their vanquishing Napoleon, that he thought of
57729 nothing but satisfying his passions and would not advance from the Linen
57730 Factories because he was comfortable there, that at Krasnoe he checked
57731 the advance because on learning that Napoleon was there he had quite
57732 lost his head, and that it was probable that he had an understanding
57733 with Napoleon and had been bribed by him, and so on, and so on.
57735 Not only did his contemporaries, carried away by their passions, talk in
57736 this way, but posterity and history have acclaimed Napoleon as grand,
57737 while Kutuzov is described by foreigners as a crafty, dissolute, weak
57738 old courtier, and by Russians as something indefinite--a sort of puppet
57739 useful only because he had a Russian name.
57746 In 1812 and 1813 Kutuzov was openly accused of blundering. The Emperor
57747 was dissatisfied with him. And in a history recently written by order of
57748 the Highest Authorities it is said that Kutuzov was a cunning court
57749 liar, frightened of the name of Napoleon, and that by his blunders at
57750 Krasnoe and the Berezina he deprived the Russian army of the glory of
57751 complete victory over the French. *
57754 * History of the year 1812. The character of Kutuzov and reflections on
57755 the unsatisfactory results of the battles at Krasnoe, by Bogdanovich.
57757 Such is the fate not of great men (grands hommes) whom the Russian mind
57758 does not acknowledge, but of those rare and always solitary individuals
57759 who, discerning the will of Providence, submit their personal will to
57760 it. The hatred and contempt of the crowd punish such men for discerning
57763 For Russian historians, strange and terrible to say, Napoleon--that most
57764 insignificant tool of history who never anywhere, even in exile, showed
57765 human dignity--Napoleon is the object of adulation and enthusiasm; he is
57766 grand. But Kutuzov--the man who from the beginning to the end of his
57767 activity in 1812, never once swerving by word or deed from Borodino to
57768 Vilna, presented an example exceptional in history of self-sacrifice and
57769 a present consciousness of the future importance of what was happening--
57770 Kutuzov seems to them something indefinite and pitiful, and when
57771 speaking of him and of the year 1812 they always seem a little ashamed.
57773 And yet it is difficult to imagine an historical character whose
57774 activity was so unswervingly directed to a single aim; and it would be
57775 difficult to imagine any aim more worthy or more consonant with the will
57776 of the whole people. Still more difficult would it be to find an
57777 instance in history of the aim of an historical personage being so
57778 completely accomplished as that to which all Kutuzov's efforts were
57781 Kutuzov never talked of "forty centuries looking down from the
57782 Pyramids," of the sacrifices he offered for the fatherland, or of what
57783 he intended to accomplish or had accomplished; in general he said
57784 nothing about himself, adopted no pose, always appeared to be the
57785 simplest and most ordinary of men, and said the simplest and most
57786 ordinary things. He wrote letters to his daughters and to Madame de
57787 Stael, read novels, liked the society of pretty women, jested with
57788 generals, officers, and soldiers, and never contradicted those who tried
57789 to prove anything to him. When Count Rostopchin at the Yauza bridge
57790 galloped up to Kutuzov with personal reproaches for having caused the
57791 destruction of Moscow, and said: "How was it you promised not to abandon
57792 Moscow without a battle?" Kutuzov replied: "And I shall not abandon
57793 Moscow without a battle," though Moscow was then already abandoned. When
57794 Arakcheev, coming to him from the Emperor, said that Ermolov ought to be
57795 appointed chief of the artillery, Kutuzov replied: "Yes, I was just
57796 saying so myself," though a moment before he had said quite the
57797 contrary. What did it matter to him--who then alone amid a senseless
57798 crowd understood the whole tremendous significance of what was
57799 happening--what did it matter to him whether Rostopchin attributed the
57800 calamities of Moscow to him or to himself? Still less could it matter to
57801 him who was appointed chief of the artillery.
57803 Not merely in these cases but continually did that old man--who by
57804 experience of life had reached the conviction that thoughts and the
57805 words serving as their expression are not what move people--use quite
57806 meaningless words that happened to enter his head.
57808 But that man, so heedless of his words, did not once during the whole
57809 time of his activity utter one word inconsistent with the single aim
57810 toward which he moved throughout the whole war. Obviously in spite of
57811 himself, in very diverse circumstances, he repeatedly expressed his real
57812 thoughts with the bitter conviction that he would not be understood.
57813 Beginning with the battle of Borodino, from which time his disagreement
57814 with those about him began, he alone said that the battle of Borodino
57815 was a victory, and repeated this both verbally and in his dispatches and
57816 reports up to the time of his death. He alone said that the loss of
57817 Moscow is not the loss of Russia. In reply to Lauriston's proposal of
57818 peace, he said: There can be no peace, for such is the people's will. He
57819 alone during the retreat of the French said that all our maneuvers are
57820 useless, everything is being accomplished of itself better than we could
57821 desire; that the enemy must be offered "a golden bridge"; that neither
57822 the Tarutino, the Vyazma, nor the Krasnoe battles were necessary; that
57823 we must keep some force to reach the frontier with, and that he would
57824 not sacrifice a single Russian for ten Frenchmen.
57826 And this courtier, as he is described to us, who lies to Arakcheev to
57827 please the Emperor, he alone--incurring thereby the Emperor's
57828 displeasure--said in Vilna that to carry the war beyond the frontier is
57829 useless and harmful.
57831 Nor do words alone prove that only he understood the meaning of the
57832 events. His actions--without the smallest deviation--were all directed
57833 to one and the same threefold end: (1) to brace all his strength for
57834 conflict with the French, (2) to defeat them, and (3) to drive them out
57835 of Russia, minimizing as far as possible the sufferings of our people
57838 This procrastinator Kutuzov, whose motto was "Patience and Time," this
57839 enemy of decisive action, gave battle at Borodino, investing the
57840 preparations for it with unparalleled solemnity. This Kutuzov who before
57841 the battle of Austerlitz began said that it would be lost, he alone, in
57842 contradiction to everyone else, declared till his death that Borodino
57843 was a victory, despite the assurance of generals that the battle was
57844 lost and despite the fact that for an army to have to retire after
57845 winning a battle was unprecedented. He alone during the whole retreat
57846 insisted that battles, which were useless then, should not be fought,
57847 and that a new war should not be begun nor the frontiers of Russia
57850 It is easy now to understand the significance of these events--if only
57851 we abstain from attributing to the activity of the mass aims that
57852 existed only in the heads of a dozen individuals--for the events and
57853 results now lie before us.
57855 But how did that old man, alone, in opposition to the general opinion,
57856 so truly discern the importance of the people's view of the events that
57857 in all his activity he was never once untrue to it?
57859 The source of that extraordinary power of penetrating the meaning of the
57860 events then occuring lay in the national feeling which he possessed in
57861 full purity and strength.
57863 Only the recognition of the fact that he possessed this feeling caused
57864 the people in so strange a manner, contrary to the Tsar's wish, to
57865 select him--an old man in disfavor--to be their representative in the
57866 national war. And only that feeling placed him on that highest human
57867 pedestal from which he, the commander-in-chief, devoted all his powers
57868 not to slaying and destroying men but to saving and showing pity on
57871 That simple, modest, and therefore truly great, figure could not be cast
57872 in the false mold of a European hero--the supposed ruler of men--that
57873 history has invented.
57875 To a lackey no man can be great, for a lackey has his own conception of
57883 The fifth of November was the first day of what is called the battle of
57884 Krasnoe. Toward evening--after much disputing and many mistakes made by
57885 generals who did not go to their proper places, and after adjutants had
57886 been sent about with counterorders--when it had become plain that the
57887 enemy was everywhere in flight and that there could and would be no
57888 battle, Kutuzov left Krasnoe and went to Dobroe whither his headquarters
57889 had that day been transferred.
57891 The day was clear and frosty. Kutuzov rode to Dobroe on his plump little
57892 white horse, followed by an enormous suite of discontented generals who
57893 whispered among themselves behind his back. All along the road groups of
57894 French prisoners captured that day (there were seven thousand of them)
57895 were crowding to warm themselves at campfires. Near Dobroe an immense
57896 crowd of tattered prisoners, buzzing with talk and wrapped and bandaged
57897 in anything they had been able to get hold of, were standing in the road
57898 beside a long row of unharnessed French guns. At the approach of the
57899 commander-in-chief the buzz of talk ceased and all eyes were fixed on
57900 Kutuzov who, wearing a white cap with a red band and a padded overcoat
57901 that bulged on his round shoulders, moved slowly along the road on his
57902 white horse. One of the generals was reporting to him where the guns and
57903 prisoners had been captured.
57905 Kutuzov seemed preoccupied and did not listen to what the general was
57906 saying. He screwed up his eyes with a dissatisfied look as he gazed
57907 attentively and fixedly at these prisoners, who presented a specially
57908 wretched appearance. Most of them were disfigured by frost-bitten noses
57909 and cheeks, and nearly all had red, swollen and festering eyes.
57911 One group of the French stood close to the road, and two of them, one of
57912 whom had his face covered with sores, were tearing a piece of raw flesh
57913 with their hands. There was something horrible and bestial in the
57914 fleeting glance they threw at the riders and in the malevolent
57915 expression with which, after a glance at Kutuzov, the soldier with the
57916 sores immediately turned away and went on with what he was doing.
57918 Kutuzov looked long and intently at these two soldiers. He puckered his
57919 face, screwed up his eyes, and pensively swayed his head. At another
57920 spot he noticed a Russian soldier laughingly patting a Frenchman on the
57921 shoulder, saying something to him in a friendly manner, and Kutuzov with
57922 the same expression on his face again swayed his head.
57924 "What were you saying?" he asked the general, who continuing his report
57925 directed the commander-in-chief's attention to some standards captured
57926 from the French and standing in front of the Preobrazhensk regiment.
57928 "Ah, the standards!" said Kutuzov, evidently detaching himself with
57929 difficulty from the thoughts that preoccupied him.
57931 He looked about him absently. Thousands of eyes were looking at him from
57932 all sides awaiting a word from him.
57934 He stopped in front of the Preobrazhensk regiment, sighed deeply, and
57935 closed his eyes. One of his suite beckoned to the soldiers carrying the
57936 standards to advance and surround the commander-in-chief with them.
57937 Kutuzov was silent for a few seconds and then, submitting with evident
57938 reluctance to the duty imposed by his position, raised his head and
57939 began to speak. A throng of officers surrounded him. He looked
57940 attentively around at the circle of officers, recognizing several of
57943 "I thank you all!" he said, addressing the soldiers and then again the
57944 officers. In the stillness around him his slowly uttered words were
57945 distinctly heard. "I thank you all for your hard and faithful service.
57946 The victory is complete and Russia will not forget you! Honor to you
57949 He paused and looked around.
57951 "Lower its head, lower it!" he said to a soldier who had accidentally
57952 lowered the French eagle he was holding before the Preobrazhensk
57953 standards. "Lower, lower, that's it. Hurrah lads!" he added, addressing
57954 the men with a rapid movement of his chin.
57956 "Hur-r-rah!" roared thousands of voices.
57958 While the soldiers were shouting Kutuzov leaned forward in his saddle
57959 and bowed his head, and his eye lit up with a mild and apparently ironic
57962 "You see, brothers..." said he when the shouts had ceased... and all at
57963 once his voice and the expression of his face changed. It was no longer
57964 the commander-in-chief speaking but an ordinary old man who wanted to
57965 tell his comrades something very important.
57967 There was a stir among the throng of officers and in the ranks of the
57968 soldiers, who moved that they might hear better what he was going to
57971 "You see, brothers, I know it's hard for you, but it can't be helped!
57972 Bear up; it won't be for long now! We'll see our visitors off and then
57973 we'll rest. The Tsar won't forget your service. It is hard for you, but
57974 still you are at home while they--you see what they have come to," said
57975 he, pointing to the prisoners. "Worse off than our poorest beggars.
57976 While they were strong we didn't spare ourselves, but now we may even
57977 pity them. They are human beings too. Isn't it so, lads?"
57979 He looked around, and in the direct, respectful, wondering gaze fixed
57980 upon him he read sympathy with what he had said. His face grew brighter
57981 and brighter with an old man's mild smile, which drew the corners of his
57982 lips and eyes into a cluster of wrinkles. He ceased speaking and bowed
57983 his head as if in perplexity.
57985 "But after all who asked them here? Serves them right, the bloody
57986 bastards!" he cried, suddenly lifting his head.
57988 And flourishing his whip he rode off at a gallop for the first time
57989 during the whole campaign, and left the broken ranks of the soldiers
57990 laughing joyfully and shouting "Hurrah!"
57992 Kutuzov's words were hardly understood by the troops. No one could have
57993 repeated the field marshal's address, begun solemnly and then changing
57994 into an old man's simplehearted talk; but the hearty sincerity of that
57995 speech, the feeling of majestic triumph combined with pity for the foe
57996 and consciousness of the justice of our cause, exactly expressed by that
57997 old man's good-natured expletives, was not merely understood but lay in
57998 the soul of every soldier and found expression in their joyous and long-
57999 sustained shouts. Afterwards when one of the generals addressed Kutuzov
58000 asking whether he wished his caleche to be sent for, Kutuzov in
58001 answering unexpectedly gave a sob, being evidently greatly moved.
58008 When the troops reached their night's halting place on the eighth of
58009 November, the last day of the Krasnoe battles, it was already growing
58010 dusk. All day it had been calm and frosty with occasional lightly
58011 falling snow and toward evening it began to clear. Through the falling
58012 snow a purple-black and starry sky showed itself and the frost grew
58015 An infantry regiment which had left Tarutino three thousand strong but
58016 now numbered only nine hundred was one of the first to arrive that night
58017 at its halting place--a village on the highroad. The quartermasters who
58018 met the regiment announced that all the huts were full of sick and dead
58019 Frenchmen, cavalrymen, and members of the staff. There was only one hut
58020 available for the regimental commander.
58022 The commander rode up to his hut. The regiment passed through the
58023 village and stacked its arms in front of the last huts.
58025 Like some huge many-limbed animal, the regiment began to prepare its
58026 lair and its food. One part of it dispersed and waded knee-deep through
58027 the snow into a birch forest to the right of the village, and
58028 immediately the sound of axes and swords, the crashing of branches, and
58029 merry voices could be heard from there. Another section amid the
58030 regimental wagons and horses which were standing in a group was busy
58031 getting out caldrons and rye biscuit, and feeding the horses. A third
58032 section scattered through the village arranging quarters for the staff
58033 officers, carrying out the French corpses that were in the huts, and
58034 dragging away boards, dry wood, and thatch from the roofs, for the
58035 campfires, or wattle fences to serve for shelter.
58037 Some fifteen men with merry shouts were shaking down the high wattle
58038 wall of a shed, the roof of which had already been removed.
58040 "Now then, all together--shove!" cried the voices, and the huge surface
58041 of the wall, sprinkled with snow and creaking with frost, was seen
58042 swaying in the gloom of the night. The lower stakes cracked more and
58043 more and at last the wall fell, and with it the men who had been pushing
58044 it. Loud, coarse laughter and joyous shouts ensued.
58046 "Now then, catch hold in twos! Hand up the lever! That's it... Where are
58049 "Now, all together! But wait a moment, boys... With a song!"
58051 All stood silent, and a soft, pleasant velvety voice began to sing. At
58052 the end of the third verse as the last note died away, twenty voices
58053 roared out at once: "Oo-oo-oo-oo! That's it. All together! Heave away,
58054 boys!..." but despite their united efforts the wattle hardly moved, and
58055 in the silence that followed the heavy breathing of the men was audible.
58057 "Here, you of the Sixth Company! Devils that you are! Lend a hand...
58058 will you? You may want us one of these days."
58060 Some twenty men of the Sixth Company who were on their way into the
58061 village joined the haulers, and the wattle wall, which was about thirty-
58062 five feet long and seven feet high, moved forward along the village
58063 street, swaying, pressing upon and cutting the shoulders of the gasping
58066 "Get along... Falling? What are you stopping for? There now..."
58068 Merry senseless words of abuse flowed freely.
58070 "What are you up to?" suddenly came the authoritative voice of a
58071 sergeant major who came upon the men who were hauling their burden.
58072 "There are gentry here; the general himself is in that hut, and you
58073 foul-mouthed devils, you brutes, I'll give it to you!" shouted he,
58074 hitting the first man who came in his way a swinging blow on the back.
58075 "Can't you make less noise?"
58077 The men became silent. The soldier who had been struck groaned and wiped
58078 his face, which had been scratched till it bled by his falling against
58081 "There, how that devil hits out! He's made my face all bloody," said he
58082 in a frightened whisper when the sergeant major had passed on.
58084 "Don't you like it?" said a laughing voice, and moderating their tones
58085 the men moved forward.
58087 When they were out of the village they began talking again as loud as
58088 before, interlarding their talk with the same aimless expletives.
58090 In the hut which the men had passed, the chief officers had gathered and
58091 were in animated talk over their tea about the events of the day and the
58092 maneuvers suggested for tomorrow. It was proposed to make a flank march
58093 to the left, cut off the Vice-King (Murat) and capture him.
58095 By the time the soldiers had dragged the wattle fence to its place the
58096 campfires were blazing on all sides ready for cooking, the wood
58097 crackled, the snow was melting, and black shadows of soldiers flitted to
58098 and fro all over the occupied space where the snow had been trodden
58101 Axes and choppers were plied all around. Everything was done without any
58102 orders being given. Stores of wood were brought for the night, shelters
58103 were rigged up for the officers, caldrons were being boiled, and muskets
58104 and accouterments put in order.
58106 The wattle wall the men had brought was set up in a semicircle by the
58107 Eighth Company as a shelter from the north, propped up by musket rests,
58108 and a campfire was built before it. They beat the tattoo, called the
58109 roll, had supper, and settled down round the fires for the night--some
58110 repairing their footgear, some smoking pipes, and some stripping
58111 themselves naked to steam the lice out of their shirts.
58118 One would have thought that under the almost incredibly wretched
58119 conditions the Russian soldiers were in at that time--lacking warm boots
58120 and sheepskin coats, without a roof over their heads, in the snow with
58121 eighteen degrees of frost, and without even full rations (the
58122 commissariat did not always keep up with the troops)--they would have
58123 presented a very sad and depressing spectacle.
58125 On the contrary, the army had never under the best material conditions
58126 presented a more cheerful and animated aspect. This was because all who
58127 began to grow depressed or who lost strength were sifted out of the army
58128 day by day. All the physically or morally weak had long since been left
58129 behind and only the flower of the army--physically and mentally--
58132 More men collected behind the wattle fence of the Eighth Company than
58133 anywhere else. Two sergeants major were sitting with them and their
58134 campfire blazed brighter than others. For leave to sit by their wattle
58135 they demanded contributions of fuel.
58137 "Eh, Makeev! What has become of you, you son of a bitch? Are you lost or
58138 have the wolves eaten you? Fetch some more wood!" shouted a red-haired
58139 and red-faced man, screwing up his eyes and blinking because of the
58140 smoke but not moving back from the fire. "And you, Jackdaw, go and fetch
58141 some wood!" said he to another soldier.
58143 This red-haired man was neither a sergeant nor a corporal, but being
58144 robust he ordered about those weaker than himself. The soldier they
58145 called "Jackdaw," a thin little fellow with a sharp nose, rose
58146 obediently and was about to go but at that instant there came into the
58147 light of the fire the slender, handsome figure of a young soldier
58148 carrying a load of wood.
58150 "Bring it here--that's fine!"
58152 They split up the wood, pressed it down on the fire, blew at it with
58153 their mouths, and fanned it with the skirts of their greatcoats, making
58154 the flames hiss and crackle. The men drew nearer and lit their pipes.
58155 The handsome young soldier who had brought the wood, setting his arms
58156 akimbo, began stamping his cold feet rapidly and deftly on the spot
58159 "Mother! The dew is cold but clear.... It's well that I'm a
58160 musketeer..." he sang, pretending to hiccough after each syllable.
58162 "Look out, your soles will fly off!" shouted the red-haired man,
58163 noticing that the sole of the dancer's boot was hanging loose. "What a
58164 fellow you are for dancing!"
58166 The dancer stopped, pulled off the loose piece of leather, and threw it
58169 "Right enough, friend," said he, and, having sat down, took out of his
58170 knapsack a scrap of blue French cloth, and wrapped it round his foot.
58171 "It's the steam that spoils them," he added, stretching out his feet
58174 "They'll soon be issuing us new ones. They say that when we've finished
58175 hammering them, we're to receive double kits!"
58177 "And that son of a bitch Petrov has lagged behind after all, it seems,"
58178 said one sergeant major.
58180 "I've had an eye on him this long while," said the other.
58182 "Well, he's a poor sort of soldier..."
58184 "But in the Third Company they say nine men were missing yesterday."
58186 "Yes, it's all very well, but when a man's feet are frozen how can he
58189 "Eh? Don't talk nonsense!" said a sergeant major.
58191 "Do you want to be doing the same?" said an old soldier, turning
58192 reproachfully to the man who had spoken of frozen feet.
58194 "Well, you know," said the sharp-nosed man they called Jackdaw in a
58195 squeaky and unsteady voice, raising himself at the other side of the
58196 fire, "a plump man gets thin, but for a thin one it's death. Take me,
58197 now! I've got no strength left," he added, with sudden resolution
58198 turning to the sergeant major. "Tell them to send me to hospital; I'm
58199 aching all over; anyway I shan't be able to keep up."
58201 "That'll do, that'll do!" replied the sergeant major quietly.
58203 The soldier said no more and the talk went on.
58205 "What a lot of those Frenchies were taken today, and the fact is that
58206 not one of them had what you might call real boots on," said a soldier,
58207 starting a new theme. "They were no more than make-believes."
58209 "The Cossacks have taken their boots. They were clearing the hut for the
58210 colonel and carried them out. It was pitiful to see them, boys," put in
58211 the dancer. "As they turned them over one seemed still alive and, would
58212 you believe it, he jabbered something in their lingo."
58214 "But they're a clean folk, lads," the first man went on; "he was white--
58215 as white as birchbark--and some of them are such fine fellows, you might
58216 think they were nobles."
58218 "Well, what do you think? They make soldiers of all classes there."
58220 "But they don't understand our talk at all," said the dancer with a
58221 puzzled smile. "I asked him whose subject he was, and he jabbered in his
58222 own way. A queer lot!"
58224 "But it's strange, friends," continued the man who had wondered at their
58225 whiteness, "the peasants at Mozhaysk were saying that when they began
58226 burying the dead--where the battle was you know--well, those dead had
58227 been lying there for nearly a month, and says the peasant, 'they lie as
58228 white as paper, clean, and not as much smell as a puff of powder
58231 "Was it from the cold?" asked someone.
58233 "You're a clever fellow! From the cold indeed! Why, it was hot. If it
58234 had been from the cold, ours would not have rotted either. 'But,' he
58235 says, 'go up to ours and they are all rotten and maggoty. So,' he says,
58236 'we tie our faces up with kerchiefs and turn our heads away as we drag
58237 them off: we can hardly do it. But theirs,' he says, 'are white as paper
58238 and not so much smell as a whiff of gunpowder.'"
58242 "It must be from their food," said the sergeant major. "They used to
58243 gobble the same food as the gentry."
58245 No one contradicted him.
58247 "That peasant near Mozhaysk where the battle was said the men were all
58248 called up from ten villages around and they carted for twenty days and
58249 still didn't finish carting the dead away. And as for the wolves, he
58252 "That was a real battle," said an old soldier. "It's the only one worth
58253 remembering; but since that... it's only been tormenting folk."
58255 "And do you know, Daddy, the day before yesterday we ran at them and, my
58256 word, they didn't let us get near before they just threw down their
58257 muskets and went on their knees. 'Pardon!' they say. That's only one
58258 case. They say Platov took 'Poleon himself twice. But he didn't know the
58259 right charm. He catches him and catches him--no good! He turns into a
58260 bird in his hands and flies away. And there's no way of killing him
58263 "You're a first-class liar, Kiselev, when I come to look at you!"
58265 "Liar, indeed! It's the real truth."
58267 "If he fell into my hands, when I'd caught him I'd bury him in the
58268 ground with an aspen stake to fix him down. What a lot of men he's
58271 "Well, anyhow we're going to end it. He won't come here again," remarked
58272 the old soldier, yawning.
58274 The conversation flagged, and the soldiers began settling down to sleep.
58276 "Look at the stars. It's wonderful how they shine! You would think the
58277 women had spread out their linen," said one of the men, gazing with
58278 admiration at the Milky Way.
58280 "That's a sign of a good harvest next year."
58282 "We shall want some more wood."
58284 "You warm your back and your belly gets frozen. That's queer."
58288 "What are you pushing for? Is the fire only for you? Look how he's
58291 In the silence that ensued, the snoring of those who had fallen asleep
58292 could be heard. Others turned over and warmed themselves, now and again
58293 exchanging a few words. From a campfire a hundred paces off came a sound
58294 of general, merry laughter.
58296 "Hark at them roaring there in the Fifth Company!" said one of the
58297 soldiers, "and what a lot of them there are!"
58299 One of the men got up and went over to the Fifth Company.
58301 "They're having such fun," said he, coming back. "Two Frenchies have
58302 turned up. One's quite frozen and the other's an awful swaggerer. He's
58305 "Oh, I'll go across and have a look...."
58307 And several of the men went over to the Fifth Company.
58314 The fifth company was bivouacking at the very edge of the forest. A huge
58315 campfire was blazing brightly in the midst of the snow, lighting up the
58316 branches of trees heavy with hoarfrost.
58318 About midnight they heard the sound of steps in the snow of the forest,
58319 and the crackling of dry branches.
58321 "A bear, lads," said one of the men.
58323 They all raised their heads to listen, and out of the forest into the
58324 bright firelight stepped two strangely clad human figures clinging to
58327 These were two Frenchmen who had been hiding in the forest. They came up
58328 to the fire, hoarsely uttering something in a language our soldiers did
58329 not understand. One was taller than the other; he wore an officer's hat
58330 and seemed quite exhausted. On approaching the fire he had been going to
58331 sit down, but fell. The other, a short sturdy soldier with a shawl tied
58332 round his head, was stronger. He raised his companion and said
58333 something, pointing to his mouth. The soldiers surrounded the Frenchmen,
58334 spread a greatcoat on the ground for the sick man, and brought some
58335 buckwheat porridge and vodka for both of them.
58337 The exhausted French officer was Ramballe and the man with his head
58338 wrapped in the shawl was Morel, his orderly.
58340 When Morel had drunk some vodka and finished his bowl of porridge he
58341 suddenly became unnaturally merry and chattered incessantly to the
58342 soldiers, who could not understand him. Ramballe refused food and
58343 resting his head on his elbow lay silent beside the campfire, looking at
58344 the Russian soldiers with red and vacant eyes. Occasionally he emitted a
58345 long-drawn groan and then again became silent. Morel, pointing to his
58346 shoulders, tried to impress on the soldiers the fact that Ramballe was
58347 an officer and ought to be warmed. A Russian officer who had come up to
58348 the fire sent to ask his colonel whether he would not take a French
58349 officer into his hut to warm him, and when the messenger returned and
58350 said that the colonel wished the officer to be brought to him, Ramballe
58351 was told to go. He rose and tried to walk, but staggered and would have
58352 fallen had not a soldier standing by held him up.
58354 "You won't do it again, eh?" said one of the soldiers, winking and
58355 turning mockingly to Ramballe.
58357 "Oh, you fool! Why talk rubbish, lout that you are--a real peasant!"
58358 came rebukes from all sides addressed to the jesting soldier.
58360 They surrounded Ramballe, lifted him on the crossed arms of two
58361 soldiers, and carried him to the hut. Ramballe put his arms around their
58362 necks while they carried him and began wailing plaintively:
58364 "Oh, you fine fellows, my kind, kind friends! These are men! Oh, my
58365 brave, kind friends," and he leaned his head against the shoulder of one
58366 of the men like a child.
58368 Meanwhile Morel was sitting in the best place by the fire, surrounded by
58371 Morel, a short sturdy Frenchman with inflamed and streaming eyes, was
58372 wearing a woman's cloak and had a shawl tied woman fashion round his
58373 head over his cap. He was evidently tipsy, and was singing a French song
58374 in a hoarse broken voice, with an arm thrown round the nearest soldier.
58375 The soldiers simply held their sides as they watched him.
58377 "Now then, now then, teach us how it goes! I'll soon pick it up. How is
58378 it?" said the man--a singer and a wag--whom Morel was embracing.
58380 "Vive Henri Quatre! Vive ce roi valiant!" sang Morel, winking. "Ce
58381 diable a quatre..." *
58384 * "Long live Henry the Fourth, that valiant king! That rowdy devil."
58386 "Vivarika! Vif-seruvaru! Sedyablyaka!" repeated the soldier, flourishing
58387 his arm and really catching the tune.
58389 "Bravo! Ha, ha, ha!" rose their rough, joyous laughter from all sides.
58391 Morel, wrinkling up his face, laughed too.
58393 "Well, go on, go on!"
58396 "Qui eut le triple talent, De boire, de battre, Et d'etre un vert
58400 * Who had a triple talent For drinking, for fighting, And for being a
58403 "It goes smoothly, too. Well, now, Zaletaev!"
58405 "Ke..." Zaletaev, brought out with effort: "ke-e-e-e," he drawled,
58406 laboriously pursing his lips, "le-trip-ta-la-de-bu-de-ba, e de-tra-va-
58409 "Fine! Just like the Frenchie! Oh, ho ho! Do you want some more to eat?"
58411 "Give him some porridge: it takes a long time to get filled up after
58414 They gave him some more porridge and Morel with a laugh set to work on
58415 his third bowl. All the young soldiers smiled gaily as they watched him.
58416 The older men, who thought it undignified to amuse themselves with such
58417 nonsense, continued to lie at the opposite side of the fire, but one
58418 would occasionally raise himself on an elbow and glance at Morel with a
58421 "They are men too," said one of them as he wrapped himself up in his
58422 coat. "Even wormwood grows on its own root."
58424 "O Lord, O Lord! How starry it is! Tremendous! That means a hard
58427 They all grew silent. The stars, as if knowing that no one was looking
58428 at them, began to disport themselves in the dark sky: now flaring up,
58429 now vanishing, now trembling, they were busy whispering something
58430 gladsome and mysterious to one another.
58437 The French army melted away at the uniform rate of a mathematical
58438 progression; and that crossing of the Berezina about which so much has
58439 been written was only one intermediate stage in its destruction, and not
58440 at all the decisive episode of the campaign. If so much has been and
58441 still is written about the Berezina, on the French side this is only
58442 because at the broken bridge across that river the calamities their army
58443 had been previously enduring were suddenly concentrated at one moment
58444 into a tragic spectacle that remained in every memory, and on the
58445 Russian side merely because in Petersburg--far from the seat of war--a
58446 plan (again one of Pfuel's) had been devised to catch Napoleon in a
58447 strategic trap at the Berezina River. Everyone assured himself that all
58448 would happen according to plan, and therefore insisted that it was just
58449 the crossing of the Berezina that destroyed the French army. In reality
58450 the results of the crossing were much less disastrous to the French--in
58451 guns and men lost--than Krasnoe had been, as the figures show.
58453 The sole importance of the crossing of the Berezina lies in the fact
58454 that it plainly and indubitably proved the fallacy of all the plans for
58455 cutting off the enemy's retreat and the soundness of the only possible
58456 line of action--the one Kutuzov and the general mass of the army
58457 demanded--namely, simply to follow the enemy up. The French crowd fled
58458 at a continually increasing speed and all its energy was directed to
58459 reaching its goal. It fled like a wounded animal and it was impossible
58460 to block its path. This was shown not so much by the arrangements it
58461 made for crossing as by what took place at the bridges. When the bridges
58462 broke down, unarmed soldiers, people from Moscow and women with children
58463 who were with the French transport, all--carried on by vis inertiae--
58464 pressed forward into boats and into the ice-covered water and did not,
58467 That impulse was reasonable. The condition of fugitives and of pursuers
58468 was equally bad. As long as they remained with their own people each
58469 might hope for help from his fellows and the definite place he held
58470 among them. But those who surrendered, while remaining in the same
58471 pitiful plight, would be on a lower level to claim a share in the
58472 necessities of life. The French did not need to be informed of the fact
58473 that half the prisoners--with whom the Russians did not know what to do-
58474 -perished of cold and hunger despite their captors' desire to save them;
58475 they felt that it could not be otherwise. The most compassionate Russian
58476 commanders, those favorable to the French--and even the Frenchmen in the
58477 Russian service--could do nothing for the prisoners. The French perished
58478 from the conditions to which the Russian army was itself exposed. It was
58479 impossible to take bread and clothes from our hungry and indispensable
58480 soldiers to give to the French who, though not harmful, or hated, or
58481 guilty, were simply unnecessary. Some Russians even did that, but they
58484 Certain destruction lay behind the French but in front there was hope.
58485 Their ships had been burned, there was no salvation save in collective
58486 flight, and on that the whole strength of the French was concentrated.
58488 The farther they fled the more wretched became the plight of the
58489 remnant, especially after the Berezina, on which (in consequence of the
58490 Petersburg plan) special hopes had been placed by the Russians, and the
58491 keener grew the passions of the Russian commanders, who blamed one
58492 another and Kutuzov most of all. Anticipation that the failure of the
58493 Petersburg Berezina plan would be attributed to Kutuzov led to
58494 dissatisfaction, contempt, and ridicule, more and more strongly
58495 expressed. The ridicule and contempt were of course expressed in a
58496 respectful form, making it impossible for him to ask wherein he was to
58497 blame. They did not talk seriously to him; when reporting to him or
58498 asking for his sanction they appeared to be fulfilling a regrettable
58499 formality, but they winked behind his back and tried to mislead him at
58502 Because they could not understand him all these people assumed that it
58503 was useless to talk to the old man; that he would never grasp the
58504 profundity of their plans, that he would answer with his phrases (which
58505 they thought were mere phrases) about a "golden bridge," about the
58506 impossibility of crossing the frontier with a crowd of tatterdemalions,
58507 and so forth. They had heard all that before. And all he said--that it
58508 was necessary to await provisions, or that the men had no boots--was so
58509 simple, while what they proposed was so complicated and clever, that it
58510 was evident that he was old and stupid and that they, though not in
58511 power, were commanders of genius.
58513 After the junction with the army of the brilliant admiral and Petersburg
58514 hero Wittgenstein, this mood and the gossip of the staff reached their
58515 maximum. Kutuzov saw this and merely sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
58516 Only once, after the affair of the Berezina, did he get angry and write
58517 to Bennigsen (who reported separately to the Emperor) the following
58520 "On account of your spells of ill health, will your excellency please be
58521 so good as to set off for Kaluga on receipt of this, and there await
58522 further commands and appointments from His Imperial Majesty."
58524 But after Bennigsen's departure, the Grand Duke Tsarevich Constantine
58525 Pavlovich joined the army. He had taken part in the beginning of the
58526 campaign but had subsequently been removed from the army by Kutuzov. Now
58527 having come to the army, he informed Kutuzov of the Emperor's
58528 displeasure at the poor success of our forces and the slowness of their
58529 advance. The Emperor intended to join the army personally in a few days'
58532 The old man, experienced in court as well as in military affairs--this
58533 same Kutuzov who in August had been chosen commander-in-chief against
58534 the sovereign's wishes and who had removed the Grand Duke and heir--
58535 apparent from the army--who on his own authority and contrary to the
58536 Emperor's will had decided on the abandonment of Moscow, now realized at
58537 once that his day was over, that his part was played, and that the power
58538 he was supposed to hold was no longer his. And he understood this not
58539 merely from the attitude of the court. He saw on the one hand that the
58540 military business in which he had played his part was ended and felt
58541 that his mission was accomplished; and at the same time he began to be
58542 conscious of the physical weariness of his aged body and of the
58543 necessity of physical rest.
58545 On the twenty-ninth of November Kutuzov entered Vilna--his "dear Vilna"
58546 as he called it. Twice during his career Kutuzov had been governor of
58547 Vilna. In that wealthy town, which had not been injured, he found old
58548 friends and associations, besides the comforts of life of which he had
58549 so long been deprived. And he suddenly turned from the cares of army and
58550 state and, as far as the passions that seethed around him allowed,
58551 immersed himself in the quiet life to which he had formerly been
58552 accustomed, as if all that was taking place and all that had still to be
58553 done in the realm of history did not concern him at all.
58555 Chichagov, one of the most zealous "cutters-off" and "breakers-up," who
58556 had first wanted to effect a diversion in Greece and then in Warsaw but
58557 never wished to go where he was sent: Chichagov, noted for the boldness
58558 with which he spoke to the Emperor, and who considered Kutuzov to be
58559 under an obligation to him because when he was sent to make peace with
58560 Turkey in 1811 independently of Kutuzov, and found that peace had
58561 already been concluded, he admitted to the Emperor that the merit of
58562 securing that peace was really Kutuzov's; this Chichagov was the first
58563 to meet Kutuzov at the castle where the latter was to stay. In undress
58564 naval uniform, with a dirk, and holding his cap under his arm, he handed
58565 Kutuzov a garrison report and the keys of the town. The contemptuously
58566 respectful attitude of the younger men to the old man in his dotage was
58567 expressed in the highest degree by the behavior of Chichagov, who knew
58568 of the accusations that were being directed against Kutuzov.
58570 When speaking to Chichagov, Kutuzov incidentally mentioned that the
58571 vehicles packed with china that had been captured from him at Borisov
58572 had been recovered and would be restored to him.
58574 "You mean to imply that I have nothing to eat out of.... On the
58575 contrary, I can supply you with everything even if you want to give
58576 dinner parties," warmly replied Chichagov, who tried by every word he
58577 spoke to prove his own rectitude and therefore imagined Kutuzov to be
58578 animated by the same desire.
58580 Kutuzov, shrugging his shoulders, replied with his subtle penetrating
58581 smile: "I meant merely to say what I said."
58583 Contrary to the Emperor's wish Kutuzov detained the greater part of the
58584 army at Vilna. Those about him said that he became extraordinarily slack
58585 and physically feeble during his stay in that town. He attended to army
58586 affairs reluctantly, left everything to his generals, and while awaiting
58587 the Emperor's arrival led a dissipated life.
58589 Having left Petersburg on the seventh of December with his suite--Count
58590 Tolstoy, Prince Volkonski, Arakcheev, and others--the Emperor reached
58591 Vilna on the eleventh, and in his traveling sleigh drove straight to the
58592 castle. In spite of the severe frost some hundred generals and staff
58593 officers in full parade uniform stood in front of the castle, as well as
58594 a guard of honor of the Semenov regiment.
58596 A courier who galloped to the castle in advance, in a troyka with three
58597 foam-flecked horses, shouted "Coming!" and Konovnitsyn rushed into the
58598 vestibule to inform Kutuzov, who was waiting in the hall porter's little
58601 A minute later the old man's large stout figure in full-dress uniform,
58602 his chest covered with orders and a scarf drawn round his stomach,
58603 waddled out into the porch. He put on his hat with its peaks to the
58604 sides and, holding his gloves in his hand and walking with an effort
58605 sideways down the steps to the level of the street, took in his hand the
58606 report he had prepared for the Emperor.
58608 There was running to and fro and whispering; another troyka flew
58609 furiously up, and then all eyes were turned on an approaching sleigh in
58610 which the figures of the Emperor and Volkonski could already be
58613 From the habit of fifty years all this had a physically agitating effect
58614 on the old general. He carefully and hastily felt himself all over,
58615 readjusted his hat, and pulling himself together drew himself up and, at
58616 the very moment when the Emperor, having alighted from the sleigh,
58617 lifted his eyes to him, handed him the report and began speaking in his
58618 smooth, ingratiating voice.
58620 The Emperor with a rapid glance scanned Kutuzov from head to foot,
58621 frowned for an instant, but immediately mastering himself went up to the
58622 old man, extended his arms and embraced him. And this embrace too, owing
58623 to a long-standing impression related to his innermost feelings, had its
58624 usual effect on Kutuzov and he gave a sob.
58626 The Emperor greeted the officers and the Semenov guard, and again
58627 pressing the old man's hand went with him into the castle.
58629 When alone with the field marshal the Emperor expressed his
58630 dissatisfaction at the slowness of the pursuit and at the mistakes made
58631 at Krasnoe and the Berezina, and informed him of his intentions for a
58632 future campaign abroad. Kutuzov made no rejoinder or remark. The same
58633 submissive, expressionless look with which he had listened to the
58634 Emperor's commands on the field of Austerlitz seven years before settled
58637 When Kutuzov came out of the study and with lowered head was crossing
58638 the ballroom with his heavy waddling gait, he was arrested by someone's
58641 "Your Serene Highness!"
58643 Kutuzov raised his head and looked for a long while into the eyes of
58644 Count Tolstoy, who stood before him holding a silver salver on which lay
58645 a small object. Kutuzov seemed not to understand what was expected of
58648 Suddenly he seemed to remember; a scarcely perceptible smile flashed
58649 across his puffy face, and bowing low and respectfully he took the
58650 object that lay on the salver. It was the Order of St. George of the
58658 Next day the field marshal gave a dinner and ball which the Emperor
58659 honored by his presence. Kutuzov had received the Order of St. George of
58660 the First Class and the Emperor showed him the highest honors, but
58661 everyone knew of the imperial dissatisfaction with him. The proprieties
58662 were observed and the Emperor was the first to set that example, but
58663 everybody understood that the old man was blameworthy and good-for-
58664 nothing. When Kutuzov, conforming to a custom of Catherine's day,
58665 ordered the standards that had been captured to be lowered at the
58666 Emperor's feet on his entering the ballroom, the Emperor made a wry face
58667 and muttered something in which some people caught the words, "the old
58670 The Emperor's displeasure with Kutuzov was specially increased at Vilna
58671 by the fact that Kutuzov evidently could not or would not understand the
58672 importance of the coming campaign.
58674 When on the following morning the Emperor said to the officers assembled
58675 about him: "You have not only saved Russia, you have saved Europe!" they
58676 all understood that the war was not ended.
58678 Kutuzov alone would not see this and openly expressed his opinion that
58679 no fresh war could improve the position or add to the glory of Russia,
58680 but could only spoil and lower the glorious position that Russia had
58681 gained. He tried to prove to the Emperor the impossibility of levying
58682 fresh troops, spoke of the hardships already endured by the people, of
58683 the possibility of failure and so forth.
58685 This being the field marshal's frame of mind he was naturally regarded
58686 as merely a hindrance and obstacle to the impending war.
58688 To avoid unpleasant encounters with the old man, the natural method was
58689 to do what had been done with him at Austerlitz and with Barclay at the
58690 beginning of the Russian campaign--to transfer the authority to the
58691 Emperor himself, thus cutting the ground from under the commander in
58692 chief's feet without upsetting the old man by informing him of the
58695 With this object his staff was gradually reconstructed and its real
58696 strength removed and transferred to the Emperor. Toll, Konovnitsyn, and
58697 Ermolov received fresh appointments. Everyone spoke loudly of the field
58698 marshal's great weakness and failing health.
58700 His health had to be bad for his place to be taken away and given to
58701 another. And in fact his health was poor.
58703 So naturally, simply, and gradually--just as he had come from Turkey to
58704 the Treasury in Petersburg to recruit the militia, and then to the army
58705 when he was needed there--now when his part was played out, Kutuzov's
58706 place was taken by a new and necessary performer.
58708 The war of 1812, besides its national significance dear to every Russian
58709 heart, was now to assume another, a European, significance.
58711 The movement of peoples from west to east was to be succeeded by a
58712 movement of peoples from east to west, and for this fresh war another
58713 leader was necessary, having qualities and views differing from
58714 Kutuzov's and animated by different motives.
58716 Alexander I was as necessary for the movement of the peoples from east
58717 to west and for the refixing of national frontiers as Kutuzov had been
58718 for the salvation and glory of Russia.
58720 Kutuzov did not understand what Europe, the balance of power, or
58721 Napoleon meant. He could not understand it. For the representative of
58722 the Russian people, after the enemy had been destroyed and Russia had
58723 been liberated and raised to the summit of her glory, there was nothing
58724 left to do as a Russian. Nothing remained for the representative of the
58725 national war but to die, and Kutuzov died.
58732 As generally happens, Pierre did not feel the full effects of the
58733 physical privation and strain he had suffered as prisoner until after
58734 they were over. After his liberation he reached Orel, and on the third
58735 day there, when preparing to go to Kiev, he fell ill and was laid up for
58736 three months. He had what the doctors termed "bilious fever." But
58737 despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him, and gave him
58738 medicines to drink, he recovered.
58740 Scarcely any impression was left on Pierre's mind by all that happened
58741 to him from the time of his rescue till his illness. He remembered only
58742 the dull gray weather now rainy and now snowy, internal physical
58743 distress, and pains in his feet and side. He remembered a general
58744 impression of the misfortunes and sufferings of people and of being
58745 worried by the curiosity of officers and generals who questioned him, he
58746 also remembered his difficulty in procuring a conveyance and horses, and
58747 above all he remembered his incapacity to think and feel all that time.
58748 On the day of his rescue he had seen the body of Petya Rostov. That same
58749 day he had learned that Prince Andrew, after surviving the battle of
58750 Borodino for more than a month had recently died in the Rostovs' house
58751 at Yaroslavl, and Denisov who told him this news also mentioned Helene's
58752 death, supposing that Pierre had heard of it long before. All this at
58753 the time seemed merely strange to Pierre: he felt he could not grasp its
58754 significance. Just then he was only anxious to get away as quickly as
58755 possible from places where people were killing one another, to some
58756 peaceful refuge where he could recover himself, rest, and think over all
58757 the strange new facts he had learned; but on reaching Orel he
58758 immediately fell ill. When he came to himself after his illness he saw
58759 in attendance on him two of his servants, Terenty and Vaska, who had
58760 come from Moscow; and also his cousin the eldest princess, who had been
58761 living on his estate at Elets and hearing of his rescue and illness had
58762 come to look after him.
58764 It was only gradually during his convalescence that Pierre lost the
58765 impressions he had become accustomed to during the last few months and
58766 got used to the idea that no one would oblige him to go anywhere
58767 tomorrow, that no one would deprive him of his warm bed, and that he
58768 would be sure to get his dinner, tea, and supper. But for a long time in
58769 his dreams he still saw himself in the conditions of captivity. In the
58770 same way little by little he came to understand the news he had been
58771 told after his rescue, about the death of Prince Andrew, the death of
58772 his wife, and the destruction of the French.
58774 A joyous feeling of freedom--that complete inalienable freedom natural
58775 to man which he had first experienced at the first halt outside Moscow--
58776 filled Pierre's soul during his convalescence. He was surprised to find
58777 that this inner freedom, which was independent of external conditions,
58778 now had as it were an additional setting of external liberty. He was
58779 alone in a strange town, without acquaintances. No one demanded anything
58780 of him or sent him anywhere. He had all he wanted: the thought of his
58781 wife which had been a continual torment to him was no longer there,
58782 since she was no more.
58784 "Oh, how good! How splendid!" said he to himself when a cleanly laid
58785 table was moved up to him with savory beef tea, or when he lay down for
58786 the night on a soft clean bed, or when he remembered that the French had
58787 gone and that his wife was no more. "Oh, how good, how splendid!"
58789 And by old habit he asked himself the question: "Well, and what then?
58790 What am I going to do?" And he immediately gave himself the answer:
58791 "Well, I shall live. Ah, how splendid!"
58793 The very question that had formerly tormented him, the thing he had
58794 continually sought to find--the aim of life--no longer existed for him
58795 now. That search for the aim of life had not merely disappeared
58796 temporarily--he felt that it no longer existed for him and could not
58797 present itself again. And this very absence of an aim gave him the
58798 complete, joyous sense of freedom which constituted his happiness at
58801 He could not see an aim, for he now had faith--not faith in any kind of
58802 rule, or words, or ideas, but faith in an ever-living, ever-manifest
58803 God. Formerly he had sought Him in aims he set himself. That search for
58804 an aim had been simply a search for God, and suddenly in his captivity
58805 he had learned not by words or reasoning but by direct feeling what his
58806 nurse had told him long ago: that God is here and everywhere. In his
58807 captivity he had learned that in Karataev God was greater, more infinite
58808 and unfathomable than in the Architect of the Universe recognized by the
58809 Freemasons. He felt like a man who after straining his eyes to see into
58810 the far distance finds what he sought at his very feet. All his life he
58811 had looked over the heads of the men around him, when he should have
58812 merely looked in front of him without straining his eyes.
58814 In the past he had never been able to find that great inscrutable
58815 infinite something. He had only felt that it must exist somewhere and
58816 had looked for it. In everything near and comprehensible he had only
58817 what was limited, petty, commonplace, and senseless. He had equipped
58818 himself with a mental telescope and looked into remote space, where
58819 petty worldliness hiding itself in misty distance had seemed to him
58820 great and infinite merely because it was not clearly seen. And such had
58821 European life, politics, Freemasonry, philosophy, and philanthropy
58822 seemed to him. But even then, at moments of weakness as he had accounted
58823 them, his mind had penetrated to those distances and he had there seen
58824 the same pettiness, worldliness, and senselessness. Now, however, he had
58825 learned to see the great, eternal, and infinite in everything, and
58826 therefore--to see it and enjoy its contemplation--he naturally threw
58827 away the telescope through which he had till now gazed over men's heads,
58828 and gladly regarded the ever-changing, eternally great, unfathomable,
58829 and infinite life around him. And the closer he looked the more tranquil
58830 and happy he became. That dreadful question, "What for?" which had
58831 formerly destroyed all his mental edifices, no longer existed for him.
58832 To that question, "What for?" a simple answer was now always ready in
58833 his soul: "Because there is a God, that God without whose will not one
58834 hair falls from a man's head."
58841 In external ways Pierre had hardly changed at all. In appearance he was
58842 just what he used to be. As before he was absent-minded and seemed
58843 occupied not with what was before his eyes but with something special of
58844 his own. The difference between his former and present self was that
58845 formerly when he did not grasp what lay before him or was said to him,
58846 he had puckered his forehead painfully as if vainly seeking to
58847 distinguish something at a distance. At present he still forgot what was
58848 said to him and still did not see what was before his eyes, but he now
58849 looked with a scarcely perceptible and seemingly ironic smile at what
58850 was before him and listened to what was said, though evidently seeing
58851 and hearing something quite different. Formerly he had appeared to be a
58852 kindhearted but unhappy man, and so people had been inclined to avoid
58853 him. Now a smile at the joy of life always played round his lips, and
58854 sympathy for others, shone in his eyes with a questioning look as to
58855 whether they were as contented as he was, and people felt pleased by his
58858 Previously he had talked a great deal, grew excited when he talked, and
58859 seldom listened; now he was seldom carried away in conversation and knew
58860 how to listen so that people readily told him their most intimate
58863 The princess, who had never liked Pierre and had been particularly
58864 hostile to him since she had felt herself under obligations to him after
58865 the old count's death, now after staying a short time in Orel--where she
58866 had come intending to show Pierre that in spite of his ingratitude she
58867 considered it her duty to nurse him--felt to her surprise and vexation
58868 that she had become fond of him. Pierre did not in any way seek her
58869 approval, he merely studied her with interest. Formerly she had felt
58870 that he regarded her with indifference and irony, and so had shrunk into
58871 herself as she did with others and had shown him only the combative side
58872 of her nature; but now he seemed to be trying to understand the most
58873 intimate places of her heart, and, mistrustfully at first but afterwards
58874 gratefully, she let him see the hidden, kindly sides of her character.
58876 The most cunning man could not have crept into her confidence more
58877 successfully, evoking memories of the best times of her youth and
58878 showing sympathy with them. Yet Pierre's cunning consisted simply in
58879 finding pleasure in drawing out the human qualities of the embittered,
58880 hard, and (in her own way) proud princess.
58882 "Yes, he is a very, very kind man when he is not under the influence of
58883 bad people but of people such as myself," thought she.
58885 His servants too--Terenty and Vaska--in their own way noticed the change
58886 that had taken place in Pierre. They considered that he had become much
58887 "simpler." Terenty, when he had helped him undress and wished him good
58888 night, often lingered with his master's boots in his hands and clothes
58889 over his arm, to see whether he would not start a talk. And Pierre,
58890 noticing that Terenty wanted a chat, generally kept him there.
58892 "Well, tell me... now, how did you get food?" he would ask.
58894 And Terenty would begin talking of the destruction of Moscow, and of the
58895 old count, and would stand for a long time holding the clothes and
58896 talking, or sometimes listening to Pierre's stories, and then would go
58897 out into the hall with a pleasant sense of intimacy with his master and
58900 The doctor who attended Pierre and visited him every day, though he
58901 considered it his duty as a doctor to pose as a man whose every moment
58902 was of value to suffering humanity, would sit for hours with Pierre
58903 telling him his favorite anecdotes and his observations on the
58904 characters of his patients in general, and especially of the ladies.
58906 "It's a pleasure to talk to a man like that; he is not like our
58907 provincials," he would say.
58909 There were several prisoners from the French army in Orel, and the
58910 doctor brought one of them, a young Italian, to see Pierre.
58912 This officer began visiting Pierre, and the princess used to make fun of
58913 the tenderness the Italian expressed for him.
58915 The Italian seemed happy only when he could come to see Pierre, talk
58916 with him, tell him about his past, his life at home, and his love, and
58917 pour out to him his indignation against the French and especially
58920 "If all Russians are in the least like you, it is sacrilege to fight
58921 such a nation," he said to Pierre. "You, who have suffered so from the
58922 French, do not even feel animosity toward them."
58924 Pierre had evoked the passionate affection of the Italian merely by
58925 evoking the best side of his nature and taking a pleasure in so doing.
58927 During the last days of Pierre's stay in Orel his old masonic
58928 acquaintance Count Willarski, who had introduced him to the lodge in
58929 1807, came to see him. Willarski was married to a Russian heiress who
58930 had a large estate in Orel province, and he occupied a temporary post in
58931 the commissariat department in that town.
58933 Hearing that Bezukhov was in Orel, Willarski, though they had never been
58934 intimate, came to him with the professions of friendship and intimacy
58935 that people who meet in a desert generally express for one another.
58936 Willarski felt dull in Orel and was pleased to meet a man of his own
58937 circle and, as he supposed, of similar interests.
58939 But to his surprise Willarski soon noticed that Pierre had lagged much
58940 behind the times, and had sunk, as he expressed it to himself, into
58941 apathy and egotism.
58943 "You are letting yourself go, my dear fellow," he said.
58945 But for all that Willarski found it pleasanter now than it had been
58946 formerly to be with Pierre, and came to see him every day. To Pierre as
58947 he looked at and listened to Willarski, it seemed strange to think that
58948 he had been like that himself but a short time before.
58950 Willarski was a married man with a family, busy with his family affairs,
58951 his wife's affairs, and his official duties. He regarded all these
58952 occupations as hindrances to life, and considered that they were all
58953 contemptible because their aim was the welfare of himself and his
58954 family. Military, administrative, political, and masonic interests
58955 continually absorbed his attention. And Pierre, without trying to change
58956 the other's views and without condemning him, but with the quiet,
58957 joyful, and amused smile now habitual to him, was interested in this
58958 strange though very familiar phenomenon.
58960 There was a new feature in Pierre's relations with Willarski, with the
58961 princess, with the doctor, and with all the people he now met, which
58962 gained for him the general good will. This was his acknowledgment of the
58963 impossibility of changing a man's convictions by words, and his
58964 recognition of the possibility of everyone thinking, feeling, and seeing
58965 things each from his own point of view. This legitimate peculiarity of
58966 each individual which used to excite and irritate Pierre now became a
58967 basis of the sympathy he felt for, and the interest he took in, other
58968 people. The difference, and sometimes complete contradiction, between
58969 men's opinions and their lives, and between one man and another, pleased
58970 him and drew from him an amused and gentle smile.
58972 In practical matters Pierre unexpectedly felt within himself a center of
58973 gravity he had previously lacked. Formerly all pecuniary questions,
58974 especially requests for money to which, as an extremely wealthy man, he
58975 was very exposed, produced in him a state of hopeless agitation and
58976 perplexity. "To give or not to give?" he had asked himself. "I have it
58977 and he needs it. But someone else needs it still more. Who needs it
58978 most? And perhaps they are both impostors?" In the old days he had been
58979 unable to find a way out of all these surmises and had given to all who
58980 asked as long as he had anything to give. Formerly he had been in a
58981 similar state of perplexity with regard to every question concerning his
58982 property, when one person advised one thing and another something else.
58984 Now to his surprise he found that he no longer felt either doubt or
58985 perplexity about these questions. There was now within him a judge who
58986 by some rule unknown to him decided what should or should not be done.
58988 He was as indifferent as heretofore to money matters, but now he felt
58989 certain of what ought and what ought not to be done. The first time he
58990 had recourse to his new judge was when a French prisoner, a colonel,
58991 came to him and, after talking a great deal about his exploits,
58992 concluded by making what amounted to a demand that Pierre should give
58993 him four thousand francs to send to his wife and children. Pierre
58994 refused without the least difficulty or effort, and was afterwards
58995 surprised how simple and easy had been what used to appear so
58996 insurmountably difficult. At the same time that he refused the colonel's
58997 demand he made up his mind that he must have recourse to artifice when
58998 leaving Orel, to induce the Italian officer to accept some money of
58999 which he was evidently in need. A further proof to Pierre of his own
59000 more settled outlook on practical matters was furnished by his decision
59001 with regard to his wife's debts and to the rebuilding of his houses in
59004 His head steward came to him at Orel and Pierre reckoned up with him his
59005 diminished income. The burning of Moscow had cost him, according to the
59006 head steward's calculation, about two million rubles.
59008 To console Pierre for these losses the head steward gave him an estimate
59009 showing that despite these losses his income would not be diminished but
59010 would even be increased if he refused to pay his wife's debts which he
59011 was under no obligation to meet, and did not rebuild his Moscow house
59012 and the country house on his Moscow estate, which had cost him eighty
59013 thousand rubles a year and brought in nothing.
59015 "Yes, of course that's true," said Pierre with a cheerful smile. "I
59016 don't need all that at all. By being ruined I have become much richer."
59018 But in January Savelich came from Moscow and gave him an account of the
59019 state of things there, and spoke of the estimate an architect had made
59020 of the cost of rebuilding the town and country houses, speaking of this
59021 as of a settled matter. About the same time he received letters from
59022 Prince Vasili and other Petersburg acquaintances speaking of his wife's
59023 debts. And Pierre decided that the steward's proposals which had so
59024 pleased him were wrong and that he must go to Petersburg and settle his
59025 wife's affairs and must rebuild in Moscow. Why this was necessary he did
59026 not know, but he knew for certain that it was necessary. His income
59027 would be reduced by three fourths, but he felt it must be done.
59029 Willarski was going to Moscow and they agreed to travel together.
59031 During the whole time of his convalescence in Orel Pierre had
59032 experienced a feeling of joy, freedom, and life; but when during his
59033 journey he found himself in the open world and saw hundreds of new
59034 faces, that feeling was intensified. Throughout his journey he felt like
59035 a schoolboy on holiday. Everyone--the stagecoach driver, the post-house
59036 overseers, the peasants on the roads and in the villages--had a new
59037 significance for him. The presence and remarks of Willarski who
59038 continually deplored the ignorance and poverty of Russia and its
59039 backwardness compared with Europe only heightened Pierre's pleasure.
59040 Where Willarski saw deadness Pierre saw an extraordinary strength and
59041 vitality--the strength which in that vast space amid the snows
59042 maintained the life of this original, peculiar, and unique people. He
59043 did not contradict Willarski and even seemed to agree with him--an
59044 apparent agreement being the simplest way to avoid discussions that
59045 could lead to nothing--and he smiled joyfully as he listened to him.
59052 It would be difficult to explain why and whither ants whose heap has
59053 been destroyed are hurrying: some from the heap dragging bits of
59054 rubbish, larvae, and corpses, others back to the heap, or why they
59055 jostle, overtake one another, and fight, and it would be equally
59056 difficult to explain what caused the Russians after the departure of the
59057 French to throng to the place that had formerly been Moscow. But when we
59058 watch the ants round their ruined heap, the tenacity, energy, and
59059 immense number of the delving insects prove that despite the destruction
59060 of the heap, something indestructible, which though intangible is the
59061 real strength of the colony, still exists; and similarly, though in
59062 Moscow in the month of October there was no government and no churches,
59063 shrines, riches, or houses--it was still the Moscow it had been in
59064 August. All was destroyed, except something intangible yet powerful and
59067 The motives of those who thronged from all sides to Moscow after it had
59068 been cleared of the enemy were most diverse and personal, and at first
59069 for the most part savage and brutal. One motive only they all had in
59070 common: a desire to get to the place that had been called Moscow, to
59071 apply their activities there.
59073 Within a week Moscow already had fifteen thousand inhabitants, in a
59074 fortnight twenty-five thousand, and so on. By the autumn of 1813 the
59075 number, ever increasing and increasing, exceeded what it had been in
59078 The first Russians to enter Moscow were the Cossacks of Wintzingerode's
59079 detachment, peasants from the adjacent villages, and residents who had
59080 fled from Moscow and had been hiding in its vicinity. The Russians who
59081 entered Moscow, finding it plundered, plundered it in their turn. They
59082 continued what the French had begun. Trains of peasant carts came to
59083 Moscow to carry off to the villages what had been abandoned in the
59084 ruined houses and the streets. The Cossacks carried off what they could
59085 to their camps, and the householders seized all they could find in other
59086 houses and moved it to their own, pretending that it was their property.
59088 But the first plunderers were followed by a second and a third
59089 contingent, and with increasing numbers plundering became more and more
59090 difficult and assumed more definite forms.
59092 The French found Moscow abandoned but with all the organizations of
59093 regular life, with diverse branches of commerce and craftsmanship, with
59094 luxury, and governmental and religious institutions. These forms were
59095 lifeless but still existed. There were bazaars, shops, warehouses,
59096 market stalls, granaries--for the most part still stocked with goods--
59097 and there were factories and workshops, palaces and wealthy houses
59098 filled with luxuries, hospitals, prisons, government offices, churches,
59099 and cathedrals. The longer the French remained the more these forms of
59100 town life perished, until finally all was merged into one confused,
59101 lifeless scene of plunder.
59103 The more the plundering by the French continued, the more both the
59104 wealth of Moscow and the strength of its plunderers was destroyed. But
59105 plundering by the Russians, with which the reoccupation of the city
59106 began, had an opposite effect: the longer it continued and the greater
59107 the number of people taking part in it the more rapidly was the wealth
59108 of the city and its regular life restored.
59110 Besides the plunderers, very various people, some drawn by curiosity,
59111 some by official duties, some by self-interest--house owners, clergy,
59112 officials of all kinds, tradesmen, artisans, and peasants--streamed into
59113 Moscow as blood flows to the heart.
59115 Within a week the peasants who came with empty carts to carry off
59116 plunder were stopped by the authorities and made to cart the corpses out
59117 of the town. Other peasants, having heard of their comrades'
59118 discomfiture, came to town bringing rye, oats, and hay, and beat down
59119 one another's prices to below what they had been in former days. Gangs
59120 of carpenters hoping for high pay arrived in Moscow every day, and on
59121 all sides logs were being hewn, new houses built, and old, charred ones
59122 repaired. Tradesmen began trading in booths. Cookshops and taverns were
59123 opened in partially burned houses. The clergy resumed the services in
59124 many churches that had not been burned. Donors contributed Church
59125 property that had been stolen. Government clerks set up their baize-
59126 covered tables and their pigeonholes of documents in small rooms. The
59127 higher authorities and the police organized the distribution of goods
59128 left behind by the French. The owners of houses in which much property
59129 had been left, brought there from other houses, complained of the
59130 injustice of taking everything to the Faceted Palace in the Kremlin;
59131 others insisted that as the French had gathered things from different
59132 houses into this or that house, it would be unfair to allow its owner to
59133 keep all that was found there. They abused the police and bribed them,
59134 made out estimates at ten times their value for government stores that
59135 had perished in the fire, and demanded relief. And Count Rostopchin
59136 wrote proclamations.
59143 At the end of January Pierre went to Moscow and stayed in an annex of
59144 his house which had not been burned. He called on Count Rostopchin and
59145 on some acquaintances who were back in Moscow, and he intended to leave
59146 for Petersburg two days later. Everybody was celebrating the victory,
59147 everything was bubbling with life in the ruined but reviving city.
59148 Everyone was pleased to see Pierre, everyone wished to meet him, and
59149 everyone questioned him about what he had seen. Pierre felt particularly
59150 well disposed toward them all, but was now instinctively on his guard
59151 for fear of binding himself in any way. To all questions put to him--
59152 whether important or quite trifling--such as: Where would he live? Was
59153 he going to rebuild? When was he going to Petersburg and would he mind
59154 taking a parcel for someone?--he replied: "Yes, perhaps," or, "I think
59157 He had heard that the Rostovs were at Kostroma but the thought of
59158 Natasha seldom occurred to him. If it did it was only as a pleasant
59159 memory of the distant past. He felt himself not only free from social
59160 obligations but also from that feeling which, it seemed to him, he had
59161 aroused in himself.
59163 On the third day after his arrival he heard from the Drubetskoys that
59164 Princess Mary was in Moscow. The death, sufferings, and last days of
59165 Prince Andrew had often occupied Pierre's thoughts and now recurred to
59166 him with fresh vividness. Having heard at dinner that Princess Mary was
59167 in Moscow and living in her house--which had not been burned--in
59168 Vozdvizhenka Street, he drove that same evening to see her.
59170 On his way to the house Pierre kept thinking of Prince Andrew, of their
59171 friendship, of his various meetings with him, and especially of the last
59174 "Is it possible that he died in the bitter frame of mind he was then in?
59175 Is it possible that the meaning of life was not disclosed to him before
59176 he died?" thought Pierre. He recalled Karataev and his death and
59177 involuntarily began to compare these two men, so different, and yet so
59178 similar in that they had both lived and both died and in the love he
59179 felt for both of them.
59181 Pierre drove up to the house of the old prince in a most serious mood.
59182 The house had escaped the fire; it showed signs of damage but its
59183 general aspect was unchanged. The old footman, who met Pierre with a
59184 stern face as if wishing to make the visitor feel that the absence of
59185 the old prince had not disturbed the order of things in the house,
59186 informed him that the princess had gone to her own apartments, and that
59187 she received on Sundays.
59189 "Announce me. Perhaps she will see me," said Pierre.
59191 "Yes, sir," said the man. "Please step into the portrait gallery."
59193 A few minutes later the footman returned with Dessalles, who brought
59194 word from the princess that she would be very glad to see Pierre if he
59195 would excuse her want of ceremony and come upstairs to her apartment.
59197 In a rather low room lit by one candle sat the princess and with her
59198 another person dressed in black. Pierre remembered that the princess
59199 always had lady companions, but who they were and what they were like he
59200 never knew or remembered. "This must be one of her companions," he
59201 thought, glancing at the lady in the black dress.
59203 The princess rose quickly to meet him and held out her hand.
59205 "Yes," she said, looking at his altered face after he had kissed her
59206 hand, "so this is how we meet again. He spoke of you even at the very
59207 last," she went on, turning her eyes from Pierre to her companion with a
59208 shyness that surprised him for an instant.
59210 "I was so glad to hear of your safety. It was the first piece of good
59211 news we had received for a long time."
59213 Again the princess glanced round at her companion with even more
59214 uneasiness in her manner and was about to add something, but Pierre
59217 "Just imagine--I knew nothing about him!" said he. "I thought he had
59218 been killed. All I know I heard at second hand from others. I only know
59219 that he fell in with the Rostovs.... What a strange coincidence!"
59221 Pierre spoke rapidly and with animation. He glanced once at the
59222 companion's face, saw her attentive and kindly gaze fixed on him, and,
59223 as often happens when one is talking, felt somehow that this companion
59224 in the black dress was a good, kind, excellent creature who would not
59225 hinder his conversing freely with Princess Mary.
59227 But when he mentioned the Rostovs, Princess Mary's face expressed still
59228 greater embarrassment. She again glanced rapidly from Pierre's face to
59229 that of the lady in the black dress and said:
59231 "Do you really not recognize her?"
59233 Pierre looked again at the companion's pale, delicate face with its
59234 black eyes and peculiar mouth, and something near to him, long forgotten
59235 and more than sweet, looked at him from those attentive eyes.
59237 "But no, it can't be!" he thought. "This stern, thin, pale face that
59238 looks so much older! It cannot be she. It merely reminds me of her." But
59239 at that moment Princess Mary said, "Natasha!" And with difficulty,
59240 effort, and stress, like the opening of a door grown rusty on its
59241 hinges, a smile appeared on the face with the attentive eyes, and from
59242 that opening door came a breath of fragrance which suffused Pierre with
59243 a happiness he had long forgotten and of which he had not even been
59244 thinking--especially at that moment. It suffused him, seized him, and
59245 enveloped him completely. When she smiled doubt was no longer possible,
59246 it was Natasha and he loved her.
59248 At that moment Pierre involuntarily betrayed to her, to Princess Mary,
59249 and above all to himself, a secret of which he himself had been unaware.
59250 He flushed joyfully yet with painful distress. He tried to hide his
59251 agitation. But the more he tried to hide it the more clearly--clearer
59252 than any words could have done--did he betray to himself, to her, and to
59253 Princess Mary that he loved her.
59255 "No, it's only the unexpectedness of it," thought Pierre. But as soon as
59256 he tried to continue the conversation he had begun with Princess Mary he
59257 again glanced at Natasha, and a still-deeper flush suffused his face and
59258 a still-stronger agitation of mingled joy and fear seized his soul. He
59259 became confused in his speech and stopped in the middle of what he was
59262 Pierre had failed to notice Natasha because he did not at all expect to
59263 see her there, but he had failed to recognize her because the change in
59264 her since he last saw her was immense. She had grown thin and pale, but
59265 that was not what made her unrecognizable; she was unrecognizable at the
59266 moment he entered because on that face whose eyes had always shone with
59267 a suppressed smile of the joy of life, now when he first entered and
59268 glanced at her there was not the least shadow of a smile: only her eyes
59269 were kindly attentive and sadly interrogative.
59271 Pierre's confusion was not reflected by any confusion on Natasha's part,
59272 but only by the pleasure that just perceptibly lit up her whole face.
59279 "She has come to stay with me," said Princess Mary. "The count and
59280 countess will be here in a few days. The countess is in a dreadful
59281 state; but it was necessary for Natasha herself to see a doctor. They
59282 insisted on her coming with me."
59284 "Yes, is there a family free from sorrow now?" said Pierre, addressing
59285 Natasha. "You know it happened the very day we were rescued. I saw him.
59286 What a delightful boy he was!"
59288 Natasha looked at him, and by way of answer to his words her eyes
59289 widened and lit up.
59291 "What can one say or think of as a consolation?" said Pierre. "Nothing!
59292 Why had such a splendid boy, so full of life, to die?"
59294 "Yes, in these days it would be hard to live without faith..." remarked
59297 "Yes, yes, that is really true," Pierre hastily interrupted her.
59299 "Why is it true?" Natasha asked, looking attentively into Pierre's eyes.
59301 "How can you ask why?" said Princess Mary. "The thought alone of what
59304 Natasha without waiting for Princess Mary to finish again looked
59305 inquiringly at Pierre.
59307 "And because," Pierre continued, "only one who believes that there is a
59308 God ruling us can bear a loss such as hers and... yours."
59310 Natasha had already opened her mouth to speak but suddenly stopped.
59311 Pierre hurriedly turned away from her and again addressed Princess Mary,
59312 asking about his friend's last days.
59314 Pierre's confusion had now almost vanished, but at the same time he felt
59315 that his freedom had also completely gone. He felt that there was now a
59316 judge of his every word and action whose judgment mattered more to him
59317 than that of all the rest of the world. As he spoke now he was
59318 considering what impression his words would make on Natasha. He did not
59319 purposely say things to please her, but whatever he was saying he
59320 regarded from her standpoint.
59322 Princess Mary--reluctantly as is usual in such cases--began telling of
59323 the condition in which she had found Prince Andrew. But Pierre's face
59324 quivering with emotion, his questions and his eager restless expression,
59325 gradually compelled her to go into details which she feared to recall
59328 "Yes, yes, and so...?" Pierre kept saying as he leaned toward her with
59329 his whole body and eagerly listened to her story. "Yes, yes... so he
59330 grew tranquil and softened? With all his soul he had always sought one
59331 thing--to be perfectly good--so he could not be afraid of death. The
59332 faults he had--if he had any--were not of his making. So he did
59333 soften?... What a happy thing that he saw you again," he added, suddenly
59334 turning to Natasha and looking at her with eyes full of tears.
59336 Natasha's face twitched. She frowned and lowered her eyes for a moment.
59337 She hesitated for an instant whether to speak or not.
59339 "Yes, that was happiness," she then said in her quiet voice with its
59340 deep chest notes. "For me it certainly was happiness." She paused. "And
59341 he... he... he said he was wishing for it at the very moment I entered
59344 Natasha's voice broke. She blushed, pressed her clasped hands on her
59345 knees, and then controlling herself with an evident effort lifted her
59346 head and began to speak rapidly.
59348 "We knew nothing of it when we started from Moscow. I did not dare to
59349 ask about him. Then suddenly Sonya told me he was traveling with us. I
59350 had no idea and could not imagine what state he was in, all I wanted was
59351 to see him and be with him," she said, trembling, and breathing quickly.
59353 And not letting them interrupt her she went on to tell what she had
59354 never yet mentioned to anyone--all she had lived through during those
59355 three weeks of their journey and life at Yaroslavl.
59357 Pierre listened to her with lips parted and eyes fixed upon her full of
59358 tears. As he listened he did not think of Prince Andrew, nor of death,
59359 nor of what she was telling. He listened to her and felt only pity for
59360 her, for what she was suffering now while she was speaking.
59362 Princess Mary, frowning in her effort to hold back her tears, sat beside
59363 Natasha, and heard for the first time the story of those last days of
59364 her brother's and Natasha's love.
59366 Evidently Natasha needed to tell that painful yet joyful tale.
59368 She spoke, mingling most trifling details with the intimate secrets of
59369 her soul, and it seemed as if she could never finish. Several times she
59370 repeated the same thing twice.
59372 Dessalles' voice was heard outside the door asking whether little
59373 Nicholas might come in to say good night.
59375 "Well, that's all--everything," said Natasha.
59377 She got up quickly just as Nicholas entered, almost ran to the door
59378 which was hidden by curtains, struck her head against it, and rushed
59379 from the room with a moan either of pain or sorrow.
59381 Pierre gazed at the door through which she had disappeared and did not
59382 understand why he suddenly felt all alone in the world.
59384 Princess Mary roused him from his abstraction by drawing his attention
59385 to her nephew who had entered the room.
59387 At that moment of emotional tenderness young Nicholas' face, which
59388 resembled his father's, affected Pierre so much that when he had kissed
59389 the boy he got up quickly, took out his handkerchief, and went to the
59390 window. He wished to take leave of Princess Mary, but she would not let
59393 "No, Natasha and I sometimes don't go to sleep till after two, so please
59394 don't go. I will order supper. Go downstairs, we will come immediately."
59396 Before Pierre left the room Princess Mary told him: "This is the first
59397 time she has talked of him like that."
59404 Pierre was shown into the large, brightly lit dining room; a few minutes
59405 later he heard footsteps and Princess Mary entered with Natasha. Natasha
59406 was calm, though a severe and grave expression had again settled on her
59407 face. They all three of them now experienced that feeling of awkwardness
59408 which usually follows after a serious and heartfelt talk. It is
59409 impossible to go back to the same conversation, to talk of trifles is
59410 awkward, and yet the desire to speak is there and silence seems like
59411 affectation. They went silently to table. The footmen drew back the
59412 chairs and pushed them up again. Pierre unfolded his cold table napkin
59413 and, resolving to break the silence, looked at Natasha and at Princess
59414 Mary. They had evidently both formed the same resolution; the eyes of
59415 both shone with satisfaction and a confession that besides sorrow life
59418 "Do you take vodka, Count?" asked Princess Mary, and those words
59419 suddenly banished the shadows of the past. "Now tell us about yourself,"
59420 said she. "One hears such improbable wonders about you."
59422 "Yes," replied Pierre with the smile of mild irony now habitual to him.
59423 "They even tell me wonders I myself never dreamed of! Mary Abramovna
59424 invited me to her house and kept telling me what had happened, or ought
59425 to have happened, to me. Stepan Stepanych also instructed me how I ought
59426 to tell of my experiences. In general I have noticed that it is very
59427 easy to be an interesting man (I am an interesting man now); people
59428 invite me out and tell me all about myself."
59430 Natasha smiled and was on the point of speaking.
59432 "We have been told," Princess Mary interrupted her, "that you lost two
59433 millions in Moscow. Is that true?"
59435 "But I am three times as rich as before," returned Pierre.
59437 Though the position was now altered by his decision to pay his wife's
59438 debts and to rebuild his houses, Pierre still maintained that he had
59439 become three times as rich as before.
59441 "What I have certainly gained is freedom," he began seriously, but did
59442 not continue, noticing that this theme was too egotistic.
59444 "And are you building?"
59446 "Yes. Savelich says I must!"
59448 "Tell me, you did not know of the countess' death when you decided to
59449 remain in Moscow?" asked Princess Mary and immediately blushed, noticing
59450 that her question, following his mention of freedom, ascribed to his
59451 words a meaning he had perhaps not intended.
59453 "No," answered Pierre, evidently not considering awkward the meaning
59454 Princess Mary had given to his words. "I heard of it in Orel and you
59455 cannot imagine how it shocked me. We were not an exemplary couple," he
59456 added quickly, glancing at Natasha and noticing on her face curiosity as
59457 to how he would speak of his wife, "but her death shocked me terribly.
59458 When two people quarrel they are always both in fault, and one's own
59459 guilt suddenly becomes terribly serious when the other is no longer
59460 alive. And then such a death... without friends and without consolation!
59461 I am very, very sorry for her," he concluded, and was pleased to notice
59462 a look of glad approval on Natasha's face.
59464 "Yes, and so you are once more an eligible bachelor," said Princess
59467 Pierre suddenly flushed crimson and for a long time tried not to look at
59468 Natasha. When he ventured to glance her way again her face was cold,
59469 stern, and he fancied even contemptuous.
59471 "And did you really see and speak to Napoleon, as we have been told?"
59472 said Princess Mary.
59476 "No, not once! Everybody seems to imagine that being taken prisoner
59477 means being Napoleon's guest. Not only did I never see him but I heard
59478 nothing about him--I was in much lower company!"
59480 Supper was over, and Pierre who at first declined to speak about his
59481 captivity was gradually led on to do so.
59483 "But it's true that you remained in Moscow to kill Napoleon?" Natasha
59484 asked with a slight smile. "I guessed it then when we met at the
59485 Sukharev tower, do you remember?"
59487 Pierre admitted that it was true, and from that was gradually led by
59488 Princess Mary's questions and especially by Natasha's into giving a
59489 detailed account of his adventures.
59491 At first he spoke with the amused and mild irony now customary with him
59492 toward everybody and especially toward himself, but when he came to
59493 describe the horrors and sufferings he had witnessed he was
59494 unconsciously carried away and began speaking with the suppressed
59495 emotion of a man re-experiencing in recollection strong impressions he
59498 Princess Mary with a gentle smile looked now at Pierre and now at
59499 Natasha. In the whole narrative she saw only Pierre and his goodness.
59500 Natasha, leaning on her elbow, the expression of her face constantly
59501 changing with the narrative, watched Pierre with an attention that never
59502 wandered--evidently herself experiencing all that he described. Not only
59503 her look, but her exclamations and the brief questions she put, showed
59504 Pierre that she understood just what he wished to convey. It was clear
59505 that she understood not only what he said but also what he wished to,
59506 but could not, express in words. The account Pierre gave of the incident
59507 with the child and the woman for protecting whom he was arrested was
59508 this: "It was an awful sight--children abandoned, some in the flames...
59509 One was snatched out before my eyes... and there were women who had
59510 their things snatched off and their earrings torn out..." he flushed and
59511 grew confused. "Then a patrol arrived and all the men--all those who
59512 were not looting, that is--were arrested, and I among them."
59514 "I am sure you're not telling us everything; I am sure you did
59515 something..." said Natasha and pausing added, "something fine?"
59517 Pierre continued. When he spoke of the execution he wanted to pass over
59518 the horrible details, but Natasha insisted that he should not omit
59521 Pierre began to tell about Karataev, but paused. By this time he had
59522 risen from the table and was pacing the room, Natasha following him with
59523 her eyes. Then he added:
59525 "No, you can't understand what I learned from that illiterate man--that
59528 "Yes, yes, go on!" said Natasha. "Where is he?"
59530 "They killed him almost before my eyes."
59532 And Pierre, his voice trembling continually, went on to tell of the last
59533 days of their retreat, of Karataev's illness and his death.
59535 He told of his adventures as he had never yet recalled them. He now, as
59536 it were, saw a new meaning in all he had gone through. Now that he was
59537 telling it all to Natasha he experienced that pleasure which a man has
59538 when women listen to him--not clever women who when listening either try
59539 to remember what they hear to enrich their minds and when opportunity
59540 offers to retell it, or who wish to adopt it to some thought of their
59541 own and promptly contribute their own clever comments prepared in their
59542 little mental workshop--but the pleasure given by real women gifted with
59543 a capacity to select and absorb the very best a man shows of himself.
59544 Natasha without knowing it was all attention: she did not lose a word,
59545 no single quiver in Pierre's voice, no look, no twitch of a muscle in
59546 his face, nor a single gesture. She caught the unfinished word in its
59547 flight and took it straight into her open heart, divining the secret
59548 meaning of all Pierre's mental travail.
59550 Princess Mary understood his story and sympathized with him, but she now
59551 saw something else that absorbed all her attention. She saw the
59552 possibility of love and happiness between Natasha and Pierre, and the
59553 first thought of this filled her heart with gladness.
59555 It was three o'clock in the morning. The footmen came in with sad and
59556 stern faces to change the candles, but no one noticed them.
59558 Pierre finished his story. Natasha continued to look at him intently
59559 with bright, attentive, and animated eyes, as if trying to understand
59560 something more which he had perhaps left untold. Pierre in shamefaced
59561 and happy confusion glanced occasionally at her, and tried to think what
59562 to say next to introduce a fresh subject. Princess Mary was silent. It
59563 occurred to none of them that it was three o'clock and time to go to
59566 "People speak of misfortunes and sufferings," remarked Pierre, "but if
59567 at this moment I were asked: 'Would you rather be what you were before
59568 you were taken prisoner, or go through all this again?' then for
59569 heaven's sake let me again have captivity and horseflesh! We imagine
59570 that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is
59571 only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is
59572 happiness. There is much, much before us. I say this to you," he added,
59573 turning to Natasha.
59575 "Yes, yes," she said, answering something quite different. "I too should
59576 wish nothing but to relive it all from the beginning."
59578 Pierre looked intently at her.
59580 "Yes, and nothing more," said Natasha.
59582 "It's not true, not true!" cried Pierre. "I am not to blame for being
59583 alive and wishing to live--nor you either."
59585 Suddenly Natasha bent her head, covered her face with her hands, and
59588 "What is it, Natasha?" said Princess Mary.
59590 "Nothing, nothing." She smiled at Pierre through her tears. "Good night!
59591 It is time for bed."
59593 Pierre rose and took his leave.
59595 Princess Mary and Natasha met as usual in the bedroom. They talked of
59596 what Pierre had told them. Princess Mary did not express her opinion of
59597 Pierre nor did Natasha speak of him.
59599 "Well, good night, Mary!" said Natasha. "Do you know, I am often afraid
59600 that by not speaking of him" (she meant Prince Andrew) "for fear of not
59601 doing justice to our feelings, we forget him."
59603 Princess Mary sighed deeply and thereby acknowledged the justice of
59604 Natasha's remark, but she did not express agreement in words.
59606 "Is it possible to forget?" said she.
59608 "It did me so much good to tell all about it today. It was hard and
59609 painful, but good, very good!" said Natasha. "I am sure he really loved
59610 him. That is why I told him... Was it all right?" she added, suddenly
59613 "To tell Pierre? Oh, yes. What a splendid man he is!" said Princess
59616 "Do you know, Mary..." Natasha suddenly said with a mischievous smile
59617 such as Princess Mary had not seen on her face for a long time, "he has
59618 somehow grown so clean, smooth, and fresh--as if he had just come out of
59619 a Russian bath; do you understand? Out of a moral bath. Isn't it true?"
59621 "Yes," replied Princess Mary. "He has greatly improved."
59623 "With a short coat and his hair cropped; just as if, well, just as if he
59624 had come straight from the bath... Papa used to..."
59626 "I understand why he" (Prince Andrew) "liked no one so much as him,"
59627 said Princess Mary.
59629 "Yes, and yet he is quite different. They say men are friends when they
59630 are quite different. That must be true. Really he is quite unlike him--
59633 "Yes, but he's wonderful."
59635 "Well, good night," said Natasha.
59637 And the same mischievous smile lingered for a long time on her face as
59638 if it had been forgotten there.
59645 It was a long time before Pierre could fall asleep that night. He paced
59646 up and down his room, now turning his thoughts on a difficult problem
59647 and frowning, now suddenly shrugging his shoulders and wincing, and now
59650 He was thinking of Prince Andrew, of Natasha, and of their love, at one
59651 moment jealous of her past, then reproaching himself for that feeling.
59652 It was already six in the morning and he still paced up and down the
59655 "Well, what's to be done if it cannot be avoided? What's to be done?
59656 Evidently it has to be so," said he to himself, and hastily undressing
59657 he got into bed, happy and agitated but free from hesitation or
59660 "Strange and impossible as such happiness seems, I must do everything
59661 that she and I may be man and wife," he told himself.
59663 A few days previously Pierre had decided to go to Petersburg on the
59664 Friday. When he awoke on the Thursday, Savelich came to ask him about
59665 packing for the journey.
59667 "What, to Petersburg? What is Petersburg? Who is there in Petersburg?"
59668 he asked involuntarily, though only to himself. "Oh, yes, long ago
59669 before this happened I did for some reason mean to go to Petersburg," he
59670 reflected. "Why? But perhaps I shall go. What a good fellow he is and
59671 how attentive, and how he remembers everything," he thought, looking at
59672 Savelich's old face, "and what a pleasant smile he has!"
59674 "Well, Savelich, do you still not wish to accept your freedom?" Pierre
59677 "What's the good of freedom to me, your excellency? We lived under the
59678 late count--the kingdom of heaven be his!--and we have lived under you
59679 too, without ever being wronged."
59681 "And your children?"
59683 "The children will live just the same. With such masters one can live."
59685 "But what about my heirs?" said Pierre. "Supposing I suddenly marry...
59686 it might happen," he added with an involuntary smile.
59688 "If I may take the liberty, your excellency, it would be a good thing."
59690 "How easy he thinks it," thought Pierre. "He doesn't know how terrible
59691 it is and how dangerous. Too soon or too late... it is terrible!"
59693 "So what are your orders? Are you starting tomorrow?" asked Savelich.
59695 "No, I'll put it off for a bit. I'll tell you later. You must forgive
59696 the trouble I have put you to," said Pierre, and seeing Savelich smile,
59697 he thought: "But how strange it is that he should not know that now
59698 there is no Petersburg for me, and that that must be settled first of
59699 all! But probably he knows it well enough and is only pretending. Shall
59700 I have a talk with him and see what he thinks?" Pierre reflected. "No,
59703 At breakfast Pierre told the princess, his cousin, that he had been to
59704 see Princess Mary the day before and had there met--"Whom do you think?
59707 The princess seemed to see nothing more extraordinary in that than if he
59708 had seen Anna Semenovna.
59710 "Do you know her?" asked Pierre.
59712 "I have seen the princess," she replied. "I heard that they were
59713 arranging a match for her with young Rostov. It would be a very good
59714 thing for the Rostovs, they are said to be utterly ruined."
59716 "No; I mean do you know Natasha Rostova?"
59718 "I heard about that affair of hers at the time. It was a great pity."
59720 "No, she either doesn't understand or is pretending," thought Pierre.
59721 "Better not say anything to her either."
59723 The princess too had prepared provisions for Pierre's journey.
59725 "How kind they all are," thought Pierre. "What is surprising is that
59726 they should trouble about these things now when it can no longer be of
59727 interest to them. And all for me!"
59729 On the same day the Chief of Police came to Pierre, inviting him to send
59730 a representative to the Faceted Palace to recover things that were to be
59731 returned to their owners that day.
59733 "And this man too," thought Pierre, looking into the face of the Chief
59734 of Police. "What a fine, good-looking officer and how kind. Fancy
59735 bothering about such trifles now! And they actually say he is not honest
59736 and takes bribes. What nonsense! Besides, why shouldn't he take bribes?
59737 That's the way he was brought up, and everybody does it. But what a
59738 kind, pleasant face and how he smiles as he looks at me."
59740 Pierre went to Princess Mary's to dinner.
59742 As he drove through the streets past the houses that had been burned
59743 down, he was surprised by the beauty of those ruins. The picturesqueness
59744 of the chimney stacks and tumble-down walls of the burned-out quarters
59745 of the town, stretching out and concealing one another, reminded him of
59746 the Rhine and the Colosseum. The cabmen he met and their passengers, the
59747 carpenters cutting the timber for new houses with axes, the women
59748 hawkers, and the shopkeepers, all looked at him with cheerful beaming
59749 eyes that seemed to say: "Ah, there he is! Let's see what will come of
59752 At the entrance to Princess Mary's house Pierre felt doubtful whether he
59753 had really been there the night before and really seen Natasha and
59754 talked to her. "Perhaps I imagined it; perhaps I shall go in and find no
59755 one there." But he had hardly entered the room before he felt her
59756 presence with his whole being by the loss of his sense of freedom. She
59757 was in the same black dress with soft folds and her hair was done the
59758 same way as the day before, yet she was quite different. Had she been
59759 like this when he entered the day before he could not for a moment have
59760 failed to recognize her.
59762 She was as he had known her almost as a child and later on as Prince
59763 Andrew's fiancee. A bright questioning light shone in her eyes, and on
59764 her face was a friendly and strangely roguish expression.
59766 Pierre dined with them and would have spent the whole evening there, but
59767 Princess Mary was going to vespers and Pierre left the house with her.
59769 Next day he came early, dined, and stayed the whole evening. Though
59770 Princess Mary and Natasha were evidently glad to see their visitor and
59771 though all Pierre's interest was now centered in that house, by the
59772 evening they had talked over everything and the conversation passed from
59773 one trivial topic to another and repeatedly broke off. He stayed so long
59774 that Princess Mary and Natasha exchanged glances, evidently wondering
59775 when he would go. Pierre noticed this but could not go. He felt uneasy
59776 and embarrassed, but sat on because he simply could not get up and take
59779 Princess Mary, foreseeing no end to this, rose first, and complaining of
59780 a headache began to say good night.
59782 "So you are going to Petersburg tomorrow?" she asked.
59784 "No, I am not going," Pierre replied hastily, in a surprised tone and as
59785 though offended. "Yes... no... to Petersburg? Tomorrow--but I won't say
59786 good-by yet. I will call round in case you have any commissions for me,"
59787 said he, standing before Princess Mary and turning red, but not taking
59790 Natasha gave him her hand and went out. Princess Mary on the other hand
59791 instead of going away sank into an armchair, and looked sternly and
59792 intently at him with her deep, radiant eyes. The weariness she had
59793 plainly shown before had now quite passed off. With a deep and long-
59794 drawn sigh she seemed to be prepared for a lengthy talk.
59796 When Natasha left the room Pierre's confusion and awkwardness
59797 immediately vanished and were replaced by eager excitement. He quickly
59798 moved an armchair toward Princess Mary.
59800 "Yes, I wanted to tell you," said he, answering her look as if she had
59801 spoken. "Princess, help me! What am I to do? Can I hope? Princess, my
59802 dear friend, listen! I know it all. I know I am not worthy of her, I
59803 know it's impossible to speak of it now. But I want to be a brother to
59804 her. No, not that, I don't, I can't..."
59806 He paused and rubbed his face and eyes with his hands.
59808 "Well," he went on with an evident effort at self-control and coherence.
59809 "I don't know when I began to love her, but I have loved her and her
59810 alone all my life, and I love her so that I cannot imagine life without
59811 her. I cannot propose to her at present, but the thought that perhaps
59812 she might someday be my wife and that I may be missing that
59813 possibility... that possibility... is terrible. Tell me, can I hope?
59814 Tell me what I am to do, dear princess!" he added after a pause, and
59815 touched her hand as she did not reply.
59817 "I am thinking of what you have told me," answered Princess Mary. "This
59818 is what I will say. You are right that to speak to her of love at
59821 Princess Mary stopped. She was going to say that to speak of love was
59822 impossible, but she stopped because she had seen by the sudden change in
59823 Natasha two days before that she would not only not be hurt if Pierre
59824 spoke of his love, but that it was the very thing she wished for.
59826 "To speak to her now wouldn't do," said the princess all the same.
59828 "But what am I to do?"
59830 "Leave it to me," said Princess Mary. "I know..."
59832 Pierre was looking into Princess Mary's eyes.
59834 "Well?... Well?..." he said.
59836 "I know that she loves... will love you," Princess Mary corrected
59839 Before her words were out, Pierre had sprung up and with a frightened
59840 expression seized Princess Mary's hand.
59842 "What makes you think so? You think I may hope? You think...?"
59844 "Yes, I think so," said Princess Mary with a smile. "Write to her
59845 parents, and leave it to me. I will tell her when I can. I wish it to
59846 happen and my heart tells me it will."
59848 "No, it cannot be! How happy I am! But it can't be.... How happy I am!
59849 No, it can't be!" Pierre kept saying as he kissed Princess Mary's hands.
59851 "Go to Petersburg, that will be best. And I will write to you," she
59854 "To Petersburg? Go there? Very well, I'll go. But I may come again
59857 Next day Pierre came to say good-by. Natasha was less animated than she
59858 had been the day before; but that day as he looked at her Pierre
59859 sometimes felt as if he was vanishing and that neither he nor she
59860 existed any longer, that nothing existed but happiness. "Is it possible?
59861 No, it can't be," he told himself at every look, gesture, and word that
59862 filled his soul with joy.
59864 When on saying good-by he took her thin, slender hand, he could not help
59865 holding it a little longer in his own.
59867 "Is it possible that this hand, that face, those eyes, all this treasure
59868 of feminine charm so strange to me now, is it possible that it will one
59869 day be mine forever, as familiar to me as I am to myself?... No, that's
59872 "Good-bye, Count," she said aloud. "I shall look forward very much to
59873 your return," she added in a whisper.
59875 And these simple words, her look, and the expression on her face which
59876 accompanied them, formed for two months the subject of inexhaustible
59877 memories, interpretations, and happy meditations for Pierre. "'I shall
59878 look forward very much to your return....' Yes, yes, how did she say it?
59879 Yes, 'I shall look forward very much to your return.' Oh, how happy I
59880 am! What is happening to me? How happy I am!" said Pierre to himself.
59887 There was nothing in Pierre's soul now at all like what had troubled it
59888 during his courtship of Helene.
59890 He did not repeat to himself with a sickening feeling of shame the words
59891 he had spoken, or say: "Oh, why did I not say that?" and, "Whatever made
59892 me say 'Je vous aime'?" On the contrary, he now repeated in imagination
59893 every word that he or Natasha had spoken and pictured every detail of
59894 her face and smile, and did not wish to diminish or add anything, but
59895 only to repeat it again and again. There was now not a shadow of doubt
59896 in his mind as to whether what he had undertaken was right or wrong.
59897 Only one terrible doubt sometimes crossed his mind: "Wasn't it all a
59898 dream? Isn't Princess Mary mistaken? Am I not too conceited and self-
59899 confident? I believe all this--and suddenly Princess Mary will tell her,
59900 and she will be sure to smile and say: 'How strange! He must be deluding
59901 himself. Doesn't he know that he is a man, just a man, while I...? I am
59902 something altogether different and higher.'"
59904 That was the only doubt often troubling Pierre. He did not now make any
59905 plans. The happiness before him appeared so inconceivable that if only
59906 he could attain it, it would be the end of all things. Everything ended
59909 A joyful, unexpected frenzy, of which he had thought himself incapable,
59910 possessed him. The whole meaning of life--not for him alone but for the
59911 whole world--seemed to him centered in his love and the possibility of
59912 being loved by her. At times everybody seemed to him to be occupied with
59913 one thing only--his future happiness. Sometimes it seemed to him that
59914 other people were all as pleased as he was himself and merely tried to
59915 hide that pleasure by pretending to be busy with other interests. In
59916 every word and gesture he saw allusions to his happiness. He often
59917 surprised those he met by his significantly happy looks and smiles which
59918 seemed to express a secret understanding between him and them. And when
59919 he realized that people might not be aware of his happiness, he pitied
59920 them with his whole heart and felt a desire somehow to explain to them
59921 that all that occupied them was a mere frivolous trifle unworthy of
59924 When it was suggested to him that he should enter the civil service, or
59925 when the war or any general political affairs were discussed on the
59926 assumption that everybody's welfare depended on this or that issue of
59927 events, he would listen with a mild and pitying smile and surprise
59928 people by his strange comments. But at this time he saw everybody--both
59929 those who, as he imagined, understood the real meaning of life (that is,
59930 what he was feeling) and those unfortunates who evidently did not
59931 understand it--in the bright light of the emotion that shone within
59932 himself, and at once without any effort saw in everyone he met
59933 everything that was good and worthy of being loved.
59935 When dealing with the affairs and papers of his dead wife, her memory
59936 aroused in him no feeling but pity that she had not known the bliss he
59937 now knew. Prince Vasili, who having obtained a new post and some fresh
59938 decorations was particularly proud at this time, seemed to him a
59939 pathetic, kindly old man much to be pitied.
59941 Often in afterlife Pierre recalled this period of blissful insanity. All
59942 the views he formed of men and circumstances at this time remained true
59943 for him always. He not only did not renounce them subsequently, but when
59944 he was in doubt or inwardly at variance, he referred to the views he had
59945 held at this time of his madness and they always proved correct.
59947 "I may have appeared strange and queer then," he thought, "but I was not
59948 so mad as I seemed. On the contrary I was then wiser and had more
59949 insight than at any other time, and understood all that is worth
59950 understanding in life, because... because I was happy."
59952 Pierre's insanity consisted in not waiting, as he used to do, to
59953 discover personal attributes which he termed "good qualities" in people
59954 before loving them; his heart was now overflowing with love, and by
59955 loving people without cause he discovered indubitable causes for loving
59963 After Pierre's departure that first evening, when Natasha had said to
59964 Princess Mary with a gaily mocking smile: "He looks just, yes, just as
59965 if he had come out of a Russian bath--in a short coat and with his hair
59966 cropped," something hidden and unknown to herself, but irrepressible,
59967 awoke in Natasha's soul.
59969 Everything: her face, walk, look, and voice, was suddenly altered. To
59970 her own surprise a power of life and hope of happiness rose to the
59971 surface and demanded satisfaction. From that evening she seemed to have
59972 forgotten all that had happened to her. She no longer complained of her
59973 position, did not say a word about the past, and no longer feared to
59974 make happy plans for the future. She spoke little of Pierre, but when
59975 Princess Mary mentioned him a long-extinguished light once more kindled
59976 in her eyes and her lips curved with a strange smile.
59979 The change that took place in Natasha at first surprised Princess Mary;
59980 but when she understood its meaning it grieved her. "Can she have loved
59981 my brother so little as to be able to forget him so soon?" she thought
59982 when she reflected on the change. But when she was with Natasha she was
59983 not vexed with her and did not reproach her. The reawakened power of
59984 life that had seized Natasha was so evidently irrepressible and
59985 unexpected by her that in her presence Princess Mary felt that she had
59986 no right to reproach her even in her heart.
59988 Natasha gave herself up so fully and frankly to this new feeling that
59989 she did not try to hide the fact that she was no longer sad, but bright
59992 When Princess Mary returned to her room after her nocturnal talk with
59993 Pierre, Natasha met her on the threshold.
59995 "He has spoken? Yes? He has spoken?" she repeated.
59997 And a joyful yet pathetic expression which seemed to beg forgiveness for
59998 her joy settled on Natasha's face.
60000 "I wanted to listen at the door, but I knew you would tell me."
60002 Understandable and touching as the look with which Natasha gazed at her
60003 seemed to Princess Mary, and sorry as she was to see her agitation,
60004 these words pained her for a moment. She remembered her brother and his
60007 "But what's to be done? She can't help it," thought the princess.
60009 And with a sad and rather stern look she told Natasha all that Pierre
60010 had said. On hearing that he was going to Petersburg Natasha was
60013 "To Petersburg!" she repeated as if unable to understand.
60015 But noticing the grieved expression on Princess Mary's face she guessed
60016 the reason of that sadness and suddenly began to cry.
60018 "Mary," said she, "tell me what I should do! I am afraid of being bad.
60019 Whatever you tell me, I will do. Tell me...."
60023 "Yes," whispered Natasha.
60025 "Then why are you crying? I am happy for your sake," said Princess Mary,
60026 who because of those tears quite forgave Natasha's joy.
60028 "It won't be just yet--someday. Think what fun it will be when I am his
60029 wife and you marry Nicholas!"
60031 "Natasha, I have asked you not to speak of that. Let us talk about you."
60033 They were silent awhile.
60035 "But why go to Petersburg?" Natasha suddenly asked, and hastily replied
60036 to her own question. "But no, no, he must... Yes, Mary, He must...."
60038 FIRST EPILOGUE: 1813 - 20
60045 Seven years had passed. The storm-tossed sea of European history had
60046 subsided within its shores and seemed to have become calm. But the
60047 mysterious forces that move humanity (mysterious because the laws of
60048 their motion are unknown to us) continued to operate.
60050 Though the surface of the sea of history seemed motionless, the movement
60051 of humanity went on as unceasingly as the flow of time. Various groups
60052 of people formed and dissolved, the coming formation and dissolution of
60053 kingdoms and displacement of peoples was in course of preparation.
60055 The sea of history was not driven spasmodically from shore to shore as
60056 previously. It was seething in its depths. Historic figures were not
60057 borne by the waves from one shore to another as before. They now seemed
60058 to rotate on one spot. The historical figures at the head of armies, who
60059 formerly reflected the movement of the masses by ordering wars,
60060 campaigns, and battles, now reflected the restless movement by political
60061 and diplomatic combinations, laws, and treaties.
60063 The historians call this activity of the historical figures "the
60066 In dealing with this period they sternly condemn the historical
60067 personages who, in their opinion, caused what they describe as the
60068 reaction. All the well-known people of that period, from Alexander and
60069 Napoleon to Madame de Stael, Photius, Schelling, Fichte, Chateaubriand,
60070 and the rest, pass before their stern judgment seat and are acquitted or
60071 condemned according to whether they conduced to progress or to reaction.
60073 According to their accounts a reaction took place at that time in Russia
60074 also, and the chief culprit was Alexander I, the same man who according
60075 to them was the chief cause of the liberal movement at the commencement
60076 of his reign, being the savior of Russia.
60078 There is no one in Russian literature now, from schoolboy essayist to
60079 learned historian, who does not throw his little stone at Alexander for
60080 things he did wrong at this period of his reign.
60082 "He ought to have acted in this way and in that way. In this case he did
60083 well and in that case badly. He behaved admirably at the beginning of
60084 his reign and during 1812, but acted badly by giving a constitution to
60085 Poland, forming the Holy Alliance, entrusting power to Arakcheev,
60086 favoring Golitsyn and mysticism, and afterwards Shishkov and Photius. He
60087 also acted badly by concerning himself with the active army and
60088 disbanding the Semenov regiment."
60090 It would take a dozen pages to enumerate all the reproaches the
60091 historians address to him, based on their knowledge of what is good for
60094 What do these reproaches mean?
60096 Do not the very actions for which the historians praise Alexander I (the
60097 liberal attempts at the beginning of his reign, his struggle with
60098 Napoleon, the firmness he displayed in 1812 and the campaign of 1813)
60099 flow from the same sources--the circumstances of his birth, education,
60100 and life--that made his personality what it was and from which the
60101 actions for which they blame him (the Holy Alliance, the restoration of
60102 Poland, and the reaction of 1820 and later) also flowed?
60104 In what does the substance of those reproaches lie?
60106 It lies in the fact that an historic character like Alexander I,
60107 standing on the highest possible pinnacle of human power with the
60108 blinding light of history focused upon him; a character exposed to those
60109 strongest of all influences: the intrigues, flattery, and self-deception
60110 inseparable from power; a character who at every moment of his life felt
60111 a responsibility for all that was happening in Europe; and not a
60112 fictitious but a live character who like every man had his personal
60113 habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth--that
60114 this character--though not lacking in virtue (the historians do not
60115 accuse him of that)--had not the same conception of the welfare of
60116 humanity fifty years ago as a present-day professor who from his youth
60117 upwards has been occupied with learning: that is, with books and
60118 lectures and with taking notes from them.
60120 But even if we assume that fifty years ago Alexander I was mistaken in
60121 his view of what was good for the people, we must inevitably assume that
60122 the historian who judges Alexander will also after the lapse of some
60123 time turn out to be mistaken in his view of what is good for humanity.
60124 This assumption is all the more natural and inevitable because, watching
60125 the movement of history, we see that every year and with each new
60126 writer, opinion as to what is good for mankind changes; so that what
60127 once seemed good, ten years later seems bad, and vice versa. And what is
60128 more, we find at one and the same time quite contradictory views as to
60129 what is bad and what is good in history: some people regard giving a
60130 constitution to Poland and forming the Holy Alliance as praiseworthy in
60131 Alexander, while others regard it as blameworthy.
60133 The activity of Alexander or of Napoleon cannot be called useful or
60134 harmful, for it is impossible to say for what it was useful or harmful.
60135 If that activity displeases somebody, this is only because it does not
60136 agree with his limited understanding of what is good. Whether the
60137 preservation of my father's house in Moscow, or the glory of the Russian
60138 arms, or the prosperity of the Petersburg and other universities, or the
60139 freedom of Poland or the greatness of Russia, or the balance of power in
60140 Europe, or a certain kind of European culture called "progress" appear
60141 to me to be good or bad, I must admit that besides these things the
60142 action of every historic character has other more general purposes
60143 inaccessible to me.
60145 But let us assume that what is called science can harmonize all
60146 contradictions and possesses an unchanging standard of good and bad by
60147 which to try historic characters and events; let us say that Alexander
60148 could have done everything differently; let us say that with guidance
60149 from those who blame him and who profess to know the ultimate aim of the
60150 movement of humanity, he might have arranged matters according to the
60151 program his present accusers would have given him--of nationality,
60152 freedom, equality, and progress (these, I think, cover the ground). Let
60153 us assume that this program was possible and had then been formulated,
60154 and that Alexander had acted on it. What would then have become of the
60155 activity of all those who opposed the tendency that then prevailed in
60156 the government--an activity that in the opinion of the historians was
60157 good and beneficent? Their activity would not have existed: there would
60158 have been no life, there would have been nothing.
60160 If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of
60168 If we assume as the historians do that great men lead humanity to the
60169 attainment of certain ends--the greatness of Russia or of France, the
60170 balance of power in Europe, the diffusion of the ideas of the
60171 Revolution, general progress, or anything else--then it is impossible to
60172 explain the facts of history without introducing the conceptions of
60175 If the aim of the European wars at the beginning of the nineteenth
60176 century had been the aggrandizement of Russia, that aim might have been
60177 accomplished without all the preceding wars and without the invasion. If
60178 the aim was the aggrandizement of France, that might have been attained
60179 without the Revolution and without the Empire. If the aim was the
60180 dissemination of ideas, the printing press could have accomplished that
60181 much better than warfare. If the aim was the progress of civilization,
60182 it is easy to see that there are other ways of diffusing civilization
60183 more expedient than by the destruction of wealth and of human lives.
60185 Why did it happen in this and not in some other way?
60187 Because it happened so! "Chance created the situation; genius utilized
60190 But what is chance? What is genius?
60192 The words chance and genius do not denote any really existing thing and
60193 therefore cannot be defined. Those words only denote a certain stage of
60194 understanding of phenomena. I do not know why a certain event occurs; I
60195 think that I cannot know it; so I do not try to know it and I talk about
60196 chance. I see a force producing effects beyond the scope of ordinary
60197 human agencies; I do not understand why this occurs and I talk of
60200 To a herd of rams, the ram the herdsman drives each evening into a
60201 special enclosure to feed and that becomes twice as fat as the others
60202 must seem to be a genius. And it must appear an astonishing conjunction
60203 of genius with a whole series of extraordinary chances that this ram,
60204 who instead of getting into the general fold every evening goes into a
60205 special enclosure where there are oats--that this very ram, swelling
60206 with fat, is killed for meat.
60208 But the rams need only cease to suppose that all that happens to them
60209 happens solely for the attainment of their sheepish aims; they need only
60210 admit that what happens to them may also have purposes beyond their ken,
60211 and they will at once perceive a unity and coherence in what happened to
60212 the ram that was fattened. Even if they do not know for what purpose
60213 they are fattened, they will at least know that all that happened to the
60214 ram did not happen accidentally, and will no longer need the conceptions
60215 of chance or genius.
60217 Only by renouncing our claim to discern a purpose immediately
60218 intelligible to us, and admitting the ultimate purpose to be beyond our
60219 ken, may we discern the sequence of experiences in the lives of historic
60220 characters and perceive the cause of the effect they produce
60221 (incommensurable with ordinary human capabilities), and then the words
60222 chance and genius become superfluous.
60224 We need only confess that we do not know the purpose of the European
60225 convulsions and that we know only the facts--that is, the murders, first
60226 in France, then in Italy, in Africa, in Prussia, in Austria, in Spain,
60227 and in Russia--and that the movements from the west to the east and from
60228 the east to the west form the essence and purpose of these events, and
60229 not only shall we have no need to see exceptional ability and genius in
60230 Napoleon and Alexander, but we shall be unable to consider them to be
60231 anything but like other men, and we shall not be obliged to have
60232 recourse to chance for an explanation of those small events which made
60233 these people what they were, but it will be clear that all those small
60234 events were inevitable.
60236 By discarding a claim to knowledge of the ultimate purpose, we shall
60237 clearly perceive that just as one cannot imagine a blossom or seed for
60238 any single plant better suited to it than those it produces, so it is
60239 impossible to imagine any two people more completely adapted down to the
60240 smallest detail for the purpose they had to fulfill, than Napoleon and
60241 Alexander with all their antecedents.
60248 The fundamental and essential significance of the European events of the
60249 beginning of the nineteenth century lies in the movement of the mass of
60250 the European peoples from west to east and afterwards from east to west.
60251 The commencement of that movement was the movement from west to east.
60252 For the peoples of the west to be able to make their warlike movement to
60253 Moscow it was necessary: (1) that they should form themselves into a
60254 military group of a size able to endure a collision with the warlike
60255 military group of the east, (2) that they should abandon all established
60256 traditions and customs, and (3) that during their military movement they
60257 should have at their head a man who could justify to himself and to them
60258 the deceptions, robberies, and murders which would have to be committed
60259 during that movement.
60261 And beginning with the French Revolution the old inadequately large
60262 group was destroyed, as well as the old habits and traditions, and step
60263 by step a group was formed of larger dimensions with new customs and
60264 traditions, and a man was produced who would stand at the head of the
60265 coming movement and bear the responsibility for all that had to be done.
60267 A man without convictions, without habits, without traditions, without a
60268 name, and not even a Frenchman, emerges--by what seem the strangest
60269 chances--from among all the seething French parties, and without joining
60270 any one of them is borne forward to a prominent position.
60272 The ignorance of his colleagues, the weakness and insignificance of his
60273 opponents, the frankness of his falsehoods, and the dazzling and self-
60274 confident limitations of this man raise him to the head of the army. The
60275 brilliant qualities of the soldiers of the army sent to Italy, his
60276 opponents' reluctance to fight, and his own childish audacity and self-
60277 confidence secure him military fame. Innumerable so-called chances
60278 accompany him everywhere. The disfavor into which he falls with the
60279 rulers of France turns to his advantage. His attempts to avoid his
60280 predestined path are unsuccessful: he is not received into the Russian
60281 service, and the appointment he seeks in Turkey comes to nothing. During
60282 the war in Italy he is several times on the verge of destruction and
60283 each time is saved in an unexpected manner. Owing to various diplomatic
60284 considerations the Russian armies--just those which might have destroyed
60285 his prestige--do not appear upon the scene till he is no longer there.
60287 On his return from Italy he finds the government in Paris in a process
60288 of dissolution in which all those who are in it are inevitably wiped out
60289 and destroyed. And by chance an escape from this dangerous position
60290 presents itself in the form of an aimless and senseless expedition to
60291 Africa. Again so-called chance accompanies him. Impregnable Malta
60292 surrenders without a shot; his most reckless schemes are crowned with
60293 success. The enemy's fleet, which subsequently did not let a single boat
60294 pass, allows his entire army to elude it. In Africa a whole series of
60295 outrages are committed against the almost unarmed inhabitants. And the
60296 men who commit these crimes, especially their leader, assure themselves
60297 that this is admirable, this is glory--it resembles Caesar and Alexander
60298 the Great and is therefore good.
60300 This ideal of glory and grandeur--which consists not merely in
60301 considering nothing wrong that one does but in priding oneself on every
60302 crime one commits, ascribing to it an incomprehensible supernatural
60303 significance--that ideal, destined to guide this man and his associates,
60304 had scope for its development in Africa. Whatever he does succeeds. The
60305 plague does not touch him. The cruelty of murdering prisoners is not
60306 imputed to him as a fault. His childishly rash, uncalled-for, and
60307 ignoble departure from Africa, leaving his comrades in distress, is set
60308 down to his credit, and again the enemy's fleet twice lets him slip
60309 past. When, intoxicated by the crimes he has committed so successfully,
60310 he reaches Paris, the dissolution of the republican government, which a
60311 year earlier might have ruined him, has reached its extreme limit, and
60312 his presence there now as a newcomer free from party entanglements can
60313 only serve to exalt him--and though he himself has no plan, he is quite
60314 ready for his new role.
60316 He had no plan, he was afraid of everything, but the parties snatched at
60317 him and demanded his participation.
60319 He alone--with his ideal of glory and grandeur developed in Italy and
60320 Egypt, his insane self-adulation, his boldness in crime and frankness in
60321 lying--he alone could justify what had to be done.
60323 He is needed for the place that awaits him, and so almost apart from his
60324 will and despite his indecision, his lack of a plan, and all his
60325 mistakes, he is drawn into a conspiracy that aims at seizing power and
60326 the conspiracy is crowned with success.
60328 He is pushed into a meeting of the legislature. In alarm he wishes to
60329 flee, considering himself lost. He pretends to fall into a swoon and
60330 says senseless things that should have ruined him. But the once proud
60331 and shrewd rulers of France, feeling that their part is played out, are
60332 even more bewildered than he, and do not say the words they should have
60333 said to destroy him and retain their power.
60335 Chance, millions of chances, give him power, and all men as if by
60336 agreement co-operate to confirm that power. Chance forms the characters
60337 of the rulers of France, who submit to him; chance forms the character
60338 of Paul I of Russia who recognizes his government; chance contrives a
60339 plot against him which not only fails to harm him but confirms his
60340 power. Chance puts the Duc d'Enghien in his hands and unexpectedly
60341 causes him to kill him--thereby convincing the mob more forcibly than in
60342 any other way that he had the right, since he had the might. Chance
60343 contrives that though he directs all his efforts to prepare an
60344 expedition against England (which would inevitably have ruined him) he
60345 never carries out that intention, but unexpectedly falls upon Mack and
60346 the Austrians, who surrender without a battle. Chance and genius give
60347 him the victory at Austerlitz; and by chance all men, not only the
60348 French but all Europe--except England which does not take part in the
60349 events about to happen--despite their former horror and detestation of
60350 his crimes, now recognize his authority, the title he has given himself,
60351 and his ideal of grandeur and glory, which seems excellent and
60352 reasonable to them all.
60354 As if measuring themselves and preparing for the coming movement, the
60355 western forces push toward the east several times in 1805, 1806, 1807,
60356 and 1809, gaining strength and growing. In 1811 the group of people that
60357 had formed in France unites into one group with the peoples of Central
60358 Europe. The strength of the justification of the man who stands at the
60359 head of the movement grows with the increased size of the group. During
60360 the ten-year preparatory period this man had formed relations with all
60361 the crowned heads of Europe. The discredited rulers of the world can
60362 oppose no reasonable ideal to the insensate Napoleonic ideal of glory
60363 and grandeur. One after another they hasten to display their
60364 insignificance before him. The King of Prussia sends his wife to seek
60365 the great man's mercy; the Emperor of Austria considers it a favor that
60366 this man receives a daughter of the Caesars into his bed; the Pope, the
60367 guardian of all that the nations hold sacred, utilizes religion for the
60368 aggrandizement of the great man. It is not Napoleon who prepares himself
60369 for the accomplishment of his role, so much as all those round him who
60370 prepare him to take on himself the whole responsibility for what is
60371 happening and has to happen. There is no step, no crime or petty fraud
60372 he commits, which in the mouths of those around him is not at once
60373 represented as a great deed. The most suitable fete the Germans can
60374 devise for him is a celebration of Jena and Auerstadt. Not only is he
60375 great, but so are his ancestors, his brothers, his stepsons, and his
60376 brothers-in-law. Everything is done to deprive him of the remains of his
60377 reason and to prepare him for his terrible part. And when he is ready so
60378 too are the forces.
60380 The invasion pushes eastward and reaches its final goal--Moscow. That
60381 city is taken; the Russian army suffers heavier losses than the opposing
60382 armies had suffered in the former war from Austerlitz to Wagram. But
60383 suddenly instead of those chances and that genius which hitherto had so
60384 consistently led him by an uninterrupted series of successes to the
60385 predestined goal, an innumerable sequence of inverse chances occur--from
60386 the cold in his head at Borodino to the sparks which set Moscow on fire,
60387 and the frosts--and instead of genius, stupidity and immeasurable
60388 baseness become evident.
60390 The invaders flee, turn back, flee again, and all the chances are now
60391 not for Napoleon but always against him.
60393 A countermovement is then accomplished from east to west with a
60394 remarkable resemblance to the preceding movement from west to east.
60395 Attempted drives from east to west--similar to the contrary movements of
60396 1805, 1807, and 1809--precede the great westward movement; there is the
60397 same coalescence into a group of enormous dimensions; the same adhesion
60398 of the people of Central Europe to the movement; the same hesitation
60399 midway, and the same increasing rapidity as the goal is approached.
60401 Paris, the ultimate goal, is reached. The Napoleonic government and army
60402 are destroyed. Napoleon himself is no longer of any account; all his
60403 actions are evidently pitiful and mean, but again an inexplicable chance
60404 occurs. The allies detest Napoleon whom they regard as the cause of
60405 their sufferings. Deprived of power and authority, his crimes and his
60406 craft exposed, he should have appeared to them what he appeared ten
60407 years previously and one year later--an outlawed brigand. But by some
60408 strange chance no one perceives this. His part is not yet ended. The man
60409 who ten years before and a year later was considered an outlawed brigand
60410 is sent to an island two days' sail from France, which for some reason
60411 is presented to him as his dominion, and guards are given to him and
60412 millions of money are paid him.
60419 The flood of nations begins to subside into its normal channels. The
60420 waves of the great movement abate, and on the calm surface eddies are
60421 formed in which float the diplomatists, who imagine that they have
60422 caused the floods to abate.
60424 But the smooth sea again suddenly becomes disturbed. The diplomatists
60425 think that their disagreements are the cause of this fresh pressure of
60426 natural forces; they anticipate war between their sovereigns; the
60427 position seems to them insoluble. But the wave they feel to be rising
60428 does not come from the quarter they expect. It rises again from the same
60429 point as before--Paris. The last backwash of the movement from the west
60430 occurs: a backwash which serves to solve the apparently insuperable
60431 diplomatic difficulties and ends the military movement of that period of
60434 The man who had devastated France returns to France alone, without any
60435 conspiracy and without soldiers. Any guard might arrest him, but by
60436 strange chance no one does so and all rapturously greet the man they
60437 cursed the day before and will curse again a month later.
60439 This man is still needed to justify the final collective act.
60441 That act is performed.
60443 The last role is played. The actor is bidden to disrobe and wash off his
60444 powder and paint: he will not be wanted any more.
60446 And some years pass during which he plays a pitiful comedy to himself in
60447 solitude on his island, justifying his actions by intrigues and lies
60448 when the justification is no longer needed, and displaying to the whole
60449 world what it was that people had mistaken for strength as long as an
60450 unseen hand directed his actions.
60452 The manager having brought the drama to a close and stripped the actor
60455 "See what you believed in! This is he! Do you now see that it was not he
60456 but I who moved you?"
60458 But dazed by the force of the movement, it was long before people
60461 Still greater coherence and inevitability is seen in the life of
60462 Alexander I, the man who stood at the head of the countermovement from
60465 What was needed for him who, overshadowing others, stood at the head of
60466 that movement from east to west?
60468 What was needed was a sense of justice and a sympathy with European
60469 affairs, but a remote sympathy not dulled by petty interests; a moral
60470 superiority over those sovereigns of the day who co-operated with him; a
60471 mild and attractive personality; and a personal grievance against
60472 Napoleon. And all this was found in Alexander I; all this had been
60473 prepared by innumerable so-called chances in his life: his education,
60474 his early liberalism, the advisers who surrounded him, and by
60475 Austerlitz, and Tilsit, and Erfurt.
60477 During the national war he was inactive because he was not needed. But
60478 as soon as the necessity for a general European war presented itself he
60479 appeared in his place at the given moment and, uniting the nations of
60480 Europe, led them to the goal.
60482 The goal is reached. After the final war of 1815 Alexander possesses all
60483 possible power. How does he use it?
60485 Alexander I--the pacifier of Europe, the man who from his early years
60486 had striven only for his people's welfare, the originator of the liberal
60487 innovations in his fatherland--now that he seemed to possess the utmost
60488 power and therefore to have the possibility of bringing about the
60489 welfare of his peoples--at the time when Napoleon in exile was drawing
60490 up childish and mendacious plans of how he would have made mankind happy
60491 had he retained power--Alexander I, having fulfilled his mission and
60492 feeling the hand of God upon him, suddenly recognizes the insignificance
60493 of that supposed power, turns away from it, and gives it into the hands
60494 of contemptible men whom he despises, saying only:
60496 "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy Name!... I too am a man like the
60497 rest of you. Let me live like a man and think of my soul and of God."
60499 As the sun and each atom of ether is a sphere complete in itself, and
60500 yet at the same time only a part of a whole too immense for man to
60501 comprehend, so each individual has within himself his own aims and yet
60502 has them to serve a general purpose incomprehensible to man.
60504 A bee settling on a flower has stung a child. And the child is afraid of
60505 bees and declares that bees exist to sting people. A poet admires the
60506 bee sucking from the chalice of a flower and says it exists to suck the
60507 fragrance of flowers. A beekeeper, seeing the bee collect pollen from
60508 flowers and carry it to the hive, says that it exists to gather honey.
60509 Another beekeeper who has studied the life of the hive more closely says
60510 that the bee gathers pollen dust to feed the young bees and rear a
60511 queen, and that it exists to perpetuate its race. A botanist notices
60512 that the bee flying with the pollen of a male flower to a pistil
60513 fertilizes the latter, and sees in this the purpose of the bee's
60514 existence. Another, observing the migration of plants, notices that the
60515 bee helps in this work, and may say that in this lies the purpose of the
60516 bee. But the ultimate purpose of the bee is not exhausted by the first,
60517 the second, or any of the processes the human mind can discern. The
60518 higher the human intellect rises in the discovery of these purposes, the
60519 more obvious it becomes, that the ultimate purpose is beyond our
60522 All that is accessible to man is the relation of the life of the bee to
60523 other manifestations of life. And so it is with the purpose of historic
60524 characters and nations.
60531 Natasha's wedding to Bezukhov, which took place in 1813, was the last
60532 happy event in the family of the old Rostovs. Count Ilya Rostov died
60533 that same year and, as always happens, after the father's death the
60534 family group broke up.
60536 The events of the previous year: the burning of Moscow and the flight
60537 from it, the death of Prince Andrew, Natasha's despair, Petya's death,
60538 and the old countess' grief fell blow after blow on the old count's
60539 head. He seemed to be unable to understand the meaning of all these
60540 events, and bowed his old head in a spiritual sense as if expecting and
60541 inviting further blows which would finish him. He seemed now frightened
60542 and distraught and now unnaturally animated and enterprising.
60544 The arrangements for Natasha's marriage occupied him for a while. He
60545 ordered dinners and suppers and obviously tried to appear cheerful, but
60546 his cheerfulness was not infectious as it used to be: on the contrary it
60547 evoked the compassion of those who knew and liked him.
60549 When Pierre and his wife had left, he grew very quiet and began to
60550 complain of depression. A few days later he fell ill and took to his
60551 bed. He realized from the first that he would not get up again, despite
60552 the doctor's encouragement. The countess passed a fortnight in an
60553 armchair by his pillow without undressing. Every time she gave him his
60554 medicine he sobbed and silently kissed her hand. On his last day,
60555 sobbing, he asked her and his absent son to forgive him for having
60556 dissipated their property--that being the chief fault of which he was
60557 conscious. After receiving communion and unction he quietly died; and
60558 next day a throng of acquaintances who came to pay their last respects
60559 to the deceased filled the house rented by the Rostovs. All these
60560 acquaintances, who had so often dined and danced at his house and had so
60561 often laughed at him, now said, with a common feeling of self-reproach
60562 and emotion, as if justifying themselves: "Well, whatever he may have
60563 been he was a most worthy man. You don't meet such men nowadays.... And
60564 which of us has not weaknesses of his own?"
60566 It was just when the count's affairs had become so involved that it was
60567 impossible to say what would happen if he lived another year that he
60570 Nicholas was with the Russian army in Paris when the news of his
60571 father's death reached him. He at once resigned his commission, and
60572 without waiting for it to be accepted took leave of absence and went to
60573 Moscow. The state of the count's affairs became quite obvious a month
60574 after his death, surprising everyone by the immense total of small debts
60575 the existence of which no one had suspected. The debts amounted to
60576 double the value of the property.
60578 Friends and relations advised Nicholas to decline the inheritance. But
60579 he regarded such a refusal as a slur on his father's memory, which he
60580 held sacred, and therefore would not hear of refusing and accepted the
60581 inheritance together with the obligation to pay the debts.
60583 The creditors who had so long been silent, restrained by a vague but
60584 powerful influence exerted on them while he lived by the count's
60585 careless good nature, all proceeded to enforce their claims at once. As
60586 always happens in such cases rivalry sprang up as to which should get
60587 paid first, and those who like Mitenka held promissory notes given them
60588 as presents now became the most exacting of the creditors. Nicholas was
60589 allowed no respite and no peace, and those who had seemed to pity the
60590 old man--the cause of their losses (if they were losses)--now
60591 remorselessly pursued the young heir who had voluntarily undertaken the
60592 debts and was obviously not guilty of contracting them.
60594 Not one of the plans Nicholas tried succeeded; the estate was sold by
60595 auction for half its value, and half the debts still remained unpaid.
60596 Nicholas accepted thirty thousand rubles offered him by his brother-in-
60597 law Bezukhov to pay off debts he regarded as genuinely due for value
60598 received. And to avoid being imprisoned for the remainder, as the
60599 creditors threatened, he re-entered the government service.
60601 He could not rejoin the army where he would have been made colonel at
60602 the next vacancy, for his mother now clung to him as her one hold on
60603 life; and so despite his reluctance to remain in Moscow among people who
60604 had known him before, and despite his abhorrence of the civil service,
60605 he accepted a post in Moscow in that service, doffed the uniform of
60606 which he was so fond, and moved with his mother and Sonya to a small
60607 house on the Sivtsev Vrazhek.
60609 Natasha and Pierre were living in Petersburg at the time and had no
60610 clear idea of Nicholas' circumstances. Having borrowed money from his
60611 brother-in-law, Nicholas tried to hide his wretched condition from him.
60612 His position was the more difficult because with his salary of twelve
60613 hundred rubles he had not only to keep himself, his mother, and Sonya,
60614 but had to shield his mother from knowledge of their poverty. The
60615 countess could not conceive of life without the luxurious conditions she
60616 had been used to from childhood and, unable to realize how hard it was
60617 for her son, kept demanding now a carriage (which they did not keep) to
60618 send for a friend, now some expensive article of food for herself, or
60619 wine for her son, or money to buy a present as a surprise for Natasha or
60620 Sonya, or for Nicholas himself.
60622 Sonya kept house, attended on her aunt, read to her, put up with her
60623 whims and secret ill-will, and helped Nicholas to conceal their poverty
60624 from the old countess. Nicholas felt himself irredeemably indebted to
60625 Sonya for all she was doing for his mother and greatly admired her
60626 patience and devotion, but tried to keep aloof from her.
60628 He seemed in his heart to reproach her for being too perfect, and
60629 because there was nothing to reproach her with. She had all that people
60630 are valued for, but little that could have made him love her. He felt
60631 that the more he valued her the less he loved her. He had taken her at
60632 her word when she wrote giving him his freedom and now behaved as if all
60633 that had passed between them had been long forgotten and could never in
60634 any case be renewed.
60636 Nicholas' position became worse and worse. The idea of putting something
60637 aside out of his salary proved a dream. Not only did he not save
60638 anything, but to comply with his mother's demands he even incurred some
60639 small debts. He could see no way out of this situation. The idea of
60640 marrying some rich woman, which was suggested to him by his female
60641 relations, was repugnant to him. The other way out--his mother's death--
60642 never entered his head. He wished for nothing and hoped for nothing, and
60643 deep in his heart experienced a gloomy and stern satisfaction in an
60644 uncomplaining endurance of his position. He tried to avoid his old
60645 acquaintances with their commiseration and offensive offers of
60646 assistance; he avoided all distraction and recreation, and even at home
60647 did nothing but play cards with his mother, pace silently up and down
60648 the room, and smoke one pipe after another. He seemed carefully to
60649 cherish within himself the gloomy mood which alone enabled him to endure
60657 At the beginning of winter Princess Mary came to Moscow. From reports
60658 current in town she learned how the Rostovs were situated, and how "the
60659 son has sacrificed himself for his mother," as people were saying.
60661 "I never expected anything else of him," said Princess Mary to herself,
60662 feeling a joyous sense of her love for him. Remembering her friendly
60663 relations with all the Rostovs which had made her almost a member of the
60664 family, she thought it her duty to go to see them. But remembering her
60665 relations with Nicholas in Voronezh she was shy about doing so. Making a
60666 great effort she did however go to call on them a few weeks after her
60669 Nicholas was the first to meet her, as the countess' room could only be
60670 reached through his. But instead of being greeted with pleasure as she
60671 had expected, at his first glance at her his face assumed a cold, stiff,
60672 proud expression she had not seen on it before. He inquired about her
60673 health, led the way to his mother, and having sat there for five minutes
60676 When the princess came out of the countess' room Nicholas met her again,
60677 and with marked solemnity and stiffness accompanied her to the anteroom.
60678 To her remarks about his mother's health he made no reply. "What's that
60679 to you? Leave me in peace," his looks seemed to say.
60681 "Why does she come prowling here? What does she want? I can't bear these
60682 ladies and all these civilities!" said he aloud in Sonya's presence,
60683 evidently unable to repress his vexation, after the princess' carriage
60686 "Oh, Nicholas, how can you talk like that?" cried Sonya, hardly able to
60687 conceal her delight. "She is so kind and Mamma is so fond of her!"
60689 Nicholas did not reply and tried to avoid speaking of the princess any
60690 more. But after her visit the old countess spoke of her several times a
60693 She sang her praises, insisted that her son must call on her, expressed
60694 a wish to see her often, but yet always became ill-humored when she
60695 began to talk about her.
60697 Nicholas tried to keep silence when his mother spoke of the princess,
60698 but his silence irritated her.
60700 "She is a very admirable and excellent young woman," said she, "and you
60701 must go and call on her. You would at least be seeing somebody, and I
60702 think it must be dull for you only seeing us."
60704 "But I don't in the least want to, Mamma."
60706 "You used to want to, and now you don't. Really I don't understand you,
60707 my dear. One day you are dull, and the next you refuse to see anyone."
60709 "But I never said I was dull."
60711 "Why, you said yourself you don't want even to see her. She is a very
60712 admirable young woman and you always liked her, but now suddenly you
60713 have got some notion or other in your head. You hide everything from
60716 "Not at all, Mamma."
60718 "If I were asking you to do something disagreeable now--but I only ask
60719 you to return a call. One would think mere politeness required it....
60720 Well, I have asked you, and now I won't interfere any more since you
60721 have secrets from your mother."
60723 "Well, then, I'll go if you wish it."
60725 "It doesn't matter to me. I only wish it for your sake."
60727 Nicholas sighed, bit his mustache, and laid out the cards for a
60728 patience, trying to divert his mother's attention to another topic.
60730 The same conversation was repeated next day and the day after, and the
60733 After her visit to the Rostovs and her unexpectedly chilly reception by
60734 Nicholas, Princess Mary confessed to herself that she had been right in
60735 not wishing to be the first to call.
60737 "I expected nothing else," she told herself, calling her pride to her
60738 aid. "I have nothing to do with him and I only wanted to see the old
60739 lady, who was always kind to me and to whom I am under many
60742 But she could not pacify herself with these reflections; a feeling akin
60743 to remorse troubled her when she thought of her visit. Though she had
60744 firmly resolved not to call on the Rostovs again and to forget the whole
60745 matter, she felt herself all the time in an awkward position. And when
60746 she asked herself what distressed her, she had to admit that it was her
60747 relation to Rostov. His cold, polite manner did not express his feeling
60748 for her (she knew that) but it concealed something, and until she could
60749 discover what that something was, she felt that she could not be at
60752 One day in midwinter when sitting in the schoolroom attending to her
60753 nephew's lessons, she was informed that Rostov had called. With a firm
60754 resolution not to betray herself and not show her agitation, she sent
60755 for Mademoiselle Bourienne and went with her to the drawing room.
60757 Her first glance at Nicholas' face told her that he had only come to
60758 fulfill the demands of politeness, and she firmly resolved to maintain
60759 the tone in which he addressed her.
60761 They spoke of the countess' health, of their mutual friends, of the
60762 latest war news, and when the ten minutes required by propriety had
60763 elapsed after which a visitor may rise, Nicholas got up to say good-by.
60765 With Mademoiselle Bourienne's help the princess had maintained the
60766 conversation very well, but at the very last moment, just when he rose,
60767 she was so tired of talking of what did not interest her, and her mind
60768 was so full of the question why she alone was granted so little
60769 happiness in life, that in a fit of absent-mindedness she sat still, her
60770 luminous eyes gazing fixedly before her, not noticing that he had risen.
60772 Nicholas glanced at her and, wishing to appear not to notice her
60773 abstraction, made some remark to Mademoiselle Bourienne and then again
60774 looked at the princess. She still sat motionless with a look of
60775 suffering on her gentle face. He suddenly felt sorry for her and was
60776 vaguely conscious that he might be the cause of the sadness her face
60777 expressed. He wished to help her and say something pleasant, but could
60778 think of nothing to say.
60780 "Good-bye, Princess!" said he.
60782 She started, flushed, and sighed deeply.
60784 "Oh, I beg your pardon," she said as if waking up. "Are you going
60785 already, Count? Well then, good-by! Oh, but the cushion for the
60788 "Wait a moment, I'll fetch it," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, and she
60791 They both sat silent, with an occasional glance at one another.
60793 "Yes, Princess," said Nicholas at last with a sad smile, "it doesn't
60794 seem long ago since we first met at Bogucharovo, but how much water has
60795 flowed since then! In what distress we all seemed to be then, yet I
60796 would give much to bring back that time... but there's no bringing it
60799 Princess Mary gazed intently into his eyes with her own luminous ones as
60800 he said this. She seemed to be trying to fathom the hidden meaning of
60801 his words which would explain his feeling for her.
60803 "Yes, yes," said she, "but you have no reason to regret the past, Count.
60804 As I understand your present life, I think you will always recall it
60805 with satisfaction, because the self-sacrifice that fills it now..."
60807 "I cannot accept your praise," he interrupted her hurriedly. "On the
60808 contrary I continually reproach myself.... But this is not at all an
60809 interesting or cheerful subject."
60811 His face again resumed its former stiff and cold expression. But the
60812 princess had caught a glimpse of the man she had known and loved, and it
60813 was to him that she now spoke.
60815 "I thought you would allow me to tell you this," she said. "I had come
60816 so near to you... and to all your family that I thought you would not
60817 consider my sympathy misplaced, but I was mistaken," and suddenly her
60818 voice trembled. "I don't know why," she continued, recovering herself,
60819 "but you used to be different, and..."
60821 "There are a thousand reasons why," laying special emphasis on the why.
60822 "Thank you, Princess," he added softly. "Sometimes it is hard."
60824 "So that's why! That's why!" a voice whispered in Princess Mary's soul.
60825 "No, it was not only that gay, kind, and frank look, not only that
60826 handsome exterior, that I loved in him. I divined his noble, resolute,
60827 self-sacrificing spirit too," she said to herself. "Yes, he is poor now
60828 and I am rich.... Yes, that's the only reason.... Yes, were it not for
60829 that..." And remembering his former tenderness, and looking now at his
60830 kind, sorrowful face, she suddenly understood the cause of his coldness.
60832 "But why, Count, why?" she almost cried, unconsciously moving closer to
60833 him. "Why? Tell me. You must tell me!"
60837 "I don't understand your why, Count," she continued, "but it's hard for
60838 me... I confess it. For some reason you wish to deprive me of our former
60839 friendship. And that hurts me." There were tears in her eyes and in her
60840 voice. "I have had so little happiness in life that every loss is hard
60841 for me to bear.... Excuse me, good-by!" and suddenly she began to cry
60842 and was hurrying from the room.
60844 "Princess, for God's sake!" he exclaimed, trying to stop her.
60847 She turned round. For a few seconds they gazed silently into one
60848 another's eyes--and what had seemed impossible and remote suddenly
60849 became possible, inevitable, and very near.
60856 In the winter of 1813 Nicholas married Princess Mary and moved to Bald
60857 Hills with his wife, his mother, and Sonya.
60859 Within four years he had paid off all his remaining debts without
60860 selling any of his wife's property, and having received a small
60861 inheritance on the death of a cousin he paid his debt to Pierre as well.
60863 In another three years, by 1820, he had so managed his affairs that he
60864 was able to buy a small estate adjoining Bald Hills and was negotiating
60865 to buy back Otradnoe--that being his pet dream.
60867 Having started farming from necessity, he soon grew so devoted to it
60868 that it became his favorite and almost his sole occupation. Nicholas was
60869 a plain farmer: he did not like innovations, especially the English ones
60870 then coming into vogue. He laughed at theoretical treatises on estate
60871 management, disliked factories, the raising of expensive products, and
60872 the buying of expensive seed corn, and did not make a hobby of any
60873 particular part of the work on his estate. He always had before his
60874 mind's eye the estate as a whole and not any particular part of it. The
60875 chief thing in his eyes was not the nitrogen in the soil, nor the oxygen
60876 in the air, nor manures, nor special plows, but that most important
60877 agent by which nitrogen, oxygen, manure, and plow were made effective--
60878 the peasant laborer. When Nicholas first began farming and began to
60879 understand its different branches, it was the serf who especially
60880 attracted his attention. The peasant seemed to him not merely a tool,
60881 but also a judge of farming and an end in himself. At first he watched
60882 the serfs, trying to understand their aims and what they considered good
60883 and bad, and only pretended to direct them and give orders while in
60884 reality learning from them their methods, their manner of speech, and
60885 their judgment of what was good and bad. Only when he had understood the
60886 peasants' tastes and aspirations, had learned to talk their language, to
60887 grasp the hidden meaning of their words, and felt akin to them did he
60888 begin boldly to manage his serfs, that is, to perform toward them the
60889 duties demanded of him. And Nicholas' management produced very brilliant
60892 Guided by some gift of insight, on taking up the management of the
60893 estates he at once unerringly appointed as bailiff, village elder, and
60894 delegate, the very men the serfs would themselves have chosen had they
60895 had the right to choose, and these posts never changed hands. Before
60896 analyzing the properties of manure, before entering into the debit and
60897 credit (as he ironically called it), he found out how many cattle the
60898 peasants had and increased the number by all possible means. He kept the
60899 peasant families together in the largest groups possible, not allowing
60900 the family groups to divide into separate households. He was hard alike
60901 on the lazy, the depraved, and the weak, and tried to get them expelled
60904 He was as careful of the sowing and reaping of the peasants' hay and
60905 corn as of his own, and few landowners had their crops sown and
60906 harvested so early and so well, or got so good a return, as did
60909 He disliked having anything to do with the domestic serfs--the "drones"
60910 as he called them--and everyone said he spoiled them by his laxity. When
60911 a decision had to be taken regarding a domestic serf, especially if one
60912 had to be punished, he always felt undecided and consulted everybody in
60913 the house; but when it was possible to have a domestic serf conscripted
60914 instead of a land worker he did so without the least hesitation. He
60915 never felt any hesitation in dealing with the peasants. He knew that his
60916 every decision would be approved by them all with very few exceptions.
60918 He did not allow himself either to be hard on or punish a man, or to
60919 make things easy for or reward anyone, merely because he felt inclined
60920 to do so. He could not have said by what standard he judged what he
60921 should or should not do, but the standard was quite firm and definite in
60924 Often, speaking with vexation of some failure or irregularity, he would
60925 say: "What can one do with our Russian peasants?" and imagined that he
60926 could not bear them.
60928 Yet he loved "our Russian peasants" and their way of life with his whole
60929 soul, and for that very reason had understood and assimilated the one
60930 way and manner of farming which produced good results.
60932 Countess Mary was jealous of this passion of her husband's and regretted
60933 that she could not share it; but she could not understand the joys and
60934 vexations he derived from that world, to her so remote and alien. She
60935 could not understand why he was so particularly animated and happy when,
60936 after getting up at daybreak and spending the whole morning in the
60937 fields or on the threshing floor, he returned from the sowing or mowing
60938 or reaping to have tea with her. She did not understand why he spoke
60939 with such admiration and delight of the farming of the thrifty and well-
60940 to-do peasant Matthew Ermishin, who with his family had carted corn all
60941 night; or of the fact that his (Nicholas') sheaves were already stacked
60942 before anyone else had his harvest in. She did not understand why he
60943 stepped out from the window to the veranda and smiled under his mustache
60944 and winked so joyfully, when warm steady rain began to fall on the dry
60945 and thirsty shoots of the young oats, or why when the wind carried away
60946 a threatening cloud during the hay harvest he would return from the
60947 barn, flushed, sunburned, and perspiring, with a smell of wormwood and
60948 gentian in his hair and, gleefully rubbing his hands, would say: "Well,
60949 one more day and my grain and the peasants' will all be under cover."
60951 Still less did she understand why he, kindhearted and always ready to
60952 anticipate her wishes, should become almost desperate when she brought
60953 him a petition from some peasant men or women who had appealed to her to
60954 be excused some work; why he, that kind Nicholas, should obstinately
60955 refuse her, angrily asking her not to interfere in what was not her
60956 business. She felt he had a world apart, which he loved passionately and
60957 which had laws she had not fathomed.
60959 Sometimes when, trying to understand him, she spoke of the good work he
60960 was doing for his serfs, he would be vexed and reply: "Not in the least;
60961 it never entered my head and I wouldn't do that for their good! That's
60962 all poetry and old wives' talk--all that doing good to one's neighbor!
60963 What I want is that our children should not have to go begging. I must
60964 put our affairs in order while I am alive, that's all. And to do that,
60965 order and strictness are essential.... That's all about it!" said he,
60966 clenching his vigorous fist. "And fairness, of course," he added, "for
60967 if the peasant is naked and hungry and has only one miserable horse, he
60968 can do no good either for himself or for me."
60970 And all Nicholas did was fruitful--probably just because he refused to
60971 allow himself to think that he was doing good to others for virtue's
60972 sake. His means increased rapidly; serfs from neighboring estates came
60973 to beg him to buy them, and long after his death the memory of his
60974 administration was devoutly preserved among the serfs. "He was a
60975 master... the peasants' affairs first and then his own. Of course he was
60976 not to be trifled with either--in a word, he was a real master!"
60983 One matter connected with his management sometimes worried Nicholas, and
60984 that was his quick temper together with his old hussar habit of making
60985 free use of his fists. At first he saw nothing reprehensible in this,
60986 but in the second year of his marriage his view of that form of
60987 punishment suddenly changed.
60989 Once in summer he had sent for the village elder from Bogucharovo, a man
60990 who had succeeded to the post when Dron died and who was accused of
60991 dishonesty and various irregularities. Nicholas went out into the porch
60992 to question him, and immediately after the elder had given a few replies
60993 the sound of cries and blows were heard. On returning to lunch Nicholas
60994 went up to his wife, who sat with her head bent low over her embroidery
60995 frame, and as usual began to tell her what he had been doing that
60996 morning. Among other things he spoke of the Bogucharovo elder. Countess
60997 Mary turned red and then pale, but continued to sit with head bowed and
60998 lips compressed and gave her husband no reply.
61000 "Such an insolent scoundrel!" he cried, growing hot again at the mere
61001 recollection of him. "If he had told me he was drunk and did not see...
61002 But what is the matter with you, Mary?" he suddenly asked.
61004 Countess Mary raised her head and tried to speak, but hastily looked
61005 down again and her lips puckered.
61007 "Why, whatever is the matter, my dearest?"
61009 The looks of the plain Countess Mary always improved when she was in
61010 tears. She never cried from pain or vexation, but always from sorrow or
61011 pity, and when she wept her radiant eyes acquired an irresistible charm.
61013 The moment Nicholas took her hand she could no longer restrain herself
61016 "Nicholas, I saw it... he was to blame, but why do you... Nicholas!" and
61017 she covered her face with her hands.
61019 Nicholas said nothing. He flushed crimson, left her side, and paced up
61020 and down the room. He understood what she was weeping about, but could
61021 not in his heart at once agree with her that what he had regarded from
61022 childhood as quite an everyday event was wrong. "Is it just
61023 sentimentality, old wives' tales, or is she right?" he asked himself.
61024 Before he had solved that point he glanced again at her face filled with
61025 love and pain, and he suddenly realized that she was right and that he
61026 had long been sinning against himself.
61028 "Mary," he said softly, going up to her, "it will never happen again; I
61029 give you my word. Never," he repeated in a trembling voice like a boy
61030 asking for forgiveness.
61032 The tears flowed faster still from the countess' eyes. She took his hand
61035 "Nicholas, when did you break your cameo?" she asked to change the
61036 subject, looking at his finger on which he wore a ring with a cameo of
61039 "Today--it was the same affair. Oh, Mary, don't remind me of it!" and
61040 again he flushed. "I give you my word of honor it shan't occur again,
61041 and let this always be a reminder to me," and he pointed to the broken
61044 After that, when in discussions with his village elders or stewards the
61045 blood rushed to his face and his fists began to clench, Nicholas would
61046 turn the broken ring on his finger and would drop his eyes before the
61047 man who was making him angry. But he did forget himself once or twice
61048 within a twelvemonth, and then he would go and confess to his wife, and
61049 would again promise that this should really be the very last time.
61051 "Mary, you must despise me!" he would say. "I deserve it."
61053 "You should go, go away at once, if you don't feel strong enough to
61054 control yourself," she would reply sadly, trying to comfort her husband.
61056 Among the gentry of the province Nicholas was respected but not liked.
61057 He did not concern himself with the interests of his own class, and
61058 consequently some thought him proud and others thought him stupid. The
61059 whole summer, from spring sowing to harvest, he was busy with the work
61060 on his farm. In autumn he gave himself up to hunting with the same
61061 business-like seriousness--leaving home for a month, or even two, with
61062 his hunt. In winter he visited his other villages or spent his time
61063 reading. The books he read were chiefly historical, and on these he
61064 spent a certain sum every year. He was collecting, as he said, a serious
61065 library, and he made it a rule to read through all the books he bought.
61066 He would sit in his study with a grave air, reading--a task he first
61067 imposed upon himself as a duty, but which afterwards became a habit
61068 affording him a special kind of pleasure and a consciousness of being
61069 occupied with serious matters. In winter, except for business
61070 excursions, he spent most of his time at home making himself one with
61071 his family and entering into all the details of his children's relations
61072 with their mother. The harmony between him and his wife grew closer and
61073 closer and he daily discovered fresh spiritual treasures in her.
61075 From the time of his marriage Sonya had lived in his house. Before that,
61076 Nicholas had told his wife all that had passed between himself and
61077 Sonya, blaming himself and commending her. He had asked Princess Mary to
61078 be gentle and kind to his cousin. She thoroughly realized the wrong he
61079 had done Sonya, felt herself to blame toward her, and imagined that her
61080 wealth had influenced Nicholas' choice. She could not find fault with
61081 Sonya in any way and tried to be fond of her, but often felt ill-will
61082 toward her which she could not overcome.
61084 Once she had a talk with her friend Natasha about Sonya and about her
61085 own injustice toward her.
61087 "You know," said Natasha, "you have read the Gospels a great deal--there
61088 is a passage in them that just fits Sonya."
61090 "What?" asked Countess Mary, surprised.
61092 "'To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be
61093 taken away.' You remember? She is one that hath not; why, I don't know.
61094 Perhaps she lacks egotism, I don't know, but from her is taken away, and
61095 everything has been taken away. Sometimes I am dreadfully sorry for her.
61096 Formerly I very much wanted Nicholas to marry her, but I always had a
61097 sort of presentiment that it would not come off. She is a sterile
61098 flower, you know--like some strawberry blossoms. Sometimes I am sorry
61099 for her, and sometimes I think she doesn't feel it as you or I would."
61101 Though Countess Mary told Natasha that those words in the Gospel must be
61102 understood differently, yet looking at Sonya she agreed with Natasha's
61103 explanation. It really seemed that Sonya did not feel her position
61104 trying, and had grown quite reconciled to her lot as a sterile flower.
61105 She seemed to be fond not so much of individuals as of the family as a
61106 whole. Like a cat, she had attached herself not to the people but to the
61107 home. She waited on the old countess, petted and spoiled the children,
61108 was always ready to render the small services for which she had a gift,
61109 and all this was unconsciously accepted from her with insufficient
61112 The country seat at Bald Hills had been rebuilt, though not on the same
61113 scale as under the old prince.
61115 The buildings, begun under straitened circumstances, were more than
61116 simple. The immense house on the old stone foundations was of wood,
61117 plastered only inside. It had bare deal floors and was furnished with
61118 very simple hard sofas, armchairs, tables, and chairs made by their own
61119 serf carpenters out of their own birchwood. The house was spacious and
61120 had rooms for the house serfs and apartments for visitors. Whole
61121 families of the Rostovs' and Bolkonskis' relations sometimes came to
61122 Bald Hills with sixteen horses and dozens of servants and stayed for
61123 months. Besides that, four times a year, on the name days and birthdays
61124 of the hosts, as many as a hundred visitors would gather there for a day
61125 or two. The rest of the year life pursued its unbroken routine with its
61126 ordinary occupations, and its breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and suppers,
61127 provided out of the produce of the estate.
61134 It was the eve of St. Nicholas, the fifth of December, 1820. Natasha had
61135 been staying at her brother's with her husband and children since early
61136 autumn. Pierre had gone to Petersburg on business of his own for three
61137 weeks as he said, but had remained there nearly seven weeks and was
61138 expected back every minute.
61140 Besides the Bezukhov family, Nicholas' old friend the retired General
61141 Vasili Dmitrich Denisov was staying with the Rostovs this fifth of
61144 On the sixth, which was his name day when the house would be full of
61145 visitors, Nicholas knew he would have to exchange his Tartar tunic for a
61146 tail coat, and put on narrow boots with pointed toes, and drive to the
61147 new church he had built, and then receive visitors who would come to
61148 congratulate him, offer them refreshments, and talk about the elections
61149 of the nobility; but he considered himself entitled to spend the eve of
61150 that day in his usual way. He examined the bailiff's accounts of the
61151 village in Ryazan which belonged to his wife's nephew, wrote two
61152 business letters, and walked over to the granaries, cattle yards and
61153 stables before dinner. Having taken precautions against the general
61154 drunkenness to be expected on the morrow because it was a great saint's
61155 day, he returned to dinner, and without having time for a private talk
61156 with his wife sat down at the long table laid for twenty persons, at
61157 which the whole household had assembled. At that table were his mother,
61158 his mother's old lady companion Belova, his wife, their three children
61159 with their governess and tutor, his wife's nephew with his tutor, Sonya,
61160 Denisov, Natasha, her three children, their governess, and old Michael
61161 Ivanovich, the late prince's architect, who was living on in retirement
61164 Countess Mary sat at the other end of the table. When her husband took
61165 his place she concluded, from the rapid manner in which after taking up
61166 his table napkin he pushed back the tumbler and wineglass standing
61167 before him, that he was out of humor, as was sometimes the case when he
61168 came in to dinner straight from the farm--especially before the soup.
61169 Countess Mary well knew that mood of his, and when she herself was in a
61170 good frame of mind quietly waited till he had had his soup and then
61171 began to talk to him and make him admit that there was no cause for his
61172 ill-humor. But today she quite forgot that and was hurt that he should
61173 be angry with her without any reason, and she felt unhappy. She asked
61174 him where he had been. He replied. She again inquired whether everything
61175 was going well on the farm. Her unnatural tone made him wince
61176 unpleasantly and he replied hastily.
61178 "Then I'm not mistaken," thought Countess Mary. "Why is he cross with
61179 me?" She concluded from his tone that he was vexed with her and wished
61180 to end the conversation. She knew her remarks sounded unnatural, but
61181 could not refrain from asking some more questions.
61183 Thanks to Denisov the conversation at table soon became general and
61184 lively, and she did not talk to her husband. When they left the table
61185 and went as usual to thank the old countess, Countess Mary held out her
61186 hand and kissed her husband, and asked him why he was angry with her.
61188 "You always have such strange fancies! I didn't even think of being
61189 angry," he replied.
61191 But the word always seemed to her to imply: "Yes, I am angry but I won't
61194 Nicholas and his wife lived together so happily that even Sonya and the
61195 old countess, who felt jealous and would have liked them to disagree,
61196 could find nothing to reproach them with; but even they had their
61197 moments of antagonism. Occasionally, and it was always just after they
61198 had been happiest together, they suddenly had a feeling of estrangement
61199 and hostility, which occurred most frequently during Countess Mary's
61200 pregnancies, and this was such a time.
61202 "Well, messieurs et mesdames," said Nicholas loudly and with apparent
61203 cheerfulness (it seemed to Countess Mary that he did it on purpose to
61204 vex her), "I have been on my feet since six this morning. Tomorrow I
61205 shall have to suffer, so today I'll go and rest."
61207 And without a word to his wife he went to the little sitting room and
61208 lay down on the sofa.
61210 "That's always the way," thought Countess Mary. "He talks to everyone
61211 except me. I see... I see that I am repulsive to him, especially when I
61212 am in this condition." She looked down at her expanded figure and in the
61213 glass at her pale, sallow, emaciated face in which her eyes now looked
61216 And everything annoyed her--Denisov's shouting and laughter, Natasha's
61217 talk, and especially a quick glance Sonya gave her.
61219 Sonya was always the first excuse Countess Mary found for feeling
61222 Having sat awhile with her visitors without understanding anything of
61223 what they were saying, she softly left the room and went to the nursery.
61225 The children were playing at "going to Moscow" in a carriage made of
61226 chairs and invited her to go with them. She sat down and played with
61227 them a little, but the thought of her husband and his unreasonable
61228 crossness worried her. She got up and, walking on tiptoe with
61229 difficulty, went to the small sitting room.
61231 "Perhaps he is not asleep; I'll have an explanation with him," she said
61232 to herself. Little Andrew, her eldest boy, imitating his mother,
61233 followed her on tiptoe. She did not notice him.
61235 "Mary, dear, I think he is asleep--he was so tired," said Sonya, meeting
61236 her in the large sitting room (it seemed to Countess Mary that she
61237 crossed her path everywhere). "Andrew may wake him."
61239 Countess Mary looked round, saw little Andrew following her, felt that
61240 Sonya was right, and for that very reason flushed and with evident
61241 difficulty refrained from saying something harsh. She made no reply, but
61242 to avoid obeying Sonya beckoned to Andrew to follow her quietly and went
61243 to the door. Sonya went away by another door. From the room in which
61244 Nicholas was sleeping came the sound of his even breathing, every
61245 slightest tone of which was familiar to his wife. As she listened to it
61246 she saw before her his smooth handsome forehead, his mustache, and his
61247 whole face, as she had so often seen it in the stillness of the night
61248 when he slept. Nicholas suddenly moved and cleared his throat. And at
61249 that moment little Andrew shouted from outside the door: "Papa! Mamma's
61250 standing here!" Countess Mary turned pale with fright and made signs to
61251 the boy. He grew silent, and quiet ensued for a moment, terrible to
61252 Countess Mary. She knew how Nicholas disliked being waked. Then through
61253 the door she heard Nicholas clearing his throat again and stirring, and
61254 his voice said crossly:
61256 "I can't get a moment's peace.... Mary, is that you? Why did you bring
61259 "I only came in to look and did not notice... forgive me..."
61261 Nicholas coughed and said no more. Countess Mary moved away from the
61262 door and took the boy back to the nursery. Five minutes later little
61263 black-eyed three-year-old Natasha, her father's pet, having learned from
61264 her brother that Papa was asleep and Mamma was in the sitting room, ran
61265 to her father unobserved by her mother. The dark-eyed little girl boldly
61266 opened the creaking door, went up to the sofa with energetic steps of
61267 her sturdy little legs, and having examined the position of her father,
61268 who was asleep with his back to her, rose on tiptoe and kissed the hand
61269 which lay under his head. Nicholas turned with a tender smile on his
61272 "Natasha, Natasha!" came Countess Mary's frightened whisper from the
61273 door. "Papa wants to sleep."
61275 "No, Mamma, he doesn't want to sleep," said little Natasha with
61276 conviction. "He's laughing."
61278 Nicholas lowered his legs, rose, and took his daughter in his arms.
61280 "Come in, Mary," he said to his wife.
61282 She went in and sat down by her husband.
61284 "I did not notice him following me," she said timidly. "I just looked
61287 Holding his little girl with one arm, Nicholas glanced at his wife and,
61288 seeing her guilty expression, put his other arm around her and kissed
61291 "May I kiss Mamma?" he asked Natasha.
61293 Natasha smiled bashfully.
61295 "Again!" she commanded, pointing with a peremptory gesture to the spot
61296 where Nicholas had placed the kiss.
61298 "I don't know why you think I am cross," said Nicholas, replying to the
61299 question he knew was in his wife's mind.
61301 "You have no idea how unhappy, how lonely, I feel when you are like
61302 that. It always seems to me..."
61304 "Mary, don't talk nonsense. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he
61307 "It seems to be that you can't love me, that I am so plain... always...
61308 and now... in this cond..."
61310 "Oh, how absurd you are! It is not beauty that endears, it's love that
61311 makes us see beauty. It is only Malvinas and women of that kind who are
61312 loved for their beauty. But do I love my wife? I don't love her, but...
61313 I don't know how to put it. Without you, or when something comes between
61314 us like this, I seem lost and can't do anything. Now do I love my
61315 finger? I don't love it, but just try to cut it off!"
61317 "I'm not like that myself, but I understand. So you're not angry with
61320 "Awfully angry!" he said, smiling and getting up. And smoothing his hair
61321 he began to pace the room.
61323 "Do you know, Mary, what I've been thinking?" he began, immediately
61324 thinking aloud in his wife's presence now that they had made it up.
61326 He did not ask if she was ready to listen to him. He did not care. A
61327 thought had occurred to him and so it belonged to her also. And he told
61328 her of his intention to persuade Pierre to stay with them till spring.
61330 Countess Mary listened till he had finished, made some remark, and in
61331 her turn began thinking aloud. Her thoughts were about the children.
61333 "You can see the woman in her already," she said in French, pointing to
61334 little Natasha. "You reproach us women with being illogical. Here is our
61335 logic. I say: 'Papa wants to sleep!' but she says, 'No, he's laughing.'
61336 And she was right," said Countess Mary with a happy smile.
61338 "Yes, yes." And Nicholas, taking his little daughter in his strong hand,
61339 lifted her high, placed her on his shoulder, held her by the legs, and
61340 paced the room with her. There was an expression of carefree happiness
61341 on the faces of both father and daughter.
61343 "But you know you may be unfair. You are too fond of this one," his wife
61344 whispered in French.
61346 "Yes, but what am I to do?... I try not to show..."
61348 At that moment they heard the sound of the door pulley and footsteps in
61349 the hall and anteroom, as if someone had arrived.
61351 "Somebody has come."
61353 "I am sure it is Pierre. I will go and see," said Countess Mary and left
61356 In her absence Nicholas allowed himself to give his little daughter a
61357 gallop round the room. Out of breath, he took the laughing child quickly
61358 from his shoulder and pressed her to his heart. His capers reminded him
61359 of dancing, and looking at the child's round happy little face he
61360 thought of what she would be like when he was an old man, taking her
61361 into society and dancing the mazurka with her as his old father had
61362 danced Daniel Cooper with his daughter.
61364 "It is he, it is he, Nicholas!" said Countess Mary, re-entering the room
61365 a few minutes later. "Now our Natasha has come to life. You should have
61366 seen her ecstasy, and how he caught it for having stayed away so long.
61367 Well, come along now, quick, quick! It's time you two were parted," she
61368 added, looking smilingly at the little girl who clung to her father.
61370 Nicholas went out holding the child by the hand.
61372 Countess Mary remained in the sitting room.
61374 "I should never, never have believed that one could be so happy," she
61375 whispered to herself. A smile lit up her face but at the same time she
61376 sighed, and her deep eyes expressed a quiet sadness as though she felt,
61377 through her happiness, that there is another sort of happiness
61378 unattainable in this life and of which she involuntarily thought at that
61386 Natasha had married in the early spring of 1813, and in 1820 already had
61387 three daughters besides a son for whom she had longed and whom she was
61388 now nursing. She had grown stouter and broader, so that it was difficult
61389 to recognize in this robust, motherly woman the slim, lively Natasha of
61390 former days. Her features were more defined and had a calm, soft, and
61391 serene expression. In her face there was none of the ever-glowing
61392 animation that had formerly burned there and constituted its charm. Now
61393 her face and body were often all that one saw, and her soul was not
61394 visible at all. All that struck the eye was a strong, handsome, and
61395 fertile woman. The old fire very rarely kindled in her face now. That
61396 happened only when, as was the case that day, her husband returned home,
61397 or a sick child was convalescent, or when she and Countess Mary spoke of
61398 Prince Andrew (she never mentioned him to her husband, who she imagined
61399 was jealous of Prince Andrew's memory), or on the rare occasions when
61400 something happened to induce her to sing, a practice she had quite
61401 abandoned since her marriage. At the rare moments when the old fire did
61402 kindle in her handsome, fully developed body she was even more
61403 attractive than in former days.
61405 Since their marriage Natasha and her husband had lived in Moscow, in
61406 Petersburg, on their estate near Moscow, or with her mother, that is to
61407 say, in Nicholas' house. The young Countess Bezukhova was not often seen
61408 in society, and those who met her there were not pleased with her and
61409 found her neither attractive nor amiable. Not that Natasha liked
61410 solitude--she did not know whether she liked it or not, she even thought
61411 that she did not--but with her pregnancies, her confinements, the
61412 nursing of her children, and sharing every moment of her husband's life,
61413 she had demands on her time which could be satisfied only by renouncing
61414 society. All who had known Natasha before her marriage wondered at the
61415 change in her as at something extraordinary. Only the old countess with
61416 her maternal instinct had realized that all Natasha's outbursts had been
61417 due to her need of children and a husband--as she herself had once
61418 exclaimed at Otradnoe not so much in fun as in earnest--and her mother
61419 was now surprised at the surprise expressed by those who had never
61420 understood Natasha, and she kept saying that she had always known that
61421 Natasha would make an exemplary wife and mother.
61423 "Only she lets her love of her husband and children overflow all
61424 bounds," said the countess, "so that it even becomes absurd."
61426 Natasha did not follow the golden rule advocated by clever folk,
61427 especially by the French, which says that a girl should not let herself
61428 go when she marries, should not neglect her accomplishments, should be
61429 even more careful of her appearance than when she was unmarried, and
61430 should fascinate her husband as much as she did before he became her
61431 husband. Natasha on the contrary had at once abandoned all her witchery,
61432 of which her singing had been an unusually powerful part. She gave it up
61433 just because it was so powerfully seductive. She took no pains with her
61434 manners or with delicacy of speech, or with her toilet, or to show
61435 herself to her husband in her most becoming attitudes, or to avoid
61436 inconveniencing him by being too exacting. She acted in contradiction to
61437 all those rules. She felt that the allurements instinct had formerly
61438 taught her to use would now be merely ridiculous in the eyes of her
61439 husband, to whom she had from the first moment given herself up
61440 entirely--that is, with her whole soul, leaving no corner of it hidden
61441 from him. She felt that her unity with her husband was not maintained by
61442 the poetic feelings that had attracted him to her, but by something
61443 else--indefinite but firm as the bond between her own body and soul.
61445 To fluff out her curls, put on fashionable dresses, and sing romantic
61446 songs to fascinate her husband would have seemed as strange as to adorn
61447 herself to attract herself. To adorn herself for others might perhaps
61448 have been agreeable--she did not know--but she had no time at all for
61449 it. The chief reason for devoting no time either to singing, to dress,
61450 or to choosing her words was that she really had no time to spare for
61453 We know that man has the faculty of becoming completely absorbed in a
61454 subject however trivial it may be, and that there is no subject so
61455 trivial that it will not grow to infinite proportions if one's entire
61456 attention is devoted to it.
61458 The subject which wholly engrossed Natasha's attention was her family:
61459 that is, her husband whom she had to keep so that he should belong
61460 entirely to her and to the home, and the children whom she had to bear,
61461 bring into the world, nurse, and bring up.
61463 And the deeper she penetrated, not with her mind only but with her whole
61464 soul, her whole being, into the subject that absorbed her, the larger
61465 did that subject grow and the weaker and more inadequate did her powers
61466 appear, so that she concentrated them wholly on that one thing and yet
61467 was unable to accomplish all that she considered necessary.
61469 There were then as now conversations and discussions about women's
61470 rights, the relations of husband and wife and their freedom and rights,
61471 though these themes were not yet termed questions as they are now; but
61472 these topics were not merely uninteresting to Natasha, she positively
61473 did not understand them.
61475 These questions, then as now, existed only for those who see nothing in
61476 marriage but the pleasure married people get from one another, that is,
61477 only the beginnings of marriage and not its whole significance, which
61478 lies in the family.
61480 Discussions and questions of that kind, which are like the question of
61481 how to get the greatest gratification from one's dinner, did not then
61482 and do not now exist for those for whom the purpose of a dinner is the
61483 nourishment it affords; and the purpose of marriage is the family.
61485 If the purpose of dinner is to nourish the body, a man who eats two
61486 dinners at once may perhaps get more enjoyment but will not attain his
61487 purpose, for his stomach will not digest the two dinners.
61489 If the purpose of marriage is the family, the person who wishes to have
61490 many wives or husbands may perhaps obtain much pleasure, but in that
61491 case will not have a family.
61493 If the purpose of food is nourishment and the purpose of marriage is the
61494 family, the whole question resolves itself into not eating more than one
61495 can digest, and not having more wives or husbands than are needed for
61496 the family--that is, one wife or one husband. Natasha needed a husband.
61497 A husband was given her and he gave her a family. And she not only saw
61498 no need of any other or better husband, but as all the powers of her
61499 soul were intent on serving that husband and family, she could not
61500 imagine and saw no interest in imagining how it would be if things were
61503 Natasha did not care for society in general, but prized the more the
61504 society of her relatives--Countess Mary, and her brother, her mother,
61505 and Sonya. She valued the company of those to whom she could come
61506 striding disheveled from the nursery in her dressing gown, and with
61507 joyful face show a yellow instead of a green stain on baby's napkin, and
61508 from whom she could hear reassuring words to the effect that baby was
61511 To such an extent had Natasha let herself go that the way she dressed
61512 and did her hair, her ill-chosen words, and her jealousy--she was
61513 jealous of Sonya, of the governess, and of every woman, pretty or plain-
61514 -were habitual subjects of jest to those about her. The general opinion
61515 was that Pierre was under his wife's thumb, which was really true. From
61516 the very first days of their married life Natasha had announced her
61517 demands. Pierre was greatly surprised by his wife's view, to him a
61518 perfectly novel one, that every moment of his life belonged to her and
61519 to the family. His wife's demands astonished him, but they also
61520 flattered him, and he submitted to them.
61522 Pierre's subjection consisted in the fact that he not only dared not
61523 flirt with, but dared not even speak smilingly to, any other woman; did
61524 not dare dine at the club as a pastime, did not dare spend money on a
61525 whim, and did not dare absent himself for any length of time, except on
61526 business--in which his wife included his intellectual pursuits, which
61527 she did not in the least understand but to which she attributed great
61528 importance. To make up for this, at home Pierre had the right to
61529 regulate his life and that of the whole family exactly as he chose. At
61530 home Natasha placed herself in the position of a slave to her husband,
61531 and the whole household went on tiptoe when he was occupied--that is,
61532 was reading or writing in his study. Pierre had but to show a partiality
61533 for anything to get just what he liked done always. He had only to
61534 express a wish and Natasha would jump up and run to fulfill it.
61536 The entire household was governed according to Pierre's supposed orders,
61537 that is, by his wishes which Natasha tried to guess. Their way of life
61538 and place of residence, their acquaintances and ties, Natasha's
61539 occupations, the children's upbringing, were all selected not merely
61540 with regard to Pierre's expressed wishes, but to what Natasha from the
61541 thoughts he expressed in conversation supposed his wishes to be. And she
61542 deduced the essentials of his wishes quite correctly, and having once
61543 arrived at them clung to them tenaciously. When Pierre himself wanted to
61544 change his mind she would fight him with his own weapons.
61546 Thus in a time of trouble ever memorable to him after the birth of their
61547 first child who was delicate, when they had to change the wet nurse
61548 three times and Natasha fell ill from despair, Pierre one day told her
61549 of Rousseau's view, with which he quite agreed, that to have a wet nurse
61550 is unnatural and harmful. When her next baby was born, despite the
61551 opposition of her mother, the doctors, and even of her husband himself--
61552 who were all vigorously opposed to her nursing her baby herself, a thing
61553 then unheard of and considered injurious--she insisted on having her own
61554 way, and after that nursed all her babies herself.
61556 It very often happened that in a moment of irritation husband and wife
61557 would have a dispute, but long afterwards Pierre to his surprise and
61558 delight would find in his wife's ideas and actions the very thought
61559 against which she had argued, but divested of everything superfluous
61560 that in the excitement of the dispute he had added when expressing his
61563 After seven years of marriage Pierre had the joyous and firm
61564 consciousness that he was not a bad man, and he felt this because he saw
61565 himself reflected in his wife. He felt the good and bad within himself
61566 inextricably mingled and overlapping. But only what was really good in
61567 him was reflected in his wife, all that was not quite good was rejected.
61568 And this was not the result of logical reasoning but was a direct and
61569 mysterious reflection.
61576 Two months previously when Pierre was already staying with the Rostovs
61577 he had received a letter from Prince Theodore, asking him to come to
61578 Petersburg to confer on some important questions that were being
61579 discussed there by a society of which Pierre was one of the principal
61582 On reading that letter (she always read her husband's letters) Natasha
61583 herself suggested that he should go to Petersburg, though she would feel
61584 his absence very acutely. She attributed immense importance to all her
61585 husband's intellectual and abstract interests though she did not
61586 understand them, and she always dreaded being a hindrance to him in such
61587 matters. To Pierre's timid look of inquiry after reading the letter she
61588 replied by asking him to go, but to fix a definite date for his return.
61589 He was given four weeks' leave of absence.
61591 Ever since that leave of absence had expired, more than a fortnight
61592 before, Natasha had been in a constant state of alarm, depression, and
61595 Denisov, now a general on the retired list and much dissatisfied with
61596 the present state of affairs, had arrived during that fortnight. He
61597 looked at Natasha with sorrow and surprise as at a bad likeness of a
61598 person once dear. A dull, dejected look, random replies, and talk about
61599 the nursery was all he saw and heard from his former enchantress.
61601 Natasha was sad and irritable all that time, especially when her mother,
61602 her brother, Sonya, or Countess Mary in their efforts to console her
61603 tried to excuse Pierre and suggested reasons for his delay in returning.
61605 "It's all nonsense, all rubbish--those discussions which lead to nothing
61606 and all those idiotic societies!" Natasha declared of the very affairs
61607 in the immense importance of which she firmly believed.
61609 And she would go to the nursery to nurse Petya, her only boy. No one
61610 else could tell her anything so comforting or so reasonable as this
61611 little three-month-old creature when he lay at her breast and she was
61612 conscious of the movement of his lips and the snuffling of his little
61613 nose. That creature said: "You are angry, you are jealous, you would
61614 like to pay him out, you are afraid--but here am I! And I am he..." and
61615 that was unanswerable. It was more than true.
61617 During that fortnight of anxiety Natasha resorted to the baby for
61618 comfort so often, and fussed over him so much, that she overfed him and
61619 he fell ill. She was terrified by his illness, and yet that was just
61620 what she needed. While attending to him she bore the anxiety about her
61621 husband more easily.
61623 She was nursing her boy when the sound of Pierre's sleigh was heard at
61624 the front door, and the old nurse--knowing how to please her mistress--
61625 entered the room inaudibly but hurriedly and with a beaming face.
61627 "Has he come?" Natasha asked quickly in a whisper, afraid to move lest
61628 she should rouse the dozing baby.
61630 "He's come, ma'am," whispered the nurse.
61632 The blood rushed to Natasha's face and her feet involuntarily moved, but
61633 she could not jump up and run out. The baby again opened his eyes and
61634 looked at her. "You're here?" he seemed to be saying, and again lazily
61637 Cautiously withdrawing her breast, Natasha rocked him a little, handed
61638 him to the nurse, and went with rapid steps toward the door. But at the
61639 door she stopped as if her conscience reproached her for having in her
61640 joy left the child too soon, and she glanced round. The nurse with
61641 raised elbows was lifting the infant over the rail of his cot.
61643 "Go, ma'am! Don't worry, go!" she whispered, smiling, with the kind of
61644 familiarity that grows up between a nurse and her mistress.
61646 Natasha ran with light footsteps to the anteroom.
61648 Denisov, who had come out of the study into the dancing room with his
61649 pipe, now for the first time recognized the old Natasha. A flood of
61650 brilliant, joyful light poured from her transfigured face.
61652 "He's come!" she exclaimed as she ran past, and Denisov felt that he too
61653 was delighted that Pierre, whom he did not much care for, had returned.
61655 On reaching the vestibule Natasha saw a tall figure in a fur coat
61656 unwinding his scarf. "It's he! It's really he! He has come!" she said to
61657 herself, and rushing at him embraced him, pressed his head to her
61658 breast, and then pushed him back and gazed at his ruddy, happy face,
61659 covered with hoarfrost. "Yes, it is he, happy and contented..."
61661 Then all at once she remembered the tortures of suspense she had
61662 experienced for the last fortnight, and the joy that had lit up her face
61663 vanished; she frowned and overwhelmed Pierre with a torrent of
61664 reproaches and angry words.
61666 "Yes, it's all very well for you. You are pleased, you've had a good
61667 time.... But what about me? You might at least have shown consideration
61668 for the children. I am nursing and my milk was spoiled.... Petya was at
61669 death's door. But you were enjoying yourself. Yes, enjoying..."
61671 Pierre knew he was not to blame, for he could not have come sooner; he
61672 knew this outburst was unseemly and would blow over in a minute or two;
61673 above all he knew that he himself was bright and happy. He wanted to
61674 smile but dared not even think of doing so. He made a piteous,
61675 frightened face and bent down.
61677 "I could not, on my honor. But how is Petya?"
61679 "All right now. Come along! I wonder you're not ashamed! If only you
61680 could see what I was like without you, how I suffered!"
61684 "Come, come!" she said, not letting go of his arm. And they went to
61687 When Nicholas and his wife came to look for Pierre he was in the nursery
61688 holding his baby son, who was again awake, on his huge right palm and
61689 dandling him. A blissful bright smile was fixed on the baby's broad face
61690 with its toothless open mouth. The storm was long since over and there
61691 was bright, joyous sunshine on Natasha's face as she gazed tenderly at
61692 her husband and child.
61694 "And have you talked everything well over with Prince Theodore?" she
61699 "You see, he holds it up." (She meant the baby's head.) "But how he did
61700 frighten me... You've seen the princess? Is it true she's in love with
61703 "Yes, just fancy..."
61705 At that moment Nicholas and Countess Mary came in. Pierre with the baby
61706 on his hand stooped, kissed them, and replied to their inquiries. But in
61707 spite of much that was interesting and had to be discussed, the baby
61708 with the little cap on its unsteady head evidently absorbed all his
61711 "How sweet!" said Countess Mary, looking at and playing with the baby.
61712 "Now, Nicholas," she added, turning to her husband, "I can't understand
61713 how it is you don't see the charm of these delicious marvels."
61715 "I don't and can't," replied Nicholas, looking coldly at the baby. "A
61716 lump of flesh. Come along, Pierre!"
61718 "And yet he's such an affectionate father," said Countess Mary,
61719 vindicating her husband, "but only after they are a year old or so..."
61721 "Now, Pierre nurses them splendidly," said Natasha. "He says his hand is
61722 just made for a baby's seat. Just look!"
61724 "Only not for this..." Pierre suddenly exclaimed with a laugh, and
61725 shifting the baby he gave him to the nurse.
61732 As in every large household, there were at Bald Hills several perfectly
61733 distinct worlds which merged into one harmonious whole, though each
61734 retained its own peculiarities and made concessions to the others. Every
61735 event, joyful or sad, that took place in that house was important to all
61736 these worlds, but each had its own special reasons to rejoice or grieve
61737 over that occurrence independently of the others.
61739 For instance, Pierre's return was a joyful and important event and they
61740 all felt it to be so.
61742 The servants--the most reliable judges of their masters because they
61743 judge not by their conversation or expressions of feeling but by their
61744 acts and way of life--were glad of Pierre's return because they knew
61745 that when he was there Count Nicholas would cease going every day to
61746 attend to the estate, and would be in better spirits and temper, and
61747 also because they would all receive handsome presents for the holidays.
61749 The children and their governesses were glad of Pierre's return because
61750 no one else drew them into the social life of the household as he did.
61751 He alone could play on the clavichord that ecossaise (his only piece) to
61752 which, as he said, all possible dances could be danced, and they felt
61753 sure he had brought presents for them all.
61755 Young Nicholas, now a slim lad of fifteen, delicate and intelligent,
61756 with curly light-brown hair and beautiful eyes, was delighted because
61757 Uncle Pierre as he called him was the object of his rapturous and
61758 passionate affection. No one had instilled into him this love for Pierre
61759 whom he saw only occasionally. Countess Mary who had brought him up had
61760 done her utmost to make him love her husband as she loved him, and
61761 little Nicholas did love his uncle, but loved him with just a shade of
61762 contempt. Pierre, however, he adored. He did not want to be an hussar or
61763 a Knight of St. George like his uncle Nicholas; he wanted to be learned,
61764 wise, and kind like Pierre. In Pierre's presence his face always shone
61765 with pleasure and he flushed and was breathless when Pierre spoke to
61766 him. He did not miss a single word he uttered, and would afterwards,
61767 with Dessalles or by himself, recall and reconsider the meaning of
61768 everything Pierre had said. Pierre's past life and his unhappiness prior
61769 to 1812 (of which young Nicholas had formed a vague poetic picture from
61770 some words he had overheard), his adventures in Moscow, his captivity,
61771 Platon Karataev (of whom he had heard from Pierre), his love for Natasha
61772 (of whom the lad was also particularly fond), and especially Pierre's
61773 friendship with the father whom Nicholas could not remember--all this
61774 made Pierre in his eyes a hero and a saint.
61776 From broken remarks about Natasha and his father, from the emotion with
61777 which Pierre spoke of that dead father, and from the careful, reverent
61778 tenderness with which Natasha spoke of him, the boy, who was only just
61779 beginning to guess what love is, derived the notion that his father had
61780 loved Natasha and when dying had left her to his friend. But the father
61781 whom the boy did not remember appeared to him a divinity who could not
61782 be pictured, and of whom he never thought without a swelling heart and
61783 tears of sadness and rapture. So the boy also was happy that Pierre had
61786 The guests welcomed Pierre because he always helped to enliven and unite
61787 any company he was in.
61789 The grown-up members of the family, not to mention his wife, were
61790 pleased to have back a friend whose presence made life run more smoothly
61793 The old ladies were pleased with the presents he brought them, and
61794 especially that Natasha would now be herself again.
61796 Pierre felt the different outlooks of these various worlds and made
61797 haste to satisfy all their expectations.
61799 Though the most absent-minded and forgetful of men, Pierre, with the aid
61800 of a list his wife drew up, had now bought everything, not forgetting
61801 his mother--and brother-in-law's commissions, nor the dress material for
61802 a present to Belova, nor toys for his wife's nephews. In the early days
61803 of his marriage it had seemed strange to him that his wife should expect
61804 him not to forget to procure all the things he undertook to buy, and he
61805 had been taken aback by her serious annoyance when on his first trip he
61806 forgot everything. But in time he grew used to this demand. Knowing that
61807 Natasha asked nothing for herself, and gave him commissions for others
61808 only when he himself had offered to undertake them, he now found an
61809 unexpected and childlike pleasure in this purchase of presents for
61810 everyone in the house, and never forgot anything. If he now incurred
61811 Natasha's censure it was only for buying too many and too expensive
61812 things. To her other defects (as most people thought them, but which to
61813 Pierre were qualities) of untidiness and neglect of herself, she now
61816 From the time that Pierre began life as a family man on a footing
61817 entailing heavy expenditure, he had noticed to his surprise that he
61818 spent only half as much as before, and that his affairs--which had been
61819 in disorder of late, chiefly because of his first wife's debts--had
61822 Life was cheaper because it was circumscribed: that most expensive
61823 luxury, the kind of life that can be changed at any moment, was no
61824 longer his nor did he wish for it. He felt that his way of life had now
61825 been settled once for all till death and that to change it was not in
61826 his power, and so that way of life proved economical.
61828 With a merry, smiling face Pierre was sorting his purchases.
61830 "What do you think of this?" said he, unrolling a piece of stuff like a
61833 Natasha, who was sitting opposite to him with her eldest daughter on her
61834 lap, turned her sparkling eyes swiftly from her husband to the things he
61837 "That's for Belova? Excellent!" She felt the quality of the material.
61838 "It was a ruble an arshin, I suppose?"
61840 Pierre told her the price.
61842 "Too dear!" Natasha remarked. "How pleased the children will be and
61843 Mamma too! Only you need not have bought me this," she added, unable to
61844 suppress a smile as she gazed admiringly at a gold comb set with pearls,
61845 of a kind then just coming into fashion.
61847 "Adele tempted me: she kept on telling me to buy it," returned Pierre.
61849 "When am I to wear it?" and Natasha stuck it in her coil of hair. "When
61850 I take little Masha into society? Perhaps they will be fashionable again
61851 by then. Well, let's go now."
61853 And collecting the presents they went first to the nursery and then to
61854 the old countess' rooms.
61856 The countess was sitting with her companion Belova, playing grand-
61857 patience as usual, when Pierre and Natasha came into the drawing room
61858 with parcels under their arms.
61860 The countess was now over sixty, was quite gray, and wore a cap with a
61861 frill that surrounded her face. Her face had shriveled, her upper lip
61862 had sunk in, and her eyes were dim.
61864 After the deaths of her son and husband in such rapid succession, she
61865 felt herself a being accidentally forgotten in this world and left
61866 without aim or object for her existence. She ate, drank, slept, or kept
61867 awake, but did not live. Life gave her no new impressions. She wanted
61868 nothing from life but tranquillity, and that tranquillity only death
61869 could give her. But until death came she had to go on living, that is,
61870 to use her vital forces. A peculiarity one sees in very young children
61871 and very old people was particularly evident in her. Her life had no
61872 external aims--only a need to exercise her various functions and
61873 inclinations was apparent. She had to eat, sleep, think, speak, weep,
61874 work, give vent to her anger, and so on, merely because she had a
61875 stomach, a brain, muscles, nerves, and a liver. She did these things not
61876 under any external impulse as people in the full vigor of life do, when
61877 behind the purpose for which they strive that of exercising their
61878 functions remains unnoticed. She talked only because she physically
61879 needed to exercise her tongue and lungs. She cried as a child does,
61880 because her nose had to be cleared, and so on. What for people in their
61881 full vigor is an aim was for her evidently merely a pretext.
61883 Thus in the morning--especially if she had eaten anything rich the day
61884 before--she felt a need of being angry and would choose as the handiest
61885 pretext Belova's deafness.
61887 She would begin to say something to her in a low tone from the other end
61890 "It seems a little warmer today, my dear," she would murmur.
61892 And when Belova replied: "Oh yes, they've come," she would mutter
61893 angrily: "O Lord! How stupid and deaf she is!"
61895 Another pretext would be her snuff, which would seem too dry or too damp
61896 or not rubbed fine enough. After these fits of irritability her face
61897 would grow yellow, and her maids knew by infallible symptoms when Belova
61898 would again be deaf, the snuff damp, and the countess' face yellow. Just
61899 as she needed to work off her spleen so she had sometimes to exercise
61900 her still-existing faculty of thinking--and the pretext for that was a
61901 game of patience. When she needed to cry, the deceased count would be
61902 the pretext. When she wanted to be agitated, Nicholas and his health
61903 would be the pretext, and when she felt a need to speak spitefully, the
61904 pretext would be Countess Mary. When her vocal organs needed exercise,
61905 which was usually toward seven o'clock when she had had an after-dinner
61906 rest in a darkened room, the pretext would be the retelling of the same
61907 stories over and over again to the same audience.
61909 The old lady's condition was understood by the whole household though no
61910 one ever spoke of it, and they all made every possible effort to satisfy
61911 her needs. Only by a rare glance exchanged with a sad smile between
61912 Nicholas, Pierre, Natasha, and Countess Mary was the common
61913 understanding of her condition expressed.
61915 But those glances expressed something more: they said that she had
61916 played her part in life, that what they now saw was not her whole self,
61917 that we must all become like her, and that they were glad to yield to
61918 her, to restrain themselves for this once precious being formerly as
61919 full of life as themselves, but now so much to be pitied. "Memento
61920 mori," said these glances.
61922 Only the really heartless, the stupid ones of that household, and the
61923 little children failed to understand this and avoided her.
61930 When Pierre and his wife entered the drawing room the countess was in
61931 one of her customary states in which she needed the mental exertion of
61932 playing patience, and so--though by force of habit she greeted him with
61933 the words she always used when Pierre or her son returned after an
61934 absence: "High time, my dear, high time! We were all weary of waiting
61935 for you. Well, thank God!" and received her presents with another
61936 customary remark: "It's not the gift that's precious, my dear, but that
61937 you give it to me, an old woman..."--yet it was evident that she was not
61938 pleased by Pierre's arrival at that moment when it diverted her
61939 attention from the unfinished game.
61941 She finished her game of patience and only then examined the presents.
61942 They consisted of a box for cards, of splendid workmanship, a bright-
61943 blue Sevres tea cup with shepherdesses depicted on it and with a lid,
61944 and a gold snuffbox with the count's portrait on the lid which Pierre
61945 had had done by a miniaturist in Petersburg. The countess had long
61946 wished for such a box, but as she did not want to cry just then she
61947 glanced indifferently at the portrait and gave her attention chiefly to
61950 "Thank you, my dear, you have cheered me up," said she as she always
61951 did. "But best of all you have brought yourself back--for I never saw
61952 anything like it, you ought to give your wife a scolding! What are we to
61953 do with her? She is like a mad woman when you are away. Doesn't see
61954 anything, doesn't remember anything," she went on, repeating her usual
61955 phrases. "Look, Anna Timofeevna," she added to her companion, "see what
61956 a box for cards my son has brought us!"
61958 Belova admired the presents and was delighted with her dress material.
61960 Though Pierre, Natasha, Nicholas, Countess Mary, and Denisov had much to
61961 talk about that they could not discuss before the old countess--not that
61962 anything was hidden from her, but because she had dropped so far
61963 behindhand in many things that had they begun to converse in her
61964 presence they would have had to answer inopportune questions and to
61965 repeat what they had already told her many times: that so-and-so was
61966 dead and so-and-so was married, which she would again be unable to
61967 remember--yet they sat at tea round the samovar in the drawing room from
61968 habit, and Pierre answered the countess' questions as to whether Prince
61969 Vasili had aged and whether Countess Mary Alexeevna had sent greetings
61970 and still thought of them, and other matters that interested no one and
61971 to which she herself was indifferent.
61973 Conversation of this kind, interesting to no one yet unavoidable,
61974 continued all through teatime. All the grown-up members of the family
61975 were assembled near the round tea table at which Sonya presided beside
61976 the samovar. The children with their tutors and governesses had had tea
61977 and their voices were audible from the next room. At tea all sat in
61978 their accustomed places: Nicholas beside the stove at a small table
61979 where his tea was handed to him; Milka, the old gray borzoi bitch
61980 (daughter of the first Milka), with a quite gray face and large black
61981 eyes that seemed more prominent than ever, lay on the armchair beside
61982 him; Denisov, whose curly hair, mustache, and whiskers had turned half
61983 gray, sat beside countess Mary with his general's tunic unbuttoned;
61984 Pierre sat between his wife and the old countess. He spoke of what he
61985 knew might interest the old lady and that she could understand. He told
61986 her of external social events and of the people who had formed the
61987 circle of her contemporaries and had once been a real, living, and
61988 distinct group, but who were now for the most part scattered about the
61989 world and like herself were garnering the last ears of the harvests they
61990 had sown in earlier years. But to the old countess those contemporaries
61991 of hers seemed to be the only serious and real society. Natasha saw by
61992 Pierre's animation that his visit had been interesting and that he had
61993 much to tell them but dare not say it before the old countess. Denisov,
61994 not being a member of the family, did not understand Pierre's caution
61995 and being, as a malcontent, much interested in what was occurring in
61996 Petersburg, kept urging Pierre to tell them about what had happened in
61997 the Semenovsk regiment, then about Arakcheev, and then about the Bible
61998 Society. Once or twice Pierre was carried away and began to speak of
61999 these things, but Nicholas and Natasha always brought him back to the
62000 health of Prince Ivan and Countess Mary Alexeevna.
62002 "Well, and all this idiocy--Gossner and Tatawinova?" Denisov asked. "Is
62003 that weally still going on?"
62006 "Going on?" Pierre exclaimed. "Why more than ever! The Bible Society is
62007 the whole government now!"
62009 "What is that, mon cher ami?" asked the countess, who had finished her
62010 tea and evidently needed a pretext for being angry after her meal. "What
62011 are you saying about the government? I don't understand."
62013 "Well, you know, Maman," Nicholas interposed, knowing how to translate
62014 things into his mother's language, "Prince Alexander Golitsyn has
62015 founded a society and in consequence has great influence, they say."
62017 "Arakcheev and Golitsyn," incautiously remarked Pierre, "are now the
62018 whole government! And what a government! They see treason everywhere and
62019 are afraid of everything."
62021 "Well, and how is Prince Alexander to blame? He is a most estimable man.
62022 I used to meet him at Mary Antonovna's," said the countess in an
62023 offended tone; and still more offended that they all remained silent,
62024 she went on: "Nowadays everyone finds fault. A Gospel Society! Well, and
62025 what harm is there in that?" and she rose (everybody else got up too)
62026 and with a severe expression sailed back to her table in the sitting
62029 The melancholy silence that followed was broken by the sounds of the
62030 children's voices and laughter from the next room. Evidently some jolly
62031 excitement was going on there.
62033 "Finished, finished!" little Natasha's gleeful yell rose above them all.
62035 Pierre exchanged glances with Countess Mary and Nicholas (Natasha he
62036 never lost sight of) and smiled happily.
62038 "That's delightful music!" said he.
62040 "It means that Anna Makarovna has finished her stocking," said Countess
62043 "Oh, I'll go and see," said Pierre, jumping up. "You know," he added,
62044 stopping at the door, "why I'm especially fond of that music? It is
62045 always the first thing that tells me all is well. When I was driving
62046 here today, the nearer I got to the house the more anxious I grew. As I
62047 entered the anteroom I heard Andrusha's peals of laughter and that meant
62048 that all was well."
62050 "I know! I know that feeling," said Nicholas. "But I mustn't go there--
62051 those stockings are to be a surprise for me."
62053 Pierre went to the children, and the shouting and laughter grew still
62056 "Come, Anna Makarovna," Pierre's voice was heard saying, "come here into
62057 the middle of the room and at the word of command, 'One, two,' and when
62058 I say 'three'... You stand here, and you in my arms--well now! One,
62059 two!..." said Pierre, and a silence followed: "three!" and a rapturously
62060 breathless cry of children's voices filled the room. "Two, two!" they
62063 This meant two stockings, which by a secret process known only to
62064 herself Anna Makarovna used to knit at the same time on the same
62065 needles, and which, when they were ready, she always triumphantly drew,
62066 one out of the other, in the children's presence.
62073 Soon after this the children came in to say good night. They kissed
62074 everyone, the tutors and governesses made their bows, and they went out.
62075 Only young Nicholas and his tutor remained. Dessalles whispered to the
62076 boy to come downstairs.
62078 "No, Monsieur Dessalles, I will ask my aunt to let me stay," replied
62079 Nicholas Bolkonski also in a whisper.
62081 "Ma tante, please let me stay," said he, going up to his aunt.
62083 His face expressed entreaty, agitation, and ecstasy. Countess Mary
62084 glanced at him and turned to Pierre.
62086 "When you are here he can't tear himself away," she said.
62088 "I will bring him to you directly, Monsieur Dessalles. Good night!" said
62089 Pierre, giving his hand to the Swiss tutor, and he turned to young
62090 Nicholas with a smile. "You and I haven't seen anything of one another
62091 yet... How like he is growing, Mary!" he added, addressing Countess
62094 "Like my father?" asked the boy, flushing crimson and looking up at
62095 Pierre with bright, ecstatic eyes.
62097 Pierre nodded, and went on with what he had been saying when the
62098 children had interrupted. Countess Mary sat down doing woolwork; Natasha
62099 did not take her eyes off her husband. Nicholas and Denisov rose, asked
62100 for their pipes, smoked, went to fetch more tea from Sonya--who sat
62101 weary but resolute at the samovar--and questioned Pierre. The curly-
62102 headed, delicate boy sat with shining eyes unnoticed in a corner,
62103 starting every now and then and muttering something to himself, and
62104 evidently experiencing a new and powerful emotion as he turned his curly
62105 head, with his thin neck exposed by his turn-down collar, toward the
62106 place where Pierre sat.
62108 The conversation turned on the contemporary gossip about those in power,
62109 in which most people see the chief interest of home politics. Denisov,
62110 dissatisfied with the government on account of his own disappointments
62111 in the service, heard with pleasure of the things done in Petersburg
62112 which seemed to him stupid, and made forcible and sharp comments on what
62115 "One used to have to be a German--now one must dance with Tatawinova and
62116 Madame Kwudener, and wead Ecka'tshausen and the bwethwen. Oh, they
62117 should let that fine fellow Bonaparte loose--he'd knock all this
62118 nonsense out of them! Fancy giving the command of the Semenov wegiment
62119 to a fellow like that Schwa'tz!" he cried.
62121 Nicholas, though free from Denisov's readiness to find fault with
62122 everything, also thought that discussion of the government was a very
62123 serious and weighty matter, and the fact that A had been appointed
62124 Minister of This and B Governor General of That, and that the Emperor
62125 had said so-and-so and this minister so-and-so, seemed to him very
62126 important. And so he thought it necessary to take an interest in these
62127 things and to question Pierre. The questions put by these two kept the
62128 conversation from changing its ordinary character of gossip about the
62129 higher government circles.
62131 But Natasha, knowing all her husband's ways and ideas, saw that he had
62132 long been wishing but had been unable to divert the conversation to
62133 another channel and express his own deeply felt idea for the sake of
62134 which he had gone to Petersburg to consult with his new friend Prince
62135 Theodore, and she helped him by asking how his affairs with Prince
62138 "What was it about?" asked Nicholas.
62140 "Always the same thing," said Pierre, looking round at his listeners.
62141 "Everybody sees that things are going so badly that they cannot be
62142 allowed to go on so and that it is the duty of all decent men to
62143 counteract it as far as they can."
62145 "What can decent men do?" Nicholas inquired, frowning slightly. "What
62150 "Come into my study," said Nicholas.
62152 Natasha, who had long expected to be fetched to nurse her baby, now
62153 heard the nurse calling her and went to the nursery. Countess Mary
62154 followed her. The men went into the study and little Nicholas Bolkonski
62155 followed them unnoticed by his uncle and sat down at the writing table
62156 in a shady corner by the window.
62158 "Well, what would you do?" asked Denisov.
62160 "Always some fantastic schemes," said Nicholas.
62162 "Why this," began Pierre, not sitting down but pacing the room,
62163 sometimes stopping short, gesticulating, and lisping: "the position in
62164 Petersburg is this: the Emperor does not look into anything. He has
62165 abandoned himself altogether to this mysticism" (Pierre could not
62166 tolerate mysticism in anyone now). "He seeks only for peace, and only
62167 these people sans foi ni loi * can give it him--people who recklessly
62168 hack at and strangle everything--Magnitski, Arakcheev, and tutti
62169 quanti.... You will agree that if you did not look after your estates
62170 yourself but only wanted a quiet life, the harsher your steward was the
62171 more readily your object might be attained," he said to Nicholas.
62174 * Without faith or law.
62176 "Well, what does that lead up to?" said Nicholas.
62178 "Well, everything is going to ruin! Robbery in the law courts, in the
62179 army nothing but flogging, drilling, and Military Settlements; the
62180 people are tortured, enlightenment is suppressed. All that is young and
62181 honest is crushed! Everyone sees that this cannot go on. Everything is
62182 strained to such a degree that it will certainly break," said Pierre (as
62183 those who examine the actions of any government have always said since
62184 governments began). "I told them just one thing in Petersburg."
62188 "Well, you know whom," said Pierre, with a meaning glance from under his
62189 brows. "Prince Theodore and all those. To encourage culture and
62190 philanthropy is all very well of course. The aim is excellent but in the
62191 present circumstances something else is needed."
62193 At that moment Nicholas noticed the presence of his nephew. His face
62194 darkened and he went up to the boy.
62196 "Why are you here?"
62198 "Why? Let him be," said Pierre, taking Nicholas by the arm and
62199 continuing. "That is not enough, I told them. Something else is needed.
62200 When you stand expecting the overstrained string to snap at any moment,
62201 when everyone is expecting the inevitable catastrophe, as many as
62202 possible must join hands as closely as they can to withstand the general
62203 calamity. Everything that is young and strong is being enticed away and
62204 depraved. One is lured by women, another by honors, a third by ambition
62205 or money, and they go over to that camp. No independent men, such as you
62206 or I, are left. What I say is widen the scope of our society, let the
62207 mot d'ordre be not virtue alone but independence and action as well!"
62209 Nicholas, who had left his nephew, irritably pushed up an armchair, sat
62210 down in it, and listened to Pierre, coughing discontentedly and frowning
62213 "But action with what aim?" he cried. "And what position will you adopt
62214 toward the government?"
62216 "Why, the position of assistants. The society need not be secret if the
62217 government allows it. Not merely is it not hostile to government, but it
62218 is a society of true conservatives--a society of gentlemen in the full
62219 meaning of that word. It is only to prevent some Pugachev or other from
62220 killing my children and yours, and Arakcheev from sending me off to some
62221 Military Settlement. We join hands only for the public welfare and the
62224 "Yes, but it's a secret society and therefore a hostile and harmful one
62225 which can only cause harm."
62227 "Why? Did the Tugendbund which saved Europe" (they did not then venture
62228 to suggest that Russia had saved Europe) "do any harm? The Tugendbund is
62229 an alliance of virtue: it is love, mutual help... it is what Christ
62230 preached on the Cross."
62232 Natasha, who had come in during the conversation, looked joyfully at her
62233 husband. It was not what he was saying that pleased her--that did not
62234 even interest her, for it seemed to her that was all extremely simple
62235 and that she had known it a long time (it seemed so to her because she
62236 knew that it sprang from Pierre's whole soul), but it was his animated
62237 and enthusiastic appearance that made her glad.
62239 The boy with the thin neck stretching out from the turn-down collar--
62240 whom everyone had forgotten--gazed at Pierre with even greater and more
62241 rapturous joy. Every word of Pierre's burned into his heart, and with a
62242 nervous movement of his fingers he unconsciously broke the sealing wax
62243 and quill pens his hands came upon on his uncle's table.
62245 "It is not at all what you suppose; but that is what the German
62246 Tugendbund was, and what I am proposing."
62248 "No, my fwiend! The Tugendbund is all vewy well for the sausage eaters,
62249 but I don't understand it and can't even pwonounce it," interposed
62250 Denisov in a loud and resolute voice. "I agwee that evewything here is
62251 wotten and howwible, but the Tugendbund I don't understand. If we're not
62252 satisfied, let us have a bunt of our own. That's all wight. Je suis
62258 Pierre smiled, Natasha began to laugh, but Nicholas knitted his brows
62259 still more and began proving to Pierre that there was no prospect of any
62260 great change and that all the danger he spoke of existed only in his
62261 imagination. Pierre maintained the contrary, and as his mental faculties
62262 were greater and more resourceful, Nicholas felt himself cornered. This
62263 made him still angrier, for he was fully convinced, not by reasoning but
62264 by something within him stronger than reason, of the justice of his
62267 "I will tell you this," he said, rising and trying with nervously
62268 twitching fingers to prop up his pipe in a corner, but finally
62269 abandoning the attempt. "I can't prove it to you. You say that
62270 everything here is rotten and that an overthrow is coming: I don't see
62271 it. But you also say that our oath of allegiance is a conditional
62272 matter, and to that I reply: 'You are my best friend, as you know, but
62273 if you formed a secret society and began working against the government-
62274 -be it what it may--I know it is my duty to obey the government. And if
62275 Arakcheev ordered me to lead a squadron against you and cut you down, I
62276 should not hesitate an instant, but should do it.' And you may argue
62277 about that as you like!"
62279 An awkward silence followed these words. Natasha was the first to speak,
62280 defending her husband and attacking her brother. Her defense was weak
62281 and inapt but she attained her object. The conversation was resumed, and
62282 no longer in the unpleasantly hostile tone of Nicholas' last remark.
62284 When they all got up to go in to supper, little Nicholas Bolkonski went
62285 up to Pierre, pale and with shining, radiant eyes.
62287 "Uncle Pierre, you... no... If Papa were alive... would he agree with
62290 And Pierre suddenly realized what a special, independent, complex, and
62291 powerful process of thought and feeling must have been going on in this
62292 boy during that conversation, and remembering all he had said he
62293 regretted that the lad should have heard him. He had, however, to give
62296 "Yes, I think so," he said reluctantly, and left the study.
62298 The lad looked down and seemed now for the first time to notice what he
62299 had done to the things on the table. He flushed and went up to Nicholas.
62301 "Uncle, forgive me, I did that... unintentionally," he said, pointing to
62302 the broken sealing wax and pens.
62304 Nicholas started angrily.
62306 "All right, all right," he said, throwing the bits under the table.
62308 And evidently suppressing his vexation with difficulty, he turned away
62311 "You ought not to have been here at all," he said.
62318 The conversation at supper was not about politics or societies, but
62319 turned on the subject Nicholas liked best--recollections of 1812.
62320 Denisov started these and Pierre was particularly agreeable and amusing
62321 about them. The family separated on the most friendly terms.
62323 After supper Nicholas, having undressed in his study and given
62324 instructions to the steward who had been waiting for him, went to the
62325 bedroom in his dressing gown, where he found his wife still at her
62328 "What are you writing, Mary?" Nicholas asked.
62330 Countess Mary blushed. She was afraid that what she was writing would
62331 not be understood or approved by her husband.
62333 She had wanted to conceal what she was writing from him, but at the same
62334 time was glad he had surprised her at it and that she would now have to
62337 "A diary, Nicholas," she replied, handing him a blue exercise book
62338 filled with her firm, bold writing.
62340 "A diary?" Nicholas repeated with a shade of irony, and he took up the
62345 December 4. Today when Andrusha (her eldest boy) woke up he did not wish
62346 to dress and Mademoiselle Louise sent for me. He was naughty and
62347 obstinate. I tried threats, but he only grew angrier. Then I took the
62348 matter in hand: I left him alone and began with nurse's help to get the
62349 other children up, telling him that I did not love him. For a long time
62350 he was silent, as if astonished, then he jumped out of bed, ran to me in
62351 his shirt, and sobbed so that I could not calm him for a long time. It
62352 was plain that what troubled him most was that he had grieved me.
62353 Afterwards in the evening when I gave him his ticket, he again began
62354 crying piteously and kissing me. One can do anything with him by
62357 "What is a 'ticket'?" Nicholas inquired.
62359 "I have begun giving the elder ones marks every evening, showing how
62360 they have behaved."
62362 Nicholas looked into the radiant eyes that were gazing at him, and
62363 continued to turn over the pages and read. In the diary was set down
62364 everything in the children's lives that seemed noteworthy to their
62365 mother as showing their characters or suggesting general reflections on
62366 educational methods. They were for the most part quite insignificant
62367 trifles, but did not seem so to the mother or to the father either, now
62368 that he read this diary about his children for the first time.
62370 Under the date "5" was entered:
62372 Mitya was naughty at table. Papa said he was to have no pudding. He had
62373 none, but looked so unhappily and greedily at the others while they were
62374 eating! I think that punishment by depriving children of sweets only
62375 develops their greediness. Must tell Nicholas this.
62377 Nicholas put down the book and looked at his wife. The radiant eyes
62378 gazed at him questioningly: would he approve or disapprove of her diary?
62379 There could be no doubt not only of his approval but also of his
62380 admiration for his wife.
62382 Perhaps it need not be done so pedantically, thought Nicholas, or even
62383 done at all, but this untiring, continual spiritual effort of which the
62384 sole aim was the children's moral welfare delighted him. Had Nicholas
62385 been able to analyze his feelings he would have found that his steady,
62386 tender, and proud love of his wife rested on his feeling of wonder at
62387 her spirituality and at the lofty moral world, almost beyond his reach,
62388 in which she had her being.
62390 He was proud of her intelligence and goodness, recognized his own
62391 insignificance beside her in the spiritual world, and rejoiced all the
62392 more that she with such a soul not only belonged to him but was part of
62395 "I quite, quite approve, my dearest!" said he with a significant look,
62396 and after a short pause he added: "And I behaved badly today. You
62397 weren't in the study. We began disputing--Pierre and I--and I lost my
62398 temper. But he is impossible: such a child! I don't know what would
62399 become of him if Natasha didn't keep him in hand.... Have you any idea
62400 why he went to Petersburg? They have formed..."
62402 "Yes, I know," said Countess Mary. "Natasha told me."
62404 "Well, then, you know," Nicholas went on, growing hot at the mere
62405 recollection of their discussion, "he wanted to convince me that it is
62406 every honest man's duty to go against the government, and that the oath
62407 of allegiance and duty... I am sorry you weren't there. They all fell on
62408 me--Denisov and Natasha... Natasha is absurd. How she rules over him!
62409 And yet there need only be a discussion and she has no words of her own
62410 but only repeats his sayings..." added Nicholas, yielding to that
62411 irresistible inclination which tempts us to judge those nearest and
62412 dearest to us. He forgot that what he was saying about Natasha could
62413 have been applied word for word to himself in relation to his wife.
62415 "Yes, I have noticed that," said Countess Mary.
62417 "When I told him that duty and the oath were above everything, he
62418 started proving goodness knows what! A pity you were not there--what
62419 would you have said?"
62421 "As I see it you were quite right, and I told Natasha so. Pierre says
62422 everybody is suffering, tortured, and being corrupted, and that it is
62423 our duty to help our neighbor. Of course he is right there," said
62424 Countess Mary, "but he forgets that we have other duties nearer to us,
62425 duties indicated to us by God Himself, and that though we might expose
62426 ourselves to risks we must not risk our children."
62428 "Yes, that's it! That's just what I said to him," put in Nicholas, who
62429 fancied he really had said it. "But they insisted on their own view:
62430 love of one's neighbor and Christianity--and all this in the presence of
62431 young Nicholas, who had gone into my study and broke all my things."
62433 "Ah, Nicholas, do you know I am often troubled about little Nicholas,"
62434 said Countess Mary. "He is such an exceptional boy. I am afraid I
62435 neglect him in favor of my own: we all have children and relations while
62436 he has no one. He is constantly alone with his thoughts."
62438 "Well, I don't think you need reproach yourself on his account. All that
62439 the fondest mother could do for her son you have done and are doing for
62440 him, and of course I am glad of it. He is a fine lad, a fine lad! This
62441 evening he listened to Pierre in a sort of trance, and fancy--as we were
62442 going in to supper I looked and he had broken everything on my table to
62443 bits, and he told me of it himself at once! I never knew him to tell an
62444 untruth. A fine lad, a fine lad!" repeated Nicholas, who at heart was
62445 not fond of Nicholas Bolkonski but was always anxious to recognize that
62448 "Still, I am not the same as his own mother," said Countess Mary. "I
62449 feel I am not the same and it troubles me. A wonderful boy, but I am
62450 dreadfully afraid for him. It would be good for him to have companions."
62452 "Well it won't be for long. Next summer I'll take him to Petersburg,"
62453 said Nicholas. "Yes, Pierre always was a dreamer and always will be," he
62454 continued, returning to the talk in the study which had evidently
62455 disturbed him. "Well, what business is it of mine what goes on there--
62456 whether Arakcheev is bad, and all that? What business was it of mine
62457 when I married and was so deep in debt that I was threatened with
62458 prison, and had a mother who could not see or understand it? And then
62459 there are you and the children and our affairs. Is it for my own
62460 pleasure that I am at the farm or in the office from morning to night?
62461 No, but I know I must work to comfort my mother, to repay you, and not
62462 to leave the children such beggars as I was."
62464 Countess Mary wanted to tell him that man does not live by bread alone
62465 and that he attached too much importance to these matters. But she knew
62466 she must not say this and that it would be useless to do so. She only
62467 took his hand and kissed it. He took this as a sign of approval and a
62468 confirmation of his thoughts, and after a few minutes' reflection
62469 continued to think aloud.
62471 "You know, Mary, today Elias Mitrofanych" (this was his overseer) "came
62472 back from the Tambov estate and told me they are already offering eighty
62473 thousand rubles for the forest."
62475 And with an eager face Nicholas began to speak of the possibility of
62476 repurchasing Otradnoe before long, and added: "Another ten years of life
62477 and I shall leave the children... in an excellent position."
62479 Countess Mary listened to her husband and understood all that he told
62480 her. She knew that when he thought aloud in this way he would sometimes
62481 ask her what he had been saying, and be vexed if he noticed that she had
62482 been thinking about something else. But she had to force herself to
62483 attend, for what he was saying did not interest her at all. She looked
62484 at him and did not think, but felt, about something different. She felt
62485 a submissive tender love for this man who would never understand all
62486 that she understood, and this seemed to make her love for him still
62487 stronger and added a touch of passionate tenderness. Besides this
62488 feeling which absorbed her altogether and hindered her from following
62489 the details of her husband's plans, thoughts that had no connection with
62490 what he was saying flitted through her mind. She thought of her nephew.
62491 Her husband's account of the boy's agitation while Pierre was speaking
62492 struck her forcibly, and various traits of his gentle, sensitive
62493 character recurred to her mind; and while thinking of her nephew she
62494 thought also of her own children. She did not compare them with him, but
62495 compared her feeling for them with her feeling for him, and felt with
62496 regret that there was something lacking in her feeling for young
62499 Sometimes it seemed to her that this difference arose from the
62500 difference in their ages, but she felt herself to blame toward him and
62501 promised in her heart to do better and to accomplish the impossible--in
62502 this life to love her husband, her children, little Nicholas, and all
62503 her neighbors, as Christ loved mankind. Countess Mary's soul always
62504 strove toward the infinite, the eternal, and the absolute, and could
62505 therefore never be at peace. A stern expression of the lofty, secret
62506 suffering of a soul burdened by the body appeared on her face. Nicholas
62507 gazed at her. "O God! What will become of us if she dies, as I always
62508 fear when her face is like that?" thought he, and placing himself before
62509 the icon he began to say his evening prayers.
62516 Natasha and Pierre, left alone, also began to talk as only a husband and
62517 wife can talk, that is, with extraordinary clearness and rapidity,
62518 understanding and expressing each other's thoughts in ways contrary to
62519 all rules of logic, without premises, deductions, or conclusions, and in
62520 a quite peculiar way. Natasha was so used to this kind of talk with her
62521 husband that for her it was the surest sign of something being wrong
62522 between them if Pierre followed a line of logical reasoning. When he
62523 began proving anything, or talking argumentatively and calmly and she,
62524 led on by his example, began to do the same, she knew that they were on
62525 the verge of a quarrel.
62527 From the moment they were alone and Natasha came up to him with wide-
62528 open happy eyes, and quickly seizing his head pressed it to her bosom,
62529 saying: "Now you are all mine, mine! You won't escape!"--from that
62530 moment this conversation began, contrary to all the laws of logic and
62531 contrary to them because quite different subjects were talked about at
62532 one and the same time. This simultaneous discussion of many topics did
62533 not prevent a clear understanding but on the contrary was the surest
62534 sign that they fully understood one another.
62536 Just as in a dream when all is uncertain, unreasoning, and
62537 contradictory, except the feeling that guides the dream, so in this
62538 intercourse contrary to all laws of reason, the words themselves were
62539 not consecutive and clear but only the feeling that prompted them.
62541 Natasha spoke to Pierre about her brother's life and doings, of how she
62542 had suffered and lacked life during his own absence, and of how she was
62543 fonder than ever of Mary, and how Mary was in every way better than
62544 herself. In saying this Natasha was sincere in acknowledging Mary's
62545 superiority, but at the same time by saying it she made a demand on
62546 Pierre that he should, all the same, prefer her to Mary and to all other
62547 women, and that now, especially after having seen many women in
62548 Petersburg, he should tell her so afresh.
62550 Pierre, answering Natasha's words, told her how intolerable it had been
62551 for him to meet ladies at dinners and balls in Petersburg.
62553 "I have quite lost the knack of talking to ladies," he said. "It was
62554 simply dull. Besides, I was very busy."
62556 Natasha looked intently at him and went on:
62558 "Mary is so splendid," she said. "How she understands children! It is as
62559 if she saw straight into their souls. Yesterday, for instance, Mitya was
62562 "How like his father he is," Pierre interjected.
62564 Natasha knew why he mentioned Mitya's likeness to Nicholas: the
62565 recollection of his dispute with his brother-in-law was unpleasant and
62566 he wanted to know what Natasha thought of it.
62568 "Nicholas has the weakness of never agreeing with anything not generally
62569 accepted. But I understand that you value what opens up a fresh line,"
62570 said she, repeating words Pierre had once uttered.
62572 "No, the chief point is that to Nicholas ideas and discussions are an
62573 amusement--almost a pastime," said Pierre. "For instance, he is
62574 collecting a library and has made it a rule not to buy a new book till
62575 he has read what he had already bought--Sismondi and Rousseau and
62576 Montesquieu," he added with a smile. "You know how much I..." he began
62577 to soften down what he had said; but Natasha interrupted him to show
62578 that this was unnecessary.
62580 "So you say ideas are an amusement to him...."
62582 "Yes, and for me nothing else is serious. All the time in Petersburg I
62583 saw everyone as in a dream. When I am taken up by a thought, all else is
62586 "Ah, I'm so sorry I wasn't there when you met the children," said
62587 Natasha. "Which was most delighted? Lisa, I'm sure."
62589 "Yes," Pierre replied, and went on with what was in his mind. "Nicholas
62590 says we ought not to think. But I can't help it. Besides, when I was in
62591 Petersburg I felt (I can say this to you) that the whole affair would go
62592 to pieces without me--everyone was pulling his own way. But I succeeded
62593 in uniting them all; and then my idea is so clear and simple. You see, I
62594 don't say that we ought to oppose this and that. We may be mistaken.
62595 What I say is: 'Join hands, you who love the right, and let there be but
62596 one banner--that of active virtue.' Prince Sergey is a fine fellow and
62599 Natasha would have had no doubt as to the greatness of Pierre's idea,
62600 but one thing disconcerted her. "Can a man so important and necessary to
62601 society be also my husband? How did this happen?" She wished to express
62602 this doubt to him. "Now who could decide whether he is really cleverer
62603 than all the others?" she asked herself, and passed in review all those
62604 whom Pierre most respected. Judging by what he had said there was no one
62605 he had respected so highly as Platon Karataev.
62607 "Do you know what I am thinking about?" she asked. "About Platon
62608 Karataev. Would he have approved of you now, do you think?"
62610 Pierre was not at all surprised at this question. He understood his
62611 wife's line of thought.
62613 "Platon Karataev?" he repeated, and pondered, evidently sincerely trying
62614 to imagine Karataev's opinion on the subject. "He would not have
62615 understood... yet perhaps he would."
62617 "I love you awfully!" Natasha suddenly said. "Awfully, awfully!"
62619 "No, he would not have approved," said Pierre, after reflection. "What
62620 he would have approved of is our family life. He was always so anxious
62621 to find seemliness, happiness, and peace in everything, and I should
62622 have been proud to let him see us. There now--you talk of my absence,
62623 but you wouldn't believe what a special feeling I have for you after a
62626 "Yes, I should think..." Natasha began.
62628 "No, it's not that. I never leave off loving you. And one couldn't love
62629 more, but this is something special.... Yes, of course-" he did not
62630 finish because their eyes meeting said the rest.
62632 "What nonsense it is," Natasha suddenly exclaimed, "about honeymoons,
62633 and that the greatest happiness is at first! On the contrary, now is the
62634 best of all. If only you did not go away! Do you remember how we
62635 quarreled? And it was always my fault. Always mine. And what we
62636 quarreled about--I don't even remember!"
62638 "Always about the same thing," said Pierre with a smile. "Jealo..."
62640 "Don't say it! I can't bear it!" Natasha cried, and her eyes glittered
62641 coldly and vindictively. "Did you see her?" she added, after a pause.
62643 "No, and if I had I shouldn't have recognized her."
62645 They were silent for a while.
62647 "Oh, do you know? While you were talking in the study I was looking at
62648 you," Natasha began, evidently anxious to disperse the cloud that had
62649 come over them. "You are as like him as two peas--like the boy." (She
62650 meant her little son.) "Oh, it's time to go to him.... The milk's
62651 come.... But I'm sorry to leave you."
62653 They were silent for a few seconds. Then suddenly turning to one another
62654 at the same time they both began to speak. Pierre began with self-
62655 satisfaction and enthusiasm, Natasha with a quiet, happy smile. Having
62656 interrupted one another they both stopped to let the other continue.
62658 "No. What did you say? Go on, go on."
62660 "No, you go on, I was talking nonsense," said Natasha.
62662 Pierre finished what he had begun. It was the sequel to his complacent
62663 reflections on his success in Petersburg. At that moment it seemed to
62664 him that he was chosen to give a new direction to the whole of Russian
62665 society and to the whole world.
62667 "I only wished to say that ideas that have great results are always
62668 simple ones. My whole idea is that if vicious people are united and
62669 constitute a power, then honest folk must do the same. Now that's simple
62674 "And what were you going to say?"
62676 "I? Only nonsense."
62678 "But all the same?"
62680 "Oh nothing, only a trifle," said Natasha, smilingly still more
62681 brightly. "I only wanted to tell you about Petya: today nurse was coming
62682 to take him from me, and he laughed, shut his eyes, and clung to me. I'm
62683 sure he thought he was hiding. Awfully sweet! There, now he's crying.
62684 Well, good-by!" and she left the room.
62686 Meanwhile downstairs in young Nicholas Bolkonski's bedroom a little lamp
62687 was burning as usual. (The boy was afraid of the dark and they could not
62688 cure him of it.) Dessalles slept propped up on four pillows and his
62689 Roman nose emitted sounds of rhythmic snoring. Little Nicholas, who had
62690 just waked up in a cold perspiration, sat up in bed and gazed before him
62691 with wide-open eyes. He had awaked from a terrible dream. He had dreamed
62692 that he and Uncle Pierre, wearing helmets such as were depicted in his
62693 Plutarch, were leading a huge army. The army was made up of white
62694 slanting lines that filled the air like the cobwebs that float about in
62695 autumn and which Dessalles called les fils de la Vierge. In front was
62696 Glory, which was similar to those threads but rather thicker. He and
62697 Pierre were borne along lightly and joyously, nearer and nearer to their
62698 goal. Suddenly the threads that moved them began to slacken and become
62699 entangled and it grew difficult to move. And Uncle Nicholas stood before
62700 them in a stern and threatening attitude.
62702 "Have you done this?" he said, pointing to some broken sealing wax and
62703 pens. "I loved you, but I have orders from Arakcheev and will kill the
62704 first of you who moves forward." Little Nicholas turned to look at
62705 Pierre but Pierre was no longer there. In his place was his father--
62706 Prince Andrew--and his father had neither shape nor form, but he
62707 existed, and when little Nicholas perceived him he grew faint with love:
62708 he felt himself powerless, limp, and formless. His father caressed and
62709 pitied him. But Uncle Nicholas came nearer and nearer to them. Terror
62710 seized young Nicholas and he awoke.
62712 "My father!" he thought. (Though there were two good portraits of Prince
62713 Andrew in the house, Nicholas never imagined him in human form.) "My
62714 father has been with me and caressed me. He approved of me and of Uncle
62715 Pierre. Whatever he may tell me, I will do it. Mucius Scaevola burned
62716 his hand. Why should not the same sort of thing happen to me? I know
62717 they want me to learn. And I will learn. But someday I shall have
62718 finished learning, and then I will do something. I only pray God that
62719 something may happen to me such as happened to Plutarch's men, and I
62720 will act as they did. I will do better. Everyone shall know me, love me,
62721 and be delighted with me!" And suddenly his bosom heaved with sobs and
62724 "Are you ill?" he heard Dessalles' voice asking.
62726 "No," answered Nicholas, and lay back on his pillow.
62728 "He is good and kind and I am fond of him!" he thought of Dessalles.
62729 "But Uncle Pierre! Oh, what a wonderful man he is! And my father? Oh,
62730 Father, Father! Yes, I will do something with which even he would be
62740 History is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and put into
62741 words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single
62742 nation, appears impossible.
62744 The ancient historians all employed one and the same method to describe
62745 and seize the apparently elusive--the life of a people. They described
62746 the activity of individuals who ruled the people, and regarded the
62747 activity of those men as representing the activity of the whole nation.
62749 The question: how did individuals make nations act as they wished and by
62750 what was the will of these individuals themselves guided? the ancients
62751 met by recognizing a divinity which subjected the nations to the will of
62752 a chosen man, and guided the will of that chosen man so as to accomplish
62753 ends that were predestined.
62755 For the ancients these questions were solved by a belief in the direct
62756 participation of the Deity in human affairs.
62758 Modern history, in theory, rejects both these principles.
62760 It would seem that having rejected the belief of the ancients in man's
62761 subjection to the Deity and in a predetermined aim toward which nations
62762 are led, modern history should study not the manifestations of power but
62763 the causes that produce it. But modern history has not done this. Having
62764 in theory rejected the view held by the ancients, it still follows them
62767 Instead of men endowed with divine authority and directly guided by the
62768 will of God, modern history has given us either heroes endowed with
62769 extraordinary, superhuman capacities, or simply men of very various
62770 kinds, from monarchs to journalists, who lead the masses. Instead of the
62771 former divinely appointed aims of the Jewish, Greek, or Roman nations,
62772 which ancient historians regarded as representing the progress of
62773 humanity, modern history has postulated its own aims--the welfare of the
62774 French, German, or English people, or, in its highest abstraction, the
62775 welfare and civilization of humanity in general, by which is usually
62776 meant that of the peoples occupying a small northwesterly portion of a
62779 Modern history has rejected the beliefs of the ancients without
62780 replacing them by a new conception, and the logic of the situation has
62781 obliged the historians, after they had apparently rejected the divine
62782 authority of the kings and the "fate" of the ancients, to reach the same
62783 conclusion by another road, that is, to recognize (1) nations guided by
62784 individual men, and (2) the existence of a known aim to which these
62785 nations and humanity at large are tending.
62787 At the basis of the works of all the modern historians from Gibbon to
62788 Buckle, despite their seeming disagreements and the apparent novelty of
62789 their outlooks, lie those two old, unavoidable assumptions.
62791 In the first place the historian describes the activity of individuals
62792 who in his opinion have directed humanity (one historian considers only
62793 monarchs, generals, and ministers as being such men, while another
62794 includes also orators, learned men, reformers, philosophers, and poets).
62795 Secondly, it is assumed that the goal toward which humanity is being led
62796 is known to the historians: to one of them this goal is the greatness of
62797 the Roman, Spanish, or French realm; to another it is liberty, equality,
62798 and a certain kind of civilization of a small corner of the world called
62801 In 1789 a ferment arises in Paris; it grows, spreads, and is expressed
62802 by a movement of peoples from west to east. Several times it moves
62803 eastward and collides with a countermovement from the east westward. In
62804 1812 it reaches its extreme limit, Moscow, and then, with remarkable
62805 symmetry, a countermovement occurs from east to west, attracting to it,
62806 as the first movement had done, the nations of middle Europe. The
62807 counter movement reaches the starting point of the first movement in the
62808 west--Paris--and subsides.
62810 During that twenty-year period an immense number of fields were left
62811 untilled, houses were burned, trade changed its direction, millions of
62812 men migrated, were impoverished, or were enriched, and millions of
62813 Christian men professing the law of love of their fellows slew one
62816 What does all this mean? Why did it happen? What made those people burn
62817 houses and slay their fellow men? What were the causes of these events?
62818 What force made men act so? These are the instinctive, plain, and most
62819 legitimate questions humanity asks itself when it encounters the
62820 monuments and tradition of that period.
62822 For a reply to these questions the common sense of mankind turns to the
62823 science of history, whose aim is to enable nations and humanity to know
62826 If history had retained the conception of the ancients it would have
62827 said that God, to reward or punish his people, gave Napoleon power and
62828 directed his will to the fulfillment of the divine ends, and that reply
62829 would have been clear and complete. One might believe or disbelieve in
62830 the divine significance of Napoleon, but for anyone believing in it
62831 there would have been nothing unintelligible in the history of that
62832 period, nor would there have been any contradictions.
62834 But modern history cannot give that reply. Science does not admit the
62835 conception of the ancients as to the direct participation of the Deity
62836 in human affairs, and therefore history ought to give other answers.
62838 Modern history replying to these questions says: you want to know what
62839 this movement means, what caused it, and what force produced these
62840 events? Then listen:
62842 "Louis XIV was a very proud and self-confident man; he had such and such
62843 mistresses and such and such ministers and he ruled France badly. His
62844 descendants were weak men and they too ruled France badly. And they had
62845 such and such favorites and such and such mistresses. Moreover, certain
62846 men wrote some books at that time. At the end of the eighteenth century
62847 there were a couple of dozen men in Paris who began to talk about all
62848 men being free and equal. This caused people all over France to begin to
62849 slash at and drown one another. They killed the king and many other
62850 people. At that time there was in France a man of genius--Napoleon. He
62851 conquered everybody everywhere--that is, he killed many people because
62852 he was a great genius. And for some reason he went to kill Africans, and
62853 killed them so well and was so cunning and wise that when he returned to
62854 France he ordered everybody to obey him, and they all obeyed him. Having
62855 become an Emperor he again went out to kill people in Italy, Austria,
62856 and Prussia. And there too he killed a great many. In Russia there was
62857 an Emperor, Alexander, who decided to restore order in Europe and
62858 therefore fought against Napoleon. In 1807 he suddenly made friends with
62859 him, but in 1811 they again quarreled and again began killing many
62860 people. Napoleon led six hundred thousand men into Russia and captured
62861 Moscow; then he suddenly ran away from Moscow, and the Emperor
62862 Alexander, helped by the advice of Stein and others, united Europe to
62863 arm against the disturber of its peace. All Napoleon's allies suddenly
62864 became his enemies and their forces advanced against the fresh forces he
62865 raised. The Allies defeated Napoleon, entered Paris, forced Napoleon to
62866 abdicate, and sent him to the island of Elba, not depriving him of the
62867 title of Emperor and showing him every respect, though five years before
62868 and one year later they all regarded him as an outlaw and a brigand.
62869 Then Louis XVIII, who till then had been the laughingstock both of the
62870 French and the Allies, began to reign. And Napoleon, shedding tears
62871 before his Old Guards, renounced the throne and went into exile. Then
62872 the skillful statesmen and diplomatists (especially Talleyrand, who
62873 managed to sit down in a particular chair before anyone else and thereby
62874 extended the frontiers of France) talked in Vienna and by these
62875 conversations made the nations happy or unhappy. Suddenly the
62876 diplomatists and monarchs nearly quarreled and were on the point of
62877 again ordering their armies to kill one another, but just then Napoleon
62878 arrived in France with a battalion, and the French, who had been hating
62879 him, immediately all submitted to him. But the Allied monarchs were
62880 angry at this and went to fight the French once more. And they defeated
62881 the genius Napoleon and, suddenly recognizing him as a brigand, sent him
62882 to the island of St. Helena. And the exile, separated from the beloved
62883 France so dear to his heart, died a lingering death on that rock and
62884 bequeathed his great deeds to posterity. But in Europe a reaction
62885 occurred and the sovereigns once again all began to oppress their
62888 It would be a mistake to think that this is ironic--a caricature of the
62889 historical accounts. On the contrary it is a very mild expression of the
62890 contradictory replies, not meeting the questions, which all the
62891 historians give, from the compilers of memoirs and the histories of
62892 separate states to the writers of general histories and the new
62893 histories of the culture of that period.
62895 The strangeness and absurdity of these replies arise from the fact that
62896 modern history, like a deaf man, answers questions no one has asked.
62898 If the purpose of history be to give a description of the movement of
62899 humanity and of the peoples, the first question--in the absence of a
62900 reply to which all the rest will be incomprehensible--is: what is the
62901 power that moves peoples? To this, modern history laboriously replies
62902 either that Napoleon was a great genius, or that Louis XIV was very
62903 proud, or that certain writers wrote certain books.
62905 All that may be so and mankind is ready to agree with it, but it is not
62906 what was asked. All that would be interesting if we recognized a divine
62907 power based on itself and always consistently directing its nations
62908 through Napoleons, Louis-es, and writers; but we do not acknowledge such
62909 a power, and therefore before speaking about Napoleons, Louis-es, and
62910 authors, we ought to be shown the connection existing between these men
62911 and the movement of the nations.
62913 If instead of a divine power some other force has appeared, it should be
62914 explained in what this new force consists, for the whole interest of
62915 history lies precisely in that force.
62917 History seems to assume that this force is self-evident and known to
62918 everyone. But in spite of every desire to regard it as known, anyone
62919 reading many historical works cannot help doubting whether this new
62920 force, so variously understood by the historians themselves, is really
62921 quite well known to everybody.
62928 What force moves the nations?
62930 Biographical historians and historians of separate nations understand
62931 this force as a power inherent in heroes and rulers. In their narration
62932 events occur solely by the will of a Napoleon, and Alexander, or in
62933 general of the persons they describe. The answers given by this kind of
62934 historian to the question of what force causes events to happen are
62935 satisfactory only as long as there is but one historian to each event.
62936 As soon as historians of different nationalities and tendencies begin to
62937 describe the same event, the replies they give immediately lose all
62938 meaning, for this force is understood by them all not only differently
62939 but often in quite contradictory ways. One historian says that an event
62940 was produced by Napoleon's power, another that it was produced by
62941 Alexander's, a third that it was due to the power of some other person.
62942 Besides this, historians of that kind contradict each other even in
62943 their statement as to the force on which the authority of some
62944 particular person was based. Thiers, a Bonapartist, says that Napoleon's
62945 power was based on his virtue and genius. Lanfrey, a Republican, says it
62946 was based on his trickery and deception of the people. So the historians
62947 of this class, by mutually destroying one another's positions, destroy
62948 the understanding of the force which produces events, and furnish no
62949 reply to history's essential question.
62951 Writers of universal history who deal with all the nations seem to
62952 recognize how erroneous is the specialist historians' view of the force
62953 which produces events. They do not recognize it as a power inherent in
62954 heroes and rulers, but as the resultant of a multiplicity of variously
62955 directed forces. In describing a war or the subjugation of a people, a
62956 general historian looks for the cause of the event not in the power of
62957 one man, but in the interaction of many persons connected with the
62960 According to this view the power of historical personages, represented
62961 as the product of many forces, can no longer, it would seem, be regarded
62962 as a force that itself produces events. Yet in most cases universal
62963 historians still employ the conception of power as a force that itself
62964 produces events, and treat it as their cause. In their exposition, an
62965 historic character is first the product of his time, and his power only
62966 the resultant of various forces, and then his power is itself a force
62967 producing events. Gervinus, Schlosser, and others, for instance, at one
62968 time prove Napoleon to be a product of the Revolution, of the ideas of
62969 1789 and so forth, and at another plainly say that the campaign of 1812
62970 and other things they do not like were simply the product of Napoleon's
62971 misdirected will, and that the very ideas of 1789 were arrested in their
62972 development by Napoleon's caprice. The ideas of the Revolution and the
62973 general temper of the age produced Napoleon's power. But Napoleon's
62974 power suppressed the ideas of the Revolution and the general temper of
62977 This curious contradiction is not accidental. Not only does it occur at
62978 every step, but the universal historians' accounts are all made up of a
62979 chain of such contradictions. This contradiction occurs because after
62980 entering the field of analysis the universal historians stop halfway.
62982 To find component forces equal to the composite or resultant force, the
62983 sum of the components must equal the resultant. This condition is never
62984 observed by the universal historians, and so to explain the resultant
62985 forces they are obliged to admit, in addition to the insufficient
62986 components, another unexplained force affecting the resultant action.
62988 Specialist historians describing the campaign of 1813 or the restoration
62989 of the Bourbons plainly assert that these events were produced by the
62990 will of Alexander. But the universal historian Gervinus, refuting this
62991 opinion of the specialist historian, tries to prove that the campaign of
62992 1813 and the restoration of the Bourbons were due to other things beside
62993 Alexander's will--such as the activity of Stein, Metternich, Madame de
62994 Stael, Talleyrand, Fichte, Chateaubriand, and others. The historian
62995 evidently decomposes Alexander's power into the components: Talleyrand,
62996 Chateaubriand, and the rest--but the sum of the components, that is, the
62997 interactions of Chateaubriand, Talleyrand, Madame de Stael, and the
62998 others, evidently does not equal the resultant, namely the phenomenon of
62999 millions of Frenchmen submitting to the Bourbons. That Chateaubriand,
63000 Madame de Stael, and others spoke certain words to one another only
63001 affected their mutual relations but does not account for the submission
63002 of millions. And therefore to explain how from these relations of theirs
63003 the submission of millions of people resulted--that is, how component
63004 forces equal to one A gave a resultant equal to a thousand times A--the
63005 historian is again obliged to fall back on power--the force he had
63006 denied--and to recognize it as the resultant of the forces, that is, he
63007 has to admit an unexplained force acting on the resultant. And that is
63008 just what the universal historians do, and consequently they not only
63009 contradict the specialist historians but contradict themselves.
63011 Peasants having no clear idea of the cause of rain, say, according to
63012 whether they want rain or fine weather: "The wind has blown the clouds
63013 away," or, "The wind has brought up the clouds." And in the same way the
63014 universal historians sometimes, when it pleases them and fits in with
63015 their theory, say that power is the result of events, and sometimes,
63016 when they want to prove something else, say that power produces events.
63018 A third class of historians--the so-called historians of culture--
63019 following the path laid down by the universal historians who sometimes
63020 accept writers and ladies as forces producing events--again take that
63021 force to be something quite different. They see it in what is called
63022 culture--in mental activity.
63024 The historians of culture are quite consistent in regard to their
63025 progenitors, the writers of universal histories, for if historical
63026 events may be explained by the fact that certain persons treated one
63027 another in such and such ways, why not explain them by the fact that
63028 such and such people wrote such and such books? Of the immense number of
63029 indications accompanying every vital phenomenon, these historians select
63030 the indication of intellectual activity and say that this indication is
63031 the cause. But despite their endeavors to prove that the cause of events
63032 lies in intellectual activity, only by a great stretch can one admit
63033 that there is any connection between intellectual activity and the
63034 movement of peoples, and in no case can one admit that intellectual
63035 activity controls people's actions, for that view is not confirmed by
63036 such facts as the very cruel murders of the French Revolution resulting
63037 from the doctrine of the equality of man, or the very cruel wars and
63038 executions resulting from the preaching of love.
63040 But even admitting as correct all the cunningly devised arguments with
63041 which these histories are filled--admitting that nations are governed by
63042 some undefined force called an idea--history's essential question still
63043 remains unanswered, and to the former power of monarchs and to the
63044 influence of advisers and other people introduced by the universal
63045 historians, another, newer force--the idea--is added, the connection of
63046 which with the masses needs explanation. It is possible to understand
63047 that Napoleon had power and so events occurred; with some effort one may
63048 even conceive that Napoleon together with other influences was the cause
63049 of an event; but how a book, Le Contrat Social, had the effect of making
63050 Frenchmen begin to drown one another cannot be understood without an
63051 explanation of the causal nexus of this new force with the event.
63053 Undoubtedly some relation exists between all who live contemporaneously,
63054 and so it is possible to find some connection between the intellectual
63055 activity of men and their historical movements, just as such a
63056 connection may be found between the movements of humanity and commerce,
63057 handicraft, gardening, or anything else you please. But why intellectual
63058 activity is considered by the historians of culture to be the cause or
63059 expression of the whole historical movement is hard to understand. Only
63060 the following considerations can have led the historians to such a
63061 conclusion: (1) that history is written by learned men, and so it is
63062 natural and agreeable for them to think that the activity of their class
63063 supplies the basis of the movement of all humanity, just as a similar
63064 belief is natural and agreeable to traders, agriculturists, and soldiers
63065 (if they do not express it, that is merely because traders and soldiers
63066 do not write history), and (2) that spiritual activity, enlightenment,
63067 civilization, culture, ideas, are all indistinct, indefinite conceptions
63068 under whose banner it is very easy to use words having a still less
63069 definite meaning, and which can therefore be readily introduced into any
63072 But not to speak of the intrinsic quality of histories of this kind
63073 (which may possibly even be of use to someone for something) the
63074 histories of culture, to which all general histories tend more and more
63075 to approximate, are significant from the fact that after seriously and
63076 minutely examining various religious, philosophic, and political
63077 doctrines as causes of events, as soon as they have to describe an
63078 actual historic event such as the campaign of 1812 for instance, they
63079 involuntarily describe it as resulting from an exercise of power--and
63080 say plainly that that was the result of Napoleon's will. Speaking so,
63081 the historians of culture involuntarily contradict themselves, and show
63082 that the new force they have devised does not account for what happens
63083 in history, and that history can only be explained by introducing a
63084 power which they apparently do not recognize.
63091 A locomotive is moving. Someone asks: "What moves it?" A peasant says
63092 the devil moves it. Another man says the locomotive moves because its
63093 wheels go round. A third asserts that the cause of its movement lies in
63094 the smoke which the wind carries away.
63096 The peasant is irrefutable. He has devised a complete explanation. To
63097 refute him someone would have to prove to him that there is no devil, or
63098 another peasant would have to explain to him that it is not the devil
63099 but a German, who moves the locomotive. Only then, as a result of the
63100 contradiction, will they see that they are both wrong. But the man who
63101 says that the movement of the wheels is the cause refutes himself, for
63102 having once begun to analyze he ought to go on and explain further why
63103 the wheels go round; and till he has reached the ultimate cause of the
63104 movement of the locomotive in the pressure of steam in the boiler, he
63105 has no right to stop in his search for the cause. The man who explains
63106 the movement of the locomotive by the smoke that is carried back has
63107 noticed that the wheels do not supply an explanation and has taken the
63108 first sign that occurs to him and in his turn has offered that as an
63111 The only conception that can explain the movement of the locomotive is
63112 that of a force commensurate with the movement observed.
63114 The only conception that can explain the movement of the peoples is that
63115 of some force commensurate with the whole movement of the peoples.
63117 Yet to supply this conception various historians take forces of
63118 different kinds, all of which are incommensurate with the movement
63119 observed. Some see it as a force directly inherent in heroes, as the
63120 peasant sees the devil in the locomotive; others as a force resulting
63121 from several other forces, like the movement of the wheels; others again
63122 as an intellectual influence, like the smoke that is blown away.
63124 So long as histories are written of separate individuals, whether
63125 Caesars, Alexanders, Luthers, or Voltaires, and not the histories of
63126 all, absolutely all those who take part in an event, it is quite
63127 impossible to describe the movement of humanity without the conception
63128 of a force compelling men to direct their activity toward a certain end.
63129 And the only such conception known to historians is that of power.
63131 This conception is the one handle by means of which the material of
63132 history, as at present expounded, can be dealt with, and anyone who
63133 breaks that handle off, as Buckle did, without finding some other method
63134 of treating historical material, merely deprives himself of the one
63135 possible way of dealing with it. The necessity of the conception of
63136 power as an explanation of historical events is best demonstrated by the
63137 universal historians and historians of culture themselves, for they
63138 professedly reject that conception but inevitably have recourse to it at
63141 In dealing with humanity's inquiry, the science of history up to now is
63142 like money in circulation--paper money and coin. The biographies and
63143 special national histories are like paper money. They can be used and
63144 can circulate and fulfill their purpose without harm to anyone and even
63145 advantageously, as long as no one asks what is the security behind them.
63146 You need only forget to ask how the will of heroes produces events, and
63147 such histories as Thiers' will be interesting and instructive and may
63148 perhaps even possess a tinge of poetry. But just as doubts of the real
63149 value of paper money arise either because, being easy to make, too much
63150 of it gets made or because people try to exchange it for gold, so also
63151 doubts concerning the real value of such histories arise either because
63152 too many of them are written or because in his simplicity of heart
63153 someone inquires: by what force did Napoleon do this?--that is, wants to
63154 exchange the current paper money for the real gold of actual
63157 The writers of universal histories and of the history of culture are
63158 like people who, recognizing the defects of paper money, decide to
63159 substitute for it money made of metal that has not the specific gravity
63160 of gold. It may indeed make jingling coin, but will do no more than
63161 that. Paper money may deceive the ignorant, but nobody is deceived by
63162 tokens of base metal that have no value but merely jingle. As gold is
63163 gold only if it is serviceable not merely for exchange but also for use,
63164 so universal historians will be valuable only when they can reply to
63165 history's essential question: what is power? The universal historians
63166 give contradictory replies to that question, while the historians of
63167 culture evade it and answer something quite different. And as counters
63168 of imitation gold can be used only among a group of people who agree to
63169 accept them as gold, or among those who do not know the nature of gold,
63170 so universal historians and historians of culture, not answering
63171 humanity's essential question, serve as currency for some purposes of
63172 their own, only in universities and among the mass of readers who have a
63173 taste for what they call "serious reading."
63180 Having abandoned the conception of the ancients as to the divine
63181 subjection of the will of a nation to some chosen man and the subjection
63182 of that man's will to the Deity, history cannot without contradictions
63183 take a single step till it has chosen one of two things: either a return
63184 to the former belief in the direct intervention of the Deity in human
63185 affairs or a definite explanation of the meaning of the force producing
63186 historical events and termed "power."
63188 A return to the first is impossible, the belief has been destroyed; and
63189 so it is essential to explain what is meant by power.
63191 Napoleon ordered an army to be raised and go to war. We are so
63192 accustomed to that idea and have become so used to it that the question:
63193 why did six hundred thousand men go to fight when Napoleon uttered
63194 certain words, seems to us senseless. He had the power and so what he
63197 This reply is quite satisfactory if we believe that the power was given
63198 him by God. But as soon as we do not admit that, it becomes essential to
63199 determine what is this power of one man over others.
63201 It cannot be the direct physical power of a strong man over a weak one--
63202 a domination based on the application or threat of physical force, like
63203 the power of Hercules; nor can it be based on the effect of moral force,
63204 as in their simplicity some historians think who say that the leading
63205 figures in history are heroes, that is, men gifted with a special
63206 strength of soul and mind called genius. This power cannot be based on
63207 the predominance of moral strength, for, not to mention heroes such as
63208 Napoleon about whose moral qualities opinions differ widely, history
63209 shows us that neither a Louis XI nor a Metternich, who ruled over
63210 millions of people, had any particular moral qualities, but on the
63211 contrary were generally morally weaker than any of the millions they
63214 If the source of power lies neither in the physical nor in the moral
63215 qualities of him who possesses it, it must evidently be looked for
63216 elsewhere--in the relation to the people of the man who wields the
63219 And that is how power is understood by the science of jurisprudence,
63220 that exchange bank of history which offers to exchange history's
63221 understanding of power for true gold.
63223 Power is the collective will of the people transferred, by expressed or
63224 tacit consent, to their chosen rulers.
63226 In the domain of jurisprudence, which consists of discussions of how a
63227 state and power might be arranged were it possible for all that to be
63228 arranged, it is all very clear; but when applied to history that
63229 definition of power needs explanation.
63231 The science of jurisprudence regards the state and power as the ancients
63232 regarded fire--namely, as something existing absolutely. But for
63233 history, the state and power are merely phenomena, just as for modern
63234 physics fire is not an element but a phenomenon.
63236 From this fundamental difference between the view held by history and
63237 that held by jurisprudence, it follows that jurisprudence can tell
63238 minutely how in its opinion power should be constituted and what power--
63239 existing immutably outside time--is, but to history's questions about
63240 the meaning of the mutations of power in time it can answer nothing.
63242 If power be the collective will of the people transferred to their
63243 ruler, was Pugachev a representative of the will of the people? If not,
63244 then why was Napoleon I? Why was Napoleon III a criminal when he was
63245 taken prisoner at Boulogne, and why, later on, were those criminals whom
63248 Do palace revolutions--in which sometimes only two or three people take
63249 part--transfer the will of the people to a new ruler? In international
63250 relations, is the will of the people also transferred to their
63251 conqueror? Was the will of the Confederation of the Rhine transferred to
63252 Napoleon in 1806? Was the will of the Russian people transferred to
63253 Napoleon in 1809, when our army in alliance with the French went to
63254 fight the Austrians?
63256 To these questions three answers are possible:
63258 Either to assume (1) that the will of the people is always
63259 unconditionally transferred to the ruler or rulers they have chosen, and
63260 that therefore every emergence of a new power, every struggle against
63261 the power once appointed, should be absolutely regarded as an
63262 infringement of the real power; or (2) that the will of the people is
63263 transferred to the rulers conditionally, under definite and known
63264 conditions, and to show that all limitations, conflicts, and even
63265 destructions of power result from a nonobservance by the rulers of the
63266 conditions under which their power was entrusted to them; or (3) that
63267 the will of the people is delegated to the rulers conditionally, but
63268 that the conditions are unknown and indefinite, and that the appearance
63269 of several authorities, their struggles and their falls, result solely
63270 from the greater or lesser fulfillment by the rulers of these unknown
63271 conditions on which the will of the people is transferred from some
63274 And these are the three ways in which the historians do explain the
63275 relation of the people to their rulers.
63277 Some historians--those biographical and specialist historians already
63278 referred to--in their simplicity failing to understand the question of
63279 the meaning of power, seem to consider that the collective will of the
63280 people is unconditionally transferred to historical persons, and
63281 therefore when describing some single state they assume that particular
63282 power to be the one absolute and real power, and that any other force
63283 opposing this is not a power but a violation of power--mere violence.
63285 Their theory, suitable for primitive and peaceful periods of history,
63286 has the inconvenience--in application to complex and stormy periods in
63287 the life of nations during which various powers arise simultaneously and
63288 struggle with one another--that a Legitimist historian will prove that
63289 the National Convention, the Directory, and Bonaparte were mere
63290 infringers of the true power, while a Republican and a Bonapartist will
63291 prove: the one that the Convention and the other that the Empire was the
63292 real power, and that all the others were violations of power. Evidently
63293 the explanations furnished by these historians being mutually
63294 contradictory can only satisfy young children.
63296 Recognizing the falsity of this view of history, another set of
63297 historians say that power rests on a conditional delegation of the will
63298 of the people to their rulers, and that historical leaders have power
63299 only conditionally on carrying out the program that the will of the
63300 people has by tacit agreement prescribed to them. But what this program
63301 consists in these historians do not say, or if they do they continually
63302 contradict one another.
63304 Each historian, according to his view of what constitutes a nation's
63305 progress, looks for these conditions in the greatness, wealth, freedom,
63306 or enlightenment of citizens of France or some other country. But not to
63307 mention the historians' contradictions as to the nature of this program-
63308 -or even admitting that some one general program of these conditions
63309 exists--the facts of history almost always contradict that theory. If
63310 the conditions under which power is entrusted consist in the wealth,
63311 freedom, and enlightenment of the people, how is it that Louis XIV and
63312 Ivan the Terrible end their reigns tranquilly, while Louis XVI and
63313 Charles I are executed by their people? To this question historians
63314 reply that Louis XIV's activity, contrary to the program, reacted on
63315 Louis XVI. But why did it not react on Louis XIV or on Louis XV--why
63316 should it react just on Louis XVI? And what is the time limit for such
63317 reactions? To these questions there are and can be no answers. Equally
63318 little does this view explain why for several centuries the collective
63319 will is not withdrawn from certain rulers and their heirs, and then
63320 suddenly during a period of fifty years is transferred to the
63321 Convention, to the Directory, to Napoleon, to Alexander, to Louis XVIII,
63322 to Napoleon again, to Charles X, to Louis Philippe, to a Republican
63323 government, and to Napoleon III. When explaining these rapid transfers
63324 of the people's will from one individual to another, especially in view
63325 of international relations, conquests, and alliances, the historians are
63326 obliged to admit that some of these transfers are not normal delegations
63327 of the people's will but are accidents dependent on cunning, on
63328 mistakes, on craft, or on the weakness of a diplomatist, a ruler, or a
63329 party leader. So that the greater part of the events of history--civil
63330 wars, revolutions, and conquests--are presented by these historians not
63331 as the results of free transferences of the people's will, but as
63332 results of the ill-directed will of one or more individuals, that is,
63333 once again, as usurpations of power. And so these historians also see
63334 and admit historical events which are exceptions to the theory.
63336 These historians resemble a botanist who, having noticed that some
63337 plants grow from seeds producing two cotyledons, should insist that all
63338 that grows does so by sprouting into two leaves, and that the palm, the
63339 mushroom, and even the oak, which blossom into full growth and no longer
63340 resemble two leaves, are deviations from the theory.
63342 Historians of the third class assume that the will of the people is
63343 transferred to historic personages conditionally, but that the
63344 conditions are unknown to us. They say that historical personages have
63345 power only because they fulfill the will of the people which has been
63348 But in that case, if the force that moves nations lies not in the
63349 historic leaders but in the nations themselves, what significance have
63352 The leaders, these historians tell us, express the will of the people:
63353 the activity of the leaders represents the activity of the people.
63355 But in that case the question arises whether all the activity of the
63356 leaders serves as an expression of the people's will or only some part
63357 of it. If the whole activity of the leaders serves as the expression of
63358 the people's will, as some historians suppose, then all the details of
63359 the court scandals contained in the biographies of a Napoleon or a
63360 Catherine serve to express the life of the nation, which is evident
63361 nonsense; but if it is only some particular side of the activity of an
63362 historical leader which serves to express the people's life, as other
63363 so-called "philosophical" historians believe, then to determine which
63364 side of the activity of a leader expresses the nation's life, we have
63365 first of all to know in what the nation's life consists.
63367 Met by this difficulty historians of that class devise some most
63368 obscure, impalpable, and general abstraction which can cover all
63369 conceivable occurrences, and declare this abstraction to be the aim of
63370 humanity's movement. The most usual generalizations adopted by almost
63371 all the historians are: freedom, equality, enlightenment, progress,
63372 civilization, and culture. Postulating some generalization as the goal
63373 of the movement of humanity, the historians study the men of whom the
63374 greatest number of monuments have remained: kings, ministers, generals,
63375 authors, reformers, popes, and journalists, to the extent to which in
63376 their opinion these persons have promoted or hindered that abstraction.
63377 But as it is in no way proved that the aim of humanity does consist in
63378 freedom, equality, enlightenment, or civilization, and as the connection
63379 of the people with the rulers and enlighteners of humanity is only based
63380 on the arbitrary assumption that the collective will of the people is
63381 always transferred to the men whom we have noticed, it happens that the
63382 activity of the millions who migrate, burn houses, abandon agriculture,
63383 and destroy one another never is expressed in the account of the
63384 activity of some dozen people who did not burn houses, practice
63385 agriculture, or slay their fellow creatures.
63387 History proves this at every turn. Is the ferment of the peoples of the
63388 west at the end of the eighteenth century and their drive eastward
63389 explained by the activity of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, their mistresses
63390 and ministers, and by the lives of Napoleon, Rousseau, Diderot,
63391 Beaumarchais, and others?
63393 Is the movement of the Russian people eastward to Kazan and Siberia
63394 expressed by details of the morbid character of Ivan the Terrible and by
63395 his correspondence with Kurbski?
63397 Is the movement of the peoples at the time of the Crusades explained by
63398 the life and activity of the Godfreys and the Louis-es and their ladies?
63399 For us that movement of the peoples from west to east, without leaders,
63400 with a crowd of vagrants, and with Peter the Hermit, remains
63401 incomprehensible. And yet more incomprehensible is the cessation of that
63402 movement when a rational and sacred aim for the Crusade--the deliverance
63403 of Jerusalem--had been clearly defined by historic leaders. Popes,
63404 kings, and knights incited the peoples to free the Holy Land; but the
63405 people did not go, for the unknown cause which had previously impelled
63406 them to go no longer existed. The history of the Godfreys and the
63407 Minnesingers can evidently not cover the life of the peoples. And the
63408 history of the Godfreys and the Minnesingers has remained the history of
63409 Godfreys and Minnesingers, but the history of the life of the peoples
63410 and their impulses has remained unknown.
63412 Still less does the history of authors and reformers explain to us the
63413 life of the peoples.
63415 The history of culture explains to us the impulses and conditions of
63416 life and thought of a writer or a reformer. We learn that Luther had a
63417 hot temper and said such and such things; we learn that Rousseau was
63418 suspicious and wrote such and such books; but we do not learn why after
63419 the Reformation the peoples massacred one another, nor why during the
63420 French Revolution they guillotined one another.
63422 If we unite both these kinds of history, as is done by the newest
63423 historians, we shall have the history of monarchs and writers, but not
63424 the history of the life of the peoples.
63431 The life of the nations is not contained in the lives of a few men, for
63432 the connection between those men and the nations has not been found. The
63433 theory that this connection is based on the transference of the
63434 collective will of a people to certain historical personages is an
63435 hypothesis unconfirmed by the experience of history.
63437 The theory of the transference of the collective will of the people to
63438 historic persons may perhaps explain much in the domain of jurisprudence
63439 and be essential for its purposes, but in its application to history, as
63440 soon as revolutions, conquests, or civil wars occur--that is, as soon as
63441 history begins--that theory explains nothing.
63443 The theory seems irrefutable just because the act of transference of the
63444 people's will cannot be verified, for it never occurred.
63446 Whatever happens and whoever may stand at the head of affairs, the
63447 theory can always say that such and such a person took the lead because
63448 the collective will was transferred to him.
63450 The replies this theory gives to historical questions are like the
63451 replies of a man who, watching the movements of a herd of cattle and
63452 paying no attention to the varying quality of the pasturage in different
63453 parts of the field, or to the driving of the herdsman, should attribute
63454 the direction the herd takes to what animal happens to be at its head.
63456 "The herd goes in that direction because the animal in front leads it
63457 and the collective will of all the other animals is vested in that
63458 leader." This is what historians of the first class say--those who
63459 assume the unconditional transference of the people's will.
63461 "If the animals leading the herd change, this happens because the
63462 collective will of all the animals is transferred from one leader to
63463 another, according to whether the animal is or is not leading them in
63464 the direction selected by the whole herd." Such is the reply historians
63465 who assume that the collective will of the people is delegated to rulers
63466 under conditions which they regard as known. (With this method of
63467 observation it often happens that the observer, influenced by the
63468 direction he himself prefers, regards those as leaders who, owing to the
63469 people's change of direction, are no longer in front, but on one side,
63470 or even in the rear.)
63472 "If the animals in front are continually changing and the direction of
63473 the whole herd is constantly altered, this is because in order to follow
63474 a given direction the animals transfer their will to the animals that
63475 have attracted our attention, and to study the movements of the herd we
63476 must watch the movements of all the prominent animals moving on all
63477 sides of the herd." So say the third class of historians who regard all
63478 historical persons, from monarchs to journalists, as the expression of
63481 The theory of the transference of the will of the people to historic
63482 persons is merely a paraphrase--a restatement of the question in other
63485 What causes historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the
63486 collective will of the people transferred to one person. Under what
63487 condition is the will of the people delegated to one person? On
63488 condition that that person expresses the will of the whole people. That
63489 is, power is power: in other words, power is a word the meaning of which
63490 we do not understand.
63492 If the realm of human knowledge were confined to abstract reasoning,
63493 then having subjected to criticism the explanation of "power" that
63494 juridical science gives us, humanity would conclude that power is merely
63495 a word and has no real existence. But to understand phenomena man has,
63496 besides abstract reasoning, experience by which he verifies his
63497 reflections. And experience tells us that power is not merely a word but
63498 an actually existing phenomenon.
63500 Not to speak of the fact that no description of the collective activity
63501 of men can do without the conception of power, the existence of power is
63502 proved both by history and by observing contemporary events.
63504 Whenever an event occurs a man appears or men appear, by whose will the
63505 event seems to have taken place. Napoleon III issues a decree and the
63506 French go to Mexico. The King of Prussia and Bismarck issue decrees and
63507 an army enters Bohemia. Napoleon I issues a decree and an army enters
63508 Russia. Alexander I gives a command and the French submit to the
63509 Bourbons. Experience shows us that whatever event occurs it is always
63510 related to the will of one or of several men who have decreed it.
63512 The historians, in accord with the old habit of acknowledging divine
63513 intervention in human affairs, want to see the cause of events in the
63514 expression of the will of someone endowed with power, but that
63515 supposition is not confirmed either by reason or by experience.
63517 On the one side reflection shows that the expression of a man's will--
63518 his words--are only part of the general activity expressed in an event,
63519 as for instance in a war or a revolution, and so without assuming an
63520 incomprehensible, supernatural force--a miracle--one cannot admit that
63521 words can be the immediate cause of the movements of millions of men. On
63522 the other hand, even if we admitted that words could be the cause of
63523 events, history shows that the expression of the will of historical
63524 personages does not in most cases produce any effect, that is to say,
63525 their commands are often not executed, and sometimes the very opposite
63526 of what they order occurs.
63528 Without admitting divine intervention in the affairs of humanity we
63529 cannot regard "power" as the cause of events.
63531 Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the relation that
63532 exists between the expression of someone's will and the execution of
63533 that will by others.
63535 To explain the conditions of that relationship we must first establish a
63536 conception of the expression of will, referring it to man and not to the
63539 If the Deity issues a command, expresses His will, as ancient history
63540 tells us, the expression of that will is independent of time and is not
63541 caused by anything, for the Divinity is not controlled by an event. But
63542 speaking of commands that are the expression of the will of men acting
63543 in time and in relation to one another, to explain the connection of
63544 commands with events we must restore: (1) the condition of all that
63545 takes place: the continuity of movement in time both of the events and
63546 of the person who commands, and (2) the inevitability of the connection
63547 between the person commanding and those who execute his command.
63554 Only the expression of the will of the Deity, not dependent on time, can
63555 relate to a whole series of events occurring over a period of years or
63556 centuries, and only the Deity, independent of everything, can by His
63557 sole will determine the direction of humanity's movement; but man acts
63558 in time and himself takes part in what occurs.
63560 Reinstating the first condition omitted, that of time, we see that no
63561 command can be executed without some preceding order having been given
63562 rendering the execution of the last command possible.
63564 No command ever appears spontaneously, or itself covers a whole series
63565 of occurrences; but each command follows from another, and never refers
63566 to a whole series of events but always to one moment only of an event.
63568 When, for instance, we say that Napoleon ordered armies to go to war, we
63569 combine in one simultaneous expression a whole series of consecutive
63570 commands dependent one on another. Napoleon could not have commanded an
63571 invasion of Russia and never did so. Today he ordered such and such
63572 papers to be written to Vienna, to Berlin, and to Petersburg; tomorrow
63573 such and such decrees and orders to the army, the fleet, the
63574 commissariat, and so on and so on--millions of commands, which formed a
63575 whole series corresponding to a series of events which brought the
63576 French armies into Russia.
63578 If throughout his reign Napoleon gave commands concerning an invasion of
63579 England and expended on no other undertaking so much time and effort,
63580 and yet during his whole reign never once attempted to execute that
63581 design but undertook an expedition into Russia, with which country he
63582 considered it desirable to be in alliance (a conviction he repeatedly
63583 expressed)--this came about because his commands did not correspond to
63584 the course of events in the first case, but did so correspond in the
63587 For an order to be certainly executed, it is necessary that a man should
63588 order what can be executed. But to know what can and what cannot be
63589 executed is impossible, not only in the case of Napoleon's invasion of
63590 Russia in which millions participated, but even in the simplest event,
63591 for in either case millions of obstacles may arise to prevent its
63592 execution. Every order executed is always one of an immense number
63593 unexecuted. All the impossible orders inconsistent with the course of
63594 events remain unexecuted. Only the possible ones get linked up with a
63595 consecutive series of commands corresponding to a series of events, and
63598 Our false conception that an event is caused by a command which precedes
63599 it is due to the fact that when the event has taken place and out of
63600 thousands of others those few commands which were consistent with that
63601 event have been executed, we forget about the others that were not
63602 executed because they could not be. Apart from that, the chief source of
63603 our error in this matter is due to the fact that in the historical
63604 accounts a whole series of innumerable, diverse, and petty events, such
63605 for instance as all those which led the French armies to Russia, is
63606 generalized into one event in accord with the result produced by that
63607 series of events, and corresponding with this generalization the whole
63608 series of commands is also generalized into a single expression of will.
63610 We say that Napoleon wished to invade Russia and invaded it. In reality
63611 in all Napoleon's activity we never find anything resembling an
63612 expression of that wish, but find a series of orders, or expressions of
63613 his will, very variously and indefinitely directed. Amid a long series
63614 of unexecuted orders of Napoleon's one series, for the campaign of 1812,
63615 was carried out--not because those orders differed in any way from the
63616 other, unexecuted orders but because they coincided with the course of
63617 events that led the French army into Russia; just as in stencil work
63618 this or that figure comes out not because the color was laid on from
63619 this side or in that way, but because it was laid on from all sides over
63620 the figure cut in the stencil.
63622 So that examining the relation in time of the commands to the events, we
63623 find that a command can never be the cause of the event, but that a
63624 certain definite dependence exists between the two.
63626 To understand in what this dependence consists it is necessary to
63627 reinstate another omitted condition of every command proceeding not from
63628 the Deity but from a man, which is, that the man who gives the command
63629 himself takes part in the event.
63631 This relation of the commander to those he commands is just what is
63632 called power. This relation consists in the following:
63634 For common action people always unite in certain combinations, in which
63635 regardless of the difference of the aims set for the common action, the
63636 relation between those taking part in it is always the same.
63638 Men uniting in these combinations always assume such relations toward
63639 one another that the larger number take a more direct share, and the
63640 smaller number a less direct share, in the collective action for which
63641 they have combined.
63643 Of all the combinations in which men unite for collective action one of
63644 the most striking and definite examples is an army.
63646 Every army is composed of lower grades of the service--the rank and
63647 file--of whom there are always the greatest number; of the next higher
63648 military rank--corporals and noncommissioned officers of whom there are
63649 fewer, and of still-higher officers of whom there are still fewer, and
63650 so on to the highest military command which is concentrated in one
63653 A military organization may be quite correctly compared to a cone, of
63654 which the base with the largest diameter consists of the rank and file;
63655 the next higher and smaller section of the cone consists of the next
63656 higher grades of the army, and so on to the apex, the point of which
63657 will represent the commander-in-chief.
63659 The soldiers, of whom there are the most, form the lower section of the
63660 cone and its base. The soldier himself does the stabbing, hacking,
63661 burning, and pillaging, and always receives orders for these actions
63662 from men above him; he himself never gives an order. The noncommissioned
63663 officers (of whom there are fewer) perform the action itself less
63664 frequently than the soldiers, but they already give commands. An officer
63665 still less often acts directly himself, but commands still more
63666 frequently. A general does nothing but command the troops, indicates the
63667 objective, and hardly ever uses a weapon himself. The commander-in-chief
63668 never takes direct part in the action itself, but only gives general
63669 orders concerning the movement of the mass of the troops. A similar
63670 relation of people to one another is seen in every combination of men
63671 for common activity--in agriculture, trade, and every administration.
63673 And so without particularly analyzing all the contiguous sections of a
63674 cone and of the ranks of an army, or the ranks and positions in any
63675 administrative or public business whatever from the lowest to the
63676 highest, we see a law by which men, to take associated action, combine
63677 in such relations that the more directly they participate in performing
63678 the action the less they can command and the more numerous they are,
63679 while the less their direct participation in the action itself, the more
63680 they command and the fewer of them there are; rising in this way from
63681 the lowest ranks to the man at the top, who takes the least direct share
63682 in the action and directs his activity chiefly to commanding.
63684 This relation of the men who command to those they command is what
63685 constitutes the essence of the conception called power.
63687 Having restored the condition of time under which all events occur, we
63688 find that a command is executed only when it is related to a
63689 corresponding series of events. Restoring the essential condition of
63690 relation between those who command and those who execute, we find that
63691 by the very nature of the case those who command take the smallest part
63692 in the action itself and that their activity is exclusively directed to
63700 When an event is taking place people express their opinions and wishes
63701 about it, and as the event results from the collective activity of many
63702 people, some one of the opinions or wishes expressed is sure to be
63703 fulfilled if but approximately. When one of the opinions expressed is
63704 fulfilled, that opinion gets connected with the event as a command
63707 Men are hauling a log. Each of them expresses his opinion as to how and
63708 where to haul it. They haul the log away, and it happens that this is
63709 done as one of them said. He ordered it. There we have command and power
63710 in their primary form. The man who worked most with his hands could not
63711 think so much about what he was doing, or reflect on or command what
63712 would result from the common activity; while the man who commanded more
63713 would evidently work less with his hands on account of his greater
63716 When some larger concourse of men direct their activity to a common aim
63717 there is a yet sharper division of those who, because their activity is
63718 given to directing and commanding, take less part in the direct work.
63720 When a man works alone he always has a certain set of reflections which
63721 as it seems to him directed his past activity, justify his present
63722 activity, and guide him in planning his future actions. Just the same is
63723 done by a concourse of people, allowing those who do not take a direct
63724 part in the activity to devise considerations, justifications, and
63725 surmises concerning their collective activity.
63727 For reasons known or unknown to us the French began to drown and kill
63728 one another. And corresponding to the event its justification appears in
63729 people's belief that this was necessary for the welfare of France, for
63730 liberty, and for equality. People ceased to kill one another, and this
63731 event was accompanied by its justification in the necessity for a
63732 centralization of power, resistance to Europe, and so on. Men went from
63733 the west to the east killing their fellow men, and the event was
63734 accompanied by phrases about the glory of France, the baseness of
63735 England, and so on. History shows us that these justifications of the
63736 events have no common sense and are all contradictory, as in the case of
63737 killing a man as the result of recognizing his rights, and the killing
63738 of millions in Russia for the humiliation of England. But these
63739 justifications have a very necessary significance in their own day.
63741 These justifications release those who produce the events from moral
63742 responsibility. These temporary aims are like the broom fixed in front
63743 of a locomotive to clear the snow from the rails in front: they clear
63744 men's moral responsibilities from their path.
63746 Without such justification there would be no reply to the simplest
63747 question that presents itself when examining each historical event. How
63748 is it that millions of men commit collective crimes--make war, commit
63751 With the present complex forms of political and social life in Europe
63752 can any event that is not prescribed, decreed, or ordered by monarchs,
63753 ministers, parliaments, or newspapers be imagined? Is there any
63754 collective action which cannot find its justification in political
63755 unity, in patriotism, in the balance of power, or in civilization? So
63756 that every event that occurs inevitably coincides with some expressed
63757 wish and, receiving a justification, presents itself as the result of
63758 the will of one man or of several men.
63760 In whatever direction a ship moves, the flow of the waves it cuts will
63761 always be noticeable ahead of it. To those on board the ship the
63762 movement of those waves will be the only perceptible motion.
63764 Only by watching closely moment by moment the movement of that flow and
63765 comparing it with the movement of the ship do we convince ourselves that
63766 every bit of it is occasioned by the forward movement of the ship, and
63767 that we were led into error by the fact that we ourselves were
63768 imperceptibly moving.
63770 We see the same if we watch moment by moment the movement of historical
63771 characters (that is, re-establish the inevitable condition of all that
63772 occurs--the continuity of movement in time) and do not lose sight of the
63773 essential connection of historical persons with the masses.
63775 When the ship moves in one direction there is one and the same wave
63776 ahead of it, when it turns frequently the wave ahead of it also turns
63777 frequently. But wherever it may turn there always will be the wave
63778 anticipating its movement.
63780 Whatever happens it always appears that just that event was foreseen and
63781 decreed. Wherever the ship may go, the rush of water which neither
63782 directs nor increases its movement foams ahead of it, and at a distance
63783 seems to us not merely to move of itself but to govern the ship's
63786 Examining only those expressions of the will of historical persons
63787 which, as commands, were related to events, historians have assumed that
63788 the events depended on those commands. But examining the events
63789 themselves and the connection in which the historical persons stood to
63790 the people, we have found that they and their orders were dependent on
63791 events. The incontestable proof of this deduction is that, however many
63792 commands were issued, the event does not take place unless there are
63793 other causes for it, but as soon as an event occurs--be it what it may--
63794 then out of all the continually expressed wishes of different people
63795 some will always be found which by their meaning and their time of
63796 utterance are related as commands to the events.
63798 Arriving at this conclusion we can reply directly and positively to
63799 these two essential questions of history:
63803 (2) What force produces the movement of the nations?
63805 (1) Power is the relation of a given person to other individuals, in
63806 which the more this person expresses opinions, predictions, and
63807 justifications of the collective action that is performed, the less is
63808 his participation in that action.
63810 (2) The movement of nations is caused not by power, nor by intellectual
63811 activity, nor even by a combination of the two as historians have
63812 supposed, but by the activity of all the people who participate in the
63813 events, and who always combine in such a way that those taking the
63814 largest direct share in the event take on themselves the least
63815 responsibility and vice versa.
63817 Morally the wielder of power appears to cause the event; physically it
63818 is those who submit to the power. But as the moral activity is
63819 inconceivable without the physical, the cause of the event is neither in
63820 the one nor in the other but in the union of the two.
63822 Or in other words, the conception of a cause is inapplicable to the
63823 phenomena we are examining.
63825 In the last analysis we reach the circle of infinity--that final limit
63826 to which in every domain of thought man's reason arrives if it is not
63827 playing with the subject. Electricity produces heat, heat produces
63828 electricity. Atoms attract each other and atoms repel one another.
63830 Speaking of the interaction of heat and electricity and of atoms, we
63831 cannot say why this occurs, and we say that it is so because it is
63832 inconceivable otherwise, because it must be so and that it is a law. The
63833 same applies to historical events. Why war and revolution occur we do
63834 not know. We only know that to produce the one or the other action,
63835 people combine in a certain formation in which they all take part, and
63836 we say that this is so because it is unthinkable otherwise, or in other
63837 words that it is a law.
63844 If history dealt only with external phenomena, the establishment of this
63845 simple and obvious law would suffice and we should have finished our
63846 argument. But the law of history relates to man. A particle of matter
63847 cannot tell us that it does not feel the law of attraction or repulsion
63848 and that that law is untrue, but man, who is the subject of history,
63849 says plainly: I am free and am therefore not subject to the law.
63851 The presence of the problem of man's free will, though unexpressed, is
63852 felt at every step of history.
63854 All seriously thinking historians have involuntarily encountered this
63855 question. All the contradictions and obscurities of history and the
63856 false path historical science has followed are due solely to the lack of
63857 a solution of that question.
63859 If the will of every man were free, that is, if each man could act as he
63860 pleased, all history would be a series of disconnected incidents.
63862 If in a thousand years even one man in a million could act freely, that
63863 is, as he chose, it is evident that one single free act of that man's in
63864 violation of the laws governing human action would destroy the
63865 possibility of the existence of any laws for the whole of humanity.
63867 If there be a single law governing the actions of men, free will cannot
63868 exist, for then man's will is subject to that law.
63870 In this contradiction lies the problem of free will, which from most
63871 ancient times has occupied the best human minds and from most ancient
63872 times has been presented in its whole tremendous significance.
63874 The problem is that regarding man as a subject of observation from
63875 whatever point of view--theological, historical, ethical, or
63876 philosophic--we find a general law of necessity to which he (like all
63877 that exists) is subject. But regarding him from within ourselves as what
63878 we are conscious of, we feel ourselves to be free.
63880 This consciousness is a source of self-cognition quite apart from and
63881 independent of reason. Through his reason man observes himself, but only
63882 through consciousness does he know himself.
63884 Apart from consciousness of self no observation or application of reason
63887 To understand, observe, and draw conclusions, man must first of all be
63888 conscious of himself as living. A man is only conscious of himself as a
63889 living being by the fact that he wills, that is, is conscious of his
63890 volition. But his will--which forms the essence of his life--man
63891 recognizes (and can but recognize) as free.
63893 If, observing himself, man sees that his will is always directed by one
63894 and the same law (whether he observes the necessity of taking food,
63895 using his brain, or anything else) he cannot recognize this never-
63896 varying direction of his will otherwise than as a limitation of it. Were
63897 it not free it could not be limited. A man's will seems to him to be
63898 limited just because he is not conscious of it except as free.
63900 You say: I am not free. But I have lifted my hand and let it fall.
63901 Everyone understands that this illogical reply is an irrefutable
63902 demonstration of freedom.
63904 That reply is the expression of a consciousness that is not subject to
63907 If the consciousness of freedom were not a separate and independent
63908 source of self-consciousness it would be subject to reasoning and to
63909 experience, but in fact such subjection does not exist and is
63912 A series of experiments and arguments proves to every man that he, as an
63913 object of observation, is subject to certain laws, and man submits to
63914 them and never resists the laws of gravity or impermeability once he has
63915 become acquainted with them. But the same series of experiments and
63916 arguments proves to him that the complete freedom of which he is
63917 conscious in himself is impossible, and that his every action depends on
63918 his organization, his character, and the motives acting upon him; yet
63919 man never submits to the deductions of these experiments and arguments.
63920 Having learned from experiment and argument that a stone falls
63921 downwards, a man indubitably believes this and always expects the law
63922 that he has learned to be fulfilled.
63924 But learning just as certainly that his will is subject to laws, he does
63925 not and cannot believe this.
63927 However often experiment and reasoning may show a man that under the
63928 same conditions and with the same character he will do the same thing as
63929 before, yet when under the same conditions and with the same character
63930 he approaches for the thousandth time the action that always ends in the
63931 same way, he feels as certainly convinced as before the experiment that
63932 he can act as he pleases. Every man, savage or sage, however
63933 incontestably reason and experiment may prove to him that it is
63934 impossible to imagine two different courses of action in precisely the
63935 same conditions, feels that without this irrational conception (which
63936 constitutes the essence of freedom) he cannot imagine life. He feels
63937 that however impossible it may be, it is so, for without this conception
63938 of freedom not only would he be unable to understand life, but he would
63939 be unable to live for a single moment.
63941 He could not live, because all man's efforts, all his impulses to life,
63942 are only efforts to increase freedom. Wealth and poverty, fame and
63943 obscurity, power and subordination, strength and weakness, health and
63944 disease, culture and ignorance, work and leisure, repletion and hunger,
63945 virtue and vice, are only greater or lesser degrees of freedom.
63947 A man having no freedom cannot be conceived of except as deprived of
63950 If the conception of freedom appears to reason to be a senseless
63951 contradiction like the possibility of performing two actions at one and
63952 the same instant of time, or of an effect without a cause, that only
63953 proves that consciousness is not subject to reason.
63955 This unshakable, irrefutable consciousness of freedom, uncontrolled by
63956 experiment or argument, recognized by all thinkers and felt by everyone
63957 without exception, this consciousness without which no conception of man
63958 is possible constitutes the other side of the question.
63960 Man is the creation of an all-powerful, all-good, and all-seeing God.
63961 What is sin, the conception of which arises from the consciousness of
63962 man's freedom? That is a question for theology.
63964 The actions of men are subject to general immutable laws expressed in
63965 statistics. What is man's responsibility to society, the conception of
63966 which results from the conception of freedom? That is a question for
63969 Man's actions proceed from his innate character and the motives acting
63970 upon him. What is conscience and the perception of right and wrong in
63971 actions that follows from the consciousness of freedom? That is a
63972 question for ethics.
63974 Man in connection with the general life of humanity appears subject to
63975 laws which determine that life. But the same man apart from that
63976 connection appears to be free. How should the past life of nations and
63977 of humanity be regarded--as the result of the free, or as the result of
63978 the constrained, activity of man? That is a question for history.
63980 Only in our self-confident day of the popularization of knowledge--
63981 thanks to that most powerful engine of ignorance, the diffusion of
63982 printed matter--has the question of the freedom of will been put on a
63983 level on which the question itself cannot exist. In our time the
63984 majority of so-called advanced people--that is, the crowd of
63985 ignoramuses--have taken the work of the naturalists who deal with one
63986 side of the question for a solution of the whole problem.
63988 They say and write and print that the soul and freedom do not exist, for
63989 the life of man is expressed by muscular movements and muscular
63990 movements are conditioned by the activity of the nerves; the soul and
63991 free will do not exist because at an unknown period of time we sprang
63992 from the apes. They say this, not at all suspecting that thousands of
63993 years ago that same law of necessity which with such ardor they are now
63994 trying to prove by physiology and comparative zoology was not merely
63995 acknowledged by all the religions and all the thinkers, but has never
63996 been denied. They do not see that the role of the natural sciences in
63997 this matter is merely to serve as an instrument for the illumination of
63998 one side of it. For the fact that, from the point of view of
63999 observation, reason and the will are merely secretions of the brain, and
64000 that man following the general law may have developed from lower animals
64001 at some unknown period of time, only explains from a fresh side the
64002 truth admitted thousands of years ago by all the religious and
64003 philosophic theories--that from the point of view of reason man is
64004 subject to the law of necessity; but it does not advance by a hair's
64005 breadth the solution of the question, which has another, opposite, side,
64006 based on the consciousness of freedom.
64008 If men descended from the apes at an unknown period of time, that is as
64009 comprehensible as that they were made from a handful of earth at a
64010 certain period of time (in the first case the unknown quantity is the
64011 time, in the second case it is the origin); and the question of how
64012 man's consciousness of freedom is to be reconciled with the law of
64013 necessity to which he is subject cannot be solved by comparative
64014 physiology and zoology, for in a frog, a rabbit, or an ape, we can
64015 observe only the muscular nervous activity, but in man we observe
64016 consciousness as well as the muscular and nervous activity.
64018 The naturalists and their followers, thinking they can solve this
64019 question, are like plasterers set to plaster one side of the walls of a
64020 church who, availing themselves of the absence of the chief
64021 superintendent of the work, should in an access of zeal plaster over the
64022 windows, icons, woodwork, and still unbuttressed walls, and should be
64023 delighted that from their point of view as plasterers, everything is now
64024 so smooth and regular.
64031 For the solution of the question of free will or inevitability, history
64032 has this advantage over other branches of knowledge in which the
64033 question is dealt with, that for history this question does not refer to
64034 the essence of man's free will but its manifestation in the past and
64035 under certain conditions.
64037 In regard to this question, history stands to the other sciences as
64038 experimental science stands to abstract science.
64040 The subject for history is not man's will itself but our presentation of
64043 And so for history, the insoluble mystery presented by the
64044 incompatibility of free will and inevitability does not exist as it does
64045 for theology, ethics, and philosophy. History surveys a presentation of
64046 man's life in which the union of these two contradictions has already
64049 In actual life each historic event, each human action, is very clearly
64050 and definitely understood without any sense of contradiction, although
64051 each event presents itself as partly free and partly compulsory.
64053 To solve the question of how freedom and necessity are combined and what
64054 constitutes the essence of these two conceptions, the philosophy of
64055 history can and should follow a path contrary to that taken by other
64056 sciences. Instead of first defining the conceptions of freedom and
64057 inevitability in themselves, and then ranging the phenomena of life
64058 under those definitions, history should deduce a definition of the
64059 conception of freedom and inevitability themselves from the immense
64060 quantity of phenomena of which it is cognizant and that always appear
64061 dependent on these two elements.
64063 Whatever presentation of the activity of many men or of an individual we
64064 may consider, we always regard it as the result partly of man's free
64065 will and partly of the law of inevitability.
64067 Whether we speak of the migration of the peoples and the incursions of
64068 the barbarians, or of the decrees of Napoleon III, or of someone's
64069 action an hour ago in choosing one direction out of several for his
64070 walk, we are unconscious of any contradiction. The degree of freedom and
64071 inevitability governing the actions of these people is clearly defined
64074 Our conception of the degree of freedom often varies according to
64075 differences in the point of view from which we regard the event, but
64076 every human action appears to us as a certain combination of freedom and
64077 inevitability. In every action we examine we see a certain measure of
64078 freedom and a certain measure of inevitability. And always the more
64079 freedom we see in any action the less inevitability do we perceive, and
64080 the more inevitability the less freedom.
64082 The proportion of freedom to inevitability decreases and increases
64083 according to the point of view from which the action is regarded, but
64084 their relation is always one of inverse proportion.
64086 A sinking man who clutches at another and drowns him; or a hungry mother
64087 exhausted by feeding her baby, who steals some food; or a man trained to
64088 discipline who on duty at the word of command kills a defenseless man--
64089 seem less guilty, that is, less free and more subject to the law of
64090 necessity, to one who knows the circumstances in which these people were
64091 placed, and more free to one who does not know that the man was himself
64092 drowning, that the mother was hungry, that the soldier was in the ranks,
64093 and so on. Similarly a man who committed a murder twenty years ago and
64094 has since lived peaceably and harmlessly in society seems less guilty
64095 and his action more due to the law of inevitability, to someone who
64096 considers his action after twenty years have elapsed than to one who
64097 examined it the day after it was committed. And in the same way every
64098 action of an insane, intoxicated, or highly excited man appears less
64099 free and more inevitable to one who knows the mental condition of him
64100 who committed the action, and seems more free and less inevitable to one
64101 who does not know it. In all these cases the conception of freedom is
64102 increased or diminished and the conception of compulsion is
64103 correspondingly decreased or increased, according to the point of view
64104 from which the action is regarded. So that the greater the conception of
64105 necessity the smaller the conception of freedom and vice versa.
64107 Religion, the common sense of mankind, the science of jurisprudence, and
64108 history itself understand alike this relation between necessity and
64111 All cases without exception in which our conception of freedom and
64112 necessity is increased and diminished depend on three considerations:
64114 (1) The relation to the external world of the man who commits the deeds.
64116 (2) His relation to time.
64118 (3) His relation to the causes leading to the action.
64120 The first consideration is the clearness of our perception of the man's
64121 relation to the external world and the greater or lesser clearness of
64122 our understanding of the definite position occupied by the man in
64123 relation to everything coexisting with him. This is what makes it
64124 evident that a drowning man is less free and more subject to necessity
64125 than one standing on dry ground, and that makes the actions of a man
64126 closely connected with others in a thickly populated district, or of one
64127 bound by family, official, or business duties, seem certainly less free
64128 and more subject to necessity than those of a man living in solitude and
64131 If we consider a man alone, apart from his relation to everything around
64132 him, each action of his seems to us free. But if we see his relation to
64133 anything around him, if we see his connection with anything whatever--
64134 with a man who speaks to him, a book he reads, the work on which he is
64135 engaged, even with the air he breathes or the light that falls on the
64136 things about him--we see that each of these circumstances has an
64137 influence on him and controls at least some side of his activity. And
64138 the more we perceive of these influences the more our conception of his
64139 freedom diminishes and the more our conception of the necessity that
64140 weighs on him increases.
64142 The second consideration is the more or less evident time relation of
64143 the man to the world and the clearness of our perception of the place
64144 the man's action occupies in time. That is the ground which makes the
64145 fall of the first man, resulting in the production of the human race,
64146 appear evidently less free than a man's entry into marriage today. It is
64147 the reason why the life and activity of people who lived centuries ago
64148 and are connected with me in time cannot seem to me as free as the life
64149 of a contemporary, the consequences of which are still unknown to me.
64151 The degree of our conception of freedom or inevitability depends in this
64152 respect on the greater or lesser lapse of time between the performance
64153 of the action and our judgment of it.
64155 If I examine an act I performed a moment ago in approximately the same
64156 circumstances as those I am in now, my action appears to me undoubtedly
64157 free. But if I examine an act performed a month ago, then being in
64158 different circumstances, I cannot help recognizing that if that act had
64159 not been committed much that resulted from it--good, agreeable, and even
64160 essential--would not have taken place. If I reflect on an action still
64161 more remote, ten years ago or more, then the consequences of my action
64162 are still plainer to me and I find it hard to imagine what would have
64163 happened had that action not been performed. The farther I go back in
64164 memory, or what is the same thing the farther I go forward in my
64165 judgment, the more doubtful becomes my belief in the freedom of my
64168 In history we find a very similar progress of conviction concerning the
64169 part played by free will in the general affairs of humanity. A
64170 contemporary event seems to us to be indubitably the doing of all the
64171 known participants, but with a more remote event we already see its
64172 inevitable results which prevent our considering anything else possible.
64173 And the farther we go back in examining events the less arbitrary do
64176 The Austro-Prussian war appears to us undoubtedly the result of the
64177 crafty conduct of Bismarck, and so on. The Napoleonic wars still seem to
64178 us, though already questionably, to be the outcome of their heroes'
64179 will. But in the Crusades we already see an event occupying its definite
64180 place in history and without which we cannot imagine the modern history
64181 of Europe, though to the chroniclers of the Crusades that event appeared
64182 as merely due to the will of certain people. In regard to the migration
64183 of the peoples it does not enter anyone's head today to suppose that the
64184 renovation of the European world depended on Attila's caprice. The
64185 farther back in history the object of our observation lies, the more
64186 doubtful does the free will of those concerned in the event become and
64187 the more manifest the law of inevitability.
64189 The third consideration is the degree to which we apprehend that endless
64190 chain of causation inevitably demanded by reason, in which each
64191 phenomenon comprehended, and therefore man's every action, must have its
64192 definite place as a result of what has gone before and as a cause of
64195 The better we are acquainted with the physiological, psychological, and
64196 historical laws deduced by observation and by which man is controlled,
64197 and the more correctly we perceive the physiological, psychological, and
64198 historical causes of the action, and the simpler the action we are
64199 observing and the less complex the character and mind of the man in
64200 question, the more subject to inevitability and the less free do our
64201 actions and those of others appear.
64203 When we do not at all understand the cause of an action, whether a
64204 crime, a good action, or even one that is simply nonmoral, we ascribe a
64205 greater amount of freedom to it. In the case of a crime we most urgently
64206 demand the punishment for such an act; in the case of a virtuous act we
64207 rate its merit most highly. In an indifferent case we recognize in it
64208 more individuality, originality, and independence. But if even one of
64209 the innumerable causes of the act is known to us we recognize a certain
64210 element of necessity and are less insistent on punishment for the crime,
64211 or the acknowledgment of the merit of the virtuous act, or the freedom
64212 of the apparently original action. That a criminal was reared among male
64213 factors mitigates his fault in our eyes. The self-sacrifice of a father
64214 or mother, or self-sacrifice with the possibility of a reward, is more
64215 comprehensible than gratuitous self-sacrifice, and therefore seems less
64216 deserving of sympathy and less the result of free will. The founder of a
64217 sect or party, or an inventor, impresses us less when we know how or by
64218 what the way was prepared for his activity. If we have a large range of
64219 examples, if our observation is constantly directed to seeking the
64220 correlation of cause and effect in people's actions, their actions
64221 appear to us more under compulsion and less free the more correctly we
64222 connect the effects with the causes. If we examined simple actions and
64223 had a vast number of such actions under observation, our conception of
64224 their inevitability would be still greater. The dishonest conduct of the
64225 son of a dishonest father, the misconduct of a woman who had fallen into
64226 bad company, a drunkard's relapse into drunkenness, and so on are
64227 actions that seem to us less free the better we understand their cause.
64228 If the man whose actions we are considering is on a very low stage of
64229 mental development, like a child, a madman, or a simpleton--then,
64230 knowing the causes of the act and the simplicity of the character and
64231 intelligence in question, we see so large an element of necessity and so
64232 little free will that as soon as we know the cause prompting the action
64233 we can foretell the result.
64235 On these three considerations alone is based the conception of
64236 irresponsibility for crimes and the extenuating circumstances admitted
64237 by all legislative codes. The responsibility appears greater or less
64238 according to our greater or lesser knowledge of the circumstances in
64239 which the man was placed whose action is being judged, and according to
64240 the greater or lesser interval of time between the commission of the
64241 action and its investigation, and according to the greater or lesser
64242 understanding of the causes that led to the action.
64249 Thus our conception of free will and inevitability gradually diminishes
64250 or increases according to the greater or lesser connection with the
64251 external world, the greater or lesser remoteness of time, and the
64252 greater or lesser dependence on the causes in relation to which we
64253 contemplate a man's life.
64255 So that if we examine the case of a man whose connection with the
64256 external world is well known, where the time between the action and its
64257 examination is great, and where the causes of the action are most
64258 accessible, we get the conception of a maximum of inevitability and a
64259 minimum of free will. If we examine a man little dependent on external
64260 conditions, whose action was performed very recently, and the causes of
64261 whose action are beyond our ken, we get the conception of a minimum of
64262 inevitability and a maximum of freedom.
64264 In neither case--however we may change our point of view, however plain
64265 we may make to ourselves the connection between the man and the external
64266 world, however inaccessible it may be to us, however long or short the
64267 period of time, however intelligible or incomprehensible the causes of
64268 the action may be--can we ever conceive either complete freedom or
64269 complete necessity.
64271 (1) To whatever degree we may imagine a man to be exempt from the
64272 influence of the external world, we never get a conception of freedom in
64273 space. Every human action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds
64274 him and by his own body. I lift my arm and let it fall. My action seems
64275 to me free; but asking myself whether I could raise my arm in every
64276 direction, I see that I raised it in the direction in which there was
64277 least obstruction to that action either from things around me or from
64278 the construction of my own body. I chose one out of all the possible
64279 directions because in it there were fewest obstacles. For my action to
64280 be free it was necessary that it should encounter no obstacles. To
64281 conceive of a man being free we must imagine him outside space, which is
64282 evidently impossible.
64284 (2) However much we approximate the time of judgment to the time of the
64285 deed, we never get a conception of freedom in time. For if I examine an
64286 action committed a second ago I must still recognize it as not being
64287 free, for it is irrevocably linked to the moment at which it was
64288 committed. Can I lift my arm? I lift it, but ask myself: could I have
64289 abstained from lifting my arm at the moment that has already passed? To
64290 convince myself of this I do not lift it the next moment. But I am not
64291 now abstaining from doing so at the first moment when I asked the
64292 question. Time has gone by which I could not detain, the arm I then
64293 lifted is no longer the same as the arm I now refrain from lifting, nor
64294 is the air in which I lifted it the same that now surrounds me. The
64295 moment in which the first movement was made is irrevocable, and at that
64296 moment I could make only one movement, and whatever movement I made
64297 would be the only one. That I did not lift my arm a moment later does
64298 not prove that I could have abstained from lifting it then. And since I
64299 could make only one movement at that single moment of time, it could not
64300 have been any other. To imagine it as free, it is necessary to imagine
64301 it in the present, on the boundary between the past and the future--that
64302 is, outside time, which is impossible.
64304 (3) However much the difficulty of understanding the causes may be
64305 increased, we never reach a conception of complete freedom, that is, an
64306 absence of cause. However inaccessible to us may be the cause of the
64307 expression of will in any action, our own or another's, the first demand
64308 of reason is the assumption of and search for a cause, for without a
64309 cause no phenomenon is conceivable. I raise my arm to perform an action
64310 independently of any cause, but my wish to perform an action without a
64311 cause is the cause of my action.
64313 But even if--imagining a man quite exempt from all influences, examining
64314 only his momentary action in the present, unevoked by any cause--we were
64315 to admit so infinitely small a remainder of inevitability as equaled
64316 zero, we should even then not have arrived at the conception of complete
64317 freedom in man, for a being uninfluenced by the external world, standing
64318 outside of time and independent of cause, is no longer a man.
64320 In the same way we can never imagine the action of a man quite devoid of
64321 freedom and entirely subject to the law of inevitability.
64323 (1) However we may increase our knowledge of the conditions of space in
64324 which man is situated, that knowledge can never be complete, for the
64325 number of those conditions is as infinite as the infinity of space. And
64326 therefore so long as not all the conditions influencing men are defined,
64327 there is no complete inevitability but a certain measure of freedom
64330 (2) However we may prolong the period of time between the action we are
64331 examining and the judgment upon it, that period will be finite, while
64332 time is infinite, and so in this respect too there can never be absolute
64335 (3) However accessible may be the chain of causation of any action, we
64336 shall never know the whole chain since it is endless, and so again we
64337 never reach absolute inevitability.
64339 But besides this, even if, admitting the remaining minimum of freedom to
64340 equal zero, we assumed in some given case--as for instance in that of a
64341 dying man, an unborn babe, or an idiot--complete absence of freedom, by
64342 so doing we should destroy the very conception of man in the case we are
64343 examining, for as soon as there is no freedom there is also no man. And
64344 so the conception of the action of a man subject solely to the law of
64345 inevitability without any element of freedom is just as impossible as
64346 the conception of a man's completely free action.
64348 And so to imagine the action of a man entirely subject to the law of
64349 inevitability without any freedom, we must assume the knowledge of an
64350 infinite number of space relations, an infinitely long period of time,
64351 and an infinite series of causes.
64353 To imagine a man perfectly free and not subject to the law of
64354 inevitability, we must imagine him all alone, beyond space, beyond time,
64355 and free from dependence on cause.
64357 In the first case, if inevitability were possible without freedom we
64358 should have reached a definition of inevitability by the laws of
64359 inevitability itself, that is, a mere form without content.
64361 In the second case, if freedom were possible without inevitability we
64362 should have arrived at unconditioned freedom beyond space, time, and
64363 cause, which by the fact of its being unconditioned and unlimited would
64364 be nothing, or mere content without form.
64366 We should in fact have reached those two fundamentals of which man's
64367 whole outlook on the universe is constructed--the incomprehensible
64368 essence of life, and the laws defining that essence.
64370 Reason says: (1) space with all the forms of matter that give it
64371 visibility is infinite, and cannot be imagined otherwise. (2) Time is
64372 infinite motion without a moment of rest and is unthinkable otherwise.
64373 (3) The connection between cause and effect has no beginning and can
64376 Consciousness says: (1) I alone am, and all that exists is but me,
64377 consequently I include space. (2) I measure flowing time by the fixed
64378 moment of the present in which alone I am conscious of myself as living,
64379 consequently I am outside time. (3) I am beyond cause, for I feel myself
64380 to be the cause of every manifestation of my life.
64382 Reason gives expression to the laws of inevitability. Consciousness
64383 gives expression to the essence of freedom.
64385 Freedom not limited by anything is the essence of life, in man's
64386 consciousness. Inevitability without content is man's reason in its
64389 Freedom is the thing examined. Inevitability is what examines. Freedom
64390 is the content. Inevitability is the form.
64392 Only by separating the two sources of cognition, related to one another
64393 as form to content, do we get the mutually exclusive and separately
64394 incomprehensible conceptions of freedom and inevitability.
64396 Only by uniting them do we get a clear conception of man's life.
64398 Apart from these two concepts which in their union mutually define one
64399 another as form and content, no conception of life is possible.
64401 All that we know of the life of man is merely a certain relation of free
64402 will to inevitability, that is, of consciousness to the laws of reason.
64404 All that we know of the external world of nature is only a certain
64405 relation of the forces of nature to inevitability, or of the essence of
64406 life to the laws of reason.
64408 The great natural forces lie outside us and we are not conscious of
64409 them; we call those forces gravitation, inertia, electricity, animal
64410 force, and so on, but we are conscious of the force of life in man and
64411 we call that freedom.
64413 But just as the force of gravitation, incomprehensible in itself but
64414 felt by every man, is understood by us only to the extent to which we
64415 know the laws of inevitability to which it is subject (from the first
64416 knowledge that all bodies have weight, up to Newton's law), so too the
64417 force of free will, incomprehensible in itself but of which everyone is
64418 conscious, is intelligible to us only in as far as we know the laws of
64419 inevitability to which it is subject (from the fact that every man dies,
64420 up to the knowledge of the most complex economic and historic laws).
64422 All knowledge is merely a bringing of this essence of life under the
64425 Man's free will differs from every other force in that man is directly
64426 conscious of it, but in the eyes of reason it in no way differs from any
64427 other force. The forces of gravitation, electricity, or chemical
64428 affinity are only distinguished from one another in that they are
64429 differently defined by reason. Just so the force of man's free will is
64430 distinguished by reason from the other forces of nature only by the
64431 definition reason gives it. Freedom, apart from necessity, that is,
64432 apart from the laws of reason that define it, differs in no way from
64433 gravitation, or heat, or the force that makes things grow; for reason,
64434 it is only a momentary undefinable sensation of life.
64436 And as the undefinable essence of the force moving the heavenly bodies,
64437 the undefinable essence of the forces of heat and electricity, or of
64438 chemical affinity, or of the vital force, forms the content of
64439 astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and so on, just in the
64440 same way does the force of free will form the content of history. But
64441 just as the subject of every science is the manifestation of this
64442 unknown essence of life while that essence itself can only be the
64443 subject of metaphysics, even the manifestation of the force of free will
64444 in human beings in space, in time, and in dependence on cause forms the
64445 subject of history, while free will itself is the subject of
64448 In the experimental sciences what we know we call the laws of
64449 inevitability, what is unknown to us we call vital force. Vital force is
64450 only an expression for the unknown remainder over and above what we know
64451 of the essence of life.
64453 So also in history what is known to us we call laws of inevitability,
64454 what is unknown we call free will. Free will is for history only an
64455 expression for the unknown remainder of what we know about the laws of
64463 History examines the manifestations of man's free will in connection
64464 with the external world in time and in dependence on cause, that is, it
64465 defines this freedom by the laws of reason, and so history is a science
64466 only in so far as this free will is defined by those laws.
64468 The recognition of man's free will as something capable of influencing
64469 historical events, that is, as not subject to laws, is the same for
64470 history as the recognition of a free force moving the heavenly bodies
64471 would be for astronomy.
64473 That assumption would destroy the possibility of the existence of laws,
64474 that is, of any science whatever. If there is even a single body moving
64475 freely, then the laws of Kepler and Newton are negatived and no
64476 conception of the movement of the heavenly bodies any longer exists. If
64477 any single action is due to free will, then not a single historical law
64478 can exist, nor any conception of historical events.
64480 For history, lines exist of the movement of human wills, one end of
64481 which is hidden in the unknown but at the other end of which a
64482 consciousness of man's will in the present moves in space, time, and
64483 dependence on cause.
64485 The more this field of motion spreads out before our eyes, the more
64486 evident are the laws of that movement. To discover and define those laws
64487 is the problem of history.
64489 From the standpoint from which the science of history now regards its
64490 subject on the path it now follows, seeking the causes of events in
64491 man's freewill, a scientific enunciation of those laws is impossible,
64492 for however man's free will may be restricted, as soon as we recognize
64493 it as a force not subject to law, the existence of law becomes
64496 Only by reducing this element of free will to the infinitesimal, that
64497 is, by regarding it as an infinitely small quantity, can we convince
64498 ourselves of the absolute inaccessibility of the causes, and then
64499 instead of seeking causes, history will take the discovery of laws as
64502 The search for these laws has long been begun and the new methods of
64503 thought which history must adopt are being worked out simultaneously
64504 with the self-destruction toward which--ever dissecting and dissecting
64505 the causes of phenomena--the old method of history is moving.
64507 All human sciences have traveled along that path. Arriving at
64508 infinitesimals, mathematics, the most exact of sciences, abandons the
64509 process of analysis and enters on the new process of the integration of
64510 unknown, infinitely small, quantities. Abandoning the conception of
64511 cause, mathematics seeks law, that is, the property common to all
64512 unknown, infinitely small, elements.
64514 In another form but along the same path of reflection the other sciences
64515 have proceeded. When Newton enunciated the law of gravity he did not say
64516 that the sun or the earth had a property of attraction; he said that all
64517 bodies from the largest to the smallest have the property of attracting
64518 one another, that is, leaving aside the question of the cause of the
64519 movement of the bodies, he expressed the property common to all bodies
64520 from the infinitely large to the infinitely small. The same is done by
64521 the natural sciences: leaving aside the question of cause, they seek for
64522 laws. History stands on the same path. And if history has for its object
64523 the study of the movement of the nations and of humanity and not the
64524 narration of episodes in the lives of individuals, it too, setting aside
64525 the conception of cause, should seek the laws common to all the
64526 inseparably interconnected infinitesimal elements of free will.
64533 From the time the law of Copernicus was discovered and proved, the mere
64534 recognition of the fact that it was not the sun but the earth that moves
64535 sufficed to destroy the whole cosmography of the ancients. By disproving
64536 that law it might have been possible to retain the old conception of the
64537 movements of the bodies, but without disproving it, it would seem
64538 impossible to continue studying the Ptolemaic worlds. But even after the
64539 discovery of the law of Copernicus the Ptolemaic worlds were still
64540 studied for a long time.
64542 From the time the first person said and proved that the number of births
64543 or of crimes is subject to mathematical laws, and that this or that mode
64544 of government is determined by certain geographical and economic
64545 conditions, and that certain relations of population to soil produce
64546 migrations of peoples, the foundations on which history had been built
64547 were destroyed in their essence.
64549 By refuting these new laws the former view of history might have been
64550 retained; but without refuting them it would seem impossible to continue
64551 studying historic events as the results of man's free will. For if a
64552 certain mode of government was established or certain migrations of
64553 peoples took place in consequence of such and such geographic,
64554 ethnographic, or economic conditions, then the free will of those
64555 individuals who appear to us to have established that mode of government
64556 or occasioned the migrations can no longer be regarded as the cause.
64558 And yet the former history continues to be studied side by side with the
64559 laws of statistics, geography, political economy, comparative philology,
64560 and geology, which directly contradict its assumptions.
64562 The struggle between the old views and the new was long and stubbornly
64563 fought out in physical philosophy. Theology stood on guard for the old
64564 views and accused the new of violating revelation. But when truth
64565 conquered, theology established itself just as firmly on the new
64568 Just as prolonged and stubborn is the struggle now proceeding between
64569 the old and the new conception of history, and theology in the same way
64570 stands on guard for the old view, and accuses the new view of subverting
64573 In the one case as in the other, on both sides the struggle provokes
64574 passion and stifles truth. On the one hand there is fear and regret for
64575 the loss of the whole edifice constructed through the ages, on the other
64576 is the passion for destruction.
64578 To the men who fought against the rising truths of physical philosophy,
64579 it seemed that if they admitted that truth it would destroy faith in
64580 God, in the creation of the firmament, and in the miracle of Joshua the
64581 son of Nun. To the defenders of the laws of Copernicus and Newton, to
64582 Voltaire for example, it seemed that the laws of astronomy destroyed
64583 religion, and he utilized the law of gravitation as a weapon against
64586 Just so it now seems as if we have only to admit the law of
64587 inevitability, to destroy the conception of the soul, of good and evil,
64588 and all the institutions of state and church that have been built up on
64591 So too, like Voltaire in his time, uninvited defenders of the law of
64592 inevitability today use that law as a weapon against religion, though
64593 the law of inevitability in history, like the law of Copernicus in
64594 astronomy, far from destroying, even strengthens the foundation on which
64595 the institutions of state and church are erected.
64597 As in the question of astronomy then, so in the question of history now,
64598 the whole difference of opinion is based on the recognition or
64599 nonrecognition of something absolute, serving as the measure of visible
64600 phenomena. In astronomy it was the immovability of the earth, in history
64601 it is the independence of personality--free will.
64603 As with astronomy the difficulty of recognizing the motion of the earth
64604 lay in abandoning the immediate sensation of the earth's fixity and of
64605 the motion of the planets, so in history the difficulty of recognizing
64606 the subjection of personality to the laws of space, time, and cause lies
64607 in renouncing the direct feeling of the independence of one's own
64608 personality. But as in astronomy the new view said: "It is true that we
64609 do not feel the movement of the earth, but by admitting its immobility
64610 we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting its motion (which we do not
64611 feel) we arrive at laws," so also in history the new view says: "It is
64612 true that we are not conscious of our dependence, but by admitting our
64613 free will we arrive at absurdity, while by admitting our dependence on
64614 the external world, on time, and on cause, we arrive at laws."
64616 In the first case it was necessary to renounce the consciousness of an
64617 unreal immobility in space and to recognize a motion we did not feel; in
64618 the present case it is similarly necessary to renounce a freedom that
64619 does not exist, and to recognize a dependence of which we are not
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